AwardWallet receives compensation from advertising partners for links on the blog. Terms Apply to the offers listed on this page. The opinions expressed here are our own and have not been reviewed, provided, or approved by any bank advertiser. Here's our complete list of Advertisers.
Update: As of April 2, 2018, Hilton has updated the terms and conditions of the Hilton Honors program and we no longer see any mention of the reinstate option.
On December 13, 2017, Hilton updated its terms and conditions of the Hilton Honors program to have an official stance on reinstating expired Hilton Honors points which they've backdated to March 1, 2017. The exact language is:
Hilton Honors members can reinstate up to 1,000,000 expired Hilton Honors Points. Only Points balances that have expired in the previous 18 months are eligible for reinstatement. Only one reinstatement transaction is permitted per Hilton Honors account. Email address is required and will only be used for transaction and marketing communications related to this purchase. Points reinstated do not count towards elite tier qualification. Points.com and Hilton Honors reserve the right to terminate this reinstatement program at any time.
Key Points
- Points must be reinstated within 18 months of expiration
- You can reinstate up to 1,000,000 points
- Reinstatements are limited to one (1) time per account
- Reinstating 1,000 to 100,000 points price out at $0.0025/point ($2.50 per 1,000 points)
- Reinstating 100,001 to 1,000,000 points is a flat rate of $250
- Reinstatement is processed by points.com (No bonus Hilton Honors earning here)
So far, the only data point of purchasing expired Hilton points is via loyalty traveler, who looked at buying back 2,750 expired points for $6.88
Another Possible Option?
While it is great that you can now buy back Hilton points, there may still be another option. You may be able to get Hilton to reinstate your points through a challenge or as a one-time courtesy — it never hurts to ask. After a few calls to Hilton, we found representatives didn't know of this new policy update so you might luck out.
Our Take
With a 12-month expiry policy, Hilton Honors has one of shorter expiry windows, and at the same time does not display an expiration date on their website. Thankfully, AwardWallet will calculate the expiration of your Hilton Honors points.
Setup AwardWallet to track your Hilton Honors points and you won't have to worry about points mysteriously disappearing. If you have accidentally had some points expire then the ability to buy them back is definitely better than a stick in the eye — but we hope you'll never run into this. If you do, just make sure you've got a plan to actually redeem your points so they don't expire on your again.
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.
If I do have stays once in every 12 months period, my points won’t expire – is that correct?
As long as they are eligible stays. E.g. a stay booked through a 3rd party website such as Expedia or Priceline wouldn’t be eligible.
Though it has some conditions this could be useful for those seldom used Hilton points.
Great point about the reinstatement via challenge, or as a courtesy; never hurts to ask, especially if it has the potential to save $200-$300.
Will that reset the expiration time?
We’ve asked that question but haven’t heard back yet — however, logic would dictate that it would give you another 12 months to use those points.
So what are the options for keeping your Hilton account topped off?
Check it here: https://awardwallet.com/blog/do-hilton-honors-points-expire/ — I think Amazon is the easiest.
Hilton points are transferable easily, instead of paying for reinstating just keep track…
I don’t have many Hilton Points but it may be a good idea to recover them
Thanks for the info . Will keep that in mind although if one has a lot of points – just purchasing once annually may be worth it to keep it alive.
I have never lost any points with them thank goodness! I now have enough that I do not want to expire and so I have their card and make sure I’m tracking it all here :O) Really I do not know why people are not all here! I would go nuts if I had to look at each account just to see when they expire.
Since I haven’t any place that has anything expiring, do you know if Hilton sends out email letting one know they are about to lose points?
As far as I know, they do not. AwardWallet does though!
I’m glad to have this option but it’s even better to have a system like AwardWallet that reminds me when the points are going to expire. It’s much more satisfying to do something small to reset the expiry date than to have to pay to get the points back.
Nice to have this possibility for reinstating points.
I hope however never using this!
Thanks to Award Wallet point expiration tracking, I should not encounter this issue. However, sometimes life can get in the way for any of us and we may miss a deadline. Helpful to know this option exists rather than flushing the hard-earned points away.
Hmm. Still not worth it.
Great to have this option but I don’t like having to pay for something you’ve already earned
I think its nice to have options, but this seems expensive to me,
It definitely is — but it is less expensive than earning them.
Instead of trying to keep my HH points alive, I cashed them in for credit on Amazon. Not a great redemption, but I didn’t have enough points about (4000) to do anything else with them.
Not the cheapest way but a welcome option none the less
I’m always disappointed when points or rewards have such a short expiry period… i had a Hilton account many years ago, so long that i was deleted from their system i guess anyways. Good to know about this program of buy back but I guess then its less incentive for them to be nice and re-instate the points, but then again at least its known that its even possible! so asking and pushing would be the way to go first for sure.
It’s not a huge deal, but it’s not terrible to a degree. But I think we can all agree, the best option is just keep them active. So many easy ways to do so.
I had no idea this was possible! Thanks!
Let’s make sure not to get the points expired in the first place. 🙂
ouch, don’t want to fall into needing to do this
NM has made an understatement in “not exactly a bargain!” HH points are worth only half a cent each/ $5 per 1000, so to charge half the value to get ’em back is crazy!
The problem is that one year is too short, as many ordinary people take only one vacation a year or less often, and those are the ones who don’t pay attention nor earn in other ways.
Why do points or frequent flyer miles expire? From the traveler’s point of view this is not a nice thing for hotels or airlines to do.
Can you imagine losing a million HH points, that standard fee is pretty good to get back a million!
thank you for the info
good to know
Thanks for the heads up. I wasn’t aware of this option.
“Only one reinstatement transaction is permitted per Hilton Honors account”
Gotta keep this in mind if I ever need to use this.
Good info here to keep in mind should I ever need to “save” some points.
Thank you for this information, it would be nice if the first time it would be complimentary.
Especially with the short expiration time.
I suppose it’s good to have this option, even if it’s not exactly a bargain…
I’d say still better than losing the lot!
none for me, but thx!