MilesBuzz! - how can I turn miles into Free Hotels?

I know about transferring miles to Hilton, but don't really like any of their options. Any other options out there. Would be ideally looking for lower cost hotels in Europe and would only be willing to spend up to 10K miles for the prices that I am expecting I will end up paying.

There really aren't many if any great options in this. You could convert AAdvantage miles into travel packages with land (hotels) if you choose. For you and many others in the same situation, I've always advised to make this part of your overall plan to manage your travel rewards. Best bets: if you opted for the Starwood credit card instead of an airline credit card, you'd have the option of free hotels as well as the ability ot convert into almost any frequent flyer program of your choosing. But you could also use the other hotel credit cards (assuming you aren't one to stay in hotels to amass your points) and use their telcomm partners to build a hotel stay treasure. If you look closely, it's really quite easy: Starwood has run 10,000 point sign up bonuses for their card which is at least one night free in any of their best hotels, more if you are staying in the lower tier hotels. similar with Hilton and Marriott - the signup bonuses alone are equal to free nights and many of htese cards don't have an annual fee. But while it is easy to target this largeness from these programs, I suggest a well thought-out plan rather than the quick fix.

Hope this helps.

Don't be so quick to discount Hilton. They own Scandic and *all* of the Scandic hotels are HH category 1. This means you can get a room for 10000 Hilton points, or 5000 airline miles at the 1:2 conversion rate from most airlines that still allow you to transfer points in.

If you're in luck there will even be point stretchers available which can lower your point/night cost considerably.

If you have Continental Onepass miles, you can transfer that into Amtrak points. From there, you can redeem for hotel awards from Starwood, Marriott, and Ritz-Carlton. You can also convert Amtrak points into Hilton HHonors points. Althought he redemption rate is poor by any means.

You may have to discount Hilton if your airline does not participate in the exchange. Airlines have been dropping off the list like flies. Here are the ones remaining:

Aero California 1-800-99-ALTUS
American Airlines®* 1-800-882-8880
Hawaiian Airlines 1-808-838-5333
1-877-HA-MILES (426-4537)
LanChile 1-800-464-5065
Mexicana Airlines® 1-800-531-7901
Midwest Airlines 1-800-314-7125
South African Airways 1-800-359-7220
Virgin Atlantic Airways US: 1-800-365-9500
+44 1243-538888

Continental dropped from the list in September leaving American the only "big six" airline remaining. I think at one time five of the six were participating.

You can probably use a Diners Club to move certain airline miles to and then to a hotel program (I think two or three airlines participate), but you need the DC and it carries a (I think) $95 fee per year and the devaluation you would suffer in the transaction is probably not worth it.

I would second Randy in the choice to use the Starwood Amex, though it is of no use for miles that you already have and want to transfer to a hotel program.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by FT wannabe:
If you have Continental Onepass miles, you can transfer that into Amtrak points. From there, you can redeem for hotel awards from Starwood, Marriott, and Ritz-Carlton. You can also convert Amtrak points into Hilton HHonors points. Althought he redemption rate is poor by any means.</font>CO-&gt;Amtrak is 1:1 and Amtrak-&gt;Hilton is 1:2 so 5000 miles gets you 10000 HH points. You can do quite well with that at some hotels and poorly at others. As with all hotel programs, it depends on the property at which you wish to stay.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by hindukid:
I know about transferring miles to Hilton, but don't really like any of their options. Any other options out there. Would be ideally looking for lower cost hotels in Europe and would only be willing to spend up to 10K miles for the prices that I am expecting I will end up paying.</font>

Where are you going? Are you looking for an American-style business hotel or something with a little more local flavor (a boutique hotel, a B&B, country villa, etc.)?

Miles & Points might help you for the chain hotels, but I can't think of an avenue to use an award if you want a small local property. Perhaps (and I'm guessing here) if you had a credit card that offered home-grown points applicable towards any hotel at or below a certain cost, that might work for the limited set of hotels that are bookable through their in-house travel agency.

European hotels are one of the few travel items for which I completely forget about miles & points. I usually have a specific idea of what type of property I want and spend time researching to find the right one for my needs. If it actually takes credit cards, that's a bonus!

Going to London for 1 night, salzburg for 1 night, munich for 3 and garmisch for 1. I would have been interested in using the scandic awards for only 10K hilton points but there are none where I am staying. Got a cheap rate of 50 euros at holiday inn munich so i will just pay that. I might cash in the few priority club points for a night in london or stay at the holiday inn regents park for 55 pounds. Regents park sounds like a good location and I am not that concerned about a five star hotel so I doubt I will get a hotel in London for any points which are worth less than $90. Salzburg hotels are costing around $100. If I could find a hotel for less than 10K airline miles I would be interested, but I figure it will be at least 10K so I'll probably just pay cash. Garmisch hotels are all non chain so I am not expecting any possibilities.