A combo of promotions have opened up a unique opportunity for Amex cardholders in Australia to generate United Miles cheaply. United is a Star-alliance member & you can redeem miles from the program to fly many other Star alliance carriers such as Singapore Airlines, Thai Airways etc as well as on partners such as Virgin Australia & Vistara.
What is the hack
You need to combine two ongoing promotions to make the hack work.
Promotion 1
Transfer Amex MR Points to Marriott Bonvoy with 50% Bonus
This is an ongoing promotion where Amex is offering 50% bonus if you transfer points to Marriott Bonvoy. You can read more about this offer over here. The promotion lets you convert Amex points to Marriott at 1:1 (1 Membership Rewards Point = 1 Marriott Bonvoy point). You can then transfer these points to any of Marriott’s 38 airline partners.
Ordinarily, Marriott points convert to most airline partners in the ratio of 3:1 (3 Marriott points = 1 Airline Mile). When you transfer points in multiples of 60,000 points, Marriott sweetens the deal with an additional 5,000 bonus miles. But with United, it gets even better.
Because Marriott and United share a much deeper partnership compared to other airline partners, you earn a further 10% bonus on converting Marriott points into United miles. In other words, if you transfer exactly 60,000 Marriott points to United, you will receive a total of 27,500 United miles (20,000+5,000+2,500).
Promotion 2
Separately, United is offering 30% Bonus Miles to members when they convert their Hotel Loyalty points to United. Registration is required prior to making the transfer, which you can do through this link.
The eligible partners are:
- Marriott Bonvoy
- Hilton Honors
- IHG One Rewards
- Choice Priviliges
- Radisson Rewards
- Shangri-la Circle
- World of Hyatt
- Wyndham Rewards
The conversion rate from most of these programs is so poor that it does not make sense doing so even with the 30% bonus. The only exception is Marriott Bonvoy.
Recall that through Promotion 1 we converted 60,000 Marriott points into 27,500 United Miles. And because the 30% bonus is applied to these already boosted miles, this gives you another 8,250 miles for a combined total of 35,750 Miles.
To summarise, when you combine the 2 promotions you are effectively converting 60,000 Amex Membership Rewards Points into 35,750 United Miles. That’s a conversion ratio of 1.68:1 (1.68 MR = 1 United Mile) which is quite a bit better than 2:1 rate Amex offers to most of its direct transfer partners in Australia.
Top Redemptions with United Miles
United applies dynamic pricing to its own flights. If you want to redeem miles to fly United, it only makes sense if you can find Saver level availability. As I mentioned earlier, United is also a Star-alliance member and you can redeem miles on many other carriers.
Here are a few examples:
- You can fly Virgin Australia Business Class between Brisbane and Bali for 40,000 United Miles.
- You can fly ANA Business Class between Sydney and Tokyo for 57,500 United Miles.
- You can fly Eva Air Business Class between Brisbane and Taipei for 63,300 United Miles.
- You can fly Thai Airways Business Class between Melbourne and Bangkok for 55,000 United Miles.
- You can fly Virgin Australia Business Class between Sydney and Darwin for 25,000 United Miles.
Redeem United Miles to fly Eva Air Business Class
In Conclusion
There is a limited time opportunity to convert American Express Membership Rewards Points to United Miles at a very attractive rate. United Miles are not very easy to earn in Australia, so if you can make this work there is definite value in doing it.
As good a deal as this is, I will only transfer points if I had firm travel plans and there was confirmed availability on the route I want to fly. If you do take advantage of this promotion, remember to transfer Amex points in 60,000 points multiple to maximise the value of your points.
Do you wish to take advantage of this combo deal? Leave a comment below.
