Bringing back a promotion that was just recently available for several months, you again have the opportunity to transfer your American Express Membership Rewards [Guide] points to both Marriott Bonvoy and Hilton Honors with a bonus.
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Amex Bonus –> Marriott Bonvoy and Hilton Honors
You’ll get a 40% bump on your transferred points when you transfer to either program. That means you’ll get 1,4000 Marriott Bonvoy points or 2,800 Hilton Honors points for 1,000 Amex Membership Rewards.
This transfer bonus is available until June 15th, 2021.
Should you transfer?
Speculatively? Definitely not. In the grand scheme of things, this bonus makes a really awful transfer ratio a bit better.
If we use pure math to evaluate, MilesTalk values Amex Membership Rewards at 1.7 cents, Marriott Bonvoy at 0.6 cents and Hilton Honors at 0.5 cents. That’s a function of relative achievable redemptions, not an exact science – so take this with a grain of salt. But to even break even (without a planned redemption) you would need to get 3,400 Hilton Honors points or get 2,800 Marriott Bonvoy points to “break even.”
Of course, it’s more complicated than that. If you were looking to book a 5 night stay at a Hilton property where the cash rate was $800 and the points rate was 80,000 a night (and awards get 5th night free with no resort fees!) you would be getting better than 1 cent per point. In that scenario, transferring your Amex points (if you don’t already have the needed points in your Hilton account) would make a ton of sense. You’d need 320,000 points which would take 115,000 Amex points (rounded).
Not even accounting for tax or resort fees, in this scenario (and I’m assuming the hotel has standard points availability for all 5 nights – a big IF!), you’re spending 115,000 Amex points for $4,000 (really probably $4,500 + with tax and resort fees), you are getting around 4 cents per point in Membership Rewards point value.
So while the answer is usually a big no to these transfers, it;’s also important to not get stuck in miles and points herd mentality of what is ALWAYS bad or ALWAYS good.
For this deal, I think it’s meh on the whole, but potentially a steal for the right redemption.
Earn 60,000 Membership Rewards(R) Points after you spend $6,000 on eligible purchases on your new Card in your first 6 months of Card Membership. Terms apply. | How to apply for this offer. | Read our Review of the American Express Rose Gold Card
Thoughts?
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New to all of this? My “introduction to miles and points” book, MilesTalk: Live Your Wildest Travel Dreams Using Miles and Points is available on Amazon and at major booksellers.
