Buy Hilton HHonors Points For 0.56 Cents Each (5 Days Only)

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Hilton has opened up a new Buy Hilton HHonors Points promotion that runs for just 5 days (14 July – 18 July) and that allows Hilton HHonors members to purchase up to 80,000 points with an 80% bonus thrown in.

This is a very egalitarian promotion as it doesn’t matter how many points you buy – whether you buy the minimum number of points (1,000) or the the maximum (80,000) you’ll still get an 80% bonus and you’ll still pay 0.56 cents per point:

buy-hilton-hhonors-1000

1,800 HHonors points for $10 = $0.0056/point

buy-hilton-hhonors-points-80000

144,000 HHonors points for $800 = $0.0056/point

Terms & Conditions

The full T&Cs can be found on the “Buy HHonors Points” pageInvalid request error occurred. but here are some of the important ones you need to know:

  • You can buy up to 80,000 Hilton HHonors Points per calendar year (excluding bonus points)
  • 80% bonus points offer is only available 14 – 18 July 2016 (closes 11:59pm ET)
  • You can gift points and the points recipient will receive the 80% bonus
  • All points purchases will be processed by Points.com so there’s no opportunity for credit card category bonuses.

Buy Hilton HHonors Points

Should You Buy Hilton HHonors Points At 0.56 Cents Each?

Hilton HHonors isn’t my favorite hotel rewards program because it links the number of points you need for an award night to the cost of a room on that particular night (more or less)…..that’s why the HHonors awards chart shows a range of points needed for an award night for categories 4 through 10 (click to enlarge):

Screen Shot 2016-07-14 at 16.21.45Hilton HHonors Award Chart

 Just as with the recent (and ongoing) Hyatt points promotion you really need to do the Math to see if this promotion could save you some money.

Taking a randomly selected night at the Waldorf Astoria in New York the lowest nightly rate (including taxes) is $571.17…..

hilton-waldorf-astoria-cost

…while the same night costs 80,000 HHonors Points:

hilton-waldorf-astoria-cost-points

Someone who bought points in this promotion (at 0.56 cents each) would effectively pay just $448 for the night (80,000 x $0.0056) – a great saving of over $120.

That’s a particularly good example of how buying points can save you a significant amount of money…but it’s not always like this.

Take the example of the DoubleTree at London’s Excel Centre where, on another randomly selected night, the cost of a room is £94.13 ($125) including all taxes and fees….

doubletree-hilton-cash-cost

….while the same room on the same night costs 50,000 Hilton HHonors points:

doubletree-hilton-points-cost

Anyone choing to buy points in this promotion and the using them for a night like this would find themselves losing out….and quite significantly at that.

50,000 HHonors points would cost $280 in this promotion and that’s over double the cash cost of the room!

Bottom Line

Do the math before you buy!

Never buy points on the off-chance you may use them somewhere down the road (speculative purchase) – the points could easily devalue before you get a chance to use them and suddenly you’re out of pocket when there was never any need for you to be.

Also, don’t be persuaded but the idea that, at 0.56/point, you could stay at some of the top Hiltons world-wide for $532/night (at most). Yes, that may be a lot cheaper than the going cash rate but you can only buy enough points for one night at those properties so how are you going to pay for any other nights? If you already have a stack of HHonors points with which to book further nights then this may work for you but, otherwise, you could end up spending more money than you save.

There is definitely value to be had out of this promotion….but only for those who have a solid plan as to what they’re going to do with them and who take the time to work out if the points will actually be saving them cash. Make sure you think things through and you won’t go far wrong.

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