Today's Your Last Chance for 11 Hilton Honors Transfer Partners
Big changes are happening in the Hilton Honors program. Most of these were announced well in advance, but there are significant changes to Hilton's travel partners list that are just now being unveiled. And, the changes kick in on Monday.
The most urgent news is that 11 travel partners are being dropped from the program, so today is your last chance to make these partner transfers. Here are the partners being dropped with the current transfer rates:
- JetBlue: 10,000 Hilton Honors points -> 1,000 TrueBlue points
- Multiplus: 10,000 Honors -> 1,000 Multiplus points
- Air Baltic: 10,000 Honors -> 1,000 PINS
- AirBerlin: 10,000 Honors -> 1,000 topbonus miles
- Czech Airlines: 10,000 Honors -> 1,000 OK Plus miles
- Gulf Air: 10,000 Honors -> 1,500 Falconflyer miles
- Air China: 10,000 Honors -> 1,000 PhoenixMiles
- China Southern: 10,000 Honors -> 1,000 Sky Pearl Club Miles
- OK Cashbag: 10,000 Honors -> 20,000 Cashbag Points
- SriLankan Airlines: 10,000 Honors -> 1,000 Srilankan Airline FlySmiles
- Thai Airways: 10,000 Honors -> 1,000 Royal Orchid Plus miles
TPG values Hilton points at 0.6 cents per point, but of the partners being terminated, he only tracks the value of JetBlue points — currently the airline's TrueBlue points are valued at 1.3 cents per point. So, the option to transfer 10,000 Hilton points to JetBlue at a 10:1 ratio isn't a good option unless you have no interest in redeeming Hilton points for hotel stays.
New Partners and Ratios
Along with these changes, Hilton is adding nine new partners and improving the transfer ratio for three current partners. First, let's take a look at the new partners:
- Air Asia: 10,000 Hilton Honors points -> 2,000 Air Asia Big Points (5:1)
- Asiana: 10,000 Honors -> 1,000 Asiana Miles (10:1)
- China Eastern: 10,000 Honors -> 1,000 China Eastern Miles (10:1)
- Emirates: 10,000 Honors -> 1,000 Emirates Skywards Miles (10:1)
- EVA Air: 1,000 Honors -> 100 Eva Bonus Miles (10:1)
- Finnair: 5,000 Honors -> 1,000 FinnairPlus points (5:1)
- Garuda Indonesia: 10,000 Honors -> 1,000 GarudaMiles (10:1)
- SAS: 8,000 Honors -> 1,000 EuroBonus Points (8:1)
- Turkish Airlines: 10,000 Honors -> 1,000 Miles & Smiles (10:1)
While none of these are particularly appealing due to the transfer ratios, it's nice to have new airline transfer options for when you need to top off an airline account or don't care for the other Hilton redemption options.
Also starting April 2, there are three airline programs that will have an improved transfer rates...
- Currently, Hilton points transfer to Miles & More at 10:1 (10,000 Honors -> 1,000 Miles & More). That's improving to 8:1 (5,000 Honors -> 625 Miles & More).
- Similarly, Hilton transfers to Singapore KrisFlyer are improving from 10:1 (10,000 Honors -> 1,000 KrisFlyer) to 8:1 (4,000 Honors -> 500 KrisFlyer).
- Finally, Hilton currently transfers to Air New Zealand Airpoints at a rate of 10,000 Honors to 20 Airpoints. While the ratio is staying the same, transfers start at just 5,000 Honors to 10 Airpoints.
If you're interested in making any last-minute transfers before the changes go into effect on Monday, log in here to begin the transfer process.
H/T: Head for Points via View From The Wing