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Hilton has completed its revamp of the Hilton Honors program, transforming what was a tired and somewhat lackluster loyalty plan, into a program full of unique features with some great value for members. The Honors program finalized the move to dynamic award pricing, where the price reflects the seasonality of the hotel industry. Award prices drop in the low season, and rise in the high season, much like the equivalent cash price.
- 14X Hilton Honors Bonus Points for each dollar of eligible purchases charged on your Card directly with a hotel or resort within the Hilton Portfolio
- 7X Hilton Honors Bonus Points on flights booked directly with airlines or amextravel.com, car rentals booked directly through select rental companies, and at U.S. restaurants
- 3X Hilton Honors Bonus Points for all other eligible purchases on your Card
At the same time, Hilton introduced innovative new features like the Points + Money Slider, Points Pooling across multiple accounts, and removed our least favorite grammatical gimmick; the double ‘H’ in Honors.
To be clear, the changes still leave a bit to be desired, especially when our beloved AXON awards disappeared, but things could be a lot worse, and we're still happy to have a healthy stash of Hilton points.
We also saw the demise of the much-loved Citi Hilton cards, two of the four co-brand Hilton credit cards, following a deal that sees American Express become the sole provider of Hilton Honors credit cards. All of Hilton's co-brand cards are now issued by Amex:
- Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card – Earn 150,000 Bonus Points. Plus earn Diamond elite status
- Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card – Earn 130,000 Hilton Honors bonus points. Plus earn Gold elite status
- The Hilton Honors American Express Business Card – Limited Time Offer: Earn 130,000 Hilton Honors Bonus Points. Plus earn Gold elite status
- Hilton Honors American Express Card – Limited Time Offer: Earn 100,000 Hilton Honors Bonus Points. Plus earn Silver elite status
Enrollment is required for select Amex benefits.
The co-brand cards are the fastest way to amass a healthy balance of Hilton points, offering significant new cardmember welcome offers and tangible benefits, for relatively small (or no) annual fee. If more than one member of your household takes advantage of these offers, you can pool the points into a single account to redeem for a one-of-a-kind holiday! Still not convinced the new Hilton program is worth your attention? Here are nine things we love about the Hilton Honors rewards program.
Hilton's Points Pooling Feature Rocks
Hilton’s points pooling feature is a well thought out highlight of the program, allowing family and friends to combine their Hilton Honors points. Each pool can have up to 11 members, and each member can send 500K points per year, and receive up to 2 million points. You must be an active participant of Hilton Honors and have been a member for at least 30 days, and you need a minimum of 1,000 points to participate.
Get the Best Mid-Tier Elite Status for Under $100
Hilton Honors Gold is the best mid-tier elite status available, offering complimentary breakfast and space-available upgrades at Waldorf-Astoria, Conrad, Curio, Hilton, and DoubleTree. Plus, you’ll receive every 5th night free on award stays. Hilton Gold is also one of the easiest hotel statuses’ to achieve. The hard route involves 20 stays, 40 nights, or 75K base points. However, Honors Gold is awarded as a perk on several rewards cards.
- Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card receives Hilton Honors Gold status
- The Hilton Honors American Express Business Card receives Hilton Honors Gold status
- The Platinum Card® from American Express receives Hilton Honors Gold status
- The Business Platinum Card® from American Express receives Hilton Honors Gold status
- Hilton Honors American Express Card receives Hilton Honors Silver status with a fast track to Gold status after spending $20K in a calendar year
Spend Your Way to Diamond for $40,000 (Or get it free with a card!)
The Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card receives Hilton Honors Diamond status. Or, if you don't want to pay a premium annual fee, put $40,000 of spending on the Hilton Surpass or Hilton Business Card in one calendar year, and you earn Hilton Diamond status, which would typically take 30 stays, 60 nights, or 120K base points, a substantial investment. Benefits include the same perks as Gold, plus a 48-hour room guarantee, express/late checkout and guaranteed lounge access (where available).
Solid Budget Redemptions Around the World
Hilton has a huge footprint, including budget hotels in places you may not suspect, at prices that are too good to pass up. Current welcome offers are enough for six nights at the DoubleTree by Hilton in Orlando (5th night free), right out the front of Universal Studios and the perfect base for a long weekend exploring Florida’s theme parks.
Get the 5th Night Free on Award Redemptions for Elite Members
Another killer feature of the Honors award program is the 5th night free for elite members. Considering even the no annual fee Hilton Amex offers up complimentary Silver status, these benefit offers incredible value and substantially raises the value of your Hilton Honors points.
Earn up to 52 Points per Dollar with Hilton Honors Promos
The number of points required for Hilton’s high-end properties can be a little deceiving. When you factor in how fast you can accumulate Honors points, and Hilton’s regular promos, earning enough points for luxury redemptions is a breeze. Diamond members that stacked a ‘Go More Get More’ promo were able to rack up as much as 52 points per dollar spent on their co-brand card!
Points + Money Slider Offers Solid Value
It's easy to be skeptical of award program ‘enhancements,’ but Hilton’s new Points + Money Slider has turned out to be one of its better additions. Does it lower the cost every stay? No, and in the case of redemptions subject to a resort fee, even adding the smallest amount of cash to the slider can add the resort fees in full to the cost of your reservation. The value of the Points + Money Slider differs between properties and dates.
We’ve found value in all kinds of points and cash combos, with some of the best value found in Hilton’s mid-range hotels. Not only can it lower the cost of your reservation, if you have plans to stay at a particular hotel but don’t quite have the required points, you can use the Points + Money Slider for any combo that works for you financially.
Put Your Diamond Status on Hold
Life gets in the way of travel; it’s unavoidable. A new addition to the family, a change of career or employer, or you might be taking a sabbatical to learn the fine Japanese art of Kintsugi. Whatever the reason, if you’ve been Hilton Diamond for the last three years with at least 250 nights or 500K+ base points, you can apply for a one-time status extension of one year from the time when your status would otherwise have expired. A great way of rewarding the most loyal Hilton fans.
When All Else Fails, You Can Purchase Hilton Honors Points
When you’ve exhausted every other method of collecting Hilton points, and you’re still a few thousand short of a redemption, you can always turn to the last port of call and purchase Hilton Honors points for 1¢ per point. If you time your purchase to coincide with one of Hilton's regular promos, you can get points as low as 0.5¢ per piece. Not our favorite way to collect points but when you’re short of points, it’s another method of reaching that redemption.
Final Thoughts
Hilton Honors transforming itself into the best hotel program for mid-range redemptions, and the Honors program now counts some stellar features. The points pooling feature allows you to combine points from up to 10 other accounts to reach your travel goals, and the super-achievable Hilton Gold status can get you free breakfast and your 5th night free on award stays.
If you have any questions about the Hilton Honors program, or you’re unsure how to use one of the features, please reach out in the comments.
The comments on this page are not provided, reviewed, or otherwise approved by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
Worth to note is that, as a gold member, the reception you get at Hilton hotels in Europe and Asia is often great, much better than in the US. We have had fruit baskets, bottles of wine, choclates, free drinks in the bar day-long, suite upgrades and the like. In the US, reception was typically much like any guest – no extra attention at all.
Members outside the US can’t get the credit cards, so to reach Gold status the quick way to get it as a credit card benefit is not available. I wonder if there is some other “quick way”? Some years, it may be hard to reach the nights/stays requirements.
A great thing with Hilton Honors is that reward stays on many hotels in less frequented locations can be booked at incredibly low “points cost”. I have been on vacations in Turkey, Poland and Romania, and stayed very nicely at only 5,000 or 10,000 points. This is increadibly good value.
As a business traveler who is finally hitting the road again, it seems that the hotels are slow to go back to the pre-COVID level of service. I’m staying at a Homewood Suites next week which, according to their website, has no evening social. I hate to spend time getting carry-out from restaurants after working long hours. You’d think they could at least offer some prepacked sandwiches or salads along with chips and sodas. I understand not serving buffet style, but they could do something for the guests.
I absolutely love Hilton Honors. Clear and simple, with regular promos and excellent treatment of elites.
Last Year Hilton Honors allowed me to access great promotions for my stay at the hotel and also it allows to shop with points on Amazon. Big Deal!!
I’m currently Hilton Gold (Amex Platinum) with Silver elite as a fallback (Hilton Honors Amex), and this is my first and primary hotel loyalty program as a newcomer to points and miles during the pandemic. In my Hilton profile, the MyWay Benefits allows you to pick which benefit you’d like with particular brands in the portfolio. Given that the continental breakfast is undoubtedly the better value since it’s per day, in which situations would it be better to choose the 500/1000 points per stay option in lieu of breakfast? When one is just on the cusp of redeeming in Bora Bora/Maldives? 🙂
Not everyone eats breakfast. I often work odd hours and am either on the way to work during the hours breakfast is available or asleep because I’ve worked the night before. Otherwise, breakfast would win every time.
Hello, could you help me? I would like to be a member of the E-rewards opinion panel, with any of your invitations.
You should be able to join without an invitation! Here’s the page to get started: https://www.guestopinionrewards.com/signup
I hope Hilton will extend status for 2021 to the whole year. My typical constant travel has dropped to zero during the pandemic.
I have a Hilton Honors number but do not recall what it is and the usage goes back far enough I don’t have a recent email with that number on it?? Can I reclaim those points? if so, when?? And how can I use your system to find the honors number?? Wishing to apply for a new
Amex Express card??
Please contact Hilton Honors to get it resolved. Unfortunately, we are unable to help you with your Hilton Honors membership number.
Can I join Hilton Honors without applying for a credit card?
Yes, you should be able to do that.
Final found out about the status of my missing award POINTS. After 4 1/2 months messing around with Salesforce.com inc. without any results, I got and excellent answer from the Hilton manager where I was attempting to use the POINTS. I had emailed, over the months, every possible Hilton address I could find. Apparently, one those emails was forwarded to the Hilton site manager with the answers. I received an email from the manager regarding the POINTS issue. I immediately emailed him back a whole string of detailed circular correspondences between Salesforce.com Inc. and myself with screen shots of the attempted reservation at the manager’s facility. The very next day the manager responded with a logical and succinct explanation of what happened with my POINTS.
As it turns out, my POINTS had expired days before I attempted to make the reservation, but the POINTS were still showing as available in my Hilton Honors account. It seems that my Hilton Honors account had not been updated when I was attempting to use the POINTS. Logical explanation provided by the Hilton manager in TWO days!
My personal experience with the Hilton Manager was stellar. The multi billion dollar Salesforce.com Inc. who purports to provide Customer Relationship Management of behalf of Hiltion has failed to be effective regarding my issue.
Lesson learned: Forget dealing with the offshore incompetence and try to find a domestic source for Hilton issue resolution.
Just a word of warning. Your Hilton Honors point are very useful as long as they remain in your Hilton Honors account. In November I was making a reservation on line, using points and money. I was unable to complete the transaction online due to technical problems on Hilton’s website. I completed the reservation by telephone with a Hilton agent. Due to errors made by the agent my points were never applied to my reservation and ALL of my POINTS were subsequently deleted from my Hilton Honors account.
After numerous emails and phone calls the POINTS have yet to be restored. Apparently the problem resides with Salesforce.com, Inc. who provides Customer Relationship Management for Hilton. Salesforce.com, Inc. provides Hilton offshore responses to all online inquires. Salesforce.com, Inc. has provided me numerous pandering responses and still no restoration of my POINTS. It seems that Salesforce.com, Inc. is not empowered to restore my POINTS without some behind the scenes communication with Hilton sales?
As of today, I am still receiving inane emails from Salesforce.com, Inc., but now have received a complaint number, for what that is worth? Telephone attempts to have the POINTS restored have also not been fruitful. Telephone calls ended up with endless 800 number referrals and dropped call transfers.
In summary, your POINTS are useful, as long as you do not have to engage the dysfunction Hilton Customer Services.
Hey Mike, so sorry to hear about the situation. I came across this post this morning “My Hilton account was hacked… Twice.”
https://frequentmiler.boardingarea.com/my-hilton-account-was-hacked-twice/
Perhaps that’s not the issue, but maybe the fraud dept. can help.
I work for Hilton!! This honors program is awesome and the guests love it especially now that they have rolled out the shop with points on amazon!! It’s very exciting!!
Booked a room here and had plenty to choose from in the area. The hotel was clean and friendly people. The hotel began renovations that day and the fumes were nauseating, the poor hotel workers could hardly deal with it. I couldn’t use the gym, pool or eat at the restaurant due to the fumes. Fumes like this are very dangerous and I called Hilton honors to discuss the situation. I asked for a supervisor and they gave me Evelyn, after discussing the problem and severity of it her response was “if you get sick keep the doctor’s bill.” Evelyn did not try to transfer me to a hotel or anything, terrible experience at this hotel.
Thank you for your review. If you have AmEx Ascend card, do you get the complimentary Hilton Honors status every calendar year regardless of card earnings? Or die the gold status expire after the calendar year is up?
Yes, you get Gold status simply by being a primary cardholder.
Hilton has a great Program!!! Event better.
Thank you for the article .. My opinion and experience prove to me that Hilton program is one of the mid range features and cannot compared to Marriott and Spg program either in term of features , benefits , or the recognition from the different chain hotels ..
in addition to that this program is misleading the members and not transparent specially in term of redemption .., the have removed hotel category in order to make it in the gray aria so no member can know how much points needed for any hotel for redemption .
most of the hotels in many countries have increased the required redemption points twice a year .. such as Cairo from 10 k to 20000 and Alexandria 5000 points to 20000 points , and in tangier morocco from 10000 points to 20000 even the fact that the maximum points required for one night redemption as per the provided link by Hilton is showing less then these numbers check (http://pointsandmoney.hilton.com/ )
Marriott gives you guaranteed late checkout until 4 PM for platinum and gold members while Hilton you have to ask and request and begging them to get until 2 or 3 PM . even if you are platinum member .
So the conclusion ,, the comparing between Marriott and Hilton is comparing between Mercedes and Hyundai cars .
I’ve been split between SPG and Hilton for a while but with the Marriott-SPG merger and the Hilton Aspire card, I’m planning to go all in with Hilton for a while and see how much I enjoy the diamond status. I have some stays coming up and will see what kind of upgrades i get (i’m looking to see how they provide suite upgrades)
I am all in on Hilton. Aspire card….HGVC member….use the app all the time…..diamond status…..love it. Learning the ends and outs, but find that it works for us as a family and like the variety they have.
Good write-up. I am a little tired of the SPG Marriott stuff… Still spending 5 nights in a Marriott, but like the idea of keeping my options open.
Hate dynamic award! Many hotels do not drop point stay amount when the cash cost drops substantially.
Love Hilton Diamond. It works very well for us including the 5th night free and the bonus nights on the Hilton Macquarie Visa card for Australians.
Just caught your article here. I am a lifetime platinum elite with Marriott and though I enjoy the status, though I certainly do not feel special–do you think Hilton with grant diamond status to me if I show them my Marriott status ? Average 105 nights per year
You could certainly try for an outright match — they have an official challenge site: https://statusmatch.hiltonhonors.com/ Perhaps in the documentation you provide, provide a note asking for an outright match showing all of your hotel activity — or simply switch to them right away and get 8 stays in to keep Diamond for a year — or just get the new Hilton Aspire card from Amex, which if you stay frequently with Hilton is a complete no-brainer. It earns the most Hilton points/dollar when you stay at Hilton properties and gives you instant Diamond.
Do Hilton point still expire after 12 months of inactivity?
Yes, but it is SUPER easy to keep them from expiring: https://awardwallet.com/blog/do-hilton-honors-points-expire/ — Use a single point for a purchase at Amazon.com. Done.
As noted, YES the expire if you don’t have any activity. Just found out I lost my miles but can buy them back. LOL!! Agree with another post that Marriott Bonvoy is a MUCH better rewards program. Points don’t expire. Just booked a night at the Ritz in Marina Del Rey with points. Need I say more?!
I don’t think Hilton points are all that valuable though, and the flexible award pricing eliminates a lot of potential “high value” redemptions during peak season.