Virgin Atlantic-35% Bonus on Membership Rewards Transfers

According to the American Express Membership Rewards website here, Virgin Atlantic is offering a 35% bonus when transferring Membership Rewards into Virgin Atlantic Flying Club miles.

This offer is available through December 29th. Transfers must be made in increments of 1,000 Membership Rewards. The minimum transfer will yield 1,350 Flying Club miles.

 Is this a good deal?
Unfortunately not. Virgin Atlantic features an incredible onboard product and great club lounges.

According to this blog post and this thread on FlyerTalk, Hilton has just announced their "Any Weekend, Anywhere Sale" where you receive between 15-40% off the best available room rate for weekend stays booked between now and January 31, 2013. Hotels in the Asia-Pacific region have an extended booking deadline of February 14, 2013.

Stays must be completed by December 31, 2013. Eligible weekend stays will also earn double stay credit towards Hilton elite status. With this promotion, you will be able to earn Hilton Silver status with only two weekend stays (a total of four weekend nights).

Tropicana Las Vegas Rebranded as a DoubleTree hotel

According to this thread on FlyerTalk and this article in USA Today, the Tropicana Las Vegas is being rebranded as a DoubleTree hotel. This change finally allows Hilton HHonors members the ability to earn and redeem points while staying on the Las Vegas Strip. Previously, the only Hilton options were the Hilton Grand Vacation Suites and the Grand Vacation Suites at the Flamingo.

Hawaiian Airlines Miles transfer to Hilton points at a ratio of one Hawaiian Miles to two Hilton points. This is the same ratio as Virgin Atlantic miles transfer to Hilton points.

While I recommended transferring Virgin Atlantic miles to Hilton points--I personally transferred 45,000 Virgin Atlantic Miles to Hilton points last month--because of the huge fuel surcharges imposed on Virgin Atlantic awards, I don't generally recommend transferring Hawaiian Miles.

Hawaiian Miles are valuable because Hawaiian releases incredible amounts of award space on its flights and flies to more mainland destinations from Hawaii than any other carrier.

Fact: I check eight frequent flier blogs daily. (Just dropped a ninth...)

One of those eight is Mileage Saver by Paul Walia. I love it because his posts take, on average, 10 seconds to read, and he covers all the easy ways to earn miles. The other day, he had a post on how to earn 400,000 Hilton Points in Five Steps.

Some of the cards mentioned in his post are Hilton cards, but some just feature miles that can be transferred to Hilton points.