Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards was restructured last year from a program where 16 credits was a free ticket to a system where 6,000 points = $100 for the “Wanna Get Away” lowest fare types. Choice Privileges and Wyndham Rewards have a competitive edge fitting their hotel market segments as the fastest earning hotel programs for Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards points at low levels of spend.

Marriott Rewards and Hyatt Gold Passport take the lead when elite and credit card bonus points are added to hotel stays.

Hilton HHonors and Priority Club ended their partnerships with Southwest Airlines in 2011. Starwood Preferred Guest eliminated the option to transfer Starpoints into Southwest Rapid Rewards in 2011. Club Carlson does not partner with Southwest Airlines.

Hotel Points to Southwest Airlines Conversion Tables

The tables are formatted to be read in columns. Each column shows the points earned for a set amount of hotel spend, elite status bonus points and credit card bonus points for hotel stay payment and converts hotel points into Southwest Airlines points.

These tables are formatted to compare the conversion rates of different hotel programs for points to miles. The amounts shown in the tables do not necessarily correspond to the amount of hotel points required to be transferred in any specific program. For example: Wyndham Rewards requires points transfers for most airlines in blocks of 8,000 or 17,500 or 30,000 points.

The standard earning rate across most hotel loyalty programs is 600 points for a hotel stay. This is a great deal for the midscale programs like Best Western, Choice and Wyndham. The 600 points per stay are not as good a rate when staying at full service hotels like Marriott, Starwood or Hyatt.

Choice Privileges looks like a great program for pulling in Southwest credits. Southwest is one airline where Hyatt Gold Passport rises significantly in ranking compared to the other major hotel loyalty programs.

Related Loyalty Traveler posts:

• American Airlines Points-to-Miles Exchange Rates for 9 Hotel Programs. (Feb 5, 2012)
• American Airlines Points-to-Miles Exchange Rates for Elites and Credit Card members. (Feb 6, 2012)
• Delta Skymiles hotel points-to-miles rates in 9 hotel programs. (Feb 7, 2012)
• United Mileage Plus hotel points-to-miles rates favor Marriott, Club Carlson, Wyndham. (Feb 8, 2012)
• Hotel Loyalty Program Airline Partners: 10 programs compared on one spreadsheet. (Feb 9, 2012)
• Why Change hotel points into airline miles? (Feb 9, 2012)
• Hotel points conversion into Southwest Rapid Rewards points favors Marriott, Choice and Hyatt. (Feb 10, 2012)

The Connie Awards, named for Hilton Hotels’ founder Conrad Hilton, recognize the leading hotel in each brand of the Hilton Worldwide chain. These awards are more of internal corporate recognition, although I think a Connie Award winner is something to keep in mind when you are visiting these winning locations.

Here are recent winners I was able to locate in press releases. I couldn’t find a basic press release from Hilton listing winners from each brand.

Some Connie Award Winners from the past year:

Embassy Suites Omaha, Nebraska – La Vista / Hotel & Conference Center received the #1 ranking for the third consecutive year (HHonors category 4 – 30,000 points).

Hampton Inn, Okeechobee, Florida (HHonors category 3 – 25,000 points).

Hilton Garden Inn Salt Lake City/Downtown, Utah (HHonors category 4 – 30,000 points). HGI press release Feb7, 2012.

Hilton Phoenix/Chandler, Arizona (HHonors category 4 – 30,000 points).

Asia-Pacific

Hilton Lake Taupo, New Zealand (HHonors category 5 – 35,000 points).

Nice to know that the top hotels are not necessarily HHonors category 7 hotels.

Now I know that there is something to look forward to if my travels take me to Omaha.

Omaha, somewhere in middle America
Get right to the heart of matters
It’s the heart that matters more.

Counting Crows – Omaha (1993)