The Offer
- Receive a 35% bonus when you convert hotel points to British Airways Avios from one of the following qualifying partners:
- Carlson Hotels (10:1)
- Hilton Hotels (10:1)
- Hyatt Hotels & Resorts (2.5:1)
- Intercontinental Hotel Group (10:2)
- Marriott (10:2)
- Shangri-La (1:1)
- Starwood (1:1, with 5,000 bonus when converting 20,000 or more)
The Fine Print
- This promotion is only open to Eligible Participants. An Eligible Participant is a person aged 18 or over , is a British Airways Executive Club (“BAEC”) Member (membership terms and conditions apply) and is enrolled and registered with one of the participating hotel partner loyalty programmes.
- Participating hotel partners are Carlson Hotels, Hilton Hotels, Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, Intercontinental Hotel Group, Marriott ,Shangri-La and Starwood.
- Valid until July 5th, 2016
- Bonus Avios can take 4-6 weeks to show on your account from the date of conversion.
SPG
SPG is probably the best program to do this from. When you transfer 20,000 SPG points to British Airways Avios, you get 5,000 bonus Avios. So 20,000 SPG points = 25,000 Avios. According to this Flyertalk comment, this 35% bonus should apply to both the original 20,000 transferred and the 5,000 bonus Avios. This means that transferring 20,000 SPG points will net you 33,750 Avios for a transfer rate of 1:1.69.
If for whatever reason the 35% bonus doesn’t apply to the additional 5,000 bonus points then you’d receive 32,000 Avios for a 20,000 SPG transfer. For a transfer rate of 1:1.6.
Our Verdict
I think only SPG is worth considering, personally I like SPG points a lot more than airline miles but that’s because I have an excess of miles and not enough SPG (or Hyatt) points. For others, they might value Avios at more than SPG – if you see yourself doing such a transfer in the future then this is a great offer to hop on.
Old news.
Yeah, it’s like two days old. I didn’t originally post because I forgot about the SPG transfer option.
Boarding area value SPG points for 2.2 cpp, Avios 1.3 cpp. 20000 SPG would be $440, 32000 Avios would be 416. Looks lke a loss.
33750 will be $438.75. Almost the same value.
Yeah, not everybody has the same valuations which is why I posted.
I am waiting for the AA bonus they always do in the summer where 20k SPG goes to 30k AA
Ooh…nice tip. I have 20K right now. Might hold off.
20k SPG to 30k AA points is my favorite transfer too. In my travel world United and AA points still hold the primary place (due to overseas flights). I do keep a good stash of Avios as these are of great value for short flights on any continent and would jump on this deal if I was running low.
Not worth it IMO. Wait for MR transfer offer if not in hurry.
If not in hurry, is putting it lightly. Amex devalued the ratio last October and hasn’t had an offer since (that I remember), not even back to 1:1. I’m sitting on 70,000 MR points too that I used to always transfer to BA (when there were offers).
Not true- there was a 25% Bonus from MR to Avios around December time, after the base ratio had already dropped. With the bonus, the effective rate was back up to 1:1. It only applied to Iberia, but you can transfer between Iberia and BA freely (as long as both accounts have been opened for 90 days).
I’m hopeful we’ll continue to see Mr>Avios transfer bonuses going forward. Doesn’t mean the deal for SPG isn’t worth it- 1:1.7 is pretty good, even if you have to part with some SPG.