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If you are short on Hilton Honors points for your next redemption, there's good news. Hilton Honors allows you to pool your points together with friends and family. Even better, Hilton doesn't charge a fee for transfers, transfers are quick, and there are only a few limitations. Pooling can help you work together toward your next aspirational hotel redemption.
Here's how Hilton points pooling works and how to get started.
Page Contents
How does Hilton Points Pooling Work?
While pooling your Hilton Honors points is free, quick, and easy, there are a few rules:
- Points can only be transferred in 1,000-point increments.
- The minimum transfer is 1,000 and the maximum is 500,000 points per transaction and/or calendar year.
- You can receive up to 2,000,000 points per calendar year.
- There is a maximum of six pooling transactions per calendar year.
- A total of 11 Hilton Honors Members may pool their points together (one member initiates the pooling, and up to 10 other members can contribute).
- New Hilton Honors members can pool points after 30 days provided they have activity on their accounts, or after 90 days if they have no activity yet.
Note that there is absolutely no charge to pool points with other members. If any of the members pooling their points has Hilton Honors status, the status will not be conveyed to other users pooling together. Pooling does not count as qualified account activity to stop your Hilton points from expiring — neither for the sender nor the recipient.
You can also transfer points directly to another Hilton Honors member, or have them transfer points directly to you. Many of the same rules apply as pooling points. Whether you're transferring or pooling Hilton points, it can take up to 24 hours for the points to post to the other account.
Related: Things We Love About the Hilton Honors Rewards Program
How to Link Accounts to Pool Hilton Honors Points
Send a Pooling Request
First, sign in to your Hilton Honors account. Once signed in, hover over Hilton Honors on the main menu at the top of the site. Click on “Hilton Honors Points”.
Next, scroll down and choose “Pool Points” under “Do More With Your Points,” or access that page directly here if you're already logged in.
Finally, invite up to 10 Hilton Honors members to pool points with you:
Receiving Confirmation Emails from Hilton
Hilton will email you a receipt of the points pooling request.
Invites will be sent to your friends and family, with a similar message from Hilton.
Initiating the Transfer
Once your invitees click on “pool your points”, they will need to log into their individual Hilton Honors accounts. They'll land on the points pooling page with your name and email address listed as the recipient of the transfer. From there, pool members can select the number of points they want to send and press “Submit” to initiate the transfer request.
That's it! Points will be pooled almost immediately.
Related: Which Rewards Programs Let You Pool Points and Miles With Others for Free?
How To Earn Hilton Honors Points
Beyond pooling points, you can earn Hilton points from hotel stays, Hilton bonus points promotions, shopping, buy Hilton points promotions, and other activities. However, the fastest way to amass a healthy balance of points involves opening Hilton's co-branded American Express credit cards.
There are four Hilton credit cards from American Express, and cardholders may pool all points earned from the cards:
- Hilton Honors American Express Card: Earn 80,000 Hilton Honors Bonus Points with the Hilton Honors American Express Card after you spend $2,000 in purchases on the Card within your first 6 months of Card Membership.
- Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card: Earn 130,000 Hilton Honors Bonus Points after you spend $3,000 in purchases on the Card in the first 6 months of Card Membership.
- Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card: Earn 150,000 Hilton Honors Bonus Points after you spend $6,000 on eligible purchases on the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card within your first 6 months of Card Membership.
- The Hilton Honors American Express Business Card: Earn 130,000 Hilton Honors Bonus Points after you spend $6,000 in purchases on the Hilton Honors Business Card within the first six months of Card Membership.
(Terms apply)
- Earn 7X Points per dollar on eligible purchases charged directly with a hotel or resort within the Hilton Honors portfolio of brands
- Earn 5X Points per dollar on eligible purchases at U.S. restaurants, at U.S. supermarkets, and at U.S. gas stations
- Earn 3X Points for all other eligible purchases on your Card.
(Terms Apply)
- 12X bonus points for each dollar of eligible purchases charged on your card directly with a hotel or resort within the Hilton portfolio
- 6X bonus points for each dollar of eligible purchases on your card at U.S. restaurants, U.S. supermarkets, and U.S. gas stations
- 4X bonus points on U.S online retail purchases
- 3X bonus points for all other eligible purchases on your card
(Terms apply)
- 12X Hilton Honors points on eligible purchases made directly with hotels and resorts in the Hilton portfolio
- 5X Hilton Honors points on the first $100,000 spent per calendar year on other eligible purchases; 3X thereafter
Related: How To Earn Hilton Honors Points
Ways To Use Pooled Points
Hilton offers multiple ways to use your points — pooled or otherwise — including redeeming for room rates, shopping (including Amazon shop with points), and experiences. However, the best use of Hilton points generally is for hotel stays.
Need some inspiration for your next trip? Check out the following:
- Top Hilton Honors Redemptions for the Budget-Savvy Traveler
- Best Hilton Points Redemptions for Luxury Stays
Bottom Line
Not a lot of hotel loyalty programs allow you to easily pool your points together with your friends and family. Hilton Honors does, providing for a great way to amass a larger amount of points sufficient to redeem for longer or better redemptions. This is a great strategy for couples who earn points separately but want to enjoy a free trip together, or even groups of friends. We've seen friends pool points together to attend concerts without breaking the bank and sharing a fabulous suite before.
If you're interested in this points pooling perk, just follow the steps above to easily pool Hilton Honors points for free. After linking accounts with friends and family and combining your points together, you can make dream vacations possible.
For rates and fees of the cards mentioned in this post, please visit the following links: Hilton Honors American Express Card (Rates & Fees), Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card (Rates & Fees), and The Hilton Honors American Express Business Card (Rates & Fees)
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.
How is this different than a generic transfer of points?Annual limits look to be the same? Any additional benefit?
Transferring points to someone who isn’t in your pool requires a fee and transferring in blocks of 10,000. However, there are no limits to how many points you can transfer this way. Pooling has limits but is free and done in smaller increments.
(?) There is no fee for member-to-member transfers, and the minimum amount is 1,000. (?)
“Can I give my Hilton Honors Points to another Hilton Honors member?
Hilton Honors Points can be transferred to another Hilton Honors Member in increments of 10,000 Points at a nominal processing cost. There is no limit to the number of Hilton Honors Points a Member can transfer or receive. Fees are based on the number of Points a Member transfers out of the account. After transferring 200,000 Points in a calendar year, any subsequent transfers that year are free. Learn more about how to buy, give and receive Hilton Honors Points.”
https://www.hilton.com/en/hilton-honors/support-faq/
Not sure why you would ever do a “gift” when you can do a “transfer” for free:
Hilton Honors Members can transfer Hilton Honors Points to another Hilton Honors Member through Points Pooling or 1-to-1 transfer in increments of 1,000 Points and up to 500,000 Points. Each Hilton Honors Member is limited to sending no more than five hundred thousand (500,000) Points and receiving two million (2,000,000) Points via Points Pooling or Transfers combined per calendar year. Each Hilton Honors Member is limited to making six (6) transfers to other member accounts and six (6) Hilton Points Pooling transactions per calendar year. Invitations to join a Points Pool is not considered transactional. Transactions refer to the transfer of Points to another member account either through 1-to-1 account transfers or through Points Pooling.
Hi,
for month now im trying to Pool with Friends.
But always when klicking on “pooling your points”, i get the following error message:
We are sorry, Something went wrong with your transaction. Please click here to try again.
Ive tried it now at least 4 time always the same.
Any idear what i could have done wrong?
Thanks for your help!!
Rainer – this happened to my wife and I when we wanted to set it up. I contacted Hilton on Twitter, and they helped me set it up. You could also email Hilton at HiltonHonors@hilton.com
Hi,
I met the same problem too. Could you please share the reason for this issue? HH account’s problem or not?
Anyone know how the points are reflected in Awardwallet after the change? Do they all show up for the pool owner only?
Please contact our support team to figure it out:
https://awardwallet.com/contact
In my opinion, the new point pooling feature is simply the consolation prize for the dynamic pricing.
Agree!
I didn’t know you could pool points.
now you do!
This is definitely something I will think about using in the future. It’s very nice that you can pool with anyone. My family are slowly learning about miles and points but we don’t share an address so other points pooling set ups have never been any benefit to me.
thank you, good post!
A positive addition for Hilton Honors. Good explanation.
This was a welcome change. All loyalty programs should adopt points pooling.
Nice! It’s always tough to figure out how to repay friends that pay for the hotel rooms using points. Now if we pool, it’s more fair!
It is good news to be able to pool the reward points.
The fact that a transfer transaction stop the expiration for both the sender or the recipient is absolutely great. I didn’t know this.
To be clear, pooling points DOES NOT extend expiration.
Alas, I have no friends or family that travel or who are interested in getting points, miles, etc. Oh well. With you all I get plenty of info on upping my balances and easy track them here :O) I think I need new friends ;o)
It’s great when these programmes allow point/miles pooling. I wish more would do the same, as I have so many orphaned miles in various loyalty schemes!
This is a great facilitity to utilise
When you transfer Starwood points you need to share the same address. What about Hilton pooling – do you need same address? Is it possible to transfer points to account of my brother that lives in another country?
You can pool with ANYONE 🙂
Thanks. I was looking for programs that allow points to be pooled or transferred without fees. This is now number 2 on the list, after Jetblue.
Nice new capability from Hilton.
Thanks for the detailed information!
Took advantage of this and moved several thousand points from my wife’s account to mine.
I need Points 😀 – and friends for Points..
Hahah! 🙂
Per usual, the Hilton site was a little glitchy, but my pooling transfer eventually went through. Cleaned out an orphan account, so one less to monitor.
I believe Hyatt also has a pretty easy points transfer policy!
They do, we’ll be covering it shortly!
Love points pooling, thanks Hilton!!
This is great! Thanks for the helpful explanation!
I would love to see others move to more pooling. A big benefit to families with multiple accounts.
Marginal improvement to a loyalty program that is a shell of its former self.
It’s about time they did this!
This looks good if you have relations that travel a lot.
Do I correctly understand that the transfers under the pooling method can only go one way — to the person initiating the pool request? What if several months later, the person who initiated the pool now wants to transfer some points to the person who previously sent her points under the pooling method?
Pat, you could indeed do that. The person wanting to request the points for pooling would send out a pooling request.
More programs should allow points pooling.
We’d certainly love it!
does this also extend the expiration date of the points?
Lorrie, as indicated in this post, we’ve reached out to Hilton and are awaiting a response. Once we have a confirmation, either way, we’ll update the content.
We’ve confirmed with Hilton that pooling does not extend expiration.
Is the expiration on an account basis or a points basis? If my wife’s Hilton account has recent activity but mine does not and I transfer points to her do those points now get her expiration date or will they expire once my account has been inactive for a certain period?
Expiration of points are an all or nothing. As long as there is qualifying activity all points stay alive. If you transfer your points to her account, those points now have her expiration date. This is a great way to keep points alive in an account that would otherwise expire.
Transferring points does not count as a qualifying activity to extend the life of an account/its points, so as long as your wife’s account has activity your points will be safe.
That’s exactly what I was wondering after reading that portion of the post. Thank you for confirming.
This is too bad. So many loop holes on activity between different programs.
I find hilton to be a bit of a challenge since I use it as a secondary program and I usually end up expiring these.
I suppose this is neat, but I’ve never quite wrapped my head around the practical difference between “pooling points” and simply transferring them to one person (usually the head of household with elite status)
Huh? Pooling is a new feature – with no fee.
This is great news. Finally we can share our points with family!
A positive change! I like it.
This is now a great feature of HH accounts. Many people short of HH points have in the past paid for more points to make up totals for a redemption. Now, family members can simply pool points saving lots of money.
So the first question would be: How do i get these points?
I have been able to do this.
A valuable flexibility which add more value to the Hilton Honors.
As a user has pointed out it works very well when you have the status and someone else the points!
which of the 4 credit cards would you recomend starting out with
Seems easy enough! Thx for the article!
Hope more hotel chains can follow this!
Great feature for families.
Very generous! I suppose it’s only Hilton and British Airways have this family&friends pooling – much more simple to use those points or miles for big rewards.
SPG allows you to pool points for members who share the same address.
Love that new promotion! Way to go Hilton!
Great article ! I did receive the email and would be useful to pool points with spouse.
Signing up was super easy and quick! Definitely expands the possibilities of our earned points.
Good info to have in case we need to pool points for a redemption!
This, combined with the new pay for points system, has actually brought a bit of value to Hilton points which have been the least valuable among the major brands for a while now.
Yes but it is very easy to earn
This will very useful for our family!
My wife and I signed up for points pooling, very simple process and the points transfer was instanteneous. She had all the points, however I have status. We transferred her points to my account so hopefully we will be upgraded when using points for stays.
Exactly the same situation I have. Nice way to add perks to points.
thanks Sam for a great article and breaking it down one step at a time.