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30.05.2024 - 13:23 / thepointsguy.com
Hotel rewards programs often partner with airlines, allowing you to convert your hotel points to airline miles. This gives you more redemption options, but is it a good use of your points?
As with most things in the points and miles world, the answer is: It depends. Airline partners and transfer ratios vary from one hotel program to the next, as do the values of points and miles. We'll cover some of the most common hotel loyalty programs and why you should — or shouldn't — transfer those points to airline partners.
Marriott Bonvoy has 39 airline transfer partners, and you can transfer as few as 3,000 points. Points transfer to most airlines at a ratio of 3:1, plus for some transfers, you'll get 5,000 bonus miles for every 60,000 points you transfer (10,000 bonus miles with United Airlines).
These ratios aren't ideal, even though most airline miles are valued higher than Marriott Bonvoy points.
For example, let's say you have 60,000 points in your Bonvoy account. Since TPG values Marriott points at 0.85 cents each, these are worth $510. If you transfer them to United MileagePlus, the 3:1 ratio will give you 20,000 miles plus 10,000 bonus miles, for a total of 30,000 miles. TPG values United miles at 1.35 cents each, so your miles are now worth only $405.
But maybe United miles are more useful to you than Marriott Bonvoy points, especially if you are not planning to use your points at any Marriott properties in the near future. Maybe you're planning to fly United and need to top off your account. Only you can decide how best to use your points, and transferring Marriott points to airlines is an option worth considering.
However, keep in mind that most points and miles transfers are irreversible. Always wait until you have a redemption in mind before transferring your points.
Related: Mistakes to avoid when redeeming hotel points
Hilton Honors partners with 26 airlines, and the transfer ratio for most is 10,000 Hilton points to 1,000 miles. Qantas Frequent Flyer is slightly better at 10,000:1,500, but that's still pretty dismal.
To see an airline's transfer ratio, you must first enter your frequent flyer account number and link it to your Hilton Honors account. Here are the ratios for some common airlines:
Using the same example from before, if you had 60,000 Hilton points (which TPG values at 0.6 cents each), they would be worth a total of $360. If you transferred them to United, you would end up with 6,000 miles, worth a measly $81. That's a loss of over 75% in value.
We think there are better ways to redeem Hilton Honors points. But if you have points that are about to expire and no short-term travel plans near a Hilton property, transferring can prevent them from going to waste.
IHG One Rewards
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