Amex Canada has reached out to its membership with an interesting promotion. They’re offering a 50% bonus for transferring Membership Rewards to Hilton Honors points. The bonus will be applicable on all MR transfers to Hilton Honors, done between July 15, 2019 and August 31, 2019. Both, Amex Gold and Cobalt card members have reported getting this offer in email. For American Express Cobalt card members in particular this can be an excellent opportunity to redeem aspirational Hilton properties.

Membership Rewards: 50% bonus

The regular redemption rate for Membership Rewards to Hilton Honors is 1:1. But this promotion bumps that up to 1:1.5 points. Members can transfer in increments of 100 points with a minimum transfer requirement of 1,000 points for each transfer. So transferring 10K MR would yield 15K Hilton points. 50K would yield 75K Hilton points. And so on and so forth.

For Membership Rewards (Canada), Marriott and Hilton are the only two hotel transfer partners. Since Marriott transfer rate from MR is 1:1.2, the current Hilton promotion makes for an interesting comparison:

• Hilton Cat-8 property requires 95K points per night, or ~63,334 MR points through this promotion. Marriott Cat-8 properties on the other hand, require 85K points (Standard rate), or ~70,834 MR points.
• Hilton Cat-4 averages 30K points per night, or 20,000 MR points through this promotion. Marriott mid-tier Cat-4 properties on the other hand, require 25K points (Standard rate), or ~20,834 MR points.
• Hilton Cat-1 requires 10K points per night, or ~6,667 MR points through this promotion. Marriott Cat-1 properties on the other hand, require 7500 points (Standard rate), or ~6,250 MR points.

Personal affinity to a brand aside, as things stand in Canadian Membership Rewards world, the current promotion does tip the scale in Hilton’s favor. With a redemption in mind, this promotion is a great way to use MR points towards a hotel redemption. Even if an account does not have a big MR balance, the accelerated earning categories of the American Express Cobalt card should make a redemption quite possible through this promotion. A cobalt fan-boy that I am, here is a quick recap on the card;

Current earning rates:

• • 5x on Grocery and Dining (including restaurants, bars, cafe and food delivery)
  • 2x on Travel and Transit (including flights, hotels, taxis, gas, ride sharing, and transit passes)
  • 1x on all other purchases.

Full review of Amex Cobalt Card

UPCOMING CHANGES TO AMEX COBALT EARNING RATES:

Starting August 20, 2019;

• • 5x on Eats and Drinks (including restaurants, bars, cafe, grocery stores and food delivery) up to $30,000 annually*, 1x thereafter
  • 2x on Travel and Transit (including flights, hotels, taxis, gas, ride sharing, and transit passes)
  • 1x on all other purchases.

* For current card members, the limit starts at zero on August 20th and will reset again on card anniversary date. 

Terms and Conditions of the Membership Rewards to Hilton Honors bonus promotion:

Membership Rewards point transfers must be made in increments of 100 points with a minimum transfer requirement of 1,000 points for each transfer. At the regular redemption rate, 1,000 Membership Rewards points = 1,000 Hilton Honors points. From 12:00:01 am ET on July 15, 2019 until 11:59:59 pm ET on August 31, 2019, when you transfer Membership Rewards points to Hilton you will receive 50% more Hilton Honors points on the total number of Membership Rewards points transferred. For example, if you transfer 1,000 Membership Rewards points to Hilton, you will be credited a total of 1,500 Hilton Honors points.

You must be enrolled in Hilton Honors in order to participate in this offer, visit HiltonHonors.com/join to enroll. American Express is not responsible for availability, accommodations or any other rewards in the Hilton Honors program. Once you have transferred Membership Rewards points, they become subject to the Terms and Conditions of the Hilton Honors program and cannot be transferred back to your Membership Rewards program account. All Hampton by Hilton hotels in the Republic of China are excluded from the Hilton Honors program.

See Hilton Honors Terms and Conditions for details. This offer is non-transferable and may not be combined with other offers. American Express in its sole discretion reserves the right to alter and or terminate these offers at any time. Hilton Honors Bonus Points do not count towards elite tier qualification. Hilton Honors membership, earning and redemption of Points are subject to Terms & Conditions.

Title Image Source: Conrad Hotels