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8 ways to redeem points with the Hilton Honors program
Hilton Honors may not be the most rewarding hotel rewards program, but it can still provide some significant value. The chain has over 7,500 properties across six continents, and all of them — even the most luxurious Conrad and Waldorf Astoria properties — can be booked with points.
And you’re not just restricted to hotel stays. There are other ways to redeem Hilton Honors points that can provide value. Keep reading to find out eight ways you can redeem points with the Hilton program.
Redeem Hilton points for hotel stays
A beach vacation this winter could be even more enjoyable if your Hilton hotel stay is free. HILTON FORT LAUDERDALE BEACH RESORT
Hilton Honors is a hotel loyalty program, so naturally, you can redeem your points for hotel stays in the Hilton portfolio. Unfortunately, the program doesn’t provide a published award chart, so your only way to know the award price for a particular hotel is to search for your dates.
A good starting point, though, is the program’s Points Explorer tool. This tool highlights the maximum award rate of a property, as well as the lowest price recently booked by other members. However, these “discounted” prices tend to come up when cash prices are lower.
TPG pegs Hilton Honors points at 0.6 cents per point. However, given the form of variable pricing the program uses, the value you get will vary from hotel to hotel.
For example, I found a night at the Conrad Washington, DC that is bookable for $372 with the Hilton Honors semi-flex discount rate or for 85,000 Hilton points. You’ll get a redemption value of just 0.44 cents per point if you redeem points in this case.
On the other hand, some hotels will give you more than 0.6 cents per point in redemption value. This usually happens during peak times, when you get to a property’s maximum standard award rate. For example, on New Year’s Eve, the Conrad New York Downtown in New York City costs $846 per night using the Honors discount rate.Alternatively, you can book the same room for 90,000 points per night, giving you a value of 0.94 cents per point.
To book an award room, start at hilton.com and sign in to your loyalty account. (You don’t have to be logged in to search for award availability, but it makes it easier.) After entering your destination and dates, select “Special Rates” in the search box, tick the “Use Points” option and click “Done.”
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Select the property you’d like to book from the results page and follow the on-screen prompts to complete the reservation. Just be sure to pay close attention to the individual hotel’s cancellation policy. Most award stays are free to cancel until a couple of days before arrival, but some properties have stricter policies.
There are a few other options that you can utilize when redeeming Hilton Honors points for a stay. As you go through the booking process, keep your eyes out for the following booking options.
Customize your award with the Points & Money slider
In addition to booking stays completely with points, the Hilton Honors program allows you to use a combination of points and money.
Unlike many other programs that use a fixed number of points and cash for this award option, Hilton lets you customize the amount using a slider on the final page before confirming your reservation. You’ll still select the full award price from the search results, but then you can drag the slider to whatever points-and-money combination you want:
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Note that there is a 5,000-point minimum for Points & Money redemptions. The combination of points and money you select is final once you book. However, you will earn Hilton Honors points on the cash portion of these stays. So if you’re short on points or don’t want to burn all your points on one stay, this can be a nice option.
Related:8 ways to maximize Hilton Honors redemptions
Redeem points for premium room awards
One of the best things about Hilton Honors redemptions is that you’re not restricted to one room type. You can redeem points for premium rooms, including suites or rooms with better views or club lounge access.
The booking process is the same. Once you’ve selected your desired hotel, you can choose between a standard room reward and a premium room reward, like this example at the Hilton London Paddington.
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As you can see, premium rooms will cost more points than standard rooms. In some cases (like the above), it’s likely not worth it.
However, if you’re looking for extra space for your family, it’s great to have the option to burn additional points for a suite or larger room instead of hoping your Hilton elite status will score you an upgrade at check-in.
Fifth night free for Hilton Honors elite members
Hilton Honors members with Silver status or higher get every fifth night free when booking a standard room reward stay. This perk extends to stays of up to 20 nights — during which you’d enjoy four free nights. If you don’t have Hilton Honors status, consider applying for one of Hilton’s American Express cards for automatic status.
Related: How to choose the best Hilton credit card for you
Redeem Hilton points for event credits
You can also use Hilton Honors points for a discount on your next Hilton event (but please don’t). This can be a wedding, corporate event or other type of meeting. When redeeming Hilton points for these discounts, you can choose from different denominations of vouchers. Here’s how much they cost:
- 25,000 points = $50
- 50,000 points = $100
- 75,000 points = $150
- 125,000 points = $250
- 250,000 points = $500
These vouchers provide just 0.2 cents per Hilton point, well below TPG’s valuation, so we don’t recommend this redemption.
Related:Earn easy Hilton points by eating at your favorite restaurants
Redeem Hilton points for experiences
KATIE GENTER/THE POINTS GUY
You can also redeem Hilton points for travel experiences through Hilton Honors Experiences.
Available experiences often include tickets to sporting events, dinners at top restaurants and concert tickets. Some of these can be purchased immediately with points, while others require you to bid against other Hilton Honors members.
There are some pretty neat experiences available as of writing this piece, including a 60-minute full body oil massage at the Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi Spa (50,000 points) and a Maldivian Indigenous signature spa treatment at the Conrad Maldives Rangali Island (100,000 points).
While you’re generally best off redeeming hotel points for hotel stays, snagging a unique experience using your points can make for a fantastic redemption. This is how TPG’s Katie Genter enjoyed a 60-minute couples massage and a four-course dinner for two with just 20,000 Hilton Honors points.
Look through the Hilton Honors Experiences page to see if anything interests you.
Redeem Hilton points at Ticketmaster
Another way to use your points for experiences is by linking your Hilton and Ticketmaster accounts. After that, the redemption process is simple: You use your Hilton points like cash at checkout, so you can put them toward any Ticketmaster purchase.
Unfortunately, the rate at which Hilton points are converted to cash is 0.2 cents per point — not the best value. You’re better off redeeming your points through Hilton Honors Experiences.
Related:3 things to know about using Hilton Honors points for concert and festival tickets
Transfer Hilton points to airlines
Hilton Honors has 26 airline partners and one resort partner to which you can transfer your Hilton points. However, note that Hilton Honors has less-than-ideal transfer ratios. For example, you can exchange 10,000 Hilton Honors points for a mere 1,000 United Airlines MileagePlus miles.
Transfer ratios vary from one airline to the next, so check Hilton’s transfer site for your airline of choice. You’ll have to enter your airline loyalty number to see the points-to-miles exchange rate.
Redeem Hilton points on Lyft rides
Hilton has a partnership with Lyft, which is a fantastic way to earn some extra Hilton points on your Lyft rides. On the redemption side, however, it’s not so pretty.
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You can convert your Hilton points into Lyft credits (similar to gift cards) of varying amounts. But regardless of how many points you redeem this way, you’ll get a piddly 0.22 cents each.
Redeem Hilton points for car rentals
Hilton partners with National, Alamo and Enterprise, so you can redeem your points for a car rental. However, this option doesn’t provide a good return on your hard-earned points. In our tests, using Hilton points for a rental car consistently provided around 0.2 cents per point — effectively cutting the currency’s value by two-thirds.
For example, a five-day midsize SUV rental with Alamo at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) will set you back over 250,000 Hilton points.
HILTON.COM
You can reserve the same car on Alamo’s site for a grand total of $572, providing a value of only 0.23 cents per point.
Related: The easiest ways to save on rental cars
Redeem Hilton points for Amazon purchases
BRENT LEWIN/BLOOMBERG/GETTY IMAGES
Finally, you can redeem Hilton Honors points to cover Amazon purchases. Just link your Hilton Honors account to your Amazon account and select Hilton Honors points as your payment method at checkout. Amazon will tell you how many points it takes to cover your order, and you can use your points to cover the entire purchase or just part of it.
Should you use Hilton Honors points for Amazon purchases? Our research found that Hilton points are worth 0.2 cents each when redeemed toward Amazon purchases, so this redemption isn’t ideal.
I’m all for having additional options for using your points and miles, but in general, you wouldn’t be maximizing your Hilton points (or any other currency) at Amazon.
Related: How I’m spending 4 million Hilton Honors points
How to earn Hilton points
Of course, all of the above redemptions require you to have Hilton points in your account. Fortunately, there are various ways to earn more Hilton Honors points. One of the quickest is by adding a new Hilton Honors card to your wallet. Here are the available cards and their welcome offers:
- Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card: Earn 130,000 bonus points after you spend $3,000 on purchases on the card within the first six months of card membership ($150 annual fee; see rates and fees).
- Hilton Honors American Express Card: Earn 80,000 bonus points after you spend $2,000 on purchases on the card within your first six months of card membership (no annual fee; see rates and fees).
- The Hilton Honors American Express Business Card: Earn 175,000 bonus points after you spend $8,000 on the card in the first six months of card membership. Offer ends June 5 ($195 annual fee; see rates and fees).
- Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card: Earn 150,000 Hilton Honors bonus points after you spend $6,000 on purchases on the card within your first six months of card membership ($550 annual fee; see rates and fees).
The information for the HiltonAspire card has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
Bottom line
As you can see, there are many interesting ways to redeem Hilton Honors points. However, we recommend sticking with hotel stays — this generally provides the most value, getting you closer to (or even higher than) TPG’s valuation of 0.6 cents per Hilton point.
The other option I’d recommend considering is Hilton Honors Experiences, especially if you’re looking for a unique event that may not be otherwise available to you.
For rates and fees of the Hilton Surpass Card, click here.
For rates and fees of the Hilton Amex Card, click here.
For rates and fees of the Hilton Amex Business Card, click here.
For rates and fees of the Hilton Amex Aspire Card, click here.
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