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Hi All,
First time in many years going to book a hilton. I have a choice I can’t decide on:
Would you elect for £160-170 a night after AMEX discount, or 40,000 points (Worth around 0.42p a point)?
Looking for some thoughts!Second question is – Hilton Gold via AMEX platinum not that I am expecting much – what do you get at Hampton by hilton given breakfast is already free?
Thanks in advance!
Given that HH points are often valued at 0.3p you may save about £40-50 by paying with points.
You don’t get anything at Hamptons as there is often no possibility of an upgrade and brekkie is included anyway.
You just get night credit and more points as Gold (if pay cash)I seek to get U.S. 0.5 cent per Hilton point so call that 0.4 pence and I’m running fairly low on them.
So it would depend on what Hilton promotion is on (is this within the double points timeframe) and whether I wanted the flexibility to cancel as I tend to book non-refundable cash rates when my plans are locked down.
But unless you have a use for these Hilton points then you aren’t going to lose massively by spending them as you can always buy more at approx 0.4 pence so I’d probably just burn the points.
Froggee is spot on. There’s always a 100% Hilton purchase promo not too far off that lets you top your balance up at 0.4p/point, so you really can’t go wrong using points at anything above that rate.
An upgrade at a UK Hampton isn’t impossible as they’re not all cookie-cutter – e.g. the Manchester Northern Quarter has some larger rooms with separate living areas (well, OK, sofa and a telly :D) but your expectation of this as a gold member should absolutely be zero.Agree with 0.4p I don’t burn cheaper than they cost to replace. I’d be paying cash assuming the idea isn’t min cash especially if you have one of the recent Amex offers to use
You can choose from selected benefits for each brand in My Way section in the app, which at Hampton is a drink and a snack, or 250 points (at least for Diamond).
Hamptons are not included in the upgrade benefit.
My wife (gold) stayed a night with her friend at a Hampton recently and they both got a bottle of water and a large bag of M&Ms even though she had the points option selected.
Where a stay cost difference on a £ v points is marginal, as it is here, you definitely need to factor in the points earned back if you pay cash.
As a Gold you’ll get 18 points per $ spent, so 22 points per £. That’s around 3,500 points. Then look at any promotions that might also apply. For instance, there’s a 2,000 bonus per stay on at the moment until 31 May, along with another 500 bonus if you select a digital key. So you could be getting 6,000 points back.
Don’t forget that if paying cash you should also be using a shopping portal for additional benefits. The BA e-Store will normally give 4 Avios to the £ (so another 650+ Avios here), unless you are Diamond status (where you only get 1 pt / £ !).
Overall, using the 0.4p/pt valuation above (which I’d generally agree with) and 1p/Avios, you are looking at getting back around £30 in future value on your cash booking so your net cash cost when comparing with points is £130-£140.
You wonderful bunch of people! You’ve summed this up well, many thanks, and my thoughts also on paying cash and getting something back in terms of points.
The crazy thing is the pricing – having watched the room for weeks, it suddenly jumped 20% in price in a day and has stayed there. So it’s points for now, unless it goes back to the old price.
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