25% bonus when converting hotel points to American AAdvantage

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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

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17 Comments
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Naz

Missed th boat on this one in May. Any idea around which month they are likely to. Have this promo again?

[…] 25% bonus when converting hotel points to American AAdvantage (Expires 6/15/17) […]

Tara

Does redeeming Marriott travel package qualifies as hotel points transfer to AA (to receive 25% bonus)? I thought you have to initiate the transfer from AA page…?

[…] Airways) or 132K United Miles. Through June 15th, American is also having a transfer bonus, which we wrote about here (after the 25% bonus, you would receive 150K American miles). Whether or not the LifeMiles transfer […]

[…] 25% bonus when converting hotel points to American AAdvantage (Expires 6/15/17) […]

Niraj

Transferring 200K SPG points to AA for a total bonus of 112500.
First/Business AA partner airlines here I come.

David

Choice program does not appear to offer AA as a transfer partner. Or is that account specific, because when I tried to transfer some meaningless Choice points, AA was not listed as an option for me.

paula gulbicki

Are you saying it’s better to use your Marriott points on one of their travel packages rather than take the 25% bonus? We use American air and their partners and have a lot of Marriott and Starwood points. What’s the best value?

– Transfer the Starwood points to Marriott and take the 25% American bonus
– Transfer the Starwood points to Marriott and take the biggest travel package

Please let us know what you think is the best option. Gracias.

Max

Dont transfer to AA if you value your points. AA saver awards for all intensive purloses no longer exist.

LF

Sorry should read couple of hundred thousand.

Buddy M.

Nick, in the above scenario with the Marriott travel packages would you rather have 150K AA miles or 120K Alaska miles? This would be for the purpose of flying to Fiji and staying at the new resort Marriott has opened there with a high likelihood of flying on Fiji Airways which partners with both AA and Alaska.

LF

I don’t fly AA but I have a couple of 000k points to burn sometime. I read that AA saver awards are really difficult to find these days. Is this so? Is there any point in collecting AA points any more? What do you think? (Break my interest is international biz of first).