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About once a year, United Airlines tacks a 30% bonus on point transfers from its hotel partners to its MileagePlus program. Now, through October 31, 2024, you can earn a few more United miles if you can't find a more lucrative way to redeem your hotel points.
Even with a bonus, it's generally not a great deal to transfer hotel points to miles — with point transfers from Marriott to United being a rare exception. However, whether or not it's worth taking advantage of all depends on how you value your points and miles.
Let's dive into the math to see when this makes sense.
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Which Hotel Points Can You Convert to United Miles?
United partners with (at least) eight hotel loyalty programs from which you can convert rewards points to United MileagePlus miles:
By combining these transfer rates and points valuations from recent AwardWallet user redemptions, it's generally not a good idea to transfer hotel points to United miles — even at an average redemption rate of 1.94¢ per United mile.
Here's a list from best to worst based on AwardWallet valuations (note that this is before the up to 30% transfer bonus):
- 10,000 Marriott points ($94) yields 3,333 miles ($60)
- 10,000 Choice points ($60) yields 2,000 miles ($36)
- 10,000 IHG points ($68) yields 2,000 miles ($36)
- 10,000 Accor points ($219) yields 5,000 miles ($90)
- 10,000 Hyatt points ($219) yields 4,000 miles ($72)
- 10,000 Hilton points ($58) yields 1,000 miles ($18)
- 10,000 Wyndham points ($117) yields 2,000 miles ($36)
Up to 30% Transfer Bonus From Hotel Points to United Promotion
However, the math looks a little different this month. United is attaching up to a 30% bonus to point conversions from hotel programs to MileagePlus miles.
To take advantage of this offer, you'll need to register, log in to your hotel account, and initiate a points transfer to United MileagePlus. After the miles deposit into your account, you'll receive up to 30% bonus miles. The “up to” depends on how many United miles you'd normally earn.
- Less than 20,000 United miles earned — get a 20% bonus.
- 20,000-40,000 United miles earned — get a 25% bonus.
- Over 40,000 United miles earned — get a 30% bonus.
At most, you can earn 25,000 bonus United MileagePlus miles with this offer.
Even after you factor in the bonus, you'll still likely wind up with a sum of United miles worth less than the sum of hotel points you began with. Combining the transfer ratios to points values, plus the 30% bonus, transfers yielded (with values using AwardWallet redemption rates for reference):
- 10,000 Accor points ($219) yields 6,500 miles ($117)
- 10,000 Choice points ($60) yields 2,600 miles ($47)
- 10,000 Hilton points ($58) yields 1,300 miles ($23)
- 10,000 Hyatt points ($219) yields 5,200 miles ($94)
- 10,000 IHG points ($68) yields 2,600 miles ($47)
- 10,000 Marriott points ($94) yields 4,333 miles ($78)
But the real value is in combining this transfer bonus with Marriott's transfer bonus to United. The sweet spot would be in converting 120,000 Bonvoy points to get:
- 40,000 base United miles (at the standard 3:1 ratio)
- plus 20,000 from Marriott's special bonus for increments of 60k-point transfers to United
- plus 18,000 bonus miles through this 30% transfer bonus promotion
That's a total of 78,000 United miles for 120,000 Marriott points — almost a 3:2 ratio! If you value Marriott points at 0.94 cents each, you only need to get 1.45 cents of value per mile from a MileagePlus redemption for this 120k-point transfer to make sense.
But that's about it as far as value goes. Choice transfers to United miles are a bit more reasonable, but Accor, Hilton, and Hyatt were still bad deals — even with the bonus.
For reference, this promotion has become somewhat of an annual fall tradition for United — although the exact month has varied over the years. Here's a partial history:
- 2016: 25% bonus through November 30
- 2017: 30% bonus through November 30
- 2018: 30% bonus through November 30
- 2019: 30% bonus through November 30
- 2021: 30% bonus through September 30
- 2022: 30% bonus through September 30
- 2023: 30% bonus through October 31
- 2024: up to 30% bonus through October 31
Other Sources of United MileagePlus Miles
If you need United miles, remember that you can transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points to United MileagePlus at a 1:1 ratio. Need more Chase miles? Take advantage of a solid 90,000 Ultimate Reward point sign-up bonus on the Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card:
- Earn 90k bonus points after you spend $8,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. That's $900 cash back or $1,125 toward travel when redeemed through Chase Travel℠
- Earn 3 points per $1 on the first $150,000 spent on travel and select business categories each account anniversary year. Earn 1 point per $1 on all other purchases
- Round-the-clock monitoring for unusual credit card purchases
- With Zero Liability you won't be held responsible for unauthorized charges made with your card or account information.
- Redeem points for cash back, gift cards, travel and more - your points don't expire as long as your account is open
- Points are worth 25% more when you redeem for travel through Chase Travel℠
- Purchase Protection covers your new purchases for 120 days against damage or theft up to $10,000 per claim and $50,000 per account.
- Member FDIC
- Rates & Fees
- 3X points per $1 on the first $150,000 spent in combined purchases on travel, shipping purchases, Internet, cable and phone services, advertising purchases made with social media sites and search engines each account anniversary year
- 1X point per $1 on all other purchases
Plus, you can also transfer points to United MileagePlus from Bilt Rewards or Marriott Bonvoy:
You can also buy United miles outright.
United MileagePlus Miles Expiration Policy
United abolished its mileage expiration policy back in 2019. As a result, United miles do not expire as long as your account is open. That means your mileage balance will stay in your account until they are forfeited or until you redeem them for an award.
Since your United miles don't expire, you have the opportunity to take your time and save them up until you are ready to redeem them. The bad news is that United recently devalued its partner award chart. So, you'll need a lot more United miles than before for some awards.
Expired Hotel Program to United Transfer Bonuses
[Expired] 100% Transfer Bonus From Wyndham to United Promotion
Between August and early September 2024, United offered a 100% bonus on transfers from Wyndham Rewards to MileagePlus. This meant you could enjoy a 2.5:1 transfer ratio instead of the typical 5:1. Still, this meant a loss of value, as the value of the Wyndham points moved to United was inherently more valuable than the value of the MileagePlus miles received.
[Expired] 30% Transfer Bonus From Hotel Points to United Promotion
During October 2023, United offered travelers a 30% bonus when transferring hotel points to United miles — last year's version of this year's offer. Note that you needed to register for the promotion first before transferring points. There was a limit of 25,000 bonus points you can earn through this promotion.
[Expired] 100% Transfer Bonus From Choice to United Promotion
At the same time, Choice Privileges members could receive a 100% bonus when transferring points to United MileagePlus miles through October 15, 2023. That means you got a 2.5 to 1 transfer ratio, instead of 5 to 1. In other words, you received 2,000 United miles (instead of 1,000) for every 5,000 Choice Privilege points you transferred.
It's unclear if this 30% transfer bonus stacked with the 100% transfer bonus. Even if not, this 100% transfer bonus could be a good deal depending on how you value your points. Based on recent redemptions, you'll get $35.40 worth of United miles for every $30 worth of Choice points you transfer. That's based on United miles valued at 1.77 cents each, and Choice points valued at 0.6 cents each. But, if you value United miles below 1.5 cents each, transferring Choice points to United miles doesn't make as much sense — even after the 100% transfer bonus.
Our Take
Due to poor standard transfer rates, we generally don't recommend transferring hotel points to airline miles. This 30% transfer bonus from all of United's hotel partners to MileagePlus sweetens the transfer rate, but it's still generally best to redeem hotel points for hotel stays rather than transferring to airlines. The only times it can make sense is if you really need to top off your United miles or you don't have a use for the hotel points.
What do you think? Is it worth transferring hotel points to United miles with a 30% bonus?
For rates and fees of the cards mentioned in this post, please visit the following links: Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card (Rates & Fees)
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