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Using Hilton HHonors ‘points and money’ to maximise value

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Hilton HHonors underwent a major devaluation in 2013 which severely impacted the ‘aspirational’ elements of the programme.  A top-end property in London or New York will now cost you up to 80,000 points per night, compared with just 60,000 points for an InterContinental redemption with IHG Rewards Club.

I currently value Hilton HHonors point at £3 per 1,000 when used for top-end properties, based on 80,000 points for a £250 room.

Luckily, Hilton’s ‘points and money’ rewards were not hit so hard.

‘Points and money’ rewards let you book a room for just 40% of the cost of a normal award night, plus a cash sum. You don’t need to be a maths genius to realise that, as long as this cash sum is less than 60% of the normal room rate for the hotel, you will be getting better value for your points.

Unfortunately, ‘points and money’ rewards are not always available. Because they are basically a way for a hotel to discount the cost of redemption nights, they tend to be held back for quiet periods. However, they can still offer value.

Today I want to take a more detailed look at the Doubletree London Victoria as an example of ‘points and money’ availability.

For Saturday 11th September:

Cancellable Hilton HHonors cash rate:  £242

‘All points’ redemption:  60,000 points

‘Points and money’ redemption:  24,000 points + £65

The ‘all points’ redemption gets you £4.03 per 1,000 points – better than my 0.3p per point benchmark.  ‘Points and money’ gets you £4.91 per 1,000, which is 20% better and near my benchmark of 0.5p.

Because the cash element is fixed, you can find even more extreme examples on days where standard room rates are very high and where ‘points and money’ is showing.  If you can find availability, it does offer better value for your Hilton HHonors points.

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How to earn Hilton Honors points and status from UK credit cards

How to earn Hilton Honors points and status from UK credit cards (April 2025)

There are various ways of earning Hilton Honors points from UK credit and debit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses.

There are two dedicated Hilton Honors debit cards. These are especially attractive when spending abroad due to the 0% or 0.5% FX fee, depending on card.

You also receive FREE Hilton Honors status for as long as you hold the debit cards – Gold status with the Plus card and Silver status with the basic card. This is a great reason to apply even if you rarely use it.

We reviewed the Hilton Honors Plus Debit Card here and the Hilton Honors Debit Card here.

You can apply for either card here.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 30th April 2025, the annual fee on the basic Hilton Honors debit card is halved from £60 to £30. The sign-up bonus is also easier to earn – you need to spend £1,000 either in the UK or abroad within three months. The usual bonus rule requires you to spend the full £1,000 outside the UK.

NEW: Hilton Honors Plus Debit

10,000 bonus points, Hilton Gold status and NO FX fees Read our full review

NEW: Hilton Honors Debit

2,500 bonus points, Hilton Silver status and 0.5% FX fees Read our full review

There is another way of getting Hilton Honors status, and earning Hilton Honors points, from a payment card.

Holders of The Platinum Card from American Express receive FREE Hilton Honors Gold status for as long as they hold the card.  It also comes with Marriott Bonvoy Gold, Radisson Rewards Premium and MeliaRewards Gold status.

We reviewed American Express Platinum in detail here and you can apply here.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

You can also earn Hilton Honors points indirectly with:

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

and for small business owners:

The conversion rate from American Express to Hilton Honors points is 1:2.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which can be used to earn Hilton Honors points.

Category

Hilton Honors

Comments (44)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • s879 says:
    29 Jun29 June 05:11

    Is there a way to find out which hotels are participating in the promo. Any hotel or date I search for, gives this message, “This hotel has limited availability for Points & Money Rewards™ around the dates you have selected.”

    • anon says:
      29 Jun29 June 05:43

      It is not a promo, all HHonors hotels should offer it. Availability is the issue.

  • Simon Schus says:
    29 Jun29 June 05:39

    I’ve used two this week and getting pretty decent value 🙂 12,000 points plus $70 for a few hotels in South Dakota and Pittsburgh 🙂 It has worked out pretty nicely and meant I didn’t have to part with too many points (nor did I have to pay too much for the hotels as I was price-limited on this trip).

  • James67 says:
    29 Jun29 June 06:49

    OT but Hilton: Does anybody here have any experience of HH loss prevention? My account is currently frozen and I was advised by CS to contact loss prevention for an explanation to which I’m currently awaiting a response. My guess is that this department is to manage abuse but there has been none, I’ve made 5 paid stays this year, took out the credit card (for which Barclays are not crediting my points properly but that’s another story), received my cc free night certificate, and have made no redemptions. There is nothing that I believe should allow them to suspect I was abusing the scheme, I’m very annoyed as I even cancelled IHG reservations to give them my business. I did apply to status match through 2018 having earlier received a match to 2017 but I doubt that is problem either because others have reported here that they have done that successfully.

    • Genghis says:
      29 Jun29 June 07:40

      Strange. I did the re-status match and all seems to be working fine. Give them a call and work some magic.

      • James67 says:
        29 Jun29 June 08:08

        I’ve tried that but they claimed I needed to contact loss prevention and they have a 7-14 working day response time. I’ve collected about 300k points and a free night certificate in past two months. perhaps they think it’s too much of a good thing but it’s them that’s running the bonus points promotions, the diamond status match and so on so they cannit blame me, they were quite happy to take my miney. Only other thing I can think of is that my account may have been hacked.

        • Yuff says:
          29 Jun29 June 08:56

          James

          There were rumours that the status match has been abused with fake accounts ( people were buying diamond memberships on eBay I believe) perhaps you’ve been caught up in that 🙁

          • James67 says:
            29 Jun29 June 09:01

            Thanks, I’ll justhave to wait and see. The timing does seem to coincide with statusmatch request though.

          • Andrew H says:
            29 Jun29 June 13:08

            Woke up to find my account closed this morning. Hilton customer service told me to contact the account loss email address and wait 7-10 days. They won’t give a phone number either. I’m not happy.

          • James67 says:
            29 Jun29 June 14:53

            @Andrew, interesting, perhaps they are having security issues again.

          • Andrew H says:
            29 Jun29 June 16:05

            I have tried to get a UK telephone number but apparently the relevant team doesn’t have one.

            Needless to day I am getting worried. I’m not hanging around for the best part of two weeks waiting for Hilton to get around to emailing me.

          • Andrew H says:
            29 Jun29 June 16:09

            I have contacted the Hilton rep on Flyertalk as well.

          • James67 says:
            29 Jun29 June 16:54

            @Andrew, I copied my email to the address Mark provided to loss prevention email. I got an immediate response from loss prevention with standard letter that my account was closed because they could not validate my matching account (spire). The letter implied I was guilth f fraud and they may even consider legal action. I responded account is real, how would you like me to verify it, got the standard reply please await response 14 day. Now, I’m totally PO! no 8nterest in staying with hilton anymore.

          • Andrew H says:
            29 Jun29 June 17:06

            I had a similar response. Not good.

          • Andrew H says:
            30 Jun30 June 08:58

            Alas, I have no update to give. Account still inaccessible and the status match team aren’t replying to my emails. I’m trying the flyertalk route as well. I will keep you updated, James.

    • Simmo says:
      29 Jun29 June 08:16

      Would Barclay Card have opened up a 2nd account on your behalf?
      I remember lots of IHG accounts being closed due to duplicate accounts.

      • James67 says:
        29 Jun29 June 09:08

        No, not that Simmo. Barclays are crediting my account but the problem I have with them is that they are only crediting 2 points/£ instead of 3 for hilton stays, and they are also failing to credit my 2500 bonus points for first four stays. Trying to resolve this issue with Barcky, even their formal complaints team, is provi g to be a nightmare.

        • Axel Heyst says:
          29 Jun29 June 12:22

          James67

          I;m in a similar position with the 2 rather than 3 barclay points and not crediting the Iberia miles or double miles.

          Hilton were fairly quick to credit the 2500 bonuses in Scotland stays, bur the Malay and Indonesian ones took much much longer. In the end Hilton sorted it out partially following my phone call to Hilton when I said I would be cancelling 4 upcoming stays

          • James67 says:
            29 Jun29 June 12:52

            Thanks, I will mention this too then in my email. Mystays were in Aberdeen and London. As it stands I have put Barclays on notice that I will refer it to ombudsman service if they don’t resolve this matter.

        • James67 says:
          29 Jun29 June 12:47

          Thanks Mark, I’ll email them this evening.

  • MARY ELLEN HOCKENHULL says:
    29 Jun29 June 08:04

    Just out of curiosity I had a look at Hilton York and flexible dates going forward to June 2017 – not one single points and rewards nights. I am wondering if these points and rewards nights are last minute offers maybe? Or maybe its for the highest grade Hiltons with 60,70 or 80000 a night redemption rates?

    • Yuff says:
      29 Jun29 June 08:54

      I’ve just booked one at the Leicester Hilton for this weekend( normally 50k), the Conrad in London also had 32k + £98, for this weekend, a few weeks ago.
      Had to book 2 rooms last night , at gatwick Hilton, nothing available online( or at IHG) website sold out. Tried Expedia – rooms available so called Hotel and they had some rooms available. Not great from Hiltons website PoV. Did mention it to lady who booked the rooms and she said it must have been a glitch on the website 🙁

      • Rob says:
        29 Jun29 June 09:06

        Probably not a glitch. Expedia gets guaranteed availability so the hotel blocks out rooms for them.

    • mark2 says:
      29 Jun29 June 11:24

      It does seem random.
      In Jan I booked Hampton Gatwick North in Sept for £32.85 + 12,000 points.

  • Simmo says:
    29 Jun29 June 08:23

    Found this as one of the most useful and £ saving points options in the points game.
    Had a stay a few weeks ago, where the incrementals were also points earning (according to the terms they should not be) meaning the points I used were refunded.

  • Mr Dee says:
    29 Jun29 June 08:41

    Worth noting you may have to pay taxes when paying part cash in some countries where a full points redemption avoids the extra taxes.

    • Liz says:
      29 Jun29 June 11:05

      Are the taxes paid on just the part cash bit or the full cash cost of the room – I’m thinking USA would charge the taxes at check out

      • Alan says:
        29 Jun29 June 12:23

        It seems to vary by country, can’t remember USA setup. Some have per night fixed charge, others charge percentage of cash component. I don’t think I’ve had any that charge based on standard room rate.

      • Mr Dee says:
        29 Jun29 June 14:40

        I’m not sure how its calculated but it does show before you book if you click the information icon, its in addition to the price+points not included in the price incase this wasn’t obvious.

  • Craig Paolozzi says:
    29 Jun29 June 09:17

    Yep I’m staying at Conrad Algarve for 78 euro plus 20k points….cash rate is 299 euro

  • Alex W says:
    29 Jun29 June 09:36

    I’ve never found points and money availability at the date and place of my choosing. Very frustrating.

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