Even after diligently studying these boards for a year or so I somehow never realized until recently that you could transfer AA miles into Hilton Honors at a double rate. That gave me the incentive I needed to start collecting AA miles (especially via SPG). Seeing that I've overlooked this nice little advantage (sorry about that) of AA miles I was just wondering if I'm overlooking any other such opportunities. Are there currently any other FF programs that allow you to transfer miles, at a worthwhile rate, into any of the hotel programs? (I'm pretty sure I'm familiar with AMEX MR opportunities but don't see anything close to the value of just transferring them to airlines there.)
Thanks much for any heads up!

Several airlines provide transfers to Hilton HHonors. Simplest summary is the one on Hilton's site...

http://hhonors1.hilton.com/en_US/hh/...esforpoints.do

Be aware than some of these programs track the source of the miles and will not allow miles created by transferring from another program to be laundered. You cannot, for example, redeem Membership Rewards for Mexicana or Hawaiian miles and then redeem those for HHonors points.

Likewise, Amtrak Guest Reward only permits outbound transfers (to any other program) for AGR Elite members -or- for members who hold the AGR credit card -and- have used that card to spend at least $200 with Amtrak during the year. In other words, you must be an active Amtrak customer.

While not an airline program, you can transfer 600 Hertz #1 Awards points into 1000 Marriot or Priority Club. Whether its worthwhile or not depends on you, but I have used it to top off accounts before since I dont really rent cars while on vacation.

Also, fyi if you havent already, check the Hilton forum, HH is about to change reward redemption levels so this may change your view on how lucrative your SPG -> AA -> HH transfers are.

drnp

Thanks for the link. Pretty much sums up my question for Hilton. Is that point-tracking policy for Mexicana..etc. a hard and fast Hilton transfer law or is it something that can be got around if, for example, those transferred MR points have sat in one of those FF accounts for quite awhile. Or are they somehow stamped as such for all time? Can they do that? I can see the tracking of relative immediate turn-around-type transfers but waiting a while?

If you are specifically looking for HHonors points then I would use the Hilton AMEX card. You earn 3pts/$ on everything, and 6 on gas,groceries and Hiltons.

Best case for SPG --> AA --> Hilton is 20K --> 25K --> 50K for 20K spend or 2.5pt/$

Also note there is a $30 processing fee for the AA -> HH transfer.

AA->HH used to be 150k AA max per calendar year, 100k max per transaction, so it'll cost you $60 to transfer 150k AA miles to 300k HH points. 25k minimum for AA non-Elites, no minimum for AA Elites.

Also, you used to be able to transfer AA miles to any HH account (no matching), so if you have any other AA account with spare mileage, you can combine them into one HH account.

AA also let's you transfer AA to PC.

HA does HH, yet believe only for flight mileage (no transfer to HA, then HH).

"Double rate" doesn't take into account the value of the points. You can get a lot of Chilean pesos for a Euro, but that doesn't mean much. You have to look at exchange rates to know if a given offer is a good deal.

HHonors points are worth, to a very rough approximation, about a third of an AA mile. (SPG points are worth, again roughly, one AA mile each. Look at how many Hilton points it takes to get a hotel award stay, versus how many SPG points it would take to get a comparable award stay. A free weekend night at a low-end Starwood property costs 2,000 Starpoints. You won't find anything in HHonors for less than several times that figure.) So, getting twice as many HH points as you had AA miles to start with isn't a deal after all.

There's no such thing as a universal value of a point. When countries revalue inflated currencies by dropping zeroes, it changes conversion rates to other currencies and may have a psychological impact, but fundamentally it doesn't change a thing. It's the same here. A tall person is tall whether measured in inches or cm, but the numbers are different. Saying that a 72" man is 183 cm tall doesn't make him 2.5 times his previous height. Turning 10,000 AA miles into 20,000 HHonors points doesn't double their value, either.

ETA another data point: When Hilton runs a sweepstakes offering HHonors points as prizes, it values them at 1� each for tax purposes. When AA runs one, it values AA miles, IIRC, at 2.5� each - that may be a bit off, but it's over 2�. That's not exactly the 3:1 ratio I generally use, but it's close enough to support the idea of losing value in the conversion despite ending up with twice as many HHonors points as you had AA miles to begin with. (If you give me USD100 and I give you 200 Mexican pesos, you do not come out ahead.)