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With over 5,200 properties in 13 different brands, Hilton Honors is one of the largest hotel loyalty programs today. Whether you stay at a Hampton Inn, Homewood Suites, Hilton, or Waldorf Astoria, you’ll earn Hilton Honors points with every visit. You already know the value redeeming your loyalty points for free hotel nights for at least 5,000 points, but do you know about these seven other benefits?
Pool Your Hilton Honors Points With Friends and Family
Hilton Honors recently began letting their members pool their points with ten other members to book award nights sooner or to even split the tab so you can pay with points instead of cash. You can pool your Hilton Honors points for free with a minimum 1,000 point transfer on a 1:1 basis.
The most points you can transfer in a single calendar year is 500,000 points. If you’re the recipient of the pooled points, you can receive up to 2,000,000 Hilton points each calendar year.
5th Night Free on Award Stays
When you pay for at least four Hilton nights with points, you get the 5th night free on a 5+ night award stay. To capitalize on this benefit, you need to be a Hilton Honor Silver member or higher. If you own any of the Hilton Honors Credit Cards, you automatically have Silver tier status or higher.
If you’re new to the Hilton Honors program or don’t have an upgraded membership status yet, you will automatically earn Silver status after 4 stays or 10 nights in a calendar year. As a Silver member, you’ll also receive a 20% elite bonus on all base points earned during your stay. Paying for the stay with a Hilton credit card also means you’ll earn at least 7 points per $1 spent in addition to the regular points earned directly from Hilton.
Pay With Points and Cash
If you don’t want to exhaust your entire points balance on a single award stay, you can also pay with points and cash. You need to have the minimum number of points to cover the entire award stay with points, but the points and cash option lets you decide how many points you want to spend in 1,000 point increments.
If an award night costs 10,000 points, you must pay at least 5,000 points but you can also spend up to 9,000 points if you want to pay the full 10,000 points per night.
Hilton’s Points and Cash system is more flexible than some of the other hotel chains that only offer one or two options which may or may not be a good deal because they make the cash portion almost as expensive as the regular night rate.
Use Points for Room Upgrades
You can also use your Hilton Honors points to purchase premium rooms and room upgrade. Once again, other hotel programs only let you use reward points to book a standard room and reserve the better rooms for cash customers.
Hilton also lets you redeem your points for all-inclusive resorts and three-night vacation packages that let you enjoy free meals and spa treatments for the ultimate Hilton stay.
Book a Golf Stay and Play Package
Did you know you can golf for free at one of the 52 Hilton Golf Hotels and Resorts located in 14 countries? Many of these golf resorts are located in the United States, but you can also book a stay in countries like Spain, Jamaica, South Africa, and the UAE. The next time you travel abroad, don’t forget to pack your clubs and look for a Hilton Golf Stay and Play Package.
You can also use your points to book a golf lesson or buy new golf gear and clubs too. All awards need to be booked within 90 days of travel, so you can get by with waiting until the last minute with this Hilton Honors benefit.
Shop at Amazon with Hilton Honors Points
Hilton Honors is the first hotel loyalty program to directly partner with Amazon to use your rewards points to merchandise on the largest online marketplace. This benefit is available to all Hilton Honors members, regardless of which country you live in.
To begin using your Hilton points at Amazon, you must link your Hilton Honors and Amazon accounts together. After that, you can begin paying with points from up to three different Hilton Honors accounts. Once your accounts are linked, click the “shop with Points” button under your Amazon account menu.
When you get ready to get ready to pay, you can enter how many points you want to use to pay. The minimum redemption amount is five Hilton Honors points per Amazon shopping session.
Enjoy World-Class Travel Experiences
For an out-of-this-world experience, you can redeem your Hilton Honors points for exclusive travel experiences such as:
- Concerts
- Sports tournaments
- Hilton vacation packages
Owning a co-brand Hilton Honors American Express credit card can give you access to even more exclusive offers you might not find anywhere else. As most travelers now value experiences more than “stuff,” you might find more value from these redemption options that paying for Amazon purchases.
To help you find the best experience, you can filter your search results by country, redeem or bid opportunities, and also the experience category.
Need to Boost Your Hilton Honors Points Balance?
To begin taking advantage of these seven Hilton Honors perks, you might need to increase your current points balance. While you could book a Hilton stay and earn rewards points or apply for a Hilton credit card with a sign-up bonus, don’t forget that Hilton Honors is also a 1:1 travel partner with American Express.
If you own the Platinum Card from American Express, you can transfer your Membership Rewards points to Hilton Honors on a 1:1 basis in 1,000 point intervals. There are zero transfer fees and the transfer is near instant, although you should still allow 24 hours to complete the transfer.
Owning the Amex Platinum also gives you automatic Hilton Honors Gold status which lets you automatically begin using the 5th-night free perk, earn 18 points per $1 on Hilton stays, free continental breakfast, and complimentary space-available room upgrades. To earn Gold status on your own, you must book 20 stays, 40 nights, or 75,000 Hilton Honors points in a calendar year.
Summary Hilton Honors Points
If you’re ready to begin earning more value from each Hilton Honors point, these seven perks are a great way to use your points beyond the standard room award night redemption. You stay with Hilton because you expect a top-class experience and these perks give you more reasons to keep coming back.
