We used to have the CO-Amtrak-UA 1:1 transfer.
Are there others out there between:
1. airlines to hotels
2. hotels to airlines
3. airlines to airlines
4. hotels to hotels

If a caveat exist like must be elite, please list the rules.
Thanks

1. Amtrak no longer transfers to United. Transfers from Amtrak to other programs are limited to 25,000 points per calendar year, 50,000 for elite.

2. http://webflyer.com/programs/mileage_converter/

What about greater than 1:1? AA -> HHonors at a 1:2 rate, but that's hardly news to most folks...

...and SPG will transfer 1->1.25 if you transfer 20,000 at a crack.

I don't consider that one truly 1:2, but I do consider it one of the few transfers that can reasonably be considered at one to slightly greater than one if the HH points are used well. (Assuming a large enough conversion that the $25 fee becomes trivial.)

Another one that is sort of like a 1 to greater-than-one transfer is the Marriott Travel Package award. If you accept the Marriott 7-night hotel award as a fair value, you are effectively swapping 120k MR for 120k airline miles, which most folks would consider a 25-50% gain in value.

SPG to air miles is a losing proposition unless it's a small amount done to liberate orphaned miles. Even post-devaluation, SPG points are worth more as hotel stays. Unless your "liberation" is to hit a big airline award, you probably won't get the 1.25 miles per point. The only one of these I've ever done is 5k SPG-Amtrak-YX to redeem a one-way award. I figure I roughly got 3 cents per mile/point out of that, which is so-so for a Starpoint but great for the other 10,000 air miles that were liberated.

(All of my numbers assume that an airline mile that I receive today is worth about 1.5 cents in today's dollars.)

NM. Answered my own question.

Another point on the AA to Hilton transfer: names don't need to match. This can be very useful.

If a friend or family member has an orphaned 20K AA points, they can move them into your Hilton account (for a $25 fee) and you then have 40K points for a stay at a very nice property.

Why would any one make a small transfer?We're getting into the "value" argument again. It's lots different if you're paying your own way vs. the company picking up the check.

I pay all my own travel, so I have a very good idea what my miles and points cost me. In real hard dollars, not some nebulous notion of "worth".

I consider the Marriott TPs as an excellent way of getting miles at the rate of 18-20 per dollar, based on my Marriott status/spend.I'm not going to take the "long view" here. I just applied for the SPG AMEX for the specific purpose of buying Traveller's Checks and other things, because the 1 -> 1.25 will come in very handy when combined with their 10,000 point bonus. When the annual fee comes due I'll probably toss it, unless I can find other uses for it.

An '82 Chevy Chevette or a '56 LaFrance fire truck are not ideal vehicles to own, maintain, or drive around, but when the water's rising or you have to get to the emergency room, they'll work fine.

To liberate orphaned miles. Generally, that's the only reason I'd burn Starpoints for air miles. Starpoints are too valuable, and air miles are ordinarily easy to pick up elsewhere in large quantities.

I hear you...I tend to stay conversative in my valuation and always keep in mind the hard dollars. That doesn't mean I won't occasionally blow miles on an int'l F ticket (just did it last week in fact ), but probably 80% of my hotel/flight redemptions are done with the real value in mind. Coach awards, mainline hotels, etc. What would I have paid for the flight in a world without miles? What could I have gotten a midscale hotel room for in this town on this night - not necessarily at this particular Starwood/Marriott/etc.?

Agreed. TP's rock. ^ Best award going in the hotel arena as far as I'm concerned. I'm closing in on 540k MR points - I hope to be teeing up two of these awards in the next year or so. If I eventually reach Lifetime AA Plat, it will probably be about 25-30% due to Marriott Travel Packages.

Hmm, I understood that after the devaluation, starpoints-> airmiles were more valuable. I need to do some calculating.

Meanwhile, I'm seeing Hhonors->UA is 10,000:1,000?! Anyone know a better conversion?

SPG to airlines miles is relatively more valuable than in 2006 because the transfer ratio remains 20000:25000, while many hotel redemption rates increased. Whether converting to airline miles is absolutely more valuable for you still depends on your hotel and airline redemption patterns.

HHonors has (basically) two airline redemption ratios, 10000:1500 and 10000:1000. You can achieve greater value by transferring to one of the 1500 mile carriers, but by and large you would want to use HHonors points for hotel stays.

Amtrak also transfers 5000:10000 to HHonors, and because CO transfers 5000:5000 to Amtrak it is possible to do a two step conversion with no fees...

CO:AGR:HH 5,000:5,000:10,000

However, the second transfer is very slow, and limited to 25,000 points per calendar year (50,000 for Amtrak elite).

Over time programs that function merely as conduits for transfers between other programs find ways to eliminate or restrict such transactions, because it doesn't generate any business for the sponsor.

20,000 SPG will get you 50,000 HH through AA. I think it will cost $25 to make the final transfer. Although I would prefer to have the SPG points, if you needed the HH points this is a way to get them.

Good point. I might put this to good use for a future stay in Tokyo.

Westin Tokyo (SPG Cat 5) = 12,000 SPG points per night during off-peak (16,000 if peak!!!)
Conrad Tokyo (HH Cat 6) = 40,000 HH points per night

Conrad Tokyo is, by general consensus in the Japan forum, a superior hotel to Westin Tokyo.

Need 5 nights, so I could convert 60,000 SPG points to 75,000 AA miles, which I could then convert to 150,000 HH points at a cost of $25 per transfer. Hilton offers to HH Amex card holders the AXON award (125,000 for 4 nights at Cat 5 or 6 properties). The fifth night will require an additional 40,000 points for a total of 165,000. Net additional cost to stay at the better hotel (Conrad) is 15,000 HH points plus $25 for the 5 nights. I think it's worth it.

A quick search thru SPG and HH websites reveals that a similar arbitrage opportunity exists in Hong Kong where Conrad HK is IMHO vastly superior to Sheraton HK & Towers.

I'm really, really new to this frequent flyer idea; and I'm sure the more experienced, such as bb888, are aware of the 'converter' for transferring miles/points between various plans that is at webflyer.com. I was amazed the huge number of ways that points/miles could be transferred from one plan to another plan...and you can really mess up if you don't know how to do it...didn't mean to be off topic, but the op was looking for 1:1 plans and this site is super for figuring out what to do with miles/points (IMHO). Sorry for the post...didn't see post #2 with webaddress info. I said I was new at this