This week, I wanted to share how to redeem American Express Membership Rewards points for maximum value by leveraging a transfer bonus. If you’re like me and have a large stock of Amex points, you could take advantage of this limited-time 25% Hilton transfer bonus before it ends March 14 and maximize your points, too.
Most times, you’ll get the maximum value from your Amex points when you transfer them to one of Amex’s 15 airline partners and redeem them for award flights like All Nippon Airways first-class flights to Japan with Virgin Atlantic. You can book a one-way flight to Japan flying ANA from the U.S. West Coast for 52,500 points in business class or 72,500 points in first class.
However, when hotel transfer bonuses become available, it’s a good idea to do the math and see if you can stretch your points — especially if there’s a luxury hotel property you’ve been eyeing.
I use Rooms.aero to search hotel availability at Hilton’s luxury brands, such as Waldorf Astoria and Conrad. This tool works for all the major hotel brands, too, and you can plug in the number of nights and brands you want to search — up to a year at a time — and see what availability the tool can find for you.
As an example, I ran a search for the Conrad Maldives Rangali Island — its standard rooms are overwater bungalows — and I was shocked to find availability over the week of Christmas for five nights at 120,000 points per night or 480,000 Hilton points total (remember Hilton offers a fifth night free on award stays).
Normally, you can transfer Amex points to Hilton at a 1:2 ratio, but during this limited-time 25% transfer bonus, you can transfer just 192,000 Amex points to book this award stay — instead of 240,000 Amex points or $12,641 in cash!
This would yield over 6 cents per Amex point — an incredible value. Just a reminder: Do not transfer points until you confirm the rooms are bookable (just like flights!) because points transfers are not reversible.
If you have been eyeing a specific Hilton-brand hotel to book an award stay, check out Rooms.aero and see what you can find before the 25% Amex-to-Hilton transfer bonus expires March 14.
Safe travels,
BK
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