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Travel is recovering quickly! If you need a few more miles to book a flight, you have a new bonus to consider. Now through June 30, 2021, you can get a 25% bonus when you transfer Hyatt and IHG points to American Airlines AAdvantage miles.
Promotions in past years have included several hotel partners—such as Marriott and Radisson. But, unlike past promotions, this version only applies to Hyatt and IHG transfers.
Key Terms
- The promotion is valid on transfers through June 30, 2021
- You need to register for the promotion before transferring points
- If you need to enter it at registration, the promotion code is HT621
- Only valid for transfers from World of Hyatt or IHG Rewards to AAdvantage
- Members must transfer at least 5,000 points to get the 25% transfer bonus
Without the promotion, 5,000 World of Hyatt points or 10,000 IHG Rewards Club points equals 2,000 AAdvantage miles. But, after the 25% bonus, you'll get 2,500 AAdvantage miles. So, during the promotion:
- 5,000 World of Hyatt points = 2,500 AAdvantage miles
- 10,000 IHG Rewards Club points = 2,500 AAdvantage miles
This transfer bonus only applies to World of Hyatt and IHG point transfers. However, you can still transfer Marriott Bonvoy points to AAdvantage miles at standard transfer rates. Typically, Marriot points transfer to AA at a ratio of 3:1. You'll also receive a 5,000-mile bonus for transferring at least 60,000 Marriott points. That means a 60,000-point transfer will yield 25,000 AAdvantage miles.
Is it Worth It?
World of Hyatt points
AwardWallet users have recently gotten an average of 2.24¢ per World of Hyatt point for redemptions. Since you'll only get 1 AAdvantage mile per 2 Hyatt points transferred during this promotion, you'll need to get a lot of value from your AAdvantage redemptions for it to make sense to transfer Hyatt points to AAdvantage miles.
World of Hyatt points quite valuable as Hyatt has reasonable award rates and some excellent sweet spots. World of Hyatt award nights start at just 5,000 Hyatt points per night. If those 5,000 Hyatt points were transferred to AA during this promotion, it'd yield just 2,500 miles. That's just one-fifth of the miles needed for a MileSAAver domestic award flight. Even in the best-case scenario, it's only one-half of the 5,000 AAdvantage miles needed for the cheapest domestic Web Special Awards that we've seen.
On the luxury end of the spectrum, you can stay at the Category 7 Park Hyatt Sydney for 30,000 points per night. Transferring 30,000 Hyatt points would yield 15,000 AAdvantage miles during this promotion. While you might be able to stretch the value of those miles through a Web Special, a night at the Park Hyatt Sydney is going to be more valuable for most travelers.
IHG Rewards points
The situation is just as bad when transferring IHG Rewards points. IHG points are less valuable than Hyatt points (AwardWallet users recently average 0.73¢ per IHG point.) In addition, they are easier to come by. However, the transfer ratio is not as good. Transferring 40,000 IHG points will yield just 10,000 AAdvantage miles with the promotion bonus. 10,000 AA miles is not going to yield much in terms of rewards, But on the other hand, 40,000 IHG points are enough for a night at several InterContinental properties around the world.
There's only one time when this promotion is really worth considering. If you are a few miles shy of a specific redemption with AA, then it could make sense to top off your account. Transferring a small number of points with the 25% bonus may be the best option for getting enough miles to book a reward flight.
Boosting Your AA Points Balance
If you need a larger amount of AAdvantage miles for an award, consider signing up for one of the AAdvantage credit cards. For example, the CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® Mastercard® is currently offering a 65,000-mile sign-up bonus after spending $4,000 in purchases within the first 4 months of account opening.
- Free checked bags for you and up to 4 companions on domestic itineraries
- Priority boarding to help you win the race for overhead bin space
- A 25% discount on inflight food, beverage, and Wi-Fi purchases
- Earn 2X miles for every $1 spent on cable and satellite providers
- Earn 2X miles for every $1 spent at gas stations
- Earn 2X miles for every $1 spent on select telecommunications merchants
- Earn 2X miles for every $1 spent on car rentals
- Earn 2X miles for every $1 spent on eligible American Airlines purchases
- Earn 1X mile for every $1 spent on all other purchases
American Airlines AAdvantage® Miles Expiration Policy
Yes, American Airlines AAdvantage® miles do expire. However, the policy used to be that you had to have qualifying activity within a 18 month period or your miles would expire. Thankfully, its now that your miles will expire if you don’t have qualifying activity over a 24-month period. That being said, there is one exception to this American Airlines Policy. AAdvantage® members that are under the age of 21 are not subject to this expiration until they turn 21.
There are a variety of ways that you can earn or extend the expiration of your miles. Click here for a full list. If you're looking for a quick way to extend your mile expiration, then you can transfer from Marriott Bonvoy. In specific, you can transfer Marriott Bonvoy points to AAdvantage® miles at a 3 to 1 ratio and you need to transfer a minimum of 3,000 points.
It’s important to note that miles do not expire for credit card holders. If you hold an American Airlines credit card, your miles aren’t subject to expiration. Also, if your miles end up expiring, American Airlines will allow you to reinstate them. You can visit aa.com/reactivatemiles to start that process and find the price.
Final Thoughts
Hyatt and American Airlines have deepened their partnership with crossover benefits for elites and elite status shortcuts.
This has generally been positive for AA members that prefer Hyatt. However, this tie-up seems to have led to the elimination of several hotel partners and scaling back promotions with other hotel brands. It's good to see that AA is including IHG in this promotion. Still, while this month's transfer bonus is a good option if you are looking for a small points top-up, it's not worth it for a large transfer.
The comments on this page are not provided, reviewed, or otherwise approved by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
If the points counted towards AA lifetime status like the old days I would have been tempted, but as they don’t I’ll be keeping them in IHG.
Sam, I want to thank you for this highly informative post. I was literally logged into my IHG account and was about to transfer points to my AAdvantage account, when I read your post. Your advice that “the transfer ratio is not as good” between IHG and AA convinced me to leave things be as they are for now. As a joint member of both AAdvantage and IHG, I would welcome a deeper integration between the two (as is the case with Hyatt and AA, for instance). However, it appears that this is not yet the case. Again, I appreciate the informative post. I’ve bookmarked this blog and will visit it often from now on!
I just linked my accounts! Due to COVID-19, this year I still have not taken a flight and my AAdvantage miles will expire soon. I am staying in a Hyatt hotel next week so hopefully this will solve my issue.
At first I was excited and then I read through. I do want to add to my AA balance but I think I could find better ways to use my points. Like you point out there are ways to earn AA miles and build them better than transferring, unless I would have truly no use for the hotel points.
I’ve registered, just in case, but probably won’t transfer. I’m waiting for the mileage prizes from the AAdvantage 40th promotion to credit so I know what my true balances are.
I used to regularly transfer IHG points to British Airways, but now I keep them in IHG so I can use or transfer if needed.
It seems like a better deal especially for Marriott points to keep them with Marriott rather than transferring over to AA. What about Hilton Hotels, do they transfer?
Hilton; Not to AA but some other airlines. Only at a ratio of 10:1 though, minimum 10K.
This would be a very good offer if the transfer ratio was 1:1
Never ever would I trade 2 Hyatt points for 1 AAdvantage mile. No thanks, AA.
I wonder why Marriott transfers are excluded? Hopefully not a theme that will continue
I agree with everyone that this isn’t worth it, but it is something I’m considering for this year since many of my plans are finalized and don’t involve IHG this year.
Too bad the conversion isn’t that good
Thank You for publishing this . I don’t have a lot f IHC points . So either transfer or got erased.
For me it is a good deal .
Thank You
Transferring IHG points to AAdvantage miles is never a good idea
Transferring IHG points to AAdvantage miles is never a good idea
I strongly agree that transferring points among these loyalty programs are not valuable.
This isn’t worth it. There are lots of better offers that will come up later. Airlines and hotels seem to be offering good deals on buying points and it should get better this winter.
I have many IHG points which I spend little by little because I don’t find usually good award possibilities.
Anyway, I don’t think it’s a good idea to convert a lot of IHG points to AAdvantage miles.
As said in the article this could be a possibility for some limited amount of points.
Both my AA and IHG expiry dates are approaching. Would doing this transfer reset the expiry dates for both? Or either? Or is there a cheaper/ easier way to go about this? Thanks. I still don’t see any travel in the near future for me 🙁
Well, the good news is – just by asking this question – you can extend the expiration date on your AA miles! Just log into your AwardWallet account to link this comment with your account and we give you 5 bonus miles just to reset your expiration date: https://awardwallet.com/blog/earn-bonus-miles-for-commenting/
We cover all of the various ways to extend your IHG expiration date here: https://awardwallet.com/blog/ihg-rewards-club-points-expire/
Don’t do it! Hyatt points are way more valuable 🙂
If I needed a small amount of miles to top off my account I might consider a deal like this. However, I do value my Hyatt points and I would have a hard time parting with them at such a reduced rate.
I don’t think it’s a good idea to make these transfers. I have 100k IHG point and I will use it in 4 o 5 good night.
I wish they had elite status crossovers with other hotel chains.
Yes, I agree transferring between loyalty programs are usually a bad deal. Even with the bonus, it is still a bad deal.
For me, I believe that’s because of the perception that hotels are more safer than planes in relation to the Covid 19.
Why? For me, airplanes are safer than hotels, the air is constantly renewed. What is not safe are the airports.
These promos are a great way to get people to throw away value.
They must work though, as they surely wouldn’t be run again and again if there was exactly zero take up…
Hard to tell which one is valuable AA or Hyatt.
Wow. A 4:1 transfer WITH the bonus. Hard pass.
Not a huge fan of the current AA award status. They changed it but still just not that great. They need to do better
In general, I think it’s better to keep points with the vendor you earned it from and redeem them with the same provider. Transferring points often results in losing value, even with promotional bonuses.
For me, this is a good deal, I think AAdvantage miles are more valuable than Hyatt Points, I will take advantage of this inmediately
Sorry, I think hyatt points are more valuable.
I think this is not a good deal as Hyatt points are far more valuable. Regardless, I am worried about the value of my points overall since COVID-19 is badly damaging the airline and hotel industry. Expecting an all-round major devaluation.
… or maybe the opposite might happen because they want to get customers back again.
It is agonizing to predict the relevant future.
AA seems to be attempting to entice customers with deals and additional miles. I am holding off until things quiet down.
How does one transfer IHG to AA ??
It looks like you have to call IHG to transfer these points to AA (or any other airline)
You can learn more about IHG airline partner transfers here: https://www.ihg.com/rewardsclub/content/us/en/redeem-rewards/miles
Specifically for AA: https://www.ihg.com/rewardsclub/content/us/en/earn-rewards/miles/americanairlines
I was trying to take advantage of this promotion as I never use IHG, and saw an opportunity to move points that had just been sitting in my account to AA where I never had enough. However, I’m not waiting on the phone for a few hours just to transfer the points. Whose got time for that?
Need to find another way to offload these IHG points
Yeah, it’s certainly a pain to call. But I’d be surprised if it’d take that long for someone to pick up nowadays. I’ve had some of the shortest wait times ever in the past couple of months!
I wish they had a promotion in the other direction: converting AA miles to Hyatt points.
Have they ever offered this kind of transfer?
HHonors used to offer two-way transfers.
Transfer the least valuable IHG points to AA for topping up.
I would not use Hyatt points for non-Hyatt redemptions.
AA award chart is a rip off! there is no way I’d transfer at this rate. 1pt hyatt would have to be 10pt AA for me to transfer
With everything going on right now, unless you have travel you must take, this is all too speculative right now. Who knows what happens in late 2020 or 2021.
Hyatt is good. Better than Hilton in my opinion. I like the looks of this deal. Hopefully we will end this silly damnpanic soon I want to travel. Keep these deals coming!
This is just a filler article as everyone know it’s not worth transferring from Hyatt to AA
People clearly do it otherwise it wouldn’t be an option.
Based on the value of Hyatt points, this would only make sense if you are very close to a needed redemption for AA.
Has anyone stayed at Hyatt Cologne? Is the property a good redemption deal?
The difference between a suite and a room at Park Hyatt Sydney is drastic. It starts with the view 🙂
Hopefully, the Hyatt points will not be devalued so often so soon.
We are still waiting for peak pricing to kick in but only time can tell with anything else as the entire travel industry is hurting for cash.
Hard pass.
I think hyatt points are more valuable.
This is because of the new partnership between Hyatt and American Airlines. It seems like the other hotel programs are no longer welcome to American Airlines. This is bad for us participants.
When did the partnership start?
I’m very mildly surprised Hyatt didn’t partner with United since Chase has a partnership with the two of them. I know that doesn’t necessarily mean anything but I would’ve thought it could have counted for something.
Conserving my Hyatt points for a nice redemption somewhere after COVID has blown over!
Lo tendré en cuenta para un próximo viaje, solo conocí de casualidad el restaurante del Park Hyatt. Excelente atención y platos realmente gourmet.
I prefer my Hyatt points be used at Hyatts. Better value all around.
Generally speaking, I think this offer might be a reflection that hotel points are currently more valuable than airline points. I believe that’s because of the perception that hotels are safer than planes in relation to the virus.
Exactly. I don’t think you will catch the coronavirus when you hang out in your comfortable Hyatt suite alone.