United has just launched a promotion, offering a bonus when you convert hotel points into United MileagePlus miles. This is an offer we tend to see from the program once per year.
Transfer hotel points to United MileagePlus with 25% bonus
For the month of October, United MileagePlus is offering a 25% bonus when you convert hotel points into airline miles. The bonus applies for transfers made between October 1 and October 31, 2025, and you receive a flat 25% bonus, with limited restrictions (noted below).
You can earn up to 25,000 bonus MileagePlus miles through this promotion. Registration is required prior to making a transfer, and you can earn bonus miles for any combination of MileagePlus hotel partner transfers, so it’s not just that a single transfer qualifies. Bonus miles through this promotion should post by January 31, 2026.
Eligible hotel partners include:
- Accor Live Limitless
- Choice Privileges
- IHG One Rewards
- Marriott Bonvoy
- Radisson Rewards
- Shangri-La Circle
- World of Hyatt
- Wyndham Rewards
Should you transfer hotel points to United?
Let me start by saying that generally speaking, converting any of the above points currencies into airline miles isn’t a good deal, with the exception of Marriott Bonvoy. So let’s crunch some numbers.
Marriott points ordinarily convert into airline miles at a 3:1 ratio. Thanks to a a special partnership between Marriott and United, you receive 10,000 bonus miles for every 60,000 points transferred, meaning that transferring 120,000 Bonvoy points ordinarily earns you 60,000 MileagePlus miles.
With this offer, you’d receive a 25% bonus, though that bonus is only on the base amount, and not on the 10,000 bonus miles per 60,000 points transferred. That means transferring 120,000 Bonvoy points would earn you 70,000 MileagePlus miles.
So you’re potentially looking at earning 0.58 United miles per Marriott point, which is… not great, but also not terrible. I still wouldn’t proactively transfer points, though.
United miles are fairly easy to earn thanks to United’s partnership with Chase Ultimate Rewards, which allows you to earn United miles with lots of credit cards. Furthermore, there are other ways to efficiently redeem on Star Alliance, including through Air Canada Aeroplan and Avianca Lifemiles. Meanwhile it’s a lot harder to efficiently earn Marriott points.
Bottom line
United MileagePlus is offering a 25% bonus when you convert hotel points into miles, and you can earn a maximum of 25,000 MileagePlus bonus miles with this promotion.
The catch is that there are few circumstances where it’s efficient to convert hotel points into United miles. The only potentially good deal is Marriott Bonvoy, given the preferred partnership between the two brands. However, even that doesn’t provide outsized value, in my opinion.
Does anyone plan on taking advantage of United MileagePlus’ 25% bonus on hotel points transfers?
source
