Guide to the Hilton Honors Program (2021)
Hotel Strategies, Hotel Loyalty Program Reference Guide
800-HONORS (446-6677)
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- Like most other hotel programs, you can earn enough points for several free nights from the signup bonuses on Hilton’s credit cards. There are four different cards that you can take advantage of. But because they come from Amex, you can only earn each signup bonus once per lifetime.
- Hilton points have the lowest value of any of the most popular hotel loyalty programs. Points are worth around .4 - .5 cents each. A standard room at a typical hotel in a major city requires 40-50,000 points per night, and their most expensive hotels require 95,000 points (or even 120,000 points). How Much are Hotel Points Worth?
- The number of points required for a specific hotel varies within a wide range, but is always capped at a value based on an underlying hotel category.
- Unlike most other programs, you don't pay resort fees on award stays. For hotels with high fees, a points redemption can save a bunch of extra money.
- Hilton Gold elite status entitles you to free continental breakfast for two at most Hilton hotels that don’t already provide free breakfast (and snacks at those that do). You can get automatic Hilton Gold status with the Hilton Surpass, Hilton Business, or Amex Platinum cards, and even better Hilton Diamond status with the Hilton Aspire Card.
- Points & Money awards are never a good value with Hilton. If you can get good value from your points, you should book with an all points redemption. If not, book with an all cash redemption.
- Hilton requires very few points for Category 1 and Category 2 hotels. If you are staying in less expensive locations (mostly in international destinations), the Hilton program can offer tremendous value.
Until the end of 2021, you'll receive a food & beverage credit, rather than a free breakfast, at hotels located in the US.
Hilton Brands
Because Hilton has so many locations, with both middle-of-the-road and higher-end hotels, many people wind up staying at their hotels while they travel.
Free Night Certificates
Hilton free night certificates issued in 2021 will expire at the end of 2022 and can be used on any night of the week.
If you like luxury hotels, the Hilton free night certificates are better than the certificates from the other hotel programs. Unlike the other certificates, Hilton's certificates are uncapped. You can use that at even their most expensive resorts and luxury hotels. For more information about Hilton Free Night Certificates see our detailed guide.
- Normally, certificates can only be used on weekend nights (Friday, Saturday, or Sunday). But certificates issued in 2020, 2021, and part of 2019 can be used any night of the week.
- To earn an annual certificate with the Hilton Surpass or Hilton Aspire card, you need to spend $15,000 with the card. If you are getting one of these cards for other reasons (primarily free breakfast via the automatic Hilton gold status), it usually makes sense to try to spend the $15,000 to qualify for the certificate. You'll miss out on about 1% of rewards by using your Hilton Card instead of a better general-purpose reward card, making the opportunity cost of earning the certificate around $150.
- With the premium Hilton Aspire Card, you'll get your certificate just by having the card. The Aspire card has a $450 annual fee, but comes with a (hard to use) $250 airline incidental credit, a $250 credit good at Hilton Resorts, and other benefits that help to offset the annual fee.
- You can earn multiple certificates each year by getting multiple Hilton cards. Signing up for all three cards and spending a total $30,000 each year, would give you a minimum of 90,000 Hilton points and 3 free night certificates each year. However, Amex limits you to 4-5 credit cards at one time, so you may not want to use up 3 "slots" on Hilton cards.
Award Chart
- If there are “standard” rooms available, you can always book them with your points. While there are no blackout dates or capacity controls, a few premium properties classify almost all their rooms in premium categories. In practice, this reduces or eliminates your ability to make a regular reward redemption.
- The amount of points that Hilton requires for an award night depends on the room rate (with Hilton aiming for a value of between .4 and .5 cents per point). Try not to redeem at less than this value. How Much are Hotel Points Worth?
- The maximum number of points for a each hotel is based on a "hidden" category. The required number of points is not supposed to go above the maximum amount shown in the table below. That means that you can still get outsized value from award nights—primarily with Category 1, 2, 9 and 10 hotels (and any hotel during a period of high rates). You can see the maximum points for each hotel on Hilton's Points Explorer.
- When you book at a hotel that is hitting the points cap (based on its category), you'll get more than the base rate of around .5 cents per point. For example, a hotel with a typical room rate of $200 might be classified as a Category 6 hotel, capped at 50,000 points per night. If rates are higher than normal and the hotel costs $300 per night, you'll get .6 cents per point. If rates are lower than $250, Hilton will require fewer points, but because the rate is lower, you'll get less than .5 cents in value per point.
- There are no resort fees on award stays. This is an unusual benefit compared to the other programs (shared only with Hyatt). For hotels with expensive resort fees, this can make a big difference in the relative value of an award night.
- You can use you points to book upgraded room categories, but they are very expensive. The rates that you pay for premium rooms is even more closely tied to the cash rate, and is rarely, if ever, a good deal. You are better off booking a standard award night and then calling in to upgrade your room with cash.
- Silver, Gold, and Diamond elite members get their 5th night free when booking with reward points. That means that this benefit extends to anyone who has a Hilton credit card.
| Category | Maximum |
|---|---|
| 1 | 5000 |
| 2 | 10000 |
| 3 | 20000 |
| 4 | 30000 |
| 5 | 40000 |
| 6 | 50000 |
| 7 | 60000 |
| 8 | 70000 |
| 9 | 80000 |
| 10 | 95000 |
A few hotels cost more than 95,000 points.
Points & Money Awards
Hilton will let you use any combination of points and cash for every reservation. You can use a slider to adjust the number of points you want to use and the amount of cash you’ll need to pay. Regardless of the number of points you use, you'll get exactly the same value per point, as you would with an all-point reservation. For example, if a hotel costs 36,000 award points and has a room rate of $178, the average value per point is .481 cents. For each point you use to book the room, Hilton will take .481 cents off the room rate. Conversely, for every point you save from the normal award cost, you’ll need to pay .481 cents.
- Hilton Points & Money awards never make sense—if the value per point is high enough to be compelling for you to book an award night, you don’t want to make pay any money for part of the award. Any money you spent is a lost opportunity to use your points at good value. Similarly, if the point cost ISN'T high enough to be compelling, you don't want to use up any of your points, at this low-value rate, to offset part of the room rate. You should either make a 100% points reservation or a 100% cash reservation.
- The only exception is if you don’t have enough points to pay the full cost for a good value award reservation. Then, you might as well use the points you have, and make up the rest in cash.
- Hilton doesn't waive resort fees on Cash and Points awards, making them potentially an even worse value.
Acquiring Points
Acquiring last minute points
If you see a great redemption deal on Hilton hotels, there are several ways that you can acquire additional points.
| Purchasing Points |
You can purchase up to 80,000 points per year, in 1,000 points increments, for 1 cent per point. Sometimes promotions are available, which allow you purchase points for less money per point and enable you to purchase more points per year. Get a Discounted Room Rate by Buying the Points for an Award Night. |
| Transferring points between accounts |
You can pool your points with up to 10 other people for free, so it is easy to give or receive points to anyone. |
| Transferring credit card points |
You can transfer Membership Rewards points (1000:1000), Citi ThankYou points (1000:1500), or Diners Club Reward points (1250:2000) to Hilton points. We would normally recommend just paying cash, rather than using your valuable credit card points at these low-value transfer rates. |
| Transferring from frequent flyer programs |
For the sake of completeness, you can transfer points from a small set of frequent flyer programs, but the exchange rates are not interesting enough to make this something to consider. |
Earning points from your stays
- Members earn 10 Hilton points for every dollar spent with Hilton. Silver, Gold, and Diamond members earn bonuses of 20%, 80%, or 100% on stays. You won’t earn points for stays booked through online travel agents or other third-party channels. You need to book directly with Hilton. You’ll only earn half the normal rewards from Home2Suites and Tru hotels.
- Frequent travelers also earn "Milestone Bonus Points". You'll also earn 10,000 bonus points for every 10th night (starting at your 20th night in 2021, and your 40th night thereafter). When you hit your 60th night, you'll get an extra 30,000 points. As with status nights, only the member's own room counts towards reaching these totals.
- If you have a Hilton credit card, you should use it for your Hilton purchases—you can earn up to 14 additional points per dollar. This is generally as good, or better, as what you could earn from any other card. But, if you are getting a best-in-class reward rate on hotel spending, as with the Sapphire Reserve card, you would probably prefer earning more flexible points. Best Credit Cards for Travel Spending.
You can earn points on up to four rooms (if they are paid for on the same bill). You will only earn elite credits for a single room.
Other ways to earn points
The best way to quickly earn a bunch of points is by signing up for the Hilton credit cards. There are four different cards that you can sign up for. The normal bonus on the Hilton Surpass, Aspire, and Business cards is 100,000 points, and the normal bonus on the no-annual-fee version is 50,000 points. But higher offers are often available. Because they are issued by Amex, you can only earn each signup bonus once per lifetime. Credit Card Signup Bonuses: The Easiest Path to Free Airplane Tickets and Hotel Nights.
Hilton occasionally runs promotions where you can receive up to a 100% bonus on purchased points. That brings the price down to .5 cents per point. If you find yourself running out of Hilton points, buying at this price can be worthwhile. You'll occasionally be able to use them at higher values. Because of the way bonuses work, this promotion doesn’t just drop the price of buying points, it also effectively increases the number of points that you can purchase—allowing you to buy 160,000 points per year, rather than 80,000.
You can earn points from Lyft. By simply linking your Hilton and Lyft accounts at hiltonhonorslyft.com, you'll earn an extra 3x Hilton points on Lyft rides or 2x Hilton points on shared rides (on top of whatever rewards you are otherwise entitled to through Lyft or your credit card).
You can also earn points from a variety of other partnerships. View other earning partners.
Keeping your Points from Expiring
Your points will expire if you have haven’t stayed in a hotel or earned, purchased, or donated points in the last 15 months. You can easily keep your account alive, by making any charge on a Hilton credit card, buying 1,000 points (for $10), crediting a car rental to Hilton, or temporarily signing up for the Hilton dining program and eating at a participating restaurant. Our Keep Your Points from Expiring article provides more details about strategies for keeping track of upcoming expiration dates and keeping your points alive.
Member Benefits
Award nights count towards earning elite status. Like most other programs, you won’t earn credit for nights booked through 3rd parties like Expedia. Any extra qualifying nights you earn rollover to the following year.
Blue (entry level)
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| Silver (4 stays or 10 nights) 20% bonus points on stays and adds the following benefits:
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| Gold (20 stays or 40 nights or $7,500 spend) 80% bonus points on stays and adds the following benefits:
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| Diamond (30 stays or 60 nights or $12,000 spend) 100% bonus points on stays and adds the following benefits:
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Until the end of 2021, Hilton Gold and Platinum members will receive a food & beverage credit instead of the "free breakfast" benefit at hotels within the United States. Benefits at international locations remain the same. For each room, you'll receive up to two per-person credits each day. Credits amounts are $25 each at Waldorf Astoria, Conrad, and LXR, $12-15 each at most other brands, and $10 each at Hilton Garden Inn.
Credits can be used at any restaurant, bar, or market at the hotel or for room service, will be applied automatically to your hotel bill, and need to be used each day (they won't roll over to the next day on your stay).
Unfortunately, these credits are too low to pay for a full breakfast at the many hotels that historically provided a hot breakfast or buffet to Gold and Diamond elites (or to feed more than 2 people per room at the hotels which choose to comp entire families). In many cases, the credits won't even be enough to purchase the "continental" breakfast that is the official elite benefit, especially at resort hotels, hotels in expensive locations, and hotels that have "continental buffets".
On the positive side, a flexible food and beverage credit provides can be used for a drink and/or snack (or a lunch or dinner discount) if you don't want breakfast or if your breakfast would be reimbursed as a travel expense.
Hilton is touting this as a response to guests who want more flexibility. Hopefully in the future, they will give guests the choice of free breakfast or a flexible credit, so that guests that want the breakfast won't be required to pay the potential difference in cost.
If you are traveling alone, it makes sense to always book your room for two people. There is a good chance you'll wind up receiving two credits per day.
Shortcuts to Hilton Gold Status
Since most of our readers will get their Hilton Gold or Diamond status from their credit card, it doesn't really matter that Hilton has reduced their requirements for earning status in 2021.
However, if you only have Gold status from your credit card and you can stay 9 nights over a 90 day period, you can take advantage of Hilton's reduced status challenge requirements (Gold status only requires 5 nights for status challenges in 2021).
For people who don't want to take the credit card route, Hilton has made it easier to qualify through nights or stays. It has cut the required number in half and is also rolling over all your elite night credits from 2020. All your elite nights earned in 2021 will rollover to 2022 and you'll only need 28 nights to earn Gold status and 42 nights to earn Diamond status in 2022. You'll also receive 10,000 points for every 10 nights you stay starting at 20 real nights (instead of 40).
In addition, any status from 2021 will be extended for 2022.
- You can get Gold or Diamond status just by getting a credit card. That's it. If you have the Hilton Surpass, Hilton Business, Hilton Aspire, or Amex Platinum card, you're entitled to at least Gold status, regardless of the amount of your spend or stays. The Hilton credit cards also let you earn extremely valuable "free night certificates". Because a large percentage of travelers can benefit from this strategy, it is discussed in its own dedicated guide. Get Free Breakfast or Club Floor Access with the Right Credit Card.
- If for some reason you unwilling or unable to get a Hilton or Amex Platinum Card, you can still get instant Hilton Gold status through Hilton's status match. You are only supposed to be able to do this once per lifetime, but many people have been approved multiple times. Plus, if there are multiple people in your household, a different person can take advantage each time it would be beneficial.
- Extra nights rollover to the following year. Every night you stay beyond a status threshold, is carried over to the following year. For example, if you stay 15 nights, you'll qualify for Silver (requires 10 nights), and you'll start the following year with an extra 5 elite status credits.
All you need to qualify is elite status, including the status that comes with many hotel credit cards, and a single stay with the other program in the past 12 months. About a week after you send Hilton the information, you'll be upgraded to Hilton Gold status for the next 90 days and will start receiving the benefits on any upcoming stays.
If you wind up staying 10 paid nights during the 90 day period, you'll earn Gold status for the rest of the year, the entire following year, and the first three months of the next year. If you wind up staying 18 nights, you'll get Diamond status instead. Hilton Status Match webpage.
The Hilton Honors Credit Cards
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Hilton Honors Surpass card typically has a 100-150,000 point signup bonus. Provides automatic gold status, good enough for Hilton's free continental breakfast benefit. If you send $15,000 during a calendar year, you'll receive an uncapped weekend free night certificate. 12x points on Hilton purchases. 6x points at US restaurants, supermarkets, and gas stations. 3x on all other purchases. 10 free Priority Pass airport lounge visits. $95 annual fee. | |
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Hilton Business card is very similar, but rather than earning 6x points at supermarkets, it earns them on cell phone service and shipping. | |
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Hilton Honors Aspire card typically has a 100-150,000 point signup offer. You'll receive a free night certificate when you first get the card and every year when you renew (without any spending requirement). Provides a (hard to use) $250 airline incidental credit every calendar year and $250 Hilton resort credit every cardholder year. The Hilton resort credit can be used for a room, but only at Hilton "Resorts". Provides automatic Hilton Diamond status as well Priority Pass airline lounge access (no access to additional Amex lounges or Priority Pass restaurants). 14x points on Hilton purchases, 7x points on airline tickets, car rentals, and restaurants. 3x on all other purchases. $450 annual fee. | |
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Hilton Honors card typically has a has a 75-100,000 point signup offer. It provides automatic Silver status, which isn't worth very much. 7x points on Hilton purchases. 5x points on restaurants, supermarkets, and gas stations. 3x points on all other purchases. |
If you stay a few times per year with Hilton, and don’t already want the Amex Platinum Card, we recommend getting the Hilton Surpass or Business card to get free Hilton Gold Status, which gets you free breakfast at Hilton, as well as other benefits.
For purchases from Hilton, the Hilton Surpass and Business card’s 12x bonus points and the Hilton Aspire card's 14x bonus points is better, or about as good, as you can earn from any other card. However, if you have the Sapphire Reserve or Preferred card, you are probably off with 3x Ultimate Rewards points, which are a lot more flexible. The no-annual fee card’s 7x Hilton points is worse than a card that earns good reward rates on travel purchases, but better than a general-purpose reward card. Best Credit Cards for Travel Spending.
Neither of these credit cards usually makes sense to use for purchases other than with Hilton. The Surpass Card offers a potentially attractive 6x points at US restaurants, supermarkets, and gas stations. However, 6 Hilton points is only worth about 3 cents. You can do better with one of the best options for each of these categories. But if you don’t have one of those, the Surpass card is generally better than just using your general-purpose rewards card for these categories. Best Credit Cards for Restaurant Spending. Best Credit Cards for Grocery Spending, Best Credit Cards for Gas Spending.
