JDiver

According to our Community Director (who does use Hilton - we ran into each other at the Hilton Bucharest!) the opportunity to transfer AA miles to HH is coming to an end. You can read the thread on the Hilton HHonors Forum, or merely understand from the excerpts below:

ScreenGuy

Can someone help me determine if the AA to HH transfer is a good deal? Per the HH Forum FAQ HIlton points are worth about 0.6 to 0.7 cpp while the general consensus here is that AA miles are worth between 1.0 and 2.0 cpm. I have many AA miles and I've historically had trouble spending them as I usually end up right around the mark to requalify for platinum each year. I am relatively new to HH but have managed to accumulate a decent amount of points with them so far. I qualified on base points for diamond this year but am unlikely to qualify next year.

I am tempted to do the transfer and just stay at hiltons on points next year instead of paid stays while enjoying the diamond status I earned this year. I'm not sure if I am just tempted to do the transfer from my (and my partners) AA account just because the program might be ending or if this is actually a good deal in my situation.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

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.)

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.

Ord Liza

Another way to look at this is to compare means of replenishing the miles/points through your normal credit card charges. Here is my analysis; please tell me if I have miscalculated. I was considering transferring 60,000 AA miles in exchange for 100,000 HH points. Instead, I have decided to switch some of my normal credit card spend to my HH amex; this only works if you are not in a rush for the points. Charging just $16,667 on groceries, gas, cellphones and cable gives me 100,000 HH points (6 points to the dollar). If I charged that on my Citi Visa that is currently signed up for a 1.5 mile/$ promotion (assuming I could charge that much on those items before the promotion expires), that would only give me 25,000 AA miles. (Charged to my Starwood AmX, even assuming the 1.2 transfer rate, it would only give me 20,000 miles.) [I could also charge the same $16,667 to the Premier AmX Gold for 3x points and get 50,000 membership reward points; I am new to MR's and have to look into what that equates to.] So, in addition to your mileage vs hotel point use needs and your flight patterns and hotel stay patterns, your credit card usage can (should?) be considered. Also, of course, available credit card bonuses can tip the balance - see the threads on the current HH Amex and Citi cards, for example.

ScreenGuy

Thanks for the responses. I've added some more detail below.

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).

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.

zowiebowie

This is really disappointing. I signed up for both of the 75k Citi AA cards with the plan of transferring 150k AA miles to 250k HHonors points to use for my honeymoon in Bora Bora next year. I completed the spending requirements on both cards this month, now just waiting for the statements to close so that I can get the miles. One of the statements will close on 8/14 and the other on 8/20.

What are the chances that I get the miles in time to transfer before they shut this down?

JDiver

It's already shut down except for the "back door" mentioned above - and we have no idea when they might shut that.

As for others' questions about calculations, it depends on which "currency" you use and value most: with Hilton, one could spend 145,000 points (AXON7N award, saving 55,000 points,) for a four day spend at, say, Hilton Arc de Triomphe King Guest Room Plus at Bastille Day, when it could have cost something like 1,800 EUR; with the new AA scheme, one would have to pay 340,000 AA miles (a travesty!) if one didn't have the HH points or 1,800 EUR ($2,563 at today's rates). OTOH, 100-125,000 AA miles... well, one just has to do the calculations and decide - and quickly.

Except... someone on the HH Forum checked the Hilton ADT and it is NOT available with AAdvantage miles!

(I play both programs, and the stay was nice, as they upgraded us nicely - Lady JDiver's birthday is the day before Bastille Day.)

toomanybooks

My suggestion is to find someone who wants an AA redemption and who has HH points (or others) he/she can redeem for you for one of your trips.

You will lose substantial value doing a transfer to your own account. I have over a million HH points and I value them less than the .6-.7 cents you quote.

60 AA > 100 HH is a serious haircut; I'd say about 60% loss.

JDiver

The http://redeemaamiles.points.com seems to still work as of SanDiego1K's post in the obsolete thread (~6:00 PM / 1800 hrs Friday 26 Aug 2011). (Must sign in first, then mouse over the options to reveal AA -> HH.)

nrr

If I try to book Hilton Zurich Airport hotel (on aa.com) as a paid (not using miles) transaction, it displays the price and allows me to proceed with the booking (at a very high price IMHO).
If I want to use miles, the Hilton ZA hotel is NOT one of the hotels listed.
A year ago I was able to do a direct transfer of aa miles to Hilton, and then redeem the miles on www.Hilton.com.
From some of the posts in this thread, the aa-->hilton is about to end; and my understanding is that you should be able to book the hotel (using miles) directly on aa.com, which is not the case from my note in paragraph 2.
[My only "interest" in Hilton is that via aa I'm Gold in their system, which does have some nice perks.]

brp

This understanding is not correct, and a main reason for the problem. It seems that not all points-bookable hotels (via HHonors) are points-bookable via aa.com. Therein lies the rub.

Cheers.

writetorich

what if my brother with a diffrent last name wants to give me his AA miles to my Hhonors accocount?
Will they credit to the account number listed , providing the pin is listed?


Or will they actually match the names?

What is the current policy.

Thanks.

For instance , if I know Amex allows diffrent names and will put the points to the designated account number.

sdsearch

It's now 2012, with a new calendar limit on transfers, and it's still working. I just tranferred 90k AA to 150k HH on Fri, it showed up (as deducted) in my AA account yesterday (Sat), and showed up in my HH account today (Sun).

JDiver

Great news! Thanks for posting the "back door" still is open.