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Now through October 31, 2021, United is offering a 50% transfer bonus when converting Radisson Rewards hotel points to United Mileage Plus miles.
This is the latest in a string of hotel points to United transfer bonuses. In September 2021, MileagePlus members could transfer 6 different types of hotel points to United with a 30% bonus. In August 2021, United offered a 100% bonus when transferring from Choice hotels to United miles. And in April 2021, you could transfer Wyndham points to United with a 100% bonus.
Even with these bonuses, it's generally not a great deal to transfer hotel points to miles — with Marriott being an exception. However, whether or not it's worth taking advantage of all depends on how you value your points and miles.
Which Hotel Points You Can Transfer to United Miles
There are 8 hotel loyalty programs you can transfer rewards points from to United MileagePlus miles:
- Accor Live Limitless (2:1 ratio)
- Choice Privileges (5:1 ratio)
- Hilton Honors (10:1 ratio)
- World of Hyatt (2.5:1 ratio, plus 5,000 bonus miles when you transfer 50,000 points)
- Marriott Bonvoy (3:1.1 ratio, plus 5,500 bonus miles when you transfer 60,000 points)
- Radisson Rewards (10:1 ratio)
- IHG Rewards (5:1 ratio)
- Wyndham Rewards (5:1 ratio)
Here's how AwardWallet values points and miles based on recent AwardWallet user redemptions:
- United MileagePlus miles: 2.65 cents
- Accor Live Limitless points: 2.32 cents — based on a flat redemption of €40 per 2,000 points
- World of Hyatt points: 2.22 cents
- Marriott Bonvoy points: 1 cent
- IHG Rewards: 0.74 cents
- Hilton Honors points: 0.62 cents
- Choice Privileges points: 0.6 cents
- Radisson Rewards points: 0.4 cents
By combining the transfer rates and values, generally it's not a good idea to transfer hotel points to United miles — even at a redemption rate of 2.65 cents per mile. Here's a list from best to worst:
- 10,000 Marriott points ($100) nets 3,667 miles ($97)
- 10,000 Choice points ($60) nets 2,000 miles ($53)
- 10,000 IHG points ($74) nets 2,000 miles ($53)
- 10,000 Radisson points ($40) nets 1,000 miles ($27)
- 10,000 Accor points ($220) nets 5,000 miles ($133)
- 10,000 Hilton points ($62) nets 1,000 miles ($27)
- 10,000 Hyatt points ($222) nets 4,000 miles ($106)
50% Transfer Bonus From Radisson to United
Now through October 31, Radisson Rewards Americas members can transfer points to United with a 50% bonus. That nets a 20 to 3 transfer ratio, instead of 10 to 1. Those ratios are a bit hard to understand, so let's run some examples.
Say you have 10,000 Radisson Rewards points. You can transfer those points to United to get 1,500 MileagePlus miles during this transfer bonus. If you value Radisson Rewards points at 0.4 cents per point, you're giving up approximately $40 in value to get 1,500 United miles. That means you'll want to get at least 2.7 cents per United mile from a redemption for this transfer to make sense.
So, for most travelers, transferring Radisson points to United miles still doesn't make sense — even with a 50% bonus.
[Expired] 30% Transfer Bonus From Hotel Points to United
In September 2021, United offered a 30% bonus when transferring hotel points to United miles. Note that you need to register for the promotion first before transferring points. There's a limit of 25,000 bonus points you can earn.
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 ($220) yields 6,500 miles ($172)
- 10,000 Choice points ($60) yields 2,600 miles ($69)
- 10,000 Hilton points ($63) yields 1,300 miles ($34)
- 10,000 Hyatt points ($222) yields 5,200 miles ($138)
- 10,000 Marriott points ($100) yields 4,767 miles ($126)
- 10,000 Radisson points ($40) yields 1,300 miles ($34)
With the 30% bonus, Choice and Marriott transfers to United miles become reasonable. Accor, Hilton, and Hyatt are still bad deals — even with the bonus.
The best deal is for transfers to Marriott. For every 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points you transfer, you'll get:
- 22,000 base United miles (at the 3:1.1 ratio)
- plus 5,500 from Marriott's bonus of 5,000 miles per 60,000 points (including the 10% bonus on transfers to United)
- plus 8,250 bonus miles with this promotion
That's a total of 35,750 United miles for 60,000 Marriott points — better than a 2:1 ratio. If you value Marriott points at 1 cent each, you'll need to get just 1.68 cents of value per United mile from a redemption for this transfer to make sense.
[Expired] Choice to United 100% Transfer Bonus Promotion
Through August 30, 2021, Choice Privileges members could receive a 100% bonus when transferring points to United MileagePlus miles. That means you got a 2.5 to 1 transfer ratio, instead of 5 to 1.
Depending on how you value United points, this might be a good deal. Based on recent redemptions, you'll get $106 worth of United miles for every $60 worth of Choice points you transfer. But, if your value of United miles is below 1.5 cents each, transferring points to miles doesn't make as much sense.
Our Take
Due to poor transfer rates, we generally don't recommend transferring hotel points to airline miles. Transfer bonuses can help sweeten 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 needed to top off your United miles or you don't have a use for the hotel points.
What do you think? Is it worth it to transfer your Radisson points to United miles?
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.
Great, my points will expiring soon, so I’m going to use this offer.
Best way to get points is still opening credit cards for the SUB.
Some of these are pretty bad but the too but can be ok if points are expiring soon.
Radisson has never made the expiration clear on thier website, so you dont know when your points will expire.
If you need United miles, then this ma work but I generally don’t like the value from these types of promotions.
these hotel loyalty program points are not easy to use. although the transfer is disadvantageous, it is still an option to make them useful.
Fair point. Some points are better than no points if they’re in a program that’s of no value to you.
The conversion rate is still poor, compared to Marriott, however it’s tempting as I struggle to use my Radisson Reward points on stays
I used some previous offer to transfer almost all my Radisson points one year ago.
It should be simple to use the miles via United even though the transfer rate is quite poor.
Indeed, this is an offer for rare cases, mostly for topping up.
Whoa, pause. What routes are you guys getting 2.65+ cents per mile? 1.3 is on the good end of what I can find.
I do have some Radisson Rewards points and I do need more United miles at this time, however, it is still such a poor deal that I don’t think I’ll bother. There are other ways to earn United Miles and I will definitely put the Radisson points to better use for hotel stays.
I would do this for orphan hotel points especially now that people are not travelling. Your hotel points are subject to expiration while United Airlines miles do not expire.
Got rid of my Radisson points last year, they were not very useful to have, too little to use.
I’ll keep my Radisson points for hotel redemptions.
I’ve got lots of Radisson points sitting around and I wouldn’t even use those to take advantage of this offer.
I hope Choice would apply an additional bonus for the transfer. Let’s hope till the end of September.
I appreciate this article since it gives a much more nuanced level of advice with the breakdown between whether it is a good idea or not generally vs with Marriott.
I personally hoard hotel points since I find free accommodation much harder to get than airline miles, so it’s hard to imagine trading them.
The Marriott option *might* make sense if you’re sitting on a pile of Marriott points and need some United miles for a specific trip or to top up your account to a certain level. United MileagePlan (MP) miles can be especially valuable for int’l travel on Star Alliance partners. I flew to BKK a few years ago in Biz/1st Class on SAS, Thai, Air China & United (F Class, pre-Polaris J Class was terrible on United; F Class on a 747 in the nose of the plane was lots of fun!) with United MP miles….thanks United!
Great evaluation. Those 30% bonuses sound nice but are still a rip-off. Hold out for more.
Normally the miles are worther than points, so this is an excellent bonus offer
Well a 30% bonus is better than no bonus
It is but that’s like asking would you like 10 slaps to the face or 30% less and get 7? Even with the bonus, you’re still getting the raw end of the deal.