Hilton Honors Complete Guide

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Hilton Honors represents the loyalty program for Hilton hotels & resorts, along with their numerous global brands. Despite receiving some criticism from the frequent traveler community in recent years due to the removal of its award chart, the program still boasts several benefits. These include effortless elite status, impressive earnings on paid stays, no resort fees for award bookings, and more. This comprehensive guide provides all the essential information you need to make the most of the Hilton Honors program.

Hilton Honors Award chart / Points Explorer Tool

Direct link to Hilton Points Explorer Tool

Hilton eliminated award charts several years ago and pricing is now variable. Hilton instead offers the Hilton Points Explorer tool linked above that purportedly shows the minimum and maximum price of a standard room at each hotel in the Hilton Honors program.

Unfortunately, when the tool launched we showed that it isn’t very reliable (See: Hilton’s junky new Points Explorer tool isn’t always accurate). The tool can indeed be useful for finding the maximum price of a hotel when room rates are high but it does not always accurately reflect the minimum price.

Hilton Honors “5th Night Free” awards

Hilton offers the 5th night free on standard room points award stays for those with Silver status or higher. The Hilton Honors Terms & Conditions state that “After the 5th Night Free benefit is applied, eligible members will be charged 0 points for the 5th night, 10th night, 15th night, and 20th night of the stay, as applicable.” You can get a maximum of 4 free nights in a single stay (i.e. at a maximum, you would get 4 free nights on a 20-night stay). However, a member can utilize this benefit an unlimited number of times during the year.

Note that the way Hilton calculates and displays the price on 5th night free stays can be confusing. Essentially, they price each night at 4/5ths of the cost of an award night, though pricing when booking 5 nights may not be the same as the price of booking 5 nights separately. The best practice is to search nights both as a 5-night stay and individually to be sure you get the best deal.

Points & Money awards

Hilton offers members the chance to book an award using a mixture of points and money. Members can use points in increments of 1,000 points to offset the cost of a stay. When using points & money, points will offset the cash cost at a rate just below the ratio of the paid room rate to the award night cost.

In other words, if a $100 stay costs 20,000 points, the value of points in that instance is half a cent per point. If a member uses points to partially offset the cost of the stay, the points will reduce the cost by just under half a cent per point (i.e. using 10,000 points will reduce the cash cost by a little less than $50).

Hilton Honors Elite status

Status level	Nights per year required	Lifetime status requirements	Key benefits
Silver	4 stays, 10 nights or 25,000 base points	N/A	20% bonus on base points, 2 bottles of water at most full-service properties
Gold	20 stays, 40 nights, or 75,000 base points	N/A	80% bonus on base points. Food and beverage credit of $10-$25 for you and one additional registered guest at most properties in the US or free continental breakfast abroad. Amount of credit varies by brand.
Diamond	30 stays, 60 nights, or 120,000 base points	10 years of Diamond status plus either 1,000 lifetime nights or 2 million base points earned	100% bonus on base points, lounge access, food and beverage credit of $10-$25 for you and one additional registered guest at most properties in the US or free continental breakfast abroad. Amount of credit varies by brand.

Elite status things to know

• Lifetime status is only available for Diamond members. The 1,000 lifetime nights required can be paid and/or award stays.
• Elite nights are earned with either cash or award stays.  When booking a four night award, it may make sense to book 5 nights instead (thanks to 5th Night Free pricing) just so that you can get an extra elite night. Make sure not to check out after the fourth night.
• Elite nights are not earned with online travel agency bookings. For example, if you book through Expedia, you will not earn elite night credit (or points) for your stay. You also might not receive elite benefits during your stay, but some hotels have been known to offer them anyway as long as you add your Hilton Honors membership number to the reservation.
• Missing stay: If a stay was not properly credited to your account, you can fill out a missing stay request form online: https://www.hilton.com/en/hilton-honors/guest/missing-stays (note that you’ll need to log in to fill out the form)

Elite perks: what and where?

Breakfast

Hilton offers a set of elite benefits that vary depending upon whether you are staying at a property in the US or overseas and perhaps depending on the brand where you stay.

Gold members are entitled to a food and beverage credit of $10-$25 at most properties in the United States or complimentary continental breakfast abroad. Those with Gold status can also receive a complimentary room upgrade up to the executive level (note that Gold members only receive lounge access when upgraded to the executive level).

Diamond members also receive a food and beverage credit of $10-$25 at most properties in the United States or complimentary continental breakfast abroad and additionally receive lounge access at properties with an executive lounge.

Note that the food and beverage credit at properties within the United States does not need to be used on breakfast. Some members may prefer to use this credit on appetizers / dinner / drinks and/or you may already have breakfast included in your rate or lounge access. Most properties will likely require you to use the credit daily or lose it — you likely will not be able to combine the credits from multiple days to use at one time.

For those booking properties abroad, keep in mind that the definition of a continental breakfast varies; at some properties, this consists of a full made-to-order breakfast in the hotel restaurant, at others it could mean a voucher that can be used at on-property dining options that may not completely cover breakfast. However, most Hilton full-service properties have good breakfast offerings. Unfortunately, the food & beverage credit may not be enough to fully cover the cost at properties within the United States.

Upgrades

Note that elite members are not entitled to upgrades at a large segment of Hilton’s portfolio. From the Hilton terms and conditions:

The following brands do not offer complimentary upgrades: Embassy Suites, Hilton Garden Inn, Hampton by Hilton, Tru by Hilton, Homewood Suites by Hilton, Home2 Suites by Hilton, Hilton Grand Vacations, and Motto by Hilton.

Unfortunately, Hilton has recently launched paid upgrade offers for elite members. Some elite members at select properties are offered the opportunity to buy an upgrade during the online check-in process. Time will tell whether this creates a disincentive for properties to offer the complimentary upgrades that are outlined as perks of the elite status program as noted above.

Shortcuts to elite status

There are two key shortcuts to Hilton elite status: credit cards or status match.

Credit Cards

The easiest shortcut to Hilton elite status is via credit card. The Hilton Honors American Express card offers Silver elite status, while the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass card offers complimentary Gold elite status. Alternatively, the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire card offers complimentary Diamond status. The ability to essentially buy meaningful elite status by having a credit card is unique to Hilton.

Note that those who spend $40,000 in a calendar year on the Surpass card earn Diamond status.

Status match

Hilton also offers a status match program. At times in the past, they have given a straight match to those with comparable status in other programs, Hilton currently offers a status match challenge whereby they will match your comparable status in another program to either Hilton Gold or Hilton Diamond and then you will need to complete 10 nights (for Gold) or 18 nights (for Diamond) within a 90-day trial period to maintain status through the end of the current membership period. 

See Hilton’s status match page here: https://statusmatch.hiltonhonors.com/

Point earning from stays

Status	Points earned per $	Points earned at Home2 Suites & Tru by Hilton
Member	10	5
Silver (20% bonus)	12	6
Gold	18	9
Diamond	20	10

 

The chart above shows point earnings for stays.  The middle column shows the number of points earned per dollar at most brands.  The next column shows the points earned per dollar at long-stay brands that don’t follow the same formula: Home2Suites and Tru by Hilton.

Points are not earned with online travel agency bookings.  For example, if you book through Expedia, you will not earn points for your room charge.  You also might not receive elite benefits during your stay, but some hotels have been known to offer them anyway as long as you add your Hilton Honors membership number to the reservation.

Point transfers to airline miles

Hilton Honors used to offer the ability to transfer Hilton points to various airline partners, but it seems that they now only allow transfers into Hilton. Transfer ratios were always abysmal when moving Hilton points to airlines anyway.

You learn more about transferring points here: https://hiltonhonors3.hilton.com/en/earn-use-points/exchange/airline-rail/index.html

Manage points

Share points with others (transfer or pool points)

Hilton Honors allows members to transfer points to other members or pool points with a group. You can find the options shown above by logging in to your account at Hilton.com and choosing the “Points” tab at the top.

Note that each Hilton Honors Member is limited to sending no more than five hundred thousand (500,000) Points and receiving two million (2,000,000) Points via Points Pooling or Transfers combined per calendar year. Also, each member is limited to making six transfers to other member accounts and six Hilton Points Pooling transactions per calendar year.

If you simply want to move points from one account to another (perhaps from one spouse to another), you can “transfer points” to another member. You’ll need to verify your account with a code sent to the email address on file and then enter the name, email address, and Hilton Honors account number of the recipient.

If you want to share points amongst a larger group (like a family), Hilton Honors also allows points pooling whereby you can share points with up to 10 other members. Each member can transfer up to 500,000 points into a pool in a calendar year and an individual member can receive up to 2,000,000 points in a calendar year. You must have been a member for at least 30 days and have at least 1,000 points in your account to join a pool. Note that while the original program announcement suggested that pooled points are available immediately but “may take up to 24 hours” to be reflected in your account, my experience has been that this really varies. Sometimes, pooled points move instantly. Sometimes, it can take several days for pooled points to transfer and other times transfers have sometimes failed without reason. It is advisable to initiate pooling or transfers in advance when possible.

How to keep points alive

Points expire after 12 months of inactivity.  Fortunately, almost all points activity will reset the clock.  Points remain alive and available as long as you earn or use points at least once every 12 months.

Some examples of activity that would keep points alive:

• Earning from a stay
• Using a Hilton credit card
• Purchasing points
• Transferring from Amex Membership Rewards
• Earning from the Hilton Dining program
• Shopping with points at Amazon
• Earning points from a car rental
• Donating Hilton points to charity

Credit cards

The Hilton Honors credit cards are issued by American Express. Below you’ll find information about each currently available Hilton credit card:

Experiences

In addition to redeeming points for award nights, it is also possible to redeem points for experiences. These include things like backstage concert tickets, impossible to get sports event tickets, dining with famous chefs, etc.  Some experiences have fixed award prices, but most are setup as auctions.  In either case, you may or may not get good value depending upon circumstances.

Here is a link to available Hilton Honors experiences: https://experiences.hiltonhonors.com/

Hilton Honors Pros & Cons

Pros (where Hilton Honors is better than average):

• Both Gold and Diamond members receive food and beverage credits (or continental breakfast outside of the US)
• Easy elite status via credit card
• No resort fees on award stays
• 5th night free awards (Marriott offers this too)
• Points pooling with up to 10 other members (share up to 500K points per year or receive up to 2,000,000 points per year). This makes it easy to combine forces for an award.
• Hilton offers good point earnings on paid stays for elites
• Hilton has a huge number of hotels that run from bottom-tier to luxury

Cons (where Hilton Honors is worse than average):

• Variable award pricing means it is nearly impossible to predict how many points you’ll need until you are ready to book
• Hilton offers fewer ulta-luxury aspirational properties than Marriott and Hyatt
• Food & beverage credits given in the United States will not cover the full cost of breakfast in many instances
• Elite members are not entitled to upgrades at many of Hilton’s limited-service properties

Q & A (Questions and Answers)

Q: Can I get the 5th Night Free if I pay for some of the nights with cash, free night certificates, or cash + points?

A: No.  To get the 5th Night Free, you must book entirely with points.

Q: I completed a stay but it hasn’t credited to my account. What can I do?

A: First, wait a bit. It’s not unusual for a stay to appear on your account about a week after checkout.  Next, if the stay still hasn’t appeared, you can fill out a missing stay request online: https://www.hilton.com/en/hilton-honors/guest/missing-stays

(Some of this content originally appeared on Frequent Miler and has been posted with permission.)