How to transfer miles between frequent flyer accounts

Have you ever found yourself a few miles short of an award ticket and wished you could add some miles from another account to reach your goal? Or do you have orphan miles on an airline you no longer fly that you’d like to transfer into your current mileage-earning program?

Although you can’t swap miles directly between airline accounts, you can take advantage of middleman sites to transfer useless miles into your preferred loyalty program, where they can help you reach an award level.

The following chart summarizes which kinds of miles you can transfer into miles on other airlines through the various intermediary sites. For more information on conversion rates and fees, read the next section.

Start with miles in:	Using the middleman:	Turn them into miles in:
Continental or Midwest	Amtrak Guest Rewards	Continental, Midwest, United
American or United	Diners Club Rewards	Air Canada, Alaska, America West, American, Continental, Delta, Frontier, Midwest, Northwest, Southwest, United, Us Airways
American or Midwest	Hilton HHonors	American, Midwest
Air Canada, Alaska, America West, American, or Midwest	Points.com	Air Canada, Alaska, America West, American, Midwest

Transferring miles through a middleman

There are two kinds of mileage conversions: airline miles to airline miles, and miscellaneous points to airline miles, which is useful if you’ve already been earning rail or hotel loyalty points. In most cases, it’s quite easy to transfer these points into frequent flyer miles in their partner airlines. For instance, Amtrak Guest Rewards points can be exchanged for Continental, Midwest, or United miles at a rate of one point for one mile.

Hotels have various conversion rates; you can exchange Priority Club Rewards points into frequent flyer miles in most major American airline programs at a rate of four points for one mile, while Starwood Preferred Guest points can be exchanged for miles at a one-to-one ratio (with the exception of United, which is 2:1).

But don’t let the conversion rates fool you; what’s important is how much you spend for your miles. Say you wanted to earn enough points to transfer into 1,000 miles. At a rate of two StarPoints received for every dollar spent, you’ll need to spend $500 at Starwood for 1,000 points, which can be converted into 1,000 miles. By contrast, you can spend just $400 at Priority Club, earning 10 Priority Club Rewards points for every dollar spent, to net 4,000 points, which are also worth 1,000 miles. Although the Starwood conversion rate appears to be a better deal, when you factor in the cost of the points, Priority Club comes out on top.

What you usually can’t do is directly transfer miles from one airline loyalty program to another. You must go through a middleman, and you will most likely lose miles as you switch from one mileage currency to another.

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Four options

The four middlemen are Amtrak, Diners Club Rewards, HHonors Reward Exchange, and Points.com. Amtrak has the best rate—you can transfer miles in and out at a 1:1 conversion rate—but you can only convert Continental and Midwest miles to Amtrak points, and Continental, Midwest, and United miles from Amtrak points. (Note that to transfer miles into points, you have to contact Continental and Midwest directly, not Amtrak.) If you need to swap miles among these three airlines and have the minimum transfer amount of 5,000 miles, Amtrak is your best bet.

If you’re looking to get rid of American or United miles, you can use the Diners Club Rewards program to transfer them into miles in 11 major U.S. airline loyalty programs. The conversion is 1:1 into Diners Club but 2:1 out of it, and conversions must be made in increments of 10,000 miles into Club Rewards points and 2,000 points into airline miles. Through this conversion, a starting balance of 10,000 American or United miles would ultimately become 5,000 miles in another program. Also, Diners Club charges a $0.95 fee for every 2,000 points converted into miles, and the annual fee for a Diners Club card, which you’ll need to become a Diners Club Rewards member, is $95.

Hilton HHonors provides another conversion opportunity, but the exchange rate is poor, and the only U.S. airlines remaining in the HHonors Reward Exchange are American and Midwest. You can exchange 5,000 miles for 10,000 points, but 10,000 points will only net you 1,500 miles when you convert back into miles. Although using this program to transfer miles may not be in your best interest, you can still use Hilton stays to “Double Dip” and earn both miles and points for the same stay.

Your last option for transferring miles is Points.com, but these conversion rates are worse than Hilton’s. Ten thousand American miles become 1,046 America West, Air Canada, or Midwest miles or 837 Alaska miles. In addition, membership is either $19.95 for unlimited conversions, or one free conversion and $5.95 per additional exchange.

When should I transfer?

Heavy conversion losses and transfer fees make converting miles a less than ideal way to boost your mileage account. But there are times when transferring miles can be a valuable option. Here are a few examples:

• Converting orphan miles: If you have frequent flyer miles in an airline in which you no longer accrue miles, you might as well convert them into a program you use, no matter how many miles you lose in the transfer. In this way, those otherwise useless miles can once again benefit you.
• Topping off your account: If you’re very close to the number of miles needed for an award and have extra miles in another loyalty program, it could be cheaper to transfer miles and get an award seat, rather than purchase a ticket to boost your account over the top.

Remember that the bottom line for an individual transaction isn’t always the most important thing. Sometimes the option that may cost you more miles up front will actually be more valuable to you in the end. Only you can decide what price to place on an award ticket to the destination of your choice.