Hi all. I need 5,000 miles to get an award to fly this summer; fortunately, flights are available on the dates I want. I've considered buying the miles for United's $182 price - nice and clean - but another option might be to convert 25,000 of my many Amtrak miles, via Midwest (a program I'm not even a member of yet) and Hilton. And hey, that would be free.

I'm just worried about timing. How long would the Amtrak->Midwest->Hilton->UAL miles transfer take? If it'd take weeks, I'm just going to buy the miles.

Thanks.