After Hilton decided to make their points nearly worthless, I have had trouble finding good uses for HHonors Points. Points so worthless I argued to try to avoid paying for Hilton hotels (although found that I’m a liar if it’s the only hotel chain in a city like Innsbruck). That being said, I do have a special spot in my heart for the Hilton credit card.
“How can it be? B-b-but you said Hilton HHonors Points are worthless?”
Well, that’s true. But one of their credit cards gives free nights, not points. And I have a plan for putting those nights to use, which I’ll talk about later.
Which Hilton Card?
There are a few Hilton cards. Two of them give Hilton HHonors Points. Which is nothing to write home about. But the Hilton Reserve card gives two free weekend nights at any Hilton hotel anywhere in the world. This is quite a deal if you consider how many luxury hotels they own.
We’ll go over those best redemptions in a minute. First understand a few pros and cons of this card.
Pros
- 2 free nights anywhere
- Hilton Gold status (usually means breakfast, club lounge, and upgrades)
- Spend requirement is only $2,500 in four months
Cons
- Free nights have to be used on weekends
- Annual fee is not waived for first year ($95)
For most, I don’t think the weekend-only limitation is a big deal as many of the properties I’ll recommend are vacation destinations instead of business locations.
Of course, you need to understand that the free nights are award nights. Meaning that you need to find award availability for a regular room. See, hotels generally only put up their basic rooms available to award points. Those are the rooms you need.
The confusing thing is that Hilton puts all rooms up for points, even suites, just at a ridiculously overpriced rate. Regular award availability could be gone and it will still show cash rooms available for sometimes absurd amounts of points.
Although, perhaps I’m explaining it all for nothing. The simple version is this: You want to find availability for “Standard Room Awards”, instead of “Premium Room Awards”. If a standard room has award availability, you can use your free night for it.
I wouldn’t call finding “Standard Room Awards” at all a restriction, and thus I didn’t put it on the Cons list. After all it’s little different than finding an award with any other chain. Plus, I generally find Hilton is decent about upgrading Gold members.
Actually, this post is a great prequel to an upcoming post on my plan for Bora Bora. But there are many great uses for your free nights. The Conrad Maldives is another hotel that comes to mind as a spectacular value for two free nights.
Maybe it would be helpful to show a few examples along with the daily rate I found.
- The Conrad Maldives – $900 – $1,600
- The Hilton Bora Bora – $500+
- Conrad Koh Samui – $600+
- London Hilton on Park Lane – $500+
- Conrad Hong Kong – $400
- Conrad Tokyo – $400
Though there are many other favorites within the brand. The Conrad Singapore, the Waldorf Astoria Rome Cavalieri, etc…
How does this compare to other hotel cards?
It’s not a keeper, in my opinion. The IHG rewards card gives you a free night at any hotel each year, and has a lower annual fee.
Further more the Fairmont and Hyatt card give two free nights as a signup bonus without any restrictions.
That being said, Hilton has a lot of properties. They own significantly more hotels than Hyatt or Fairmont. Really, it’s a matter of diversifying.
So what is my “One Use For Hilton?”
All this leads up to the fact that this card is going into a specific strategy for me to spend time in French Polynesia. We’ll probably both get the card after a while so we each have a weekend to use at Bora Bora or Moorea.
Perhaps we could do Saturday and Sunday at the Hilton Bora Bora and then try to fill four nights with the InterContinental free nights and then do Friday and Saturday again with the other two free Hilton nights, thus giving us a week in Bora Bora for free.
My assumption is that the free nights expire after 12 months. (Perhaps someone could confirm below). This means that I’ll want to get the card as far in advance as I know for sure I will be going, without being over a year. I personally will apply for the Hilton Reserve card 6 months before my trip in case it gets pushed back… but it would be nice to confirm the trip as soon as you can, in case availability goes.
Do you get the 2 free weekends the second year you keep the card or is it a one-time sign up bonus?
No, just a one time sign up bonus. I wish. :-p
Ok then its hard for me to justify a new app for that offer. Thanks.
Well, I should correct myself, you get 1 free weekend night every anniversary that you spend $10,000 on. So only 1 free night with annual fee and $10k spend.
another Cons to the Certs are must complete book and use within a year. it cant be booked beyond the boundary of one year. kinda sucks
Thanks for verifying Choi. Will add that to the list.
I agree that free nights are great, but to me this is only useful for city hotels. Using them at a place like Conrad Maldives or Hilton Bora Bora means the certificate is essentially a bill for the nights you’ll need to spend cash for. Why spend $400-500 on a flight to Bora Bora or seaplane to Conrad Maldives only to spend 2 nights there?
Different strokes… Some people dream of getting out of the city, some vacation in the city.
Plus Mark is right, Moorea is a short boat ride.
However, the private plane charges is why I have not been to the Maldives. If I can get points for those private planes… or they include them in the room rate, I’ll consider. 😀
@drew – Couldnt you use say a Barclay Arrival Card to ‘reimburse yourself’ for the Travel Expenses (Air in this case) ?
FYI, looks like it can take 6-8 weeks to get the certificate after meeting spend. If you wait until 6 months out to get the card, you may be 3-4 months out when you get the certificate.
Hmm… that’s a good point. For I don’t plan 4 months in advance anyways :-p but still a good thing to consider
Justin – Hilton Moorea could be a good use as you can take the ferry over instead of a few hundred for a flight. Either that or combine a weekend stay at Hilton with a weekday stay at a IHG or SPG property to make it worthwhile.
I’m pretty sure you get 2 more free weekend nights on your card anniversary (after paying the $95 fee) if you spend $10,000 on the card within the year.
Also, if you’re staying at Hiltons you get 10 points per dollar for that type of spend (3 points per dollar on everything else).
As you point out, it’s good to stay at the high-end Hilton properties (Conrads) so you can “maximize” the value of the free nights, but often by visiting these resorts, you are committing yourself to spend a considerable amount of money since a few of them are in isolated locations. Take, for instance, the Conrad Maldives (my wife and I stayed there for 4 nights in May, 2013 – booked AXON award for 145,000 points for the 4 nights, 36,250 points per night). You are unlikely to escape your visit without spending $3,000+ at the Hotel even with Hilton Gold status and free breakfasts (seaplane transfers from Male will cost you over $1,000 for 2 people and there are no points redemptions to eliminate this cost). Any excursion you take will cost $400+ for 2 people whether it’s a night fishing trip, scuba diving, or swimming with whalesharks. The underwater restaurant will run you over $400 for lunch for 2 people. It’s a shame to not experience many of those things if you make your way all the way out to the Maldives.
Since you’ll be spending money at these high-end properties that you are getting for “free”, 10 Hhonors points per dollar on the card is about as valuable as anything else even at 0.4 cents per point (Chase cards that give 2x on hotel spend obviously are right there on value as well), but the 2 extra hotel nights (if you can manage to spend $10,000 on Hilton properties during the year) could make it better to use the Reserve card for some.
Yea, you actually get one free weekend night for spending $10,000, I believe.
Yea, I haven’t been to the Maldives for this reason. I would love to go, and I’m sure it was an experience of a lifetime… I just can’t afford it right now, even with the free nights. I’d much rather use the free nights in Thailand where I can get around for $10.
But you’re right that one extra night could be worth $1,000, in which case it could be 10% of the $10,000 you have to spend. YMMV
In my experience the free night certificate is issued once you have met the minimum spend requirement. Note that the certificate is only sent by two emails (one for each single night award), so make sure it doesn’t go into your junk inbox! Also this certificate is good for a full year from the date of issue. For example, I applied for the card on June-1 and met the minimum spend within the first month and received the reward certificates on Aug-2 via 2 separate emails.
Here’s the details on my email certificate:
Issue Date: 02-Aug-2013
Expiration Date: 02-Aug-2014
Description: You’ve received this reward certificate because you’ve met the purchase requirements with your Citi Hilton HHonors Reserve card. This reward is valid for one complimentary weekend night for a standard room at participating hotels worldwide, subject to availability. This reward is not valid at All-Inclusive or Distinctive properties and cannot be combined with the 5th Night Free benefit or other promotions. Please visit HHonors.com/weekendcertificate to see a list of excluded properties.
Thanks for taking the time to share that trAAveller. I imagine that’s helpful info for many people reading this.
I imagine that even if you don’t catch the email, you could just call and have them look it up? Or is this a, DON’T LOSE THAT EMAIL kind of situation?
I’m not sure, but it seems the certificate isn’t attached to your HHonors account on the agent’s system easily. If you didn’t have the email, it (at best) might be a long process to find out where it went. The agents have a hard enough time processing the reward certificate from the email (as it must be called in and provide the specific award number on the email).
They need to hire a programer to add it to your account like Hyatt. Automate that janx. :-p
HHonors aren’t worthless. It gets tiresome reading such nonsense. Even after the devaluation, they are close seconds in each tier (low, mid, high). They trail Carlson on low/mid, and trail Hyatt on top tier. But not by much on any of them. Then add in the overall versatility of HH thanks to lots of properties, and Hilton remains a worthwhile program if you churn at 5x-6x.
The Reserve card is an attractive value for one time use only. But I hate the idea of checking in for two days and then checking out, only to check back in the next weekend for more “free” nights. If you stay the next 5 days, you get 5th night free with HH.
And with the big devaluation you needn’t be worried about impending devaluations that are sure to come with Carlson and Hyatt.
But I can just hear all the whining now – after nitwits have built up big Carlson point totals and get left holding the bag when the inevitable comes.
Well, you’re right in many respects. I think we’re coming from two different angles. Hear me out.
Although my main point would be this:
I stayed at club carlson with promotions and have gotten 50,000 points from one stay. Other promotions 10,000 points. And then I redeem the 50,000 points for their top category hotel for two nights. 25k a night. But I only spent one night to earn the two nights.
With IHG I earned 16k points from one night (before the big win promotion) (the night was free btw) and then I redeem my points for InterContinental hotels on sale for 5,000 points. For that one night I got three nights.
I just stayed at a Hilton and earned like 1,000 points. 1,000 when it will cost me like 50,000+ to redeem. Instead of being able to work this into 1 paid night into 1 free night or similar… it’s 50 – 95 paid nights for one free night.
That’s insane. I can’t imagine being loyal to that when there are so many better options.
And a lot of these great options are sales or rebates from credit cards, but Hilton has gutted their great options.
Furthermore, Club Carlson recently did change all their award prices… and over all for the better! I’m not saying it will be that way forever, but it’s not Hilton.
However, to be fair to you Paul, I’ll let you speak for yourself, but I imagine you use the credit card bonuses to rack up hilton points at a much higher rate than the other hotel cards. So honestly, if you’re playing that game… I can see having enough points to do a 5th night free.
But for me, it will be 200 stays and a million bucks before I get enough points for a 5th night free. No thx.
I just cashed in my “worthless” Hilton points for a week in Cabo San Lucas with my lovely wife. Considering that I really didn’t do much to earn these “worthless’ points other than fill out a couple credit card apps and make a few purchases, I’d say we got tremendous value and a much-needed 2nd honeymoon. I guess “worthless” is in the eye of the beholder.
Hey Matt, I hope this doesn’t sound rude, but I really don’t understand how you booked a week with a couple card apps. Seeing as the hotel is 40,000 to 70,000 points a night, and the other credit cards give 40k and 60k (100k for both)… I’m curious how you turned 100,000 points into 7 nights at a hotel that cost 40,000 to 70,000 points a night? Four nights could cost 180k with the new AXON awards, twice that’s 360k for your week. I’m just unsure how that was done with a couple credit card apps. With 5th free night and two standard nights you would have payed 240k – 420k.
420k for a week… is a lot. And given that two credit cards gives 100k, my opinion would remain that these hotel points are by fare worth the least. 7 nights at the Park Hyatt Paris, Sydney, Maldives (which go for $1,000 a night) would be 154,000 points. I can’t imagine paying 420k for a cheaper hilton, when I could pay 154,000 points for a Park Hyatt. But I guess it’s a beholder’s eye thing…
I’m not saying you can’t redeem hilton points, and I’m not saying you didn’t have a good time (I do love mexico). I’m just saying that last month I spent about 17 nights at 5 star InterContinental hotels and spent 80,000 points, most with club lounges. We also stayed at a Radisson Blu in Budapest for 9,000 points for two nights. In terms of free nights, I rank Hilton HHonors points at the bottom, and miles behind some programs.
I “earned” 165,000 HH points with 3 credit card signup bonus deals (doubled up on Citi cards). Our “week” was 5 nights. So, I guess I exaggerated there – sorry! With 5th night free, we had enough points – and had an upgraded ocean-front suite and a few nice status perks.
I think you have a great blog. I didn’t mean any offense. It’s just sometimes when I read bloggers (not necessarily you) built up these hotel programs and then trash them as being “worthless” after the inevitable devaluation – it just bugs me. After all, if we use our points and are happy then we are all getting value from our efforts.
In most cases I do see devaluation as inevitable. With hilton, yes, as they were selling their points to Citi for dirt cheap. So it was bound to happen.
However, I speak in extremes for two reasons. 1) it’s way more fun. and 2) Because the average reader doesn’t know.
For example, fuel surcharges. People don’t know so they just stock up on miles. So I say earn United miles, earn AA miles. Simply because it’s better for everyone. It’s not good when people redeem miles and pay $600… and didn’t see it coming. They give up on the miles thing.
So with Hilton, I don’t want people to say, I’m going to sign up for a program and start earning points and earn enough points in one year for one free night. That’s terrible. I’d rather say, start at IHG and sign up for the big win, or Marriott and Megabonus. Simply because people go home with free nights after a couple stays, and love it.
So I understand what you’re saying. You can earn free nights with Hilton, via their credit cards at least. But understand where I’m coming from. Hilton isn’t a good/loyal program and the average person can’t figure out every hotel program. People come and just want to know how to get started. Which way? United not Delta. IHG not Hilton. If people dig, they’ll find uses for Delta.
But also, I’m an extremist. :-p
The other smoking deal is Category 1 and 2 hotels for now, 5,000 and 10,000. I have had need to be in two cities for tournaments/events that had category 2 Hampton Inns. Beat the $149 a night Hilton wanted because it was a tournament weekend.
so if one is not actually staying that particular day can the Hilton credit card allow one to go in to the lounge or business center of the hotel anyway? Or do you have to be registered to stay in order to get the access? I can see this being valuable after using the free nights but then never booking anymore but just getting free food and being able to get online and print if you are close to a Hilton property.
No, you only get lounge access at hotels when you are staying. Sometimes they let you stay in the lounge late if you have a flight well after check out or something. But only those special situations and still for guests.