25% bonus when converting hotel points to American AAdvantage

17

AA hotel points promo

The latest airline to offer a transfer bonus from hotel partners is American Airlines. Now through June 15th, earn a 25% bonus on miles converted from most hotel partners — including Best Western Rewards, Choice Privileges, World of Hyatt, Club Carlson, Hilton Honors, Starwood Preferred Guest, Marriott Rewards, and IHG Rewards Club. Note that while AA partners with Wyndham Rewards, they are not offering a transfer bonus on points converted from Wyhdham.

The Deal

  • 25% bonus on miles converted to American Airlines AAdvantage from hotel partners.

Key Details

  • Valid for transfers through June 15th, 2017

Quick Thoughts

Remember that the bonus is based on the number of airline miles you would normally receive in the transaction. For example, 10,000 Club Carlson points usually convert to 1,000 American Airlines miles. With the 25% bonus, you would receive 1,250 AA miles. These transfers are typically not a good deal unless you are sitting on hotel points you won’t use or you’re topping up your miles for a valuable redemption.

However, the two hotel programs that offer the strongest value proposition would be Starwood and Marriott.

Transfers from Starwood are 1:1, but transfers of 20,000 points always receive a 5,000 mile bonus for a total of 25,000 AA miles before the 25% bonus from American. A transfer of 20,000 Starpoints would therefore yield 31,250 total AA miles. Depending on how you value and use AA miles, that may be a decent trade.

The Marriott transfer ratio varies depending on how many points you transfer to miles. At the bottom end, 10,000 Marriott points become just 2,000 AA miles before the bonus. At the top end, 140,000 Marriott points transfer to 50,000 AA miles. With the 25% bonus, those 140K Marriott points become 62,500 AA miles — which doesn’t seem bad until you consider the fact that you could transfer 120K Marriott points first to Starwood and receive 40,000 Starpoints. You could then transfer 40,000 Starpoints to AA for the same 62,500 AA miles — and you’d still have 20K Marriott points to spare.

On the other hand, Marriott’s Travel Packages continue to offer the most value.

marriott aa package

For 270K Marriott Rewards points (or 90K Starpoints converted to Marriott), you would receive 150,000 AA miles plus a 7-night Category 1-5 Marriott stay. Depending on how you use the 7-night Marriott certificate, this could be an excellent value.

Ultimately, value is dependent on your travel patterns, but a bonus always helps. Are you going to convert points in this promotion? Which hotel partner are you considering? Let us know in the comments.

H/T: View from the Wing

Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

17 Comments
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments