Get a 25% bonus for transferring hotel points to United Mileage Plus – worth it?

United Airlines has taken a leaf out of the British Airways promotions book and is currently offering a 25% bonus on all hotel and car hire points transfers.

There is a bit of small print to follow:

You must transfer at least 5,000 miles-worth of points (this does not have to be in one transfer)

You must register for the promotion

Bonus miles will be credited later and may not appear until 31st January

It is not entirely clear if the hotel or car hire points need to arrive at your United account by November 30th or if the transfer only needs to be initiated by then.  The rules speak of ‘conversion transactions which are completed’ by November 30th, so possibly the former.

The maximum bonus you can earn is 20,000 miles

The partners for this promotion are Marriott, Hilton, Starwood, IHG Rewards Club, Club Carlson, Hyatt Gold Passport, Choice Privileges, Wyndham Rewards, Golden Circle and Hertz Gold Plus Rewards.

You should note that United is unique in having a poor 2:1 conversion rate from Starwood, which it uses to protect the competitive position of its own Amex card.

I did a recent analysis on whether it was worth transferring hotel points into Avios.  In that case, the most convincing case was for converting Starwood points.  Given that Starwood has a very poor rate to United, however, it is difficult to get excited about any of these offers.

That said, there are not that many ways to earn United miles in the UK – although they do have a UK credit card – so if your account needs topping up then this is a better deal than usual.