Hilton Honors has just quietly made an awesome permanent change to the free night rewards you can earn with co-branded credit cards.
In this post:
Hilton free night rewards no longer just for weekends
It’s possible to earn free night rewards with several Hilton Honors Amex cards. These certificates are pretty awesome, since they’re valid at nearly all Hilton Honors properties worldwide. Historically these free night certificates have only been valid for stays on weekends.
During the pandemic we’ve seen Hilton add flexibility to these certificates, and in 2021 and 2022 they’ve been valid for stays any day of the week. There’s some positive news on that front — this change is permanent, so Hilton Honors free night rewards will be valid seven days a week going forward.
Interestingly Hilton Honors hasn’t even promoted this widely, but rather Frequent Miler noticed that this was listed at the bottom of statements on Hilton Amex cards. Amex seems to have updated the marketing on these certificates, to reflect this change.
This is a truly awesome change that will add value for these certificates in the long-run. I’m guessing this largely reflects that business travel is still nowhere close to being recovered, so many hotels might have higher occupancy on weekends than on weekdays, and therefore Hilton’s redemption costs for these certificates might often be lower on weekdays.
Hilton Honors Amex cards earning free night rewards
If you’re looking to earn Hilton Honors free night awards with credit cards, there are two cards that offer these:
- The Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card (review) offers up to two free weekend night rewards every year; you receive one every cardmember year just for having the card, including the year in which you open the card, plus one when you spend $60,000 on the card in a calendar year
- The Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card (review) offers a free weekend night reward when you spend $15,000 on the card in a calendar year
The information and associated card details on this page for the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card has been collected independently by OMAAT and has not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
Bottom line
Hilton Honors free night rewards are now valid for stays any day of the week, rather than just on weekends. While this flexibility has been offered during the pandemic, it’s fantastic to see that this will stick around permanently, as this should add a lot of value for cardmembers.
What do you make of this change to Hilton free night rewards?
now if they would just restore the full value of breakfast for diamonds....
I guess the WE free nights can be updated to weekly free night now on ?
Without a doubt because all had already been converted during the pandemic...
This is awesome that the benefit has been codified to be permanently valid for any day of the week, but I am not terribly surprised because as I previously reported, I was able to apply a so-called free weekend night cert to book a weeknight stay at WA BKK before the pandemic. I simply called to whether my free weekend night cert, which would have expired if I did not use it at the time,...
This is awesome that the benefit has been codified to be permanently valid for any day of the week, but I am not terribly surprised because as I previously reported, I was able to apply a so-called free weekend night cert to book a weeknight stay at WA BKK before the pandemic. I simply called to whether my free weekend night cert, which would have expired if I did not use it at the time, could be applied for a Monday night stay. The agent on the phone at the time then said that she did see anything in the system restricting use of the cert only for weekend stays, so she successfully applied it for a Monday stay and I paid with points for a second night. I'd urged folks to try to see if they too could use the cert for weeknights and report, but then the pandemic hit and the cert's weekend restriction was lifted. Now it's been permanently lifted, but I suspect that the restriction was tacitly not enforced...
"... she did NOT see anything in the system restricting "
What category of room? Realistic ability to upgrade? Even if a paid upgrade?
The cheapest 'regular rooms only. I was in Amsterdam and got a 3 night jr suite upgrade. The regular rms were going for 70k pts per night or abt $280 a night. Jr suites were ar $580-$600. Don't know if you can paid to upgrade.
Do you still have to call Hilton to book these? I always thought it was annoying that you could not book them online like you can with other hotels programs.
Yes.