American Express Membership Rewards has a new promotion available for their U.S. based members, offering a 40% bonus on Membership Rewards transfers to Hilton Honors.
This promotion is showing up on my Platinum Charge Card account and has the expiration date listed for October 31, 2020.
The ratio of transferring Membership Rewards points to Hilton Honors isn’t ideal and I would recommend that those who are interested in Hilton points look at a Hilton Amex card instead to earn that currency directly but, with the bonus right now, it may make limited sense to think about a transfer if you’re looking to book a Hilton on points.
You can find the transfer option in your online Amex card account under Membership Rewards – Hotel Transfers :
At the same time American Express is reminding people that points transfer are irrevocable as I previously wrote about here.
As I mentioned before one should be 100% certain that the points transferred out can be used for something good in the future, the sooner the better.
Keep in mind that aspirational properties such as the Conrad Rangali, Maldives or Koh Samui, Thailand have extremely high point requirements (95,000 points per night) with a cash rate hovering around US$600 per night plus tax (maybe less at the moment due to Covid-19) so you still need quite a few of Membership Rewards points per night in order to stay at one of these hotel.
If one is after Hilton Honors points then collecting Hilton points through one of the Hilton Amex cards is much better. The same goes for those customers who are after Marriott points. Don’t transfer your Membership Rewards as the ratio even with a transfer bonus is lackluster.
American Express has previously offered transfer bonuses for Hilton with up to 50% extra.
Conclusion
Membership Rewards points are usually better utilized transferring them to an airline program to be used for flight redemptions or, in the worst case, cashed out through the Charles Schwab version of the Amex Platinum at US$ 1.25 cents per point.
As far as hotel stays are concerned you might sometimes (not all the time) be better off to use your Amex MR points to book directly through Amex Travel including the Fine Hotels & Resorts program.
These are the Terms & Conditions for this promotion:
You must be enrolled in Hilton Honors in order to participate in this offer, visit HiltonHonors.com/join to enroll. American Express is not responsible for availability, accommodations or any other rewards in the Hilton Honors program. Once you have transferred Membership Rewards points, they become subject to the Terms and Conditions of the Hilton Honors program and cannot be transferred back to your Membership Rewards program account. All Hampton by HiltonTM hotels in the Republic of China are excluded from the Hilton Honors program. See Hilton Honors Terms and Conditions for details. This offer is non-transferable and may not be combined with other offers.
American Express in its sole discretion reserves the right to alter and or terminate these offers at any time. To be eligible to receive these offers, all Card accounts linked to an enrollee’s Membership Rewards program account must not be canceled, past due or have a return payment at the time of point redemption. Minimum transfer is 1,000 Membership Rewards points. Redeem for this exclusive offer from 12:00 a.m. MT on 8/1/2020 to 11:59 p.m. MT on 10/31/2020, to receive 40% additional Hilton Honors Bonus Points. Please allow up to eight weeks for the additional Hilton Honors Bonus Points to be awarded. Hilton Honors Bonus Points do not count towards elite tier qualification.
