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Qatar Airways is currently running a (mostly) very good promotion in which it’s offering bonuses of up to 40% when you convert one or more rewards currencies (issued by the airline’s partners) into Avios.
Citi ThankYou points are one of the reward currencies covered by this promotion and if you’re in need of Avios, converting ThankYou points to Avios with a 40% bonus can be a really, really good deal.
This is the current promotion:
Not all conversions covered by this promotion, however, are a good deal and as I was asked about this yesterday, I’m going to show why converting another popular currency into Avios isn’t a good idea at all.
Qatar Airways + World of Hyatt
Qatar Airways Privilege Club members can choose to collect 500 Avios each time they stay at select Hyatt brands instead of collecting World of Hyatt points, and they can also convert World of Hyatt points into Qatar Airways Avios.
The problem is, however, that the conversion rate is terrible.
Outside of promotions, 2.5 World of Hyatt points will convert to 1 Avios, and as we value Hyatt points at 1.4 cents each and Avios at 1.0 cents each, that’s a conversion that would see us exchanging 3.5 cents of value into 1.0 cents of value and you don’t have to be a genius to see that this isn’t a great deal.
Yes, everyone will have their own valuations for Hyatt points and Avios so the math will differ from person to person, but unless you value Avios at (or around) 2.5 times the value you place on World of Hyatt points (if you do, I have a bridge to sell you), this isn’t a conversion that you should be considering.
But what about under promotion conditions?
Well, right now, 2.5 World of Hyatt Points can earn you 1.4 Avios (as long as you’re converting at least 50,000 of them) and using our valuations, that’s a conversion that would see us exchanging 3.5 cents of value into 1.4 cents of value and that’s still a terrible deal.
Even if you value Avios at 2.0 cents each it’s a bad deal, and who in their right mind is valuing Avios that highly?
At this point, some will argue that if you have a small balance of Hyatt points that you don’t believe you will ever be able to use, a conversion will still make sense (the argument being that it’s better to get some value out of the Hyatt points than none at all).
In some instances, that argument makes sense. Unfortunately, this is not one of those instances.
The problem here is that Hyatt and Qatar Airways will not allow you to convert less than 5,000 World of Hyatt points into Avios and if you have at least 5,000 World of Hyatt points, you also have enough points for a Category 1 hotel redemption (in off-peak and standard season).
Using World of Hyatt points for a Category 1 redemption will get you a lot more value than you will get from converting those points into Avios, and you may be able to incorporate a 1-night Category 1 property stay into your next trip.
Also, if you can somehow incorporate another Hyatt cash stay into a future trip (it doesn’t have to be a long stay, 2 to 3 nights should do it), you’ll probably end up with enough points (in total) for a stay at a Category 2 property, and incorporating a Category 1 or Category 2 stay into a future trip shouldn’t be tricky at all.
Link to list of World of Hyatt Category 1 properties
Link to list of World of Hyatt Category 2 properties
Ok, if you have no interest in ever staying at a Hyatt Category 1 property and if you have no interest in ever staying at another Hyatt property (where you will earn more points to add to your balance), perhaps it’s ok to convert to Avios while there’s a bonus running, but given that you’ve managed to amass 5,000 World of Hyatt points so far, you’ve clearly been able to stay at Hyatt properties in the past, so think things through carefully before you pull the trigger on a conversion.
Bottom line
As part of a current Qatar Airways promotion, it’s possible to convert World of Hyatt points into Avios with a 40% bonus thrown in. Unfortunately, as the ratio for converting World of Hyatt points to Avios starts from a very bad level and as Qatar Airways insists that you convert at least 5,000 Hyatt points, not even a 40% bonus can improve the ratio to a point at which a conversion makes sense.
