Thanks for the responses. I've added some more detail below.
Originally Posted by
3Cforme
From that, it's not clear if you actually have surplus AA miles, although it does appear you have balanced AA spending/earning/Plat requal. If you don't have surplus miles, don't do it. (This from an AA million-miler and HHonors Diamond.)
I have surplus AA miles as I have been earning them with little availability to spend them. I generally fly just over 50k BIS miles each year so I need to pay for my flights in order to maintain status. As I live outside of the US most of the time, having lounge access for my shorthaul OneWorld flights is more benefitial than trading in miles for my longhaul flights and losing status. Reaching MM status is also a factor in paying for flights vs. redeeming miles (which I should obtain this year).
Originally Posted by
FOX85
It really depends on what you use your miles and points for. If you tend to fly coach then transferring to Hilton is not a bad idea. Or if you plan an expensive stay in the maldives or bora bora, europe ...etc then it still might be worth it.
Who do you travel with?
If you go on vacation with the Mrs. then you can always use your miles for her and buy your ticket.
To sum up in my opinion if you like business/first class that keep miles.
Otherwise you can transfer to Hilton since you might have an easier time burning the point there.
The problem is that I never really get to use my miles/points. As noted above, I find it difficult to redeem AA miles for flights because I need to keep paying for flights to maintain status each year. I do try to use miles to upgrade when flying full fare economy, but this only happens a few times each year (and I've actually missed the upgrade all but one time!). I actually went to the Maldives recently and when planning the trip I was considering whether to transfer AA miles (at the previous 1:2 rate) or to pay for the hotel. In the end, because of Hilton's generous 4x points Q1 promotion it ended up much better for me to pay for the stay than redeem (this stay is partially the reason I am now Diamond and have a bunch of HH points).
Recently I've come to the realization that I can't keep sitting on all of these miles/points. That's why I thought about the potential scenario of building up HH as much as possible and then redeeming at Hilton for the majority of my personal hotel stays next year. The only problem with this is it would most likely leave me with no HH status for 2013 (unless I manage to have so many award stays I get silver/gold).
Everytime I look at my account balances I picture all of the great 'free' trips I can now take, but whenever these trips seem to come up, I end up paying out of pocket either to maintain status or because I find a deal (either $ or bonus points). The example this year was my Maldives trip where I ended up paying for for BA flights because they were pretty cheap, I needed the EQM, and the RDM earned is good on long flights and also the hotel because it was fairly inexpensive (for the Maldives) and they had the great points promo! That's why I'm trying to force myself to start spending these points/miles before they get devalued. The Mrs. is in the same boat.