How to Use the Hilton Honors Program to Score Free Nights, Flights and Cash Back
Hilton has a large global footprint, which makes the Hilton Honors program one of the most popular hotel loyalty programs out there. With brands that fit every budget, you’ll likely come across Hilton in your travels. Here’s how to maximize the Hilton Honors program.
A Complete Guide to the Hilton Honors Program
With more than 5,600 hotels spread across the world, Hilton Hotels and Resorts is massive. Since its birth in 1919, the hotel chain has since expanded 14 brands spread across 104 countries. Knowing each Hilton-owned brand is a key to maximizing the program, so here’s a quick rundown:
Luxury brands
The Waldorf Astoria Hotels and Resorts have 29 locations across the world. They’re known for superior, 5-star service, and are iconic in their own right. I’ve stayed at the Waldorf Astoria Chicago, and the service was spectacular!
The Conrad Hotels and Resorts have 36 properties, and are more geared for the luxury business traveler, though Conrad does have resorts as well. This year, I honeymooned at the Conrad Maldives, which is probably my favorite resort in the world.
Full-service brands
Hilton Hotels and Resorts are some of the most ubiquitous properties on earth, with more than 570 worldwide locations. Here, you’ll find executive lounges for elite members, full-breakfast, room service, and concierge services.
DoubleTree by Hilton has over 500 properties as well, and is perhaps most famous for their welcome of warm cookies at check-in. I wrapped up a stay at the DoubleTree Downtown Los Angeles in 2016, where they even had a “Kyoto Garden” to cater to their frequent Japanese travelers.
Embassy Suites by Hilton are a business travelers delight: there’s a hosted open bar and appetizer hour each night at every property, as well as a free cooked-to-order breakfast each morning. Rooms are all two-room suites at a minimum (brand-wide), and come at a reasonable price.
Curio Collection spots are “independently-minded” luxury hotels from Hilton. Think Autograph Collection or Luxury Collection from Marriott. These are sprouting up everywhere, so look for them in downtown or unique locations worldwide.
The Tapestry Collection is a new brand that’s an independent, millennially-focused product, which has a few properties currently.
Canopy by Hilton opened its first property a few years ago, and is expanding worldwide.
Select service properties
Hilton Garden Inn, Hampton Inn, Homewood Suites, Home2Suites, and Tru brands are geared toward budget travelers, segmented into leisure, business, and extended stay travelers. Tru is the newest brand, and its goal is to compete with Aloft for budget-conscious Millennial travelers.
Timeshare properties
Hilton Grand Vacations are all over the world, and are what you’d typically expect from a timeshare property: large rooms, geared towards families, and lots of resort-style amenities.
How to earn Hilton Honors points
Earning lots of points in Hilton’s program is very, very easy. You can earn points a number of ways, including staying at a Hilton property, credit card spending, spending with HH partners, transferring points, and buying points.
Earning points with Hilton stays
Earning by staying at a Hilton property can be quite lucrative. You’ll earn 10 base points per dollar on all eligible on-property spend. You’ll earn 10 points per dollar at Hampton Inns, but only on the rate of the room (no bonus points for on-property purchases), and you’ll earn five points per dollar at Tru and Home2Suite properties. In addition, you’ll also receive five points per dollar by electing “Points and Points” as your earning preference, rather than “Points and Miles” which gives you the base points plus one mile in the airline program of your choice.
Earning points with elite status
Having elite status will get you points bonuses as well. There are four levels of membership: Blue, Silver, Gold, and Diamond.
Blue membership is the basic membership, but it allows you to earn points in the program.
Silver membership, earned after four stays or 10 nights, gets you a 15 percent bonus on base points earned.
Gold membership, earned after 20 stays, 40 nights, or 75,000 base points, gets you a 25 percent bonus on base points, as well as a “My Way” bonus of free breakfast, room upgrades, bonus points, or snack.
Diamond membership, earned after 30 stays, 60 nights, or 120,000 base points, gets you a 50 percent bonus, as well as executive lounge access.
Earning Status and Points with Credit Cards
There are several cards issued by American Express that can earn you serious points with the Hilton Honors program. Our best advice to rack up Hilton points quickly is taking advantage of one of Hilton’s credit card sign up bonuses. Once you’re on property, any on-property expenses will earn a lot of bonus Hilton points, depending on the card you hold. Many of the cards below offer Gold or Diamond status, just for holding the card, which gets you free breakfast and bonus points while on property, among other benefits.
American Express Hilton Aspire Card
The Aspire card has a 150,000 point sign up bonus, and earns 14 points per dollar at Hilton properties. It also gives cardmembers top-tier Diamond status, just for having the card, and earns 14 Hilton Honors points per dollar.
American Express Hilton Surpass and Hilton Honors Business Cards
The American Express Surpass Card and Hilton Honors Amex Business card both currently has a 125,000 point sign up bonus (that’s 25 nights at the properties below!) and earn 12 points per dollar at Hiltons. They also give you Gold status for holding the card.
American Express Hilton Honors Card
The Hilton Honors American Express Card has a 75,000 point sign up bonus and earns 7 points per dollar, and gives you Silver status for holding the card.
American Express Platinum Card
The Platinum Card by American Express only gives you one Membership Reward point per dollar (worth 2 cents) for your Hilton spending.
Earning points through partners
You can earn Hilton points with rental car partners like Avis, Budget, Sixt, and Europcar, and can even get upgrades based on your status tier.
If you’re interested in buying a Priority Pass membership, instead of getting it for free with a credit card, you can earn up to 10,000 Hilton points with the purchase.
If you like to dine out, you can earn 8 points per dollar spent dining out with Hilton Honors dining. Their partners change from time to time.
How to use Hilton Honors Points
Transferring points
A new feature of Hilton’s program is the ability to pool points between up to 10 persons that you elect, fee-free! That’s a stellar benefit, and a rare one in the loyalty program industry. You can also transfer points from airline programs, but I wouldn’t recommend that as its not a good value. It is possible to buy points, which sometimes makes sense, but only in extreme circumstances.
How to spend your points
Hilton’s program is a bit finicky when it comes to redeeming points. While earning lots of points is incredibly easy, using them in a valuable way takes some effort. You see, Hilton has 10 categories of properties, ranging from 5,000 points a night for Category 1 hotels, to 95,000 points a night for Category 10 hotels. There are several hotels priced at 120,000 points as well (Waldorf-Astoria Maldives being one of them). Many properties charge different amounts based on the season and availability. For example, the Conrad Maldives can be as low as 70,000 points or as high as 95,000 points, depending on the season.
Complicating things further is Hilton’s “Points and Cash” redemptions, which gives you a sliding scale on how many points you’d like to use towards your redemption. Depending on the redemption, you may be able to increase (or decrease) the value of your points based on your stay dates.
You do, however, have access to “Fifth Night Free” awards if you are an elite member, which you can earn from as making as few as four stays or signing up for one of the credit cards highlighted above, and this brings down the overall cost. I recently used this benefit for a five-night stay at the Conrad Maldives.
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