United Airlines has launched its annual hotel points transfer promotion, offering a 25% bonus when converting hotel loyalty points into MileagePlus miles throughout October 2025. This yearly tradition provides an opportunity to consolidate scattered hotel point balances into airline miles, though the economics require careful evaluation.
The promotion covers eight major hotel loyalty programs, giving travelers flexibility in choosing which points to convert. However, the fundamental challenge with hotel-to-airline transfers remains: you’re typically trading higher-value currency for lower-value currency, even with bonus miles included.
While most hotel-to-airline transfers don’t provide compelling value, this United promotion does include some interesting opportunities, particularly for Marriott Bonvoy members who can take advantage of enhanced transfer ratios. Let’s examine when this bonus might make sense and when you’re better off keeping your hotel points for their intended purpose.
The United MileagePlus hotel transfer bonus runs from October 1-31, 2025, requiring advance registration before making any transfers. You can earn up to 25,000 bonus MileagePlus miles through the promotion, with bonus miles posting by January 31, 2026.
Participating hotel loyalty programs include:
The 25% bonus applies to all eligible transfers, though the bonus calculation varies slightly between programs. Most importantly, you can combine transfers from multiple hotel programs to reach the 25,000 bonus mile cap.
Marriott Bonvoy stands out as the only hotel program where transfers to United can approach reasonable value, thanks to a special partnership structure. When you transfer 60,000 Marriott points, you receive 20,000 base miles plus 10,000 bonus miles, effectively creating a 2:1 transfer ratio rather than the standard 3:1.
With the 25% United bonus applied, transferring 120,000 Marriott points yields:
This creates an effective rate of 0.625 United miles per Marriott point, which approaches reasonable value if you can achieve 1.5+ cents per mile in United redemptions. Given that Marriott points typically provide 0.93 cents in value, you need United redemptions worth at least 1.49 cents per mile to break even.
Most other hotel programs provide poor value even with the 25% bonus applied. Based on recent redemption data, here’s how the math works out after the bonus:
These transfers represent significant value destruction, making them suitable only for specific circumstances like topping off accounts for immediate redemptions or clearing out unused point balances before expiration.
Before considering hotel point transfers, evaluate other methods for earning United miles that typically provide better value. Chase Ultimate Rewards transfers to United at a 1:1 ratio with no bonus needed, often representing superior value compared to hotel point conversions.
Other United miles earning options include:
The Chase Sapphire Preferred Card currently offers 75,000 Ultimate Rewards points after meeting spending requirements, providing more United miles than most hotel transfer scenarios while maintaining flexibility for other redemptions.
United has offered this promotion annually since 2016, typically in fall months with bonuses ranging from 25-30%. The current 25% bonus represents the lower end of this historical range, though still provides value for strategic transfers.
Previous bonus levels included:
The predictable annual timing allows for strategic planning, though the reduced bonus percentage this year makes transfers less attractive than in recent years.
Despite generally poor value, specific scenarios can justify hotel-to-airline transfers during this promotion:
Even in these scenarios, calculate the opportunity cost carefully and consider whether direct United miles purchases or other earning methods might provide better value.
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