American Express launches a 30% Hilton Honors transfer bonus from Membership Rewards

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• rob keane says:

  6 Oct6 October 09:33

  Yeah, that was the point I was making, the comparison to transferring to another rewards program such as radisson. Ultimately, unless used for amex credit the MRs have to be transferred to SOME program.

  And comparing cash rates, one needs to compare fully flex rates, as hilton awards stays are, with a few exceptions, fully flex bookings.

• MattB says:

  6 Oct6 October 09:55

  I bit annoying timing wise as i just spent just over £1k on 240k points on month ago. At least I got a pretty good US redemption out of them but this offer would have made it even better.

• Aston100 says:

  6 Oct6 October 11:27

  As someone who values HH at 0.04p (I have my reasons) I think this transfer bonus is pretty good, considering the cash prices of Hilton properties worldwide at this time.
  I think right now, I’d get more out of this transfer route than my usual avios > nectar route, so I may just chuck my entire MR balance into HH now.

• gordog01 says:

  6 Oct6 October 12:21

  Virgin cc have just given me two 241 vouchers instead of one in my flying club account. Both with different dates about a week apart! What’s the chances of them both staying there?

  • Panda Mick says:

    6 Oct6 October 13:10

    Slim…. I booked two different reward flights before christmas. Virgin never took the points. And then, three months ago, the first lot of points disappeared out of my account. The Virgin Atlantic app didn’t show this, nor the website. However, the Virgin Red app did

    I then had to cancel my mum’s flight three months ago, and whilst the cash portion of the flight was refunded, the points weren’t. I queried this, and it was only then I discovered non of the points were ever deducted!

    So, plan for Virgin / Delta’s systems eventually catching up…

• His Holyness says:

  6 Oct6 October 13:28

  As we don’t live in London it’s a better use of MR for me than going to BA. Could convert the whole lot to get just over 1m Hilton points and use them at a luxury property.

  BA’s fees are monstrous on long haul and we don’t know our trips 365 days in advance which is why we used to use our Avios on short-haul. Two tickets to Prague in Club is 100,000 Avios plus £100. It’s stupid and that’s a cheap example compared to MAD or IST.

  Never thought I’d see the day when I’d consider the Avios Barclays to spend the points via Nectar. Cash out for £800.

  • His Holyness says:

    6 Oct6 October 13:32

    Am I right in thinking two tix to Prague for 100k Avios + £100 is like paying £900 based on Nectar value?

    • Rob says:

      6 Oct6 October 14:29

      Yes

    • Ed_fly says:

      6 Oct6 October 19:55

      How on earth does a trip to Prague price up at 100k Avios?

      • His Holyness says:

        7 Oct7 October 19:25

        It’s the higher value Avios tricks on the price quote page for a domestic-LHR-PRG in Peak, Club Europe.

        Regular rate is 78,000 plus £200. That’s the traditional RFS option meaning any RFS ex-LHR is £50 RT

        Rob says Avios are worth 0.8p when cashed out to Nectar 78,000= £624
        Hence you’re spending £824 to fly to PRG.

        Rob goes by a value of 1p per Avios making the trip cost £980 (£780+200)

        Truly horrendous. You need Avios seats to begin with. You’d be hard pressed to pay north of £400 for an advance purchase business fair on *A/ST to PRG.

        • His Holyness says:

          7 Oct7 October 19:25

          *fare

        • ed_fly says:

          8 Oct8 October 21:13

          Ouch!

• His Holyness says:

  6 Oct6 October 15:00

  Best case scenario is you have a 2 for 1 voucher, then you’re paying 50k and £100 so that’s like £500 cash.
  I recently picked up two LH tickets for £300 each to PRG in P (Business). Let’s not speak about Jet2/FR and using Priority for lounges plus half trip length…

  GLA-JFK is 220,000 Avios plus £1800 for fees. Reduce that with a voucher, you’re therefore looking at £880 value plus £1800 in fees giving you £2680 for two.
  Except you’re limited by Avios inventory in U. There’s nothing extra for Gold (unless you pay more Avios).
  You’re banned for using Barclays vouchers on Z, only Amex.
  I’d rather book a cash fare, which earns Avios back or fly with Star/SkyTeam.
  The numbers just don’t stack up anymore. It’s rubbish.
  No wonder they can give away 100k Avios.

  Pretty mad how it’s all ended up. Miles get more dead by the year.

  • Vit says:

    6 Oct6 October 15:29

    This is exactly what I have in mind lately. We only have 300k avios but 2 x amex voucher and 1 x barclay vouchers sitting. I think some of these voucher will not be in used. The plan is to get another return trip to far east hopefully and that’s it.

    The rest of our MR points are likely going towards Star/Sky Team as you mentioned as there are still sweet spots around there and we have built up a good small chunk of points and plus we don’t live in London.

    • His Holyness says:

      6 Oct6 October 17:45

      It’s all about Heathrow.
      I was very happy to extol the virtues of Avios a few years ago, but these past few years (before Covid) cash is king. Covid has made silly air fares which are not realistic and therefore a false sense of value on the points due to last minute dumping by BA- even during the cap.

      I was reading Flyers Talk today and the food in the Concorde lounge looks shocking. Cheap pre-theatre menu.

      The Barclays voucher doesn’t let you start outside the UK but I think Amex does? You need to be flexible (to the extreme, calling some Japanese office at midnight 36x days before to get your seats) plus maybe starting in DUB which isn’t so hard if you live in GLA.

      You’re therefore just as flexible to find yourself one of those LuftHansa or Swiss deals ca £2500 in F from GLA or EDI.

      They’re two for one as well, just like the vouchers.

• brian says:

  6 Oct6 October 15:01

  This post has prompted me to reassess the value I get from transferring MR to either Hilton, Marriot or Radisson points as I always felt like I was getting a lot more value out of the former.

  This applies to a pretty particular use case of hotel nights in Dublin which is beyond ridiculous at cash prices. The 50K HGI redemption consistently appears to be the best value in the city. Will be booking again for the Christmas period so will reevaluate before the start of November.

• Lady London says:

  6 Oct6 October 15:59

  Also I am not sure how much we can hope for this year but Black Friday is only about 7 weeks away

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