The Complete Guide to Hilton Transfer Partners

A hotel stay at any one of Hilton’s roughly 8,400 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.

This guide breaks down:

• How to transfer other currencies into Hilton Honors points

• How to send Hilton points to airline partners

• How to share Hilton points with a spouse or friend

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

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:

• 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 & Benefits" button on the menu.

From there, scroll down and 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). You can narrow it down by selecting “Hotels.”

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 occasionally AmEx will offer promotions that get you more value.

Point transfers must be made in 1,000 Membership Reward-point increments, and you also have to transfer a minimum of 1,000 points, so this option won’t work if you’re trying to burn, say, 40 leftover points.

Transfers are typically immediate, though AmEx warns they can take up to 24 hours. You will receive an email confirmation after the transfer is processed.

» 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 1.2 cents a piece while Hilton points are only worth 0.6 cent each. The transfer ratio from AmEx to Hilton is 1:2, so the total value should be about the same.

AmEx Membership Rewards points can also 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 1.2 cents each, those 100,000 points are equivalent to about $1,200. 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. That translates 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 20%-50%, and the most recently offered bonus to Hilton was 30% in October 2024. 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

Frequent flyer programs and other travel partners

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

• Virgin Atlantic:

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

However, conversions from Virgin and Amtrak points tend to not be as good.

If you decide to transfer from other frequent traveler programs to Hilton Honors, log in to your Hilton account, click on Hilton Honors, then Hilton Honors Points. From there, scroll down to the bottom to Exchange Points.

» 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 flier miles.

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 Honors points = 6,500 Premier points.

• Air Canada: 10,000 Hilton Honors points = 1,000 Aeroplan points. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

• Emirates: 10,000 Hilton Honors points = 1,000 Skywards miles. 

• JAL - Japan Airlines: 10,000 Hilton Honors points = 1,000 JAL miles. 

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

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

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

• Singapore Airlines: 10,000 Hilton Honors points = 500 KrissFlyer miles. 

• Turkish Airlines: 10,000 Hilton Honors points = 1,000 Miles&Smiles miles. 

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

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

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

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

How to transfer Hilton points to airline miles

When logged into your Hilton account, go to the Hilton Honors Heading.

From there, scroll to the bottom of the page and under the heading, Do More With Your Points, select Exchange Points.

That gets you to a page where you can select if you want to exchange points for miles or miles for points.

You’ll have to select the travel partner you want to send your points to and 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 poor use of points. Take the example of transferring Hilton points to Delta. 10,000 Hilton points gets you 1,000 Delta SkyMiles, which we value at $12. But since we value 10,000 Hilton points at $60, 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.

To view rates and fees of the Hilton Honors American Express Card, see this page. To view rates and fees of the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card, see this page. All information about the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card has been collected independently by NerdWallet. The Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card is no longer available through NerdWallet. To view rates and fees of The Hilton Honors American Express Business Card, see this page.

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

The first thing to do is log into your Honors account. When logged into your Hilton account, go to the Hilton Honors Heading.

From there, scroll to the bottom of the page and under the heading, Do More With Your Points, select Transfer Points.

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.

Each Hilton Honors member can transfer points in 1,000 point increments, up to 500,000 points, and each member can send only 500,000 points and can only receive 2,000,000 points each calendar year. 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 is worth it.