For several weeks now, Hilton Honors has been offering a promotion on purchased points, which is in line with the best offers we see from the program. This is a reminder of this promotion, as it’s due to expire shortly, and could represent a great deal.
In this post:
Promotion on purchased Hilton Honors points
Through Tuesday, December 7, 2021, Hilton Honors is offering a 50% discount on purchased points. This bonus kicks in as long as you purchase at least 7,000 points in one transaction, and you can purchase up to 80,000 points with this offer.
How much does it cost to buy Hilton Honors points?
Ordinarily you can buy Hilton Honors points for one cent each, before any discounts or bonuses. If you maxed out this promotion and purchased 80,000 Hilton Honors points, you’d receive a total of 80,000 points for $400, which is a rate of 0.5 cents per Hilton Honors point.
Ordinarily when Hilton Honors offers a promotion on purchased points, it’s for either a 100% bonus or 50% discount, so this is in line with the best offers from the program.
How many Hilton Honors points can you buy?
Hilton Honors lets you buy up to 80,000 points per account per calendar year, before any bonuses. Sometimes there are promotions where the cap on how many points you can buy increases, but that’s not the case right now.
Do note that Hilton lets you combine points across accounts at no cost, so in reality you could acquire substantially more points by simply buying them across accounts and then consolidating them. This could also be useful if you find yourself in a situation where a friend or family member is targeted for a bigger bonus than you are.
Which credit card should you buy Hilton Honors points with?
Hilton Honors points purchases are processed by points.com, meaning they don’t count as a hotel purchase for the purposes of credit card spending.
I’d recommend using a card with which you’re trying to reach a minimum spending requirement, or a credit card that maximizes your return on everyday spending, like the like the Chase Freedom Unlimited® (review), Citi® Double Cash Card (review), or Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card (review).
When in doubt, review which credit cards are best for buying points and miles.
- Earn 1% cash back when you make a purchase, earn 1% cash back when you pay for that purchase
- $0
- Earn 3% Cash Back on Dining
- Earn 3% Cash Back at Drugstores
- Earn 1.5% Cash Back On All Other Purchases
- $0
- Earn 2x Venture miles on every purchase
- No Foreign Transaction Fees
- 10,000 bonus miles every account anniversary
- $395
- Earn 2x Venture miles on every purchase
- No Foreign Transaction Fees
- Global Entry/TSA Pre-Check Credit
- $95
- 2x points on purchases up to $50k then 1x
- Access to Amex Offers
- No annual fee
Is buying Hilton Honors points worth it?
There’s potentially huge value to be had buying Hilton Honors points. Hilton Honors sells points at a reasonable cost, has lots of aspirational properties, has good redemptions with a fifth night free opportunity, and elite status is also easy to earn with the program. When you combine those factors, buying points can be a great deal.
How many points do you need for a free night at a Hilton?
Hilton Honors doesn’t have a published award chart, but rather the program has dynamic award pricing. This means that the cost of a standard free night award can vary depending on the day of the week, time of year, etc.
As a general rule of thumb, Hilton Honors free night awards start at 10,000 points per night, and go up to 95,000 points per night. There are two exceptions — the Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos costs up to 120,000 points per night, and the Waldorf Astoria Maldives costs up to 150,000 points per night.
Sometimes you’ll see award costs that are way higher than these amounts. In those situations it’s because there’s not a standard room available, so higher pricing kicks in for premium rooms. That’s generally not nearly as good of a use of Hilton Honors points.
What is the Hilton Honors fifth night free benefit?
If you have Hilton Honors elite status (which is easy, as I’ll outline below), you receive a fifth night free on award redemptions. This is a way to stretch your points even further, and whenever possible I’d recommend making your Hilton Honors award stays in increments of five nights.
To take advantage of this, just log into your Hilton Honors elite account, and go through the process of making an award booking for five nights. When you get to the booking page, you should notice that the cost of the fifth night is automatically deducted.
Tip: Easily earn Hilton Honors elite status
One thing I love about the program is how easy it is to earn elite status with credit cards, including both Hilton Honors Gold status and Hilton Honors Diamond status. These tiers offer perks like room upgrades, complimentary breakfast, hotel credits, and more. For example:
- The Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card (review) offers Diamond status for as long as you have the card
- The Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card (review) and Hilton Honors American Express Business Card (review) offer Gold status for as long as you have the card
- The Platinum Card® from American Express (review) and The Business Platinum Card® from American Express (review) offer Gold status for as long as you have the card, and enrollment is required
What are some good uses of Hilton Honors points?
There are so many amazing hotels where you can redeem Hilton Honors points and get great value. Just to give a few examples based on current pricing (not factoring in the fifth night free):
- The Conrad Bora Bora is often bookable for 89,000 Honors points per night; this is a gorgeous resort, and paid rates are often over $1,000 per night
- Zemi Beach House Anguilla is often bookable for 95,000 Honors points per night; this is an awesome Caribbean resort, and paid rates are often over $1,000 per night
- The Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills is often bookable for 95,000 Honors points per night; this is one of my favorite city hotels in the United States, and paid rates are often over $750 per night
- The Waldorf Astoria Amsterdam is often bookable for 95,000 Honors points per night; this is one of my favorite city hotels in the world, and paid rates are often over $800 per night
- The Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos is often bookable for 120,000 Honors points per night; I stayed here recently and had an incredible stay, and paid rates are often over $1,000 per night
As you can tell, it’s not hard to do the math here and realize the outsized value, when you consider an acquisition cost of 0.5 cents per point, and the potential for a fifth night free.
Do Hilton Honors points expire?
Hilton Honors points don’t expire as long as you have at least some account activity once every 12 months. Eligible account activity includes earning or redeeming points, so buying points would even reset the expiration of your points.
How much are Hilton Honors points worth?
Everyone will value points differently, but personally I value Hilton Honors points at 0.5 cents each, and I tend to value points pretty conservatively. As you can see, the pricing here is in line with how much I value these points, and there are ways to get a ton of outsized value with this promotion.
Does Hilton Honors have blackout dates?
Hilton Honors doesn’t have blackout dates on award nights, and all standard rooms are available for award redemptions. So this is about as good of a policy as you’ll find with any hotel group when it comes to award room availability.
How else can you earn Hilton Honors points?
There are lots of ways to earn Hilton Honors points, beyond just staying at Hilton properties or buying the points directly. You can easily earn points by using Hilton Honors’ co-branded credit cards, which also offer great welcome bonuses. These cards include the following:
- Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card (review)
- Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card (review)
- Hilton Honors American Express Business Card (review)
- Hilton Honors American Express Card (review)
While you can also transfer points from Amex Membership Rewards to Hilton Honors, I tend to think this doesn’t represent a very good deal, given how valuable Amex points are.
Bottom line
Hilton Honors is offering a 50% discount when you purchase points by Tuesday, December 7, 2021, so this is your last chance. This is the lowest cost you’ll see on purchased Hilton points, so offers don’t get better than this. There are many circumstances under which it could make sense to acquire Hilton points at this price. Hilton Honors has grown on me a ton, especially thanks to the Aspire Card.
See this post for more inspiration on how to redeem Hilton Honors points for luxury hotel stays.
Do you plan on buying Hilton Honors points with a 50% discount?
But do you purchase Hilton points Speculatively Now or sit around and wait until they announce a devaluation because if do what Hyatt and Marriott have done, it could be coming.
I used to get value out of Hilton points, but they're generally worth at best 0.5 cents each now. I'm no longer trying to collect them and when I spend my last 100K Marriott points for 2 nights in Palm Springs in December I'm done collecting those points too. Hyatt is still a good redemption for Chase points, but we'll see after they switch to their peak pricing system in the spring. That leaves IHG...
I used to get value out of Hilton points, but they're generally worth at best 0.5 cents each now. I'm no longer trying to collect them and when I spend my last 100K Marriott points for 2 nights in Palm Springs in December I'm done collecting those points too. Hyatt is still a good redemption for Chase points, but we'll see after they switch to their peak pricing system in the spring. That leaves IHG points which I find valuable for staying at HIXs on road trips in the US and for staying at airports to catch an early flight the next morning (and somehow I still have over 400K IHG points without trying). Not as glamorous as it used to be.
That is the general fantasy, so I am sure that you'll be shocked to learn that all hotel loyalty points currencies, including Hyatt points, are worth almost exactly the same (within +/- 5-10%) when adjusted for differences earn rates for the same spend across programs. At least Hilton/Marriott and IHG members get,...
That is the general fantasy, so I am sure that you'll be shocked to learn that all hotel loyalty points currencies, including Hyatt points, are worth almost exactly the same (within +/- 5-10%) when adjusted for differences earn rates for the same spend across programs. At least Hilton/Marriott and IHG members get, respectively, the 5th or 4th award night free, which almost invariably translates into higher redemption values that would not be possible without the perk.
I’m sure you can find cases where you are correct. However, here is one example for a trip to Rome I recently booked for June. I wanted a hotel that was centrally located. I booked the Hyatt JdV for 15K points/night for 3 nights and used two free night certs for two more nights. Anyway, using points only it would have been 75K points for a 5 night stay. The AAA price is $219/night including...
I’m sure you can find cases where you are correct. However, here is one example for a trip to Rome I recently booked for June. I wanted a hotel that was centrally located. I booked the Hyatt JdV for 15K points/night for 3 nights and used two free night certs for two more nights. Anyway, using points only it would have been 75K points for a 5 night stay. The AAA price is $219/night including tax.
IHG - There’s an Indigo for 80K points/night, but they don’t have award nights available for my whole stay. There’s a Crowne Plaza that’s a little outside the city center for 33K/night. So, 132K with 4th night free. AAA price is 139/night incl. tax
Hilton - Aleph Curio Collection for 272K/night, DoubleTree for 60K/night, Waldorf 80K, HGI 41K (a little outside of center) Let’s choose the DoubleTree for 240K + 5th night free. AAA rate $286/night incl tax.
Marriott - All of the central Rome Marriott options are over 240K/night except for the Courtyard which isn’t really that central and it’s 120K points/night. So 480K points + 5th night free. AAA rate $162/night
For this trip, Hyatt is the best use for 75K Chase points. The inconvenient Crowne Plaza for 132K points is a distant second.
Another common mistake is to compare "raw" costs across programs and then conclude that the program with the lowest "raw" award costs is more valuable. Wrong.
The WA Rome Cavalieri, an 'aspirational' property, at 80K per night is a steal!
Now let's crunch some numbers based on your own data...
Take the DT Rome Monti, where I did a revenue stay earlier this month: 240K for 5 night, 5th night free. Cash cost for...
Another common mistake is to compare "raw" costs across programs and then conclude that the program with the lowest "raw" award costs is more valuable. Wrong.
The WA Rome Cavalieri, an 'aspirational' property, at 80K per night is a steal!
Now let's crunch some numbers based on your own data...
Take the DT Rome Monti, where I did a revenue stay earlier this month: 240K for 5 night, 5th night free. Cash cost for 5 nights = $286 * 5 = $1,430.
'Nominal' redemption value at DT: $1,430/240,000 = 0.596 = 0.60 cents/Hilton point, which equivalent to getting 1.80 cents/Hyatt point.
Now for a 5-night award stay at the Hyatt:
'Nominal' redemption value = ($219 * 5)/75,000 = 1.46 cents/Hyatt point, which is much lower (by 0.34 cents) than the 1.80 cents in terms of Hyatt points at the DT.
Q.E.D.
BTW, if Hyatt offered members the 5th award night free, a 5-night award stay at Hyatt Rome JdV would have a 'nominal' redemption value of:
($219 * 5)/(15,000 WoH points/night * 4 nights + 0K points * 1 night-free) = 1.80 cents/Hyatt point, i.e., ~20% more or the same as one would get at DT Rome Monti in terms of Hyatt points with the 5th award night free.
Without the 5th award night free,...
BTW, if Hyatt offered members the 5th award night free, a 5-night award stay at Hyatt Rome JdV would have a 'nominal' redemption value of:
($219 * 5)/(15,000 WoH points/night * 4 nights + 0K points * 1 night-free) = 1.80 cents/Hyatt point, i.e., ~20% more or the same as one would get at DT Rome Monti in terms of Hyatt points with the 5th award night free.
Without the 5th award night free, one gets a redemption value of 1.46 cents/Hyatt point at the Hyatt JdV, which is the same as getting 0.49 cents/Hilton point, i.e., about average...
G'day.
You better buy millions if you ever want to use them for a luxury property. I checked The Waldorf Astoria in Beverly Hills for a trip in November and they are asking 764,000 points for three nights in a standard room.
Hilton is dead to me. Was always a third choice. But now, dead.
I suggest you double-check that award cost of 254.667K HH points/night because it sounds more like the cost for a 'premium' room than one for a standard room.
But Hilton games the 'Premium' rooms. An extra packet of sweetener? Hey, Premium room!
Yawn, that's boring. Please check around and you'll see that virtually every program or hotel chain has been accused of that or a similar 'offense'.
Just plain wrong. There's weeks of 95k nights in every month from February through to October. If you're complaining about a good value redemption not being available in less than 30 days time at a very desirable property when travel is rebounding more than ever before you're doing this game wrong.. plenty of value to be had.
Interesting choice. I stayed at the Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills on October 1 using a Hilton free night certificate. Double upgrade to a beautiful room overlooking Beverly Hills that would have cost me about $1450 per night. Guess Hilton is not dead to me!