50% conversion bonus from American Express Membership Rewards to Hilton Honors (expires soon)

As a reminder, for October 2025, American Express Canada is offering a 50% conversion bonus upon conversion American Express Membership Rewards (MR) points. inside Hilton Honors Points.

When an event comes up, it’s a good time to evaluate the opportunity and whether or not it fits your travel goals.

In this article, we’ll explore everything you need to know about this transfer bonus, including whether or not it’s something we generally recommend.

Amex membership rewards a 50% conversion bonus into Hilton Honors

The standard transfer ratio from American Express Membership Rewards issued in Canada to Hilton Honors is 1:1. In other words, for every 1,000 MR Points you transfer, you’ll receive 1,000 Hilton Honors Points.

During this promotion, you will receive a 50% bonus at the end of the Hilton Honors program, boosting the effective ratio to 1:1.5 (1,000 MR Points = 1,500 Hilton Honors Points).

When you start the transfer process, on the Amex transfer screen, you will only see the standard 1:1 ratio displayed. However, as long as you transfer points during the promotion, the additional 50% bonus should be posted separately once the points arrive in your Hilton Honors account, so don’t be upset if you transfer points and don’t see the bonus right away.

Subject to the terms and conditions, it may take up to eight weeks after the end of the promotion (31 October 2025) to see the bonus points post; However, we’ve also seen that language with other transfer bonus promotions and the points have been showing up faster.

I ran a conversion test for 1,000 Membership Rewards points at the start of the promotion (Friday), and the standard 1,000 Hilton Honors points showed up a few days later (Monday). Three weeks later, the bonus points have not yet been posted, which leads me to believe they will appear in the eight weeks following the end of the promotion.

In other words, if you have a time-sensitive redemption process, don’t rely on reward points showing up in a timely manner.

As always, the name and address must match between your Amex MR and Hilton Honors accounts to prevent any delays.

You’ll need to transfer at least 1,000 points, and from there, you can transfer in increments of 100.

Of course, keep in mind that once you convert your MR points, you can’t convert them back, so you’ll need to be 100% sure that this is something you want to do.

Is transferring Amex Membership Rewards to Hilton Honors a good deal?

Transfer bonus events are always the best time to transfer points, as the chance of getting great value is much greater than usual.

However, converting Amex Membership Rewards points to Hilton Honors points likely isn’t the most lucrative opportunity (even with the conversion bonus).

This is because MR Points can be transferred to a few airline frequent flyer programs as well (notably Aeroplan or The British Airways Club at a 1:1 ratio, or Air France KLM Flying Blue and Cathay Pacific Asia Miles at a 1:0.75 ratio), which typically offer better value when redeemed for flights than the average hotel redemption via Hilton Honors.

In fact, we value American Express Membership Rewards points at 2.2 cents per point, and Hilton Honors points at 0.7 cents per point. Even taking the transfer bonus into account, you’re probably leaving value on the table here.

Furthermore, Hilton Honors has seen some unfortunate devaluations this year, although this has mainly affected standard award prices at the program’s more ambitious hotels and resorts.

Meanwhile, if you don’t want to use your Membership Rewards points for flights, there are some solid uses for Hilton Honors points for hotel stays, which may be worth considering in some situations (especially since there aren’t any Hilton Honors co-branded credit cards in Canada).

As always, if you need to top up your Hilton Honors account for an upcoming stay, you can consider taking advantage of a transfer bonus as an easy way to fill the gap.

You should also consider purchasing Hilton Honors Points directly, as there is always a 100% bonus while playing.

If you’re looking forward to a ski trip in Whistler this year, standard room award rates go up to 85,000 Hilton Honors Points per night, with wide availability.

This would result in 56,667 Membership Rewards points taking into account the transfer bonus.

It’s not uncommon to find room rates at this property of $700 or more during the busy winter season, which can work out to about 1.24 cents per Membership Rewards point, or 0.82 cents per Hilton Honors point.

You can also purchase 86,000 Hilton Honors Points for $430 USD (~$600 CAD). However, you don’t have to pay full price for a ski trip in Whistler this winter.

You can also look for Standard Room Award availability at luxury hotels within the Hilton Honors portfolio, with brands like Small Luxury Hotels of the World (SLH), Waldorf Astoria, LXR and Conrad offering some opportunities for great value.

For example, the standard room rewards rate at the Waldorf Astoria Osaka is 120,000 Hilton Honors Points per night.

Taking the transfer bonus into account, you’ll need to transfer 80,000 Membership Rewards points.

On some nights, the cash rate for the same room can be $1,500 CAD or more, although it can also be less.

In this example, you’ll end up with roughly 1.9 cents per point (from your Membership Rewards points), which is very good and better than what you might get with some airline partners (especially when redeemed for economy class flights). You also get 1.27 cents for each of your Hilton Honors points, which is also very respectable.

However, you will definitely need to crunch the numbers for any redemptions you may make, as the value can vary widely.

conclusion

American Express has launched a 50% transfer bonus from Amex MR to Hilton Honors, which runs through October 2025.

For the most part, you should get better value from your MR points by using them for flights; However, there are still opportunities to get great value from Hilton Honors Points, especially for aspirational hotel stays.

As always, just make sure you have a specific plan and are happy with the redemption value before you choose to make a transfer before October 31, 2025, when the event ends.