Get a 50% bonus converting American Express points to Hilton Honors – worth it?

Many of you who have American Express Preferred Rewards Gold, The Platinum Card, the Amex Rewards Credit Card or one of the other Membership Rewards cards will have received an email yesterday with an interesting offer.

Until 31st October, you will receive a 50% bonus when you transfer American Express Membership Rewards points into Hilton Honors.

This means that you will receive three Hilton Honors points per one Membership Rewards point, instead of the usual two.

There is minimal small print:

You must transfer at least 1,000 Membership Rewards points

The bonus will arrive separately and could take up to eight weeks

IMPORTANT:  whilst most HfP readers seem to have received this offer, some have not.  It is possible that these people ticked the wrong box once upon a time and opted out of emails like this.  However, it is also possible that not everyone can participate.

This offer is not mentioned anywhere on the Membership Rewards website.  If you make a transfer without receiving the email, you have no grounds for complaint if you do not receive the bonus.

Is it worth transferring my Amex points to Hilton Honors?

It depends.

Let me explain why I say that.  Whenever we write about Hilton Honors on Head for Points, I say that I value a point at 0.33p.  This is based on many redemptions over the years.

There are two interesting caveats here:

The value of a Hilton point is capped, because Hilton regularly sells them with a 100% bonus.  In fact, it launched such a bonus yesterday.  At present, you can buy Hilton Honors points for 0.5 cents (0.40p).  You can’t value something at more than you can buy it for.  This means that, at most, you are getting 1.2p (0.40p x 3) of value per American Express point you transfer.

The value of a Hilton point has a floor.  If there are no redemption rooms available, Hilton lets you use your points as part payment towards a cash room.  This generally gets you around 0.25p per point, so the floor value of an Amex point under this offer is (0.25p x 3) 0.75p.

And, of course, under my 0.33p per point valuation, you are getting 0.99p (0.33p x 3) per Amex point if you convert them to Hilton under this offer.

How does this compare with other Membership Rewards redemptions?

I ran a long article on what Membership Rewards points are worth back in December.  Click the link for my reasoning, but my conclusions were:

0.75p – 1.5p per point for airline miles

1p per point – Radisson Rewards hotel transfers

0.75p per point – Marriott Bonvoy hotel transfers

0.66p per point – my usual value for Hilton Honors transfers

0.66p per point – Club Eurostar transfers (but I am thinking of raising this after seeing the price of cash tickets recently)

0.5p per point (guaranteed) – High Street gift cards

0.5p per point (guaranteed) – converting to Nectar points

0.45p per point (guaranteed) – converting to Amazon credit

0.4p per point (guaranteed) – redeeming for American Express statement credit

So, looking at this list, converting your Membership Rewards points to Hilton Honors points is a decent deal.

It is NOT, for total clarity, a ‘slam dunk, no discussion, get it done, why are we even still having this conversation?’ deal.  It IS very good and better than most of the other options, but there are other routes to get you equivalent value.

You need to remember that transfers of Membership Rewards points to Hilton Honors do NOT count towards status.  The only points that count towards Hilton status are the base points you earn from hotel stays.

If you can identify a good place to use your Hilton points – although remember that you won’t get the bonus for up to eight weeks so availability may have gone – then give this deal some serious thought.  At present, I don’t think I will be taking advantage but I am not totally writing it off either.

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How to earn Hilton Honors points and status from UK credit cards (April 2024)

There are various ways of earning Hilton Honors points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses.

Do you know that holders of The Platinum Card from American Express receive FREE Hilton Honors Gold status for as long as they hold the card?  It also comes with Marriott Bonvoy Gold, Radisson Rewards Premium and MeliaRewards Gold status.  We reviewed American Express Platinum in detail here and you can apply here.

Did you know that the Virgin Atlantic credit cards are a great way of earning Hilton Honors points? Two Virgin Points can be converted into three Hilton Honors points. The Virgin Atlantic cards are the only Visa or Mastercard products in the UK which can indirectly earn Hilton Honors points. You can apply here.

You can also earn Hilton Honors points indirectly with:

• American Express Gold (20,000 bonus Amex points)
• American Express Rewards Credit Card (10,000 bonus Amex points)

and for small business owners:

• American Express Business Gold (20,000 bonus Amex points)
• American Express Business Platinum (40,000 bonus Amex points)

The conversion rate from American Express to Hilton points is 1:2.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which can be used to earn Hilton Honors points. 

(Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from the major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.)