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British Airways Executive Club has just announced a 35% Avios Bonus when you transfer Hotel Points from Club Carlson, Hilton HHonors, Hyatt Gold Passport, IHG Rewards Club, Marriott Rewards, Shangri-La Golden Circle or Starwood Preferred Guest.

The qualifying period is from 20th June to 5th July 2016

The Ts&Cs state that the Avios Bonus can take 4-6 weeks to show on your account from the date of conversion, but I imagine they will actually post with the standard Avios most of the time.

The normal transfer rates (without the 35% bonus) are as follows:

Club Carlson:

• 2,000 Gold Points into 200 Avios
• 50,000 Gold Points into 5,000 Avios
• 100,000 Gold Points into 10,000 Avios

Hilton Hhonors:

You can exchange in increments of 10,000 HHonors Points which convert to 1,000 Avios.

Hyatt Gold Passport

1 Avios for 2.5 Hyatt Gold Passport points

5,000 Hyatt Gold Passport™ points for 2,000 Avios, and thereafter increments of 2,000 points can be converted into Avios within the same transaction.

Additionally, when you choose to convert 50,000 Hyatt Gold Passport™ points you will receive a 5,000 Avios point bonus.

IHG Rewards Club

10,000 IHG Rewards Club points convert to 2,000 Avios

Shangri-La Golden Circle

1 Golden Circle Award Point is equal to 1 Avios.

You need a minimum of 2,500 GC Award Points to qualify for an initial conversion to Avios. Within the same transaction you can then convert GC Award Points into Avios in 500 point increments.

Marriott Rewards

• 10,000 Rewards Points into 2,000 Avios
• 20,000 Rewards Points into 5,000 Avios
• 30,000 Rewards Points into 10,000 Avios
• 70,000 Rewards Points into 25,000 Avios
• 140,000 Rewards Points into 50,000 Avios

Starwood Preferred Guest

1 Starpoint = 1 Avios. There is a minimum points transfer of:

• 2,500 minimum points transfer for SPG Preferred members
• 1,500 minimum points transfer for SPG Gold members
• No minimum points transfer for SPG Platinum members

Plus, when you transfer 20,000 Starpoints into Avios as part of one complete transaction you will also receive a bonus of 5,000 Avios.

Is the Avios Bonus offer any good?

As ever, it depends!

If you were going to make a transfer anyway then obviously it’s a good deal, but generally I don’t think there’s a huge amount of value from transferring Hotel Points to Avios even with the bonus – with a few important caveats.

If you have a lot of Marriott Points (200,000+), it might be a good time to take a look at Marriott Rewards Flight + Hotel Packages. At the extreme end,  270,000+ Points will get you 7 nights at a Category 1-5 Marriott hotel and 120,000 Avios. Add on the 35% bonus and you would end up with 162,000 Avios + the week at a hotel, which is a pretty great deal if you have lots of Marriott Points and want lots of Avios.

IHG’s transfer rate isn’t too bad either, though far from great. With the bonus, 10,000 IHG Points = 2,700 Avios. It’s not a rate that tempts me personally, but could make sense for topping off an account.

SPG is the really interesting one here because the normal transfer rate is 1 for 1 and you get a bonus 5,000 for transferring in blocks of 20,000. So normally, 20,000 Starpoints would get you 25,000 Avios. With the 35% bonus that would be 33,750 (1.6875 Avios per Starpoint).

That sounds like a great deal (and it’s not bad), but I value Starpoints significantly more than Avios, so it’s not as good as it might first appear.

Even with the Avios Bonus, I think there’s more value to be had from transferring Starpoints to other frequent flyer programmes like Virgin America Elevate and Alaska Mileage Plan, or just using them for stays at Category 1-2 SPG hotels.

If you need Avios and have Starpoints though, it’s certainly not a bad way to get them!