I feel compelled to issue a reality check based on the overwhelming pitch by bloggers for Starwood Preferred Guest being the primary program to consider when transferring hotel points for the US Airways points-to-miles 50% bonus from March 11-31, 2012.

Several travel blogs over the past 24 hours have discussed the US Airways hotel points transfer bonus promotion and most of the commentary suggests no other hotel program is worth considering besides SPG to get the best miles value from your hotel points. Read More…

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)

Personally I find hotel points more valuable than airline miles earned in points-to-miles transfers. I rarely exchange hotel points into miles.

Situations where I would consider exchanging hotel points into frequent flyer miles include:

1. To earn a hotel or airline loyalty program promotion bonus requiring partner activity.

I have picked up thousands of airline miles in frequent flyer promotions with a partner activity credit using Starwood Preferred Guest transfer of 100 or fewer Starpoints into airline miles. SPG Platinum members have no minimum transfer level for points-to-miles exchanges. SPG Gold = 1,500 Starpoints minimum transfer. SPG basic member = 2,500 Starpoints minimum transfer.

2. To secure the miles needed for an immediate airline reward redemption.

2003 was the only time I transferred 20,000 Starpoints into 25,000 miles. I was buying two First Class awards on British Airways from Denver to Melbourne, Australia with stopovers each way in London for 150,000 miles per ticket. I needed quick British Airways miles to beat the deadline for the price increase in BA Executive Club when the First Class US-Australia roundtrip award ticket increased to 420,000 miles.

There are many ways to get miles and I see trading hotel points for airline miles as a no net gain transfer for a leisure traveler staying in hotels. You save on airfare using hotel points for airline award tickets, but you don’t have points for free hotel rooms.

3. No plans to stay at the hotel chain frequently enough to earn points required for room reward nights.

The hotel points-to-miles tables show Wyndham Rewards and Club Carlson are two programs where you can earn points and transfer to miles at low levels. Club Carlson has a minimum transfer level of 2,000 points = 250 airline miles. Club Carlson members earn 20 points per dollar in hotel spend. Stay at a Country Inn & Suites on a stay costing more than $100 and you will earn more than 2,000 points. You can also just choose to earn miles for a hotel stay instead of points. Club Carlson gives 250 miles for Country Inn stays and 500 miles for a Radisson Hotel stay.

4. More hotel points than you need for hotel reward stays.

Some people have millions of hotel points.

Starwood Preferred Guest published statistics in December 2011 showing one SPG member earned nearly 20 million points in 2011 and another member redeemed nearly 12 million points (link to SPG pdfshowing stats).

I wonder how many of those redeemed Starpoints went for airline miles?

And hopefully not United Mileage Plus miles.

My question for readers: Have you exchanged hotel points for frequent flier miles? Was it better value than saving points for hotel stays?

British Airways Concorde outside London Heathrow First Class Lounge July 2003. The last commercial flights by BA Concorde were October 2003.

Loyalty Traveler – Airline Tables for Hotel Points-to-Miles Exchange Rates

• 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)

United Mileage Plus is the third airline covered in my series of posts comparing the points-to-miles exchange rates for 9 hotel loyalty programs. My research here shows Marriott Rewards, Club Carlson and Wyndham Rewards are the best hotel loyalty programs for earning United Mileage Plus miles.

The tables here compare the hotel points earned at different levels of hotel spend using base points earned for hotel stays, top-tier elite status bonus points and co-branded credit card spend at hotels.

Update Feb 10, 2012 11:30am Pacific – the original posts for United Airlines and Delta Airlines incorrectly showed Hilton HHonors miles in Table 3 for credit card earning.  The data has been corrected.

Prior posts this week covered American Airlines and Delta Airlines. Many of the issues I considered in the format of these tables are discussed in these earlier posts. This post looks at the big picture of changing hotel points to airline miles.

Table 1: Hotel Points-to-Miles Exchange rates for United Mileage Plus.

This table compares the basic points-to-miles exchange rate for each hotel loyalty program. Columns of hotel spend (in $1000s) and the base points earned for a member with no elite status or hotel credit card are included for each program. The second row for each hotel program shows the miles earned when those hotel points are converted into airline miles.

Hilton HHonors is an anomaly program due to the options for earning both HHonors points and airline frequent flyer miles for the same hotel stay. No other programs allow this with the exception of limited time promotion offers allowing both points and miles to be earned for the same hotel stay.

Table #1 Comments:

Wyndham Rewards has the best points-to-miles conversion rate of any hotel loyalty program with $1 in hotel spend earning 10 points and every 10 points = 4 miles. No other program comes close to that points-to-miles exchange rate at a basic level. Marriott Rewards matches that rate when transferring 125,000 points into United Mileage Plus miles.

Wyndham Rewards is an incredible miles earning program. The competitive edge offered by programs like Club Carlson and Marriott Rewards is the faster earning rate for points as an elite member. Wyndham Rewards is the only major hotel program in this survey that does not offer elite status and therefore no elite bonus points.

Best Western Rewards and United Mileage Plus

United Mileage Plus frequent flyer program had a recent change with the merger of Continental OnePass. Best Western and Continental OnePass were partners and allowed points-to-miles transfer. Best Western Rewards does not allow points-to-miles transfer with United Mileage Plus.

The good news is Best Western Rewards offers 250 United Mileage Plus miles per hotel stay. The bad news is there is no Best Western points-to-miles exchange option with United Mileage Plus.

The Best Western standard points-to-miles rate of 10,000 points = 2,000 miles is not a great rate anyway for points-to-miles exchange. 250 miles per stay is likely the better deal if your hotel stay average spend is under $125.

SPG and United Airlines Mileage Plus

The other point to note for these tables is the SPG Airline Direct Deposit program is the way to go if you want to earn United Mileage Plus miles from Starwood Hotel stays. All your Starpoints are earned in the regular way for hotel stays, elite bonuses and promotions, then the points are automatically exchanged into United Mileage Plus miles at a 1 point = 1 mile rate. This is double the points-to-miles transfer rate of 2 Starpoints = 1 Mileage Plus mile.

The main thing to remember is the 25% bonus received with SPG 20,000 point transfers does not apply to Airline Direct Deposit. Still, 20,000 UA miles from 20,000 Starpoints with Direct Deposit is far better than 12,500 UA miles from 20,000 Starpoints through a points-to-miles transfer.

Table 2: Hotel Points-to-Miles United Mileage Plus Exchange rates

• top-tier elite member earning elite bonus points

This table looks at the effect top-tier elite status has on points earning rate.

Wyndham Rewards drops in rank and Starwood Preferred Guest rises as the elite bonus points really stack up with high levels of hotel spend.

Table #2 Elite Status Comments

Brian Kelly, The Points Guy, posted an article last week on the recent SPG elite program changes and made the statement Hyatt Gold Passport has a poor points-to-miles exchange rate.

My comment on the post was Hyatt Gold Passport has the same points-to-miles exchange rate as SPG.

SPG $10,000 in Starwood Hotels spend earns 20,000 Starpoints = 25,000 miles in most airline programs, but only 12,500 miles in Mileage Plus.

Hyatt Gold Passport $10,000 in Hyatt Hotels spend earns 50,000 points = 25,000 miles in most airlines, including Mileage Plus.

The number of airline partners is comparable between SPG and Hyatt.

The real difference between these programs is not the exchange rate for points-to-miles transfers. The competitive edge SPG has over Hyatt Gold Passport is the difference in the earn rate with elite bonus points and credit card points for members in those subgroups of SPG membership.

SPG members with either Gold or Platinum elite get 50% elite bonus points on hotel spend. Hyatt GP Platinum members get 15% elite points and Diamond members get 30% elite points.

SPG American Express card members get 2 points per $1 for Starwood Hotel spend and 1 point/$1 for other spend. That is a 100% bonus on the SPG base earn rate for hotel stays. Hyatt Gold Passport Visa members get 3 points/$1 and that is only a 60% bonus on the base earn rate for hotel stays.

And, of course, a major factor for big spenders is the 1 Starpoint per $1 for everyday spend on the AmEx card. That is 50% of the base rate Starpoints are earned for hotel stays. That is a huge credit card spend bonus!

Hyatt Gold Passport Visa earns 1 point per dollar in everyday spend. This is only 20% the rate of earning base points for hotel stays.

Bottom line is a Hyatt member with no status and no credit card who wants airline miles, and more specifically United Mileage Plus miles, will earn miles just as fast or faster with Hyatt Gold Passport hotel stays. Once you throw elite status and credit card spend into the mix, then SPG becomes the faster earning Mileage Plus miles program.

Table 3: United Mileage Plus Points-to-Miles Exchange Rates with

• Hotel co-branded credit card bonus points,
• Hotel Loyalty top-tier elite bonus points,
• Hotel Points-to-Miles United Mileage Plus Exchange rates.

Marriott Rewards blows away the other hotel programs for earning United Mileage Plus miles from hotel stays as a top-tier Platinum frequent guest using the Marriott Rewards Visa for hotel stays. Mileage Plus miles are earned at least 25% faster than other programs.

The real issue for Marriott Rewards Platinum frequent guests is determining whether their stay pattern earning preference should be miles or points with promotions like MegaBonus and MegaMiles.

The main thing I see in Table #3 is credit card bonuses earn as many or more bonus points than even top tier elite status with most hotel chains.

Club Carlson is the only major hotel program without a credit card. I’ll be in the Bahamas next week for the annual Carlson Hotels Global Conference. I am curious to hear if more details on a Club Carlson credit card deal will be revealed.

Related 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)

Air Canada Aeroplan has a miles bonus offer for converting hotel points into Aeroplan miles. Earn 20% bonus miles, up to 5,000 bonus miles per hotel program when you convert points into miles from August 22 to September 18, 2011. You can earn up to 5,000 bonus miles from each of 12 hotel partners.

Air Canada Aeroplan Bonus Miles Offer

• Convert hotel points into 5,000 or more Aeroplan miles and receive 1,000 bonus miles.
• Convert hotel points into 10,000 or more Aeroplan miles and receive 2,000 bonus miles.
• Convert hotel points into 25,000 or more Aeroplan miles and receive 5,000 bonus miles.
• Maximum 5,000 bonus miles may be earned with conversions from each hotel program.

Aeroplan Promotion Registration link.

Earn bonuses when you convert with each of the hotel loyalty programs below.

To take advantage of this incredible offer…

First, register your Aeroplan Number above.

Next, visit the hotel loyalty programs online below to check your point balance and convert hotel loyalty program points into Aeroplan Miles.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts – Starwood Preferred Guest®

Best Western International® – Best Western Rewards®

Marriott® International – Marriott Rewards®

Hilton Worldwide® – Hilton HHonors®

InterContinental® Hotels Group – Priority Club® Rewards

Accor Hotels and Resorts – A|Club

Carlson Hotels Worldwide – Club Carlson

Choice Hotels International® – Choice Privileges®

Coast Hotels & Resorts – Coast Rewards

Hyatt Hotels & Resorts® – Hyatt Gold Passport™

Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts – Golden Circle

Wyndham Worldwide – Wyndham Rewards®

Loyalty Traveler Analysis

There are 12 hotel loyalty programs partnering with Aeroplan for points-to-miles conversions. I have made a list of conversion rates for each hotel program. Most programs have a fixed points-to-miles conversion rate. For these programs I show the conversion rate for 5,000 miles. Wyndham Rewards is slightly different since Wyndham points must be converted at set levels and there is no conversion for 5,000 miles. I have shown the conversions necessary to earn each bonus for Wyndham.

Some programs have a variable miles conversion rate where a better exchange rate is offered when higher amounts of hotel points are converted. Club Carlson and Marriott Rewards offer better exchange rates at higher points transfers.

Hyatt Gold Passport (50,000 points = 25,000 miles) and Starwood Preferred Guest (20,000 points = 25,000 miles) give 25% more bonus miles when converting hotel points at the 20,000 miles threshold.

Hotel Points to Aeroplan Miles Conversion Rates (Bonus Miles included)

• Accor 20,000 points = 12,000 miles.
• Best Western 25,000 points = 6,000 miles.
• Carlson 40,000 points = 6,000 miles.
• Carlson 66,000 points = 15,000 miles.
• Carlson 66,000 points = 15,000 miles.
• Carlson 150,000 points = 31,000 miles.
• Choice 25,000 points = 6,000 miles.
• Coast Hotels 5,000 points = 6,000 miles.
• Hilton 50,000 points = 6,000 miles.
• Hyatt 12,500 points = 6,000 miles.
• Hyatt 50,000 points = 30,000 miles.
• IHG 50,000 points = 12,000 miles.
• Marriott 30,000 points = 12,000 miles.
• Marriott 70,000 points = 30,000 miles.
• Shangri-La 5,000 points = 6,000 miles.
• Starwood 5,000 points = 6,000 miles.
• Starwood 10,000 points = 12,000 miles.
• Starwood 20,000 points = 30,000 miles.
• Wyndham 16,000 points = 7,400 miles.
• Wyndham 25,500 points = 12,200 miles.
• Wyndham 30,000 points = 14,000 miles.
• Wyndham 65,000 points = 31,000 miles.

Best value in my opinion is conversion of Wyndham, Marriott and Club Carlson points based on the rate of earning points in these programs. Hyatt and Starwood are also good conversion rates. Hilton and Coast Rewards are very poor conversion rates.

Up to 5,000 bonus miles when you convert Hotel Points to Aeroplan Miles August 22-September 18, 2011.

Choice Privileges points can be converted into United Mileage Plus miles with a 100% bonus through June 6, 2011. During this promotion bonus period 2,500 Choice points = 1,000 UA miles. The normal conversion rate is 5,000 points = 1,000 miles for Choice Privileges airline partners.

Combine this offer with the current Choice Privileges for 8,000 points after two stays and you have the opportunity to earn 3,200 UA miles for two low-cost one-night hotel stays. The normal definition of a hotel stay does not apply for this offer and you will need two consecutive nights for an eligible stay when booking at Choice Hotel budget brands Econolodge and Rodeway Inn or extended stay brands Suburban and MainStay Suites.

Loyalty Traveler Analysis

Fresno, my favorite new drinking town and hotel one-night stand city, has two Choice hotels with rates averaging around $75 per night this weekend.

I can earn 8,000 Choice Privileges points for about $150 before tax. Whether they post in time for June 6 transfers to United Airlines is another question, but assuming they post quickly I can convert 8,000 Choice Points to 3,200 United Airlines Mileage plus miles. 3,200 miles and 2 hotel nights for $150 (+tax) is a pretty good travel deal.

In theory, squeeze out 8 hotel stays in the next week and the points post quickly, this 8,000 points bonus can be earned four times for a general Choice Privileges member for a potential 12,800 United Mileage Plus miles.

This deal is not good enough to buy hotel nights just for the miles, but the offer is a good rebate on hotel nights you might need over the next week or two. And it only takes two nights as two separate stays to earn 8,000 Choice points for 3,200 United miles. Transfers of Choice points to UA miles through June 6 qualify for 100% bonus miles.

Marriott Rewards adds JetBlue as its 31st airline partner. Now you can earn TrueBlue loyalty points on Marriott brand hotel stays or exchange Marriott Rewards points to TrueBlue points, but this partnership is of little value based on the earn and burn rates established between the programs.

Marriott Rewards points have far more value for hotels or other airline miles to waste hotel spend earning JetBlue TrueBlue points or burning Marriott Rewards points in exchange for TrueBlue points.

Marriott Earn Rate for JetBlue TrueBlue Points

Earn 1 TrueBlue points per US$1 in hotel spend at Marriott brands of JW Marriott, Renaissance, Marriott Hotels & Resorts, Marriott Vacation Club, Autograph Collection and for room rate only at Edition and Ritz-Carlton hotels.

Earn 1 TrueBlue point per US$2 for room rate only at Courtyard, Residence Inn, SpringHill Suites, Fairfield Inn and TownePlace Suites.

Exchange Marriott Rewards points for JetBlue TrueBlue points at these sliding scale rates:

• 10,000 Marriott Rewards points = 1,000 TrueBlue points
• 20,000 Marriott Rewards points = 2,500 TrueBlue points
• 30,000 Marriott Rewards points = 5,000 TrueBlue points
• 70,000 Marriott Rewards points = 12,500 TrueBlue points
• 125,000 Marriott Rewards points = 25,000 TrueBlue points

Loyalty Traveler Analysis

Yesterday I started to analyze the value proposition of JetBlue TrueBlue points and shelved the project for a day. Today is my lucky day when I saw The Wandering Aramean blogpost “Jet Blue’s TrueBlue program: now 15-25% more True”. Seth posted a table of JetBlue routes with airfare and calculated the value of TrueBlue points.

My sense of good redemption value for Marriott Rewards points generally hovers around $10 per 1,000 points. For example, 20,000 points for a category-4 $200 per night hotel or 40,000 points for a $400 per night luxury Ritz-Carlton Tier 2 hotel is good redemption value. I can confidently say that JetBlue TrueBlue earn/burn rates for Marriott Rewards is a poor value proposition, unless you are really desperate for some TrueBlue points.

Value of a Marriott Rewards point vs. JetBlue TrueBlue point

I think the value of a Marriott point is almost as high as the value of a TrueBlue point. Seth’s data shows TrueBlue points worth about $15 per 1,000 points for many routes. This ratio means the actual redemption value of a TrueBlue point is only about 50% more than a Marriott Rewards point so 1,500 Marriott rewards points = 1,000 JetBlue points in a fair value exchange by my Loyalty Traveler estimate.

Yet, the official exchange rates established between Marriott Rewards and JetBlue TrueBlue show a Marriott Courtyard hotel stay is trading 20 Marriott points for 1 TrueBlue point. The best points-to-miles exchange rate gives 1 TrueBlue point for 5 Marriott Rewards points. These are poor exchange values for Marriott Rewards points.

By the Numbers

An example of a JetBlue airfare from Seth’s chart shows a one-way flight from FLL (Fort Lauderdale) to San Francisco is $156 or 11,100 TrueBlue points.

Earning 11,100 TrueBlue points through Marriott brand hotel stays takes $11,100 in hotel spend and up to $22,200 in hotels spend depending on hotel brands.

JetBlue Earn Rate

JetBlue’s earn rate for flights is based on the airfare. TrueBlue members earn 6 points for every $1 in ticket price for JetBlue.com website purchases. It’s possible to earn over 20,000 TrueBlue points for $1,800 in cross-country tickets.

Spend $180 per JetBlue one-way flights and take 5 roundtrips a year = $1,800 spend x 6 TrueBlue points = 10,800 TrueBlue points for flights based on the $1,800 in JetBlue tickets. 

TrueBlue members receive 3,500 bonus points after reaching thresholds of flight activity at 3,000 points for a 500 points bonus; 6,000 points for a 1,000 points bonus; and 9,000 points for a 2,000 points bonus.

10 JetBlue longhaul one way flights over 1,600 miles in a calendar year earn 10,000 bonus points. 

$1,800 in JetBlue air travel earns 24,300 TrueBluepoints.

Marriott Rewards Earn Rate

$11,000 in hotel spend will earn at least 55,000 Marriott Rewards points if all spend is at Residence Inn or TownePlace Suites, but more likely in the 110,000 range with most Marriott brands earning 10 points per $1. In real travel, elite points and bonus points offers will likely push total points earned after $11,000 in spend to 125,000 points to 250,000 points range.  

Assume Marriott Rewards member earns 125,000 Marriott Rewards points after $11,000 in spend. These Marriott Rewards points can now be exchanged for 25,000 TrueBlue points. Seth’s chart shows an Orlando to San Francisco ticket is $330 or 24,000 TrueBlue points.

Ultimately a $330 JetBlue rebate on $11,000 in Marriott hotel spend is only a 3% return on your hotel loyalty points. Loyalty Travelers should be looking for at least 20% return on paid stays. The ability to get a $330 ticket for 24,000 TrueBlue points earned from flying JetBlue is a decent 18.3% return on $1,800 in JetBlue spend.

Want Miles? Don’t Waste Marriott Rewards for JetBlue

Trading 125,000 Marriott Rewards points for a $330 JetBlue one-way ticket is one option of redeeming points after five-digit Marriott Hotels travel spend. Another option is to exchange 125,000 Marriott Rewards points for 50,000 airline miles with any of these airlines and find a better flight deal for your miles. Think of where 50,000 miles will take you on Aeromexico, Aeroplan (Air Canada), Alaska, British Airways, Continental, Delta Air Lines, Frontier Airlines, Gol/Varig, Hawaiian Airlines, Mexicana, United Airlines, US Airways, Virgin Atlantic.

Hotel Rewards Hold the Real Value in Marriott Rewards points

125,000 points is good for 3 nights in a Tier 2 Ritz-Carlton Hotel like Ritz-Carlton Cancun or Ritz-Carlton New Orleans at 40,000 points per night. Find a Tier 2 Ritz-Carlton Pointsavers award and the nightly cost drops to 30,000 Marriott Rewards points per night with the option for a 5^th night free reward. Five nights in the Tier 2 Ritz-Carlton New Orleans for 120,000 points is the kind of exchange you are passing when you decide to trade Marriott Rewards points for JetBlue points.

JetBlue is the 31^st airline partner for Marriott Rewards. It might be the lowest value airline partner for Marriott Rewards members.

Aeroplan has a bonus miles offer for hotel points-to-miles transfers from March 14 through April 30, 2011. Aeroplan promotion registration is required for this offer.

There are 10 hotel programs participating in this offer. A maximum of 5,000 bonus miles from Aeroplan can be earned per hotel program with transfers during the promotion period.

Best Western International® – Best Western Rewards® 

Carlson(SM) Hotels Worldwide – Goldpoints PlusSM 

Choice Hotels® – Choice Privileges® 

Coast Hotels & Resorts – Coast Rewards 

Hilton Worldwide® – Hilton HHonors™ 

Hyatt Hotels & Resorts® – Hyatt Gold Passport™ 

InterContinental® Hotels Group – Priority Club® Rewards 

Marriott® International – Marriott Rewards® 

Starwood Hotels & Resorts – Starwood Preferred Guest® 

Wyndham® Worldwide – Wyndham Rewards® 

I created a table of hotel points to airline miles exchange rates correlated to the base spend earn rate for each program. This table shows the amount of hotel spend needed to earn the points for the 5,000 miles, 10,000 miles and 25,000 miles required for each Aeroplan bonus level.

The base spend levels illustrate the variability of points-to-miles exchange rates across hotel loyalty programs. In three posts I have read on this promotion from The Points Guy, One Mile at a Time, and View from the Wing, each focused only on Starwood Preferred Guest point transfers.

This table shows that Wyndham Rewards actually has the best points-to-miles transfer rate for this promotion when correlated to the amount of base spend needed to earn the points. (I’ll have to look into the Hainan Airlines upgrade option Gary mentioned in View from the Wing as a good value use of Wyndham Rewards points.) In fairness though, SPG elite status will reduce the base spend level by 33% and make the SPG elite earn rate about the same as Wyndham. Wyndham does not have elite levels or elite bonus points. Top elite members of Marriott Rewards and Carlson goldpoints have the best points-to-miles exchange rates overall when correlated to hotel spend base points.

The table also shows Hyatt has the same points-to-miles exchange rate as Starwood when correlated to base spend.

The real value of SPG as a points-to-miles program is primarily for American Express cardmembers. The ability to earn 25,000 miles (20,000 SPG points) for $20,000 in card spend makes the SPG card the best of credit card options if miles are your preference.

If your SPG points are earned primarily by Starwood hotel stays, then other programs have better exchange rates for points-to-miles transfers as illustrated in this Loyalty Traveler table comparing the exchange rates of different hotel programs into Aeroplan miles.

In past articles I have pointed out that Marriott Rewards, Carlson goldpoints plus and Wyndham Rewards are the top tier points-to-miles transfer programs with the best exchange rates.

Hyatt Gold Passport and Starwood Preferred Guest are second tier.

Best Western Rewards, Choice Privileges and IHG Priority Club are third tier.

Hilton HHonors has a poor points-to-miles exchange rate for most frequent flyer programs.

And forget about the primarily Canadian hotel chain Coast Rewards. It only takes 1,750 points for a free hotel night with Coast Rewards and using points for miles is a real waste.

Wyndham Rewards launches a new promotion today running February 3 through April 30, 2011.

• Earn 2x points or miles on 2^nd stay.
• Earn 3x points or miles on 3^rd stay.
• Earn 4x points or miles on 4^th stay.

Promotion registration is required.

Hotel stays must be completed by May 7^th to qualify for this promotion.

There are no additional bonus points or miles for more than 4 stays during the promotion period. You do not earn 4x points for every stay after the 4th stay.

Earn 1,000 additional bonus points for hotel stays paid with Wyndham Visa card on 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th stays. Maximum credit card additional bonus is 3,000 points.

Wyndham Rewards hotel brands include over 6,500 hotels in Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, Wyndham Grand Collection, Wyndham Garden, Wingate, Hawthorn Suites, Ramada, Days Inn, Super 8, Baymont Inn & Suites, Microtel Inns & Suites, Howard Johnson, Travelodge and Knights Inn.

Loyalty Traveler Analysis

This promotion only offers a bonus on the 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th stays during the promotion period. Unlike recent promotions from other hotel loyalty programs, this offer does not apply 4x points to all previous stays.

Basically the best strategy is maximize the dollar spend on the 4^th hotel stay. An expensive vacation or business stay or an extended stay could make this a high value points bonus.

My analysis below shows the best choice for members wanting to maximize miles is choosing bonus points. Wyndham Rewards points will likely result in more miles through points-to-miles exchange rather than choosing bonus miles for this promotion. Wyndham Rewards has the highest static exchange rate for points-to-miles of any hotel loyalty program. Static exchange rate means the rate is the same (2.5 Wyndham Rewards points = 1 mile) regardless of the number of points converted to miles.

High-end Wyndham Rewards hotels run 25,000 points to 45,000 points per night.

Assume $200 per stay for four stays.

• Stay 1 = 2,000 points ($200 x 10 points/$1)
• Stay 2 = 4,000 points ($200 x 20 points/$1)
• Stay 3 = 6,000 points ($200 x 30 points/$1)
• Stay 4 = 8,000 points ($200 x 40 points/$1)

$800 hotel spend over 4 hotel stays earns 20,000 points. You will have sufficient points for a Tier 4 award (16,000 points) or a low tier Wyndham Hotel (15,000), but you will have insufficient points for a high end Wyndham Hotel or Resort in locations like downtown  Chicago (25,000 to 45,000), New York (25,000 to 45,000) or Sugar Bay Resort, St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands (45,000).

Earning Miles

Wyndham Rewards earns miles with 20 different airlines and Amtrak. Wyndham Rewards has one of the highest point-to-miles exchange rates among hotel loyalty programs. Programs like Marriott and goldpoints plus have higher exchange rates in their dynamic points-to-miles system, but that requires large numbers of points (100,000+) to get a better exchange rate than Wyndham Rewards.

Most airlines earn at the rate of 2 miles per $1 or 500 miles per stay at Wyndham Hotels and Hawthorn Suites. You will need to analyze earn rates to determine if more miles are earned choosing 2x, 3x and 4x miles or choosing points and making a points-to-miles exchange with a static exchange rate of 8,000 points = 3,200 miles or 2.5 points = 1 mile with most frequent flyer programs.

Here is a sample earning table:

Assume $200 per stay for four stays and United Mileage Plus.

• Stay 1 (Microtel) = 2,000 points or 400 miles (base earning rate).
•      ($200 x 2 miles/$1) Points are better = 800 miles.
• Stay 2 (Hawthorn Suites) = 2,000 points ($200 x 10 points/$1) or 1,000 miles (double miles 2 x 500)
•      (Miles are better choice since Hawthorn Suites has low 5 points/$1 earn rate. 2000 points = 800 miles).
• Stay 3 (Super 8 ) = 6,000 points or 1,200 miles (triple miles)
•      ($200 x 30 points/$1 or 6 miles/$1 = 1,200 miles) 6,000 points are better = 2,400 miles.
• Stay 4 (Wyndham) = 8,000 points or  2,000 miles (4x miles).
•      ($200 x 40 points/$1 or 500 miles per stay x 4). 8,000 points are better = 3,200 miles.

Bottom line: This promotion favors earning points rather than miles as long as you accrue 8,000 total points for a minimum points-to-miles exchange. The only time miles are the better choice is for Hawthorn Suites stays where points is based on 5 points/$1 earn rate. The earn rate for Hawthorn Suites quietly changed from 10 points/$1 to only 5 points/$1 in December 2010. This change does not even appear to have been mentioned by anyone on FlyerTalk to date.

Wyndham Rewards up to 4x points or miles Feb 3-April 30, 2011

Loyalty traveler received an email today from Points.com. A senior account executive from New York shot over some data points to color up my stories.

Is this a good place to insert that I am color-blind? I see colors, but apparently just not in the same way most people see them.

Sometimes I feel the majority of travelers are data-blind. The same data is out there for others to see, but many people do not see the same picture I see in the data.

Points.com Transaction Options

How It Works

Points.com allows members to register about 80 loyalty program accounts through their database to enable a one-stop location for all your loyalty program balances.

Airlines are more common as participants with Points.com compared to hotels with more than 40 airline partners.

Accor A-Club, IHG Priority Club and Starwood Preferred Guest are the only major participants from the hotel sector and only Priority Club participates in exchanges and trades. Other hotel loyalty programs can only be linked for account balance activity viewable on Points.com.

Points.com Hotel Loyalty Program Participants

• Accor Hotels A-Club
• AmericInn Easy Rewards
• Coast Hotels: Coast Rewards
• InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG)  Priority Club Rewards
• Jumeirah Hotels – Sirius Programme
• La Quinta Returns
• Starwood Hotels –  Starwood Preferred Guest
• Trident Hotels – Trident Privilege

 Only IHG Priority Club allows trades and exchanges to other loyalty programs.  

Loyalty Traveler Analysis of Points.com and Priority Club Exchange Rates

Case Study 1-20-11

I have 96,000 Priority Club points in my account.

Points-to-Miles Exchange Rate through PriorityClub.com is 10,000 Priority Club points = 2,000 miles (34 frequent flyer programs)

Priority Club has 39 airline partners for points-to-miles exchange. Southwest and a few other airlines use point systems with a different exchange rate than the 34 airlines where 10,000 points = 2,000 miles.

My 96,000 points = 19,200 miles for a Priority Club airline partner like American, Delta and United when exchanging points for miles. Note: technically 96,000 points can only be traded as 90,000 points = 18,000 miles since exchanges must be made in 10,000 point blocks through Priority Club. I use 19,200 miles to give a direct miles exchange rate comparison to Points.com which allows an exchange of 96,000 points. 

Points.com Exchange Rate for 96,000 Priority Club points 

• 7,590    Delta Skymiles
• 7,990    Alaska miles
• 8,434    American Airlines miles
• 8,434    Continental miles
• 8,930    Frontier miles  (I exchanged 2,372 Frontier miles into 1,008 Priority Club points, March 2010)
• 9,547    Air Canada Aeroplan miles
• 10,880  Icelandair points
• 15,181   Hawaiian miles
• 16,320  Cathay Pacific AsiaMiles 

Only Frontier, Hawaiian Airlines and Icelandair are not Priority Club partners. All other airlines shown here have a higher exchange rate of 90,000 points = 18,000 miles when making points-to-miles transfers at Priority Club. 

Priority Club website’s exchange rate:

• 34 airline partners: 1,000 Priority Club points = 200 miles  

Points.com website’s exchange rates:

• Frontier Airlines: 1,000 Priority Club points = 93 miles
• Hawaiian: 1,000 Priority Club points = 158 miles
• Icelandair: 1,000 Priority Club points = 113 miles 

There is potentially some value in being able to exchange Priority Club points into Frontier, Hawaiian or Icelandair miles for accessing miles to reach an airline ticket award level for these airlines who are not direct airline partners with Priority Club.

15,000 miles is actually sufficient mileage for a roundtrip economy class or First Class one way interisland Hawaiian Airlines award ticket or roundtrip First Class upgrades. 

In general, the vast number of airline partners with Priority Club Rewards allows a better exchange rate when making points-to-miles exchanges through Priority Club rather than Points.com.

The Value of Points.com

I have never been a fan of the exchange rates of Points.com. I was actually surprised to see I visited the site in March 2010. I had forgotten that I traded 2,372 Frontier miles into 1,008 Priority Club points. Normally that would not be a decent value, but the exchange was boosted by a 3,000 Priority Club points bonus for a partner transaction fulfilling a Priority Club promotion.

Net effect was a free exchange of 2,372 Frontier miles, in an account that I figured had little chance of growing to a Frontier Airlines award ticket, into 4,008 Priority Club points.

That was a decent trade in my opinion. I redeemed a PointBreaks award in 2010 at 5,000 points per night to save over $120 on a Holiday Inn hotel night. My 2,372 Frontier miles were turned into an $96 tangible savings on a Priority Club reward night.   

Points.com is a fine program for tracking account balances in one place, but the value of exchanges is limited. Most transactions can be accomplished directly through the airline or hotel program’s own site for the same cost or less or a better exchange rate. Priority Club as the sole hotel program participating in exchanges severely limits the use of Points.com for acquiring hotel points. 

Here are three data points passed on to me today from Points.com:

• Transactions are up: Loyalty users’ activity was up in 2010 with Buy and Gift transactions increasing by 36 percent from 2009 as customers bought or gave points and miles to fill up accounts—a whopping 7 billion miles were purchased through Points.com alone. And transaction size was also up 36 percent year over year* showing that customers have larger sums of points and miles at their disposal.
•  Getting creative with loyalty: Loyalty members are seeing the light and starting to make the most of their rewards. Transfer transactions occurring between family members are up 85 percent year over year, and the number of miles/points being transferred between accounts has increased 70 percent compared to 2009. According to the data, 42 percent of transfer transactions are made to enable family members to take a trip together, and another 27 percent are made as a gift to the recipient~.
•  Perceived value skews high: No surprise here—loyalty users lack a realistic grasp of what their loyalty rewards are actually worth. Only 18 percent of loyalty members surveyed were able to correctly identify the value of awards for their airline programs and a mere 11 percent for hotel/travel rewards. Points.com is working to help members of multiple loyalty programs navigate the complicated land of multiple loyalty programs.

Loyalty Traveler Analysis

Transactions are Up – Buy and gift transactions may be up due to the large number of bonus offers for airline miles purchases in 2010. I have noticed several loyalty programs in the travel industry appear to outsource miles and points purchase and gift transactions through Points.com.

And in general all travel related expenditures were up for 2010 compared to 2009. In fact, the United Nations World Tourism Organization recently reported world tourism is predicted to grow by 4% to 5% in 2011, but not at the high 6.7% rate increase seen in 2010. Most regions of the world should expect lower visitor arrivals in 2011. Two years of global tourism growth is a welcome sign after a 4% decline in 2009.

Family member transfer transactions: 42% of transfer transactions are made so family members can travel together!

 – these are the exchanges that are not a good sign to me. There is nothing wrong with exchanging miles from one account to another, however, the airlines accrue big profits from a commodity that was already paid for by the account originator.

I just do not like the idea of airline and hotel loyalty programs taking a significant monetary kickback to move miles from one account to another; particularly for family members. A currency designed to be a rebate for a loyal traveler that has no value until redeemed is being resold by the airline company and the electronic miles still have no value until redeemed.

Delta Skymiles require a $30 transaction fee and $10 per 1,000 miles transferred.

This is how I perceive the statement, “42% of transfer transactions are made so family members can travel together!”

Assume my wife wants to accompany me to a 4-day conference in Washington, D.C.

I have miles in my account, but I do not want to spend my 25,000 miles for her economy class domestic ticket when I have just 5,000 miles over the amount needed for an international Business Class ticket to Europe from my account.

My wife is 5,000 miles short in her account for the 25,000 mile domestic award economy ticket.

I must pay Delta $80 to transfer 5,000 miles from my account to my wife’s account so she can reach that threshold for a $300 ticket to accompany me on a business trip to Washington, D.C.

Sure this is a viable win-win situation in that my 5,000 miles + $80 saves her $300 on an airline ticket.

But is it reasonable for the airline to win such a large profit by charging me $80 for an electronic transaction of mile pushing my earned miles to my wife so she can accompany me on a Delta flight?  

Perceived value skews high:

A quick look at the Points.com trade board reveals a skewed point-of-view on the value of points and miles.  Nearly every trade I saw posted was a poor value deal in my opinion, unless you specifically had a redemption reward in mind with a proven value in excess of the cost to trade for airline miles on Points.com.

• Points.com showed me I could trade 10,000 Priority Club points for 1,000 Delta Miles at a cost of $50.
• I can trade 10,000 Priority Club points for 2,000 Delta miles on Priority Club’s website for free.

***

• Points.com shows me I can trade 50,000 Priority Club points for 29,000 Delta miles and a $250 fee.
• This is an example where 29,000 miles could be a high-value trade if I had a high-priced award ticket I could reach for 29,000 miles. It would cost over $800 to buy 29,000 miles from Delta. The $250 fee + 50,000 Priority Club points might be a good value if I could immediately turn these into a ticket worth several thousand dollars. Essentially this would be equivalent to trading 50,000 Priority Club points for more than $500 in cash savings to buy points for an award ticket.

There are good facets to Points.com. You just need to be selective in how you exchange or trade your points.