Hilton HHonors hooked up with Miles & More to offer two-night hotel stays in Europe at select hotels. Loyalty Traveler looked into the value of a miles-for-hotel-stay exchange.
There are several categories of hotels grouped within mileage redemption opportunities.
36,000 miles from Miles & More is sufficient for a weekend stay at these Hilton hotel properties:
· Hilton Innsbruck
· Hilton Vienna Danube
· Hilton Nuremberg
· Hilton Paris Orly
47,000 miles for a weekend at these properties:
· Barcelona
· Bonn
· Bremen
· Brussels City
· Budapest West End
· Dresden
· Istanbul (Park)
· London Docklands
· London Olympia
· Paris CDG Airport
· Rotterdam
· Valencia
67,000 miles for a weekend at these properties:
· Amsterdam Schiphol Airport
· Barcelona Diagonal Mar
· Berlin
· Brussels
· Budapest Castle Hill
· Evian
· Helsinki
· Istanbul
· Cologne (Köln)
· London (Kensington, Metropole, Hyde Park)
· Milan
· Munich
· Paris La Defense
· Prague
· Stockholm
· Vilamoura, Portugal
· Vienna
100,000 miles for a weekend at these properties:
· Amsterdam
· Athens
· Bucharest
· Florence
· Paris
· Prague (Old Town)
126,000 miles for a weekend at these properties:
· Rome Cavalieri, A Waldorf-Astoria Collection Hotel
· Paris Arc de Triomphe
· Venice Molino Stucky
There may be some reasonable value exchanges in the 47,000 to 67,000 mile categories, however, the exchange is generally a quite poor use of miles.
Value Example:
Hilton Molino Stucky Venice is an HHonors Category 6 hotel requiring 40,000 HHonors points per night. A VIP-elite 6-night award stay is 175,000 points through HHonors.
A two-night hotel weekend award stay for arrival on Friday or Saturday night through Miles & More awards requires 126,000 miles.
April 17-19, 2009 weekend rates for Friday and Saturday night
Rome Cavalieri 222.50EUR/night 60,000 HHonors points per night
Paris Arc de Triomphe 295EUR/night or 40,000 HHonors points per night
Hilton Molino Stucky Venice, Italy 295EUR/night or 40,000 HHonors points per night
A Hilton Hotel weekend award for 126,000 miles may be worth as little as $600 and perhaps as much as $1,200.
And it is not simply a poor rate of exchange between Miles & More with Hilton Hotels.
Other hotel brand redemption options are no better value:
InterContinental Hotel 2-night Weekend Stay = 89,000 miles
· Berlin
· Düsseldorf
· Frankfurt/Main
· Hamburg
· Cologne
Le Meridien (Starwood) Hotels 2-night Weekend Stay = 118,000 miles
· Algarve
· Barcelona
· Paris
· Vienna
Hyatt Hotels 2-night Weekend Stay = 139,000 miles
· Dubai
· Hong Kong
· London (2 hotels)
· Madrid
· Milan
· Moscow
· Paris
· Tokyo (2 hotels)
· Zurich
There is not much value in redeeming Miles & More miles for hotel awards with properties participating in the major hotel chain loyalty programs like Hilton, Starwood, or Hyatt.
I have advice for all of you Miles & More members and other frequent flyers who are willing to waste a large chunk of miles on low value redemptions.
Please visit the Coupon Connection at FlyerTalk and offer to trade your miles. There are plenty of honest travelers looking for ways to get airline tickets in the Star Alliance who will give you an exchange much closer to fair value.
Miles & More will take a person roundtrip from North America to Australia, Asia, or the Middle East in Business Class for only 120,000 miles. These are $4,000 to $10,000 flight awards.
Trade 120,000 Miles & More miles for 175,000 Hilton HHonors points and let someone supply you with a six night hotel vacation at the Venice Hilton or the Paris Hilton Arc de Triomphe.
Trade 120,000 Miles& More miles for 120,000 American AAdvantage miles. You don’t actually have to transfer miles to each other’s account. Simply redeem awards for each other from your own accounts.
120,000 AAdvantage miles can be exchanged through Hilton HHonors for 240,000 HHonors points. As long as the account holder is a Silver VIP, requiring only four stays in a year or HHonors credit card membership, a VIP hotel stay award at a Category 6 hotel is only 235,000 points for 8 nights.
Don’t redeem your miles with Miles & More for poor value awards. Take advantage of social networks and find someone seeking a fair travel exchange. Rather than a simple weekend hotel getaway, your 126,000 miles can be exchanged for six to eight (6 to 8) Hilton Hotel nights at a Category 6 property if you put a little effort into getting fair value for your miles.
Remember we are fellow travelers on this globe. Don’t waste the value of your travel miles by trading them back to the company for a low value item. Share your wealth with a new found friend who can give you a fair value trade of a different airline flight or hotel stay option.
In these economic times we need to retain whatever value we can in the assets we have.
