American Express Hilton Promotion (1:3) [2020]

American Express has some of the best transfer partners out of any bank program. The best American Express transfer partners are airlines though and it rarely makes sense to use your points to transfer to hotel partners.

But right now, it’s possible that it could make sense to transfer your points over to Hilton due to a promotion going on. Below, I will tell you everything you need to know about this promotion.

Tip: Use WalletFlo for all your credit card needs. It’s free and will help you optimize your rewards and savings!

American Express transfer bonus to Hilton

Right now, you can get 50% more Hilton Honors Points when you transfer Membership Rewards points by 4/14/20.

The normal transfer ratio is one Membership Rewards point to two Hilton Honors points but right now it is one Membership Rewards point to three Hilton Honors points. So 10,000 Membership Rewards gets you 30,000 Hilton Honors points.

Get Membership Rewards

If you are looking to maximize your Membership Rewards, a great card to go after right now is the Green Card. You can earn 30,000 Membership Rewards after you spend $2,000 in the first three months, but I really like the Green Card as a long-term points earner because it earns 3X on dining and travel. 

If you want an even better points earning card then consider the Gold Card which earns a whopping 4X on US supermarkets and dining worldwide. And finally, if you want a benefits rich card with a strong welcome bonus then consider the Platinum Card which currently offers 60,000 points after you spend $5,000 in the first three months.

Is it worth it?

When trying to gauge whether or not it makes sense to do a transfer like this, it’s a good idea to start out with the point of valuations.

In this case, I will use WalletFlo valuations to start the analysis. Those Hilton valuations come out to .52 cents per point and American Express points are valued at 1.75 cents per point.

So let’s say we had 50,000 American Express Membership Rewards. Those would be worth approximately $875. Now if we transferred them over to Hilton with the new promotion that would amount to 150,000 Hilton Honors points which would be worth about $780.

So there would be a decrease in value although that decrease would not be that bad (~10%). If you were simply trying to top off a points balance to make a redemption I think it could be well worth it to use this promotion. 

But if you had a lot of American Express points and you could transfer those over to Hilton and utilize the fifth night free on a redemption then this could be a very lucrative promotion. 

For example, last year I used the fifth night free at an all inclusive resort in Playa Del Carmen and my redemption came out .8 cents per point. In that case, I would have been getting 2.4 cents per American Express Membership Rewards point by transferring my Amex points over to Hilton and using a promotion like this. That is terrific value and a great use of points.

Final word 

So here is how I would treat this promotion.

I would not transfer points over to Hilton just to take advantage of the promotion because the transferred value is just not that exceptional.

However, if you are eyeing certain redemptions, especially a fifth night free redemption, then you could potentially come out well on top by utilizing this promotion.