When should you transfer hotel loyalty points to frequent flyer miles?

All of the major hotel points currencies allow you to transfer your points into airline miles.  You will often find the airlines encouraging it – British Airways used to offer regular 25% to 35% bonuses when you moved hotel points into Avios, although we haven’t seen this offer for a while now.

Today, I want to consider if it ever makes sense to transfer hotel points to airline miles.

The starting point for the discussion is that in general, hotel points are best redeemed for hotel stays.

How many Avios would you get for the points cost of a £300 hotel night?

Let’s look at the hotel points you would need for a redemption valued at roughly £300 per night, and how many Avios you would receive if you converted the hotel points instead.

Based on a £300 room you would get roughly the following number of Avios instead:

• Hilton Honors – 80,000-90,000 points = 8,000-9,000 Avios

• IHG One Rewards – 70,000-80,000 points = 14,000-16,000 Avios

• Accor Live Limitless – 17,000 points (for a €340 voucher) = 17,000 Avios in Iberia Plus or 8,500 Avios in British Airways Club

• Marriott Bonvoy – 60,000 points = 25,000 Avios (rate is 3:1 but you get a 5,000 Avios bonus for converting 60,000 points)

• Radisson Rewards – 150,000 points = 15,000 Avios

• World of Hyatt – 25,000-30,000 points = 10,000-12,000 Avios (note that Avios transfers are not currently available – it isn’t clear if this is permanent or not)

With the exception of Marriott Bonvoy, where converting to miles is not a bad deal (you get 25,000 Avios for the points usually required for a £300 hotel room), you are generally better leaving large stashes of hotel points where they are.

Assuming you value Avios at 1p each, you are lucky to get 50% of the value of the equivalent hotel room and often a lot worse.

Marriott Bonvoy is the only scheme where I could justify moving my points into airline miles.

Your personal travel plans also make a difference here

You generally get the best value from hotel points in expensive cities like London or New York.  If your travels take you more to Lyon or Newcastle then your hotel points may be worth less to you.

Why? Because most semi-revenue based schemes (Hilton, IHG, Marriott) still have some sort of top-end cap in place. Hilton Honors, for example, rarely goes above 150,000 points per night. This means you still get outsize value on peak dates in peak cities.

If you find yourself just a few Avios short of an award, transferring from a hotel programme may be a better deal than buying Avios from British Airways.

If you only have a small amount of hotel points, it is a different game. Apart from Hilton Honors, Radisson Rewards and Accor Live Limitless, where small balances can be used for a cash discount, a tiny number of points in a hotel programme can be of little use.

You may prefer to tidy up small hotel balances by converting to Avios.  If you will never earn enough hotel points for a free room, you might as well convert.

Expiry dates may prompt you to convert

Expiry dates can also be an issue and can prompt a transfer out to an airline. We have dedicated articles looking at the expiry rules of the major hotel schemes:

• Accor Live Limitless expiry rules
• Hilton Honors expiry rules
• IHG One Rewards expiry rules
• Marriott Bonvoy expiry rules
• Radisson Rewards expiry rules
• World of Hyatt expiry rules

Hotels points can be a way to build an airline balance away from Avios

The other thing to remember is that the hotel chains convert to many airlines, often over 20.  Marriott Bonvoy has 39 airline partners.  Perhaps you will get more value converting to another scheme?

Marriott Bonvoy is often the only UK partner for a lot of niche airline programmes such as Air Canada Aeroplan and American Airlines AAdvantage. The Marriott Bonvoy American Express is the only way to earn their miles via daily spend as a UK resident.

Marriott Bonvoy American Express

20,000 points for signing up and 15 elite night credits each year Read our full review

Here’s my final thought. You can transfer IHG One Rewards points to someone else for $5 per 1000, Hilton Honors points for free via the Points Pooling option and Marriott Bonvoy points for free via their online tool. Hyatt allows you to transfer points for free if both accounts have had a cash stay in the last year.

Perhaps a transfer to someone who can use a larger total to book a better hotel room for themselves is a better deal than a handful of Avios for yourself?

PS. If you are not a regular Head for Points visitor, why not sign up for our FREE weekly or daily newsletters? They are full of the latest Avios, airline, hotel and credit card points news and will help you travel better. To join our 65,000 free subscribers, click the button below or visit this page of the site to find out more. Thank you.

Hotel offers update – April 2025:

Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from the major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.

Want to buy hotel points?

• Hilton Honors is offering a 100% bonus when you buy points by 29th May 2025. The annual purchase limit is also increased to 240,000 points pre-bonus. Click here to buy.

• World of Hyatt is offering a 25% discount (equivalent to a 33% bonus) when you buy points by 14th April 2025. Click here to buy.