Buy Points Hilton Honors loyalty program Hilton Hotels Worldwide

Hilton Honors points at $5 per 1,000. In 2018 a great deal for me, in 2019 not as good.

a screenshot of a hotel

Hilton Honors has a 100% bonus points offer for points purchases through May 28, 2019. This reduces the price from $10 to $5 per 1,000 points when you buy $50 or more in points. Members can buy up to 160,000 points during this promotional sale.

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Hilton Honors 100% Bonus points through May 28, 2019.

Minimum purchase of 5,000 Points is required to receive the matching bonus. Offer ends May 28, 2019. 

Value of Hilton Honors points to me has declined in 2019, but still have value

This morning I made a complete analysis of my 2018 hotel stays for 85 nights.

Hilton brand hotel stays accounted for 17 nights or 20% of my 2018 hotel nights with 10 reward nights and 7 paid nights.

I spent $472 for 7 hotel nights and redeemed 69,000 points for 10 reward nights.

June and August 2018 Hilton Garden Inn Krakow Airport at 10,000 points each for 2 reward nights cost 20,000 points.

In 2019 Hilton Garden Inn Krakow Airport is 20,000 points.

October 2018 Hampton Inn Cluj-Napoca, Romania for 6 nights at 10,000 points for 1 night and 19,000 points for 5 nights on a 5th Night Free stay seemed to be a pricing error glitch as my good fortune to be booking an extended stay in the days before the reward night changeover from 10,000 to 20,000 points for several hotels in Romania and Poland. I had my eye on several hotels in Romania at 5,000 points per night. Those Romania hotels all increased to 10,000 points in September 2018.

In 2019 Hampton Inn Cluj-Napoca, Romania is 20,000 points per reward night.

In 2018 Hampton Inn Bakersfield/Hwy 58, California at 10,000 points provided two reward nights in August and September. In 2019, this hotel remains at 10,000 points. Great news for people driving from Central Coast and Bay Area to Las Vegas as the hotel is near the half-way points of a 500+ miles drive.

At $5.00 per 1,000 points I can replace the 69,000 points I redeemed in 2018 for $350 to buy 70,000 Hilton Honors points during this sale. The 10 reward nights I booked in 2018 for 69,000 points had a published rate total of $1,039. I found good hotel rate discounts with Hilton Honors points. These same 10 hotel reward nights in 2019 will cost 160,000 points.

The nice aspect of this offer is the long promotion period through May 28, 2019 leaves plenty of time for me to figure out my summer itineraries.

*****

Eureka – I found it.

Convinced myself to buy 40,000 Honors points for $200 while writing this post after finding a hotel I had been considering for a summer 2019 stay, but found it unavailable for reward points every time I checked over past few months.

The cost to buy Hilton Honors points reduces the room rate by almost $100 per night and looks like it makes a better deal than I can find in the city going independent. Don’t wish to be coy, but I don’t want to share the specific property in this post. A hotel review will come in time if it all works out for my summer travel.

Another hotel where I would like to travel and use Hilton points sometime this year is DoubleTree Sighisoara, Romania. I had a 5-night reservation there for last April at 20,000 points, but ended up canceling that trip. This is one of the hotels that doubled to 10,000 points per reward night.

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a screenshot of a hotel
40,000 points ($200) for 5-night stay July 3-8, 2019
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$505 for 5 nights July 3-8 lowest flexible rate for no penalty cancellation

My bottom line when it comes to buying hotel points in any program is I don’t care if 99% of hotels in the chain are not a good deal using hotel points. My focus is finding and booking one or two hotels that fit my travel plans where buying hotel points is a good deal.

And I found one hotel I had been considering for months as a potential summer 2019 destination where this Hilton Honors sale cuts the room rate from $158 per night to $60 per night buying Honors points with 100% bonus points promotion.

 

4 Comments

  • nsx at FlyerTalk April 12, 2019

    In 2018 I was able to buy points with 100% bonus to spend at the excellent Doubletree Queenstown (New Zealand), booking just a few days ahead. Points allow cancellation and were cheaper than the nonrefundable cash price.

    That was 2018. The redemption price is now higher, spoiling the deal.

  • Ric Garrido April 12, 2019

    @nsx – Flexible cancellation is one of the great advantages of using points. I generally compare the flexible rate to the cost for points since I am reluctant to book an advance purchase rate too far in advance of my stay.

    There are times I lock in a points stay and then change to an advance purchase rate as the date approaches and I am confident I will use the hotel night.

  • Rupert April 13, 2019

    I agree with your assessment – I’d only buy Hilton points, if I have an outsized value booking available.
    In my experience, it has become more difficult to find value above 0.6cy/pt since Hilton moved to dynamic pricing.

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