The Complete Guide to Hilton Transfer Partners

A hotel stay at any one of Hilton’s roughly 6,400 properties worldwide — including everything from the lavish Waldorf Astoria resorts to the budget-friendly Hampton by Hilton — is certainly one of the best ways to redeem Hilton Honors points (or earn more).

But maybe you’re short just a few Hilton points necessary to nab an especially great point redemption or you need more points to take advantage of an especially long trip using one of Hilton’s best perks: fifth night free on award stays.

Whether you want to convert other currencies into Hilton Honors points or want to send your Hilton Honors points elsewhere (such as a frequent flyer program), here’s what you need to know about Hilton transfer partners, broken into three sections:

• Transferring other points into the Hilton Honors program.

• Transferring Hilton points to airlines.

• Transferring Hilton points to a spouse or someone else.

Let's get to it.

Points and frequent flyer miles from a few other travel loyalty programs can be converted into Hilton Honors points.

American Express Membership Rewards

The American Express Membership Rewards program is one of the most straightforward ways to earn points that can be sent to Hilton’s loyalty program. In fact, American Express is one of the best Hilton transfer partners.

If you have an AmEx card that earns Membership Rewards points, you can convert 1,000 AmEx points into 2,000 Hilton Honors points.

This means that several American Express credit cards — not just the Hilton-branded credit cards — can help you build up a Hilton Honors points balance. Other cards that could help include:

• Amex EveryDay® Credit Card.

• American Express® Green Card.

• American Express® Gold Card.

• The Platinum Card® from American Express.

Terms apply.

How to transfer AmEx points to Hilton Honors

To transfer points from AmEx Membership Rewards to Hilton, log in to your Membership Rewards account and go to the "Rewards" button on the menu.

From there, select "Transfer Points to a Loyalty Program" and you’ll be redirected to a page that lists all of the American Express transfer partners (there are many airlines plus two other hotel loyalty programs — Choice Privileges and Marriott Bonvoy).

After selecting Hilton, the next page is where you’ll link the Hilton and AmEx accounts. You’ll have to provide the account information for your American Express credit card, as well as your Hilton Honors account number (so you’ll need to make an account if you don’t have one already).

Typically, you’ll get 2 Hilton Honors points for every 1 Membership Rewards point, though occasional promotions can mean more value.

Point transfers must be made in 50 Membership Reward-point increments and you also have to transfer a minimum of 200 points, so this option won’t work if you’re trying to burn, say, 40 leftover points.

Another annoying headache: American Express warns that the estimated transfer time can be up to five business days. Though in our experience, it typically takes just one day. Still though, don’t expect an instant transfer.

» Learn more: The best hotel credit cards right now

Is it worth it to transfer AmEx points to Hilton?

It depends largely on what you intend to do with your AmEx points. For context, NerdWallet values Membership Rewards points at a worth a whopping 2 cents a piece while Hilton points are only worth 0.6 cent each.

Although the transfer ratio from AmEx to Hilton is 2:1, you’d be foregoing half of the value of your Membership Rewards points by sending your points to Hilton.

The reason AmEx points are worth so much more than Hilton points is because Membership Rewards points can be transferred to airlines, and then used for premium cabin bookings, which often result in an excellent redemption value. However, if you don’t plan to transfer your AmEx points to airlines and generally use your points to shop, buy gift cards, or to cover your charges, and want to stay at a Hilton property, then a transfer can make sense.

Let’s assume you have 100,000 Membership Rewards points. Because AmEx points are worth 2 cents each, those 100,000 points are equivalent to $2,000. However, when you use American Express Membership Rewards points to reserve prepaid hotels through American Express Travel, your points are worth a paltry 0.7 cents each, translating into $700 in value toward prepaid hotels when booking a cash rate through the American Express travel portal.

Now let’s assume you transfer them to the Hilton Honors program, which would convert to 200,000 Hilton Honors points. Since NerdWallet values a Hilton Honors point at 0.6 cent each, 200,000 Hilton Honors points are worth roughly $1,200.

What’s more, you can sometimes get an even better redemption value per point than our estimated 0.6 cent rate, especially when booking at higher-end properties. Pair that with Hilton’s fifth-night free benefit for rooms booked on points, and you could get an even better deal.

AmEx-Hilton transfer bonus: Get more value from your points

Occasionally, American Express offers transfer bonuses to its airline and hotel partners. Transfer bonuses to Hilton have ranged from 30%-50%, and the most recently offered bonus to Hilton was 30% in March 2022. If you plan to send your points to Hilton, look out for a transfer bonus to get even more out of your AmEx points.

» Learn more: Hilton Honors points: Sweet spots for redemptions

Diners Club International Rewards

If you’re a member of Diners Club, you can convert those points to Hilton points. Point transfer ratios vary based on what country you’re in; if you live in the U.S., you can receive 2,000 Hilton Honors points for every 1,250 Club Rewards points.

Transfers must be in increments of 1,250 Club Rewards points. And don’t expect these transfers to be instant: Hilton says you should allow up to three weeks for a transfer to go through.

To make the exchange, call 1-800-234-4034 or visit the Diners Club website.

Citi ThankYou points

If you thought you could transfer Hilton points to Citi, you weren’t wrong — it’s just not true anymore. As of Dec. 14, 2017, Hilton’s transfer partnership with Citi officially ended.

Frequent flyer programs and other travel partners

Three travel program partners allow you to convert their miles or points into Hilton Honors points.

• Hawaiian Airlines: 10,000 HawaiianMiles = 15,000 Hilton points.

• Virgin Atlantic: 10,000 Virgin points = 15,000 Hilton points.

• Amtrak: 5,000 Amtrak Guest Rewards points = 10,000 Hilton Points.

However, similar to AmEx, conversions from airline and Amtrak points tend to not be as good. Take for example, the Hawaii Airlines transfer. NerdWallet values a Hawaiian Airlines mile at 1 cent. So, 10,000 HawaiianMiles would be worth about $100. But considering 15,000 Hilton Honors points are worth $90, the value is slashed considerably when you go that route.

In general, skip transferring points from the above frequent traveler programs to Hilton. Of course, there are always exceptions. Maybe you used to live in California and have a trove of Hawaiian Airlines miles from annual winter getaways to Hawaii. But now, you live on the East Coast, so your winter getaways are to the Caribbean. If you don’t anticipate using those Hawaiian miles anytime soon, you might as well use those points to cover the lodging portion of a vacation.

If you decide to transfer from other frequent traveler programs to Hilton Honors, log in to the program’s website or call customer service to link your accounts and convert the miles or points into Hilton Honors currency.

» Learn more: Your guide to booking award nights with Hilton Honors

On the flip side, you may want to transfer your Hilton Honors points to another currency, such as frequent flyer miles.

Can you transfer Hilton points to United Airlines? What about American?

Transferring Hilton Honors points to other travel loyalty programs generally won’t get you the best overall value, but if you can’t use the Hilton points anyway, then you might as well convert them to frequent flyer miles that you can use.

Hilton airline partners

Hilton Honors points convert to dozens of frequent flyer programs. As of writing, here are some of the largest brands for conducting a Hilton points airline transfer.

• Aeromexico: 25,000 Hilton points = 6,500 Premier points.

• AirFrance-KLM: 10,000 Hilton points = 1,000 Flying Blue miles.

• ANA - All Nippon Airways: 10,000 Hilton points = 1,000 Mileage Club miles.

• Asiana Airlines: 10,000 Hilton points = 1,000 Asiana miles.

• British Airways: 10,000 Hilton points = 1,000 Avios.

• Cathay Pacific: 10,000 Hilton points = 1,000 Asia miles.

• Delta Air Lines: 10,000 Hilton points = 1,000 SkyMiles.

• Etihad Airways: 10,000 Hilton points = 1,000 Etihad Guest miles.

• Malaysia Airlines: 10,000 Hilton points = 1,200 Enrich points.

• Qatar Airlines: 10,000 Hilton points = 1,000 Privilege Club Qmiles.

• Qantas Airways: 10,000 Hilton points = 1,500 Qantas Frequent Flyer points.

• United Airlines: 10,000 Hilton points = 1,000 MileagePlus miles.

• Virgin Atlantic Airways: 10,000 Hilton points = 1,500 Flying Club miles.

• Virgin Australia: 10,000 Hilton points = 1,500 Velocity points.

In recent years, Hilton removed several transfer partners, including American Airlines, Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines.

» Learn more: Which Hilton credit card should you get?

How to transfer Hilton points to airline miles

When logged into your Hilton account, head to the "Exchange" section to send Hilton points to partner programs. You’ll have to select the travel partner you want to send your points to, and you’ll have to add your membership information for that program to connect the accounts.

The value of Hilton points varies depending on which loyalty program you transfer them into.

Is it worth transferring my Hilton points to airline miles?

We’ll be candid: Transferring your Hilton points to airline partners generally is a bad redemption. Take the example of transferring Hilton points to Delta. 10,000 Hilton points gets you 1,000 Delta SkyMiles, which we value at $9. But since we value 10,000 Hilton points at $40, you’re losing a huge chunk of value.

If you seriously need to top off a frequent flyer account balance to book an otherwise great redemption, or you really don’t anticipate using Hilton points anytime soon, then transfer them. But if you can use Hilton points at Hilton, then do it.

Can you transfer Hilton points to another person? Yes — you can use points pooling or transfers to send Hilton points to your friends, family or spouse.

How to transfer Hilton points to friends and family

When you transfer Hilton Honors points, you send some of your stash to someone else with a Hilton Honors account.

Go to the Hilton Honors transfers page, select how many points you want to give away, then input the account information of the lucky person receiving them.

You can make no more than six transfers to other member accounts per calendar year.

How to pool Hilton points to friends and family

If you’re fine giving friends and family even greater access to your points, consider creating a points pool.

You can create a pool of up to 10 people to more easily share points. However, Hilton caps the number of Hilton points you can receive per year (via pooling and transfers combined) at two million points.

Like transfers, you’re limited to making six points pooling transactions per calendar year.

Is it worth transferring my Hilton points to someone else?

It’s free to transfer points to your friends and family. Take notes of the caps of how many transfers can be made per year. As long as you’re fine passing on your points to someone else, then there’s no other expense on your end. Making someone’s day at no other cost — worth it.

Generally, Hilton point transfers are not a great idea. Converting AmEx points to Hilton points only makes sense if you don’t plan on redeeming those points on higher-value flights. Sending your Hilton points to an airline rewards program will also massively devalue your points.

But if your only use for AmEx points is to send them to Hilton, you need to top off a balance in one account or you’re giving up on a specific travel brand that you still have points with, then transferring them to Hilton is better than letting them collect virtual dust.