Airline Frequent Flier Programs Hotel points to Airline Miles Exchange

Hotel Points conversion into Southwest Rapid Rewards points favors Marriott, Choice and Hyatt

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  • February 10, 2012
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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.

a table with points and numbers

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.

a table with points and numbers

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.

a table with points and points

 

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9 Comments

  • Boraxo February 10, 2012

    Had not really considered transfer before, but this might make sense to save some orphaned RR 1.0 credits in my child’s account.

    Query: Can I transfer Marriott Rewards points from my account to my child’s Southwest RR account? Or do the names need to match?

  • Jeffrey C. February 10, 2012

    I’m hoping that Discover America will sell the Choice points again this year. That’s a great option for acquiring and then transferring into WN.

  • Ric Garrido February 11, 2012

    @Boraxo – The terms state Marriott member must be member of Southwest Rewards.

    I am not aware of any hotel loyalty program that allows transfers of points to another member’s frequent flyer account.

    If anyone knows differently, please comment.

    @Jeffrey C. – I’ll be looking for some Choice Privileges points this year through DiscoverAmerica sales. I finally plunged into Choice Privileges in 2011. That is a useful hotel program when traveling the rural western United States where Best Western, Choice and Wyndham points are valuable currencies.

  • Ron February 12, 2012

    Ric,

    Thanks for this great post and analysis. Curious, though, why you did not include an analysis where the hotel bill is paid with a Chase Southwest VISA card and how this may affect the results.

  • Ric Garrido February 12, 2012

    I seldom venture into looking at credit cards at all. This post is limited to hotel credit card earning.

  • Jeffrey February 12, 2012

    also transferred 270k Marriott pts into WN this year. Received 120k WN pts ($2000 in flight funds), 1 week in Hawaii and CP for the trade. That was a very good deal.

  • TK March 4, 2012

    Is there an actual conversion rate between Mariott to SW because I need in between 5,000 and 10,000 SW points but I noticed you can purchase Mariott points in increments of 1,000.

  • Ric Garrido March 5, 2012

    The minimum transfer level is 10,000 Marriott points for 2,000 Southwest points so you might as well exchange 30,000 points for 10,000 SW points.

  • Southwest Rapid Rewards Program Basics October 12, 2013

    […] points from many major loyalty programs can also be exchanged for Southwest Rapid Rewards points.  Loyalty Lobby has some great charts showing the conversion amounts.  Here are a few examples:  5,000 Hyatt points to 2,400 Rapid Rewards points;  5,000 Best Western […]

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