Buy Hilton Honors Points And Get A 100% Bonus [Targeted]

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Hilton is back with a new points promotion and if you hold a Hilton Amex credit card the chances are you’ve been targeted for the maximum bonus.

The last Hilton promotion ended at the end of December and it offered a bonus of up to 80% to all Hilton Honors members. This time around it looks as if everyone is being offered an 80% bonus at the very minimum but, if you hold one of the Amex Hilton credit cards (including the free card), you’re likely to have been targeted for a bonus of 100%.

Buy Hilton Honors Points – The Rules

Here are the important parts from the Terms and Conditions which you’ll find in full at the bottom of the “purchase points” page after you log in:

• This is an exclusive offer only for Hilton Honors American Express Card Members and is not transferable.
• The Hilton Honors Points 100% Bonus is available on purchases of Hilton Honors Points made between February 2, 2018, at 12:01am ET and March 16, 2018, at 11:59pm ET.
• All purchases are non-refundable.
• Offer is subject to change.
• Offer cannot be combined with any other offer.
• Points will be posted to the recipients Hilton Honors account within 24 hours of the completed transaction
• All purchases must be made through the Purchase page on HiltonHonors.com. All Hilton Honors Terms and Conditions apply. Hilton Honors^TM membership, earning of Points and Miles^TM and redemption of Points are subject to Hilton Honors Terms and Conditions.
• Transactions are handled by Points.com so there is no option for earning credit card category bonuses for hotel/travel spend.

The Bonuses

I have the free American Express Hilton card so this is what my account shows:

• Buy 1,000 to 9,000 points – zero bonus
• Buy 10,000 to 80,000 points – 100% bonus

If you don’t have one of the Hilton co-branded cards the maximum bonus you’ll probably find is one of 80%.

The Math

Hilton doesn’t vary the price per point within each of the bonus tiers so this is what the cost per point looks like:

• Buy 1,000 to 9,000 points at 1.00 cent each
• Buy 10,000 to 80,000 points at 0.50 cents each

Buying the full 80,000 points will cost you $800…..

…and will net you 160,000 points after accounting for the bonus.

160,000 points for $800 works out to 0.5 cents/point.

Is It Worth Buying Hilton Points At 0.5 Cents Each?

0.5 cents/point is the cheapest we usually see Hilton offer points so it’s now or never if you’re going to buy points….but is this sale even worth considering?

I value Hilton points at around 0.4 cents each and I don’t book all that many stays at Hilton properties (Marriott/Starwood/IHG/Hyatt are where I mainly stay) so, at 0.5 cents each, I’m not going to be adding to my Honors balance in this sale….. but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t opportunities to make the most of this offer.

Take the Hilton Chicago as an example:

Taking a random date in June the Hilton Chicago can be booked for $337 + taxes or 60,000 Hilton points:

$337 + taxes works out to a total cost for the night of $395.64:

The 60,000 points needed to book this room can be purchased for $300 in the current promotion and, as an added bonus, Hilton award bookings are flexible.

If you bought points in the current sale and used them for a booking such as this one you’d be saving almost $100/night and you would be getting a flexible reservation as opposed to the very inflexible reservation you get with the lowest cash rate.

This doesn’t just work a the middle-of-the-road properties, it can work at premium properties too.

Take the all-suite London NYC (which is now a Conrad property). On a random date in April this property will cost you $503 + taxes or 95,000 Hilton Honors points:

$503 + taxes comes to $580.69 for the night:

You can buy the 95,000 points needed to book this award for $475 in the current sale and you would therefore save over $100 on the cash rate. You would also be making a booking you can cancel without penalty rather than paying a pre-paid cash rate that doesn’t allow cancellations.

Buy Hilton Points via this link

Bottom Line

Keep in mind that the maximum number of Hilton HHonors points you can purchase in a year is 80,000 (excluding bonuses) so you’re not going to be able to buy a lot of cheap nights at high-end properties with a “buy points promotion”.

The most important things to do are to….

1. Work out what you’d like to do with your points, where you’d like to visit and when
2. Perform similar calculations to the ones I’ve shown above.

If the math works then buying points in this promotion could definitely save you some money but, if the math doesn’t look pretty, don’t try to persuade yourself otherwise.

If you only need a few more thousand points (to add to your existing Hilton Honors points balance) for an award you’ve been thinking about, then paying a little more for the points than you would otherwise be happy to pay would also be ok….just don’t go crazy.

You can access the latest Hilton Points Promotion via this link.