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Hilton is back with another points sale and, once again, there’s a 100% bonus on offer as long as you buy at least 5,000 points. For some this will be an improvement over the 100% offer we saw launched back in February as this time around the bonus isn’t targeted – everyone qualifies.
Buy Hilton Honors Points – What You Need To Know
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:
- Points purchased do not count towards elite tier qualification.
- All purchases must be made through the Purchase page on HiltonHonors.com.
- The 100% Points bonus with a minimum 5,000 Points purchase is available for purchases made between by June 7, 2018, at 11:59pm ET.
- Members may purchase a maximum of 80,000 points per calendar year (excluding bonuses)
- 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.
- Price includes all applicable fees. GST/HST will be charged to Canadian residents.
- Transactions are handled by Points.com so there is no option for earning credit card category bonuses for hotel/travel spend.
Note: There are reports of some Honors members being offered an increased annual purchase limit of 100,000 points – check your individual T&Cs.
The Math
Hilton doesn’t vary the price per point within each of its bonus tiers so this is what the cost per point looks like:
- Buy 1,000 to 5,000 points at 1.00 cent each
- Buy 10,000 to 80,000 points at 0.50 cents each
Buying the full 80,000 point allowance costs $800…..
…and will net you 160,000 points after accounting for the bonus.
160,000 points at a cost of $800 works out to 0.5 cents/point.
Should You Buy Hilton Points At 0.5 Cents Each?
0.5 cents is the cheapest rate at which we usually see Hilton points being sold so if this offer doesn’t work for you (which it may not) there isn’t another offer that we’ve seen that’s going to be any better for you.
I value Hilton points at around 0.4 cents each and, as I don’t book many stays at Hilton properties, 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 Palmer House Hotel in Chicago as an example:
Taking a random date in June the cheapest room at the property can be booked for $469 + taxes or 60,000 Hilton Honors points:
$469 + taxes works out to a total nightly cost of $550.99:
Given that the 60,000 points needed to book this room can be bought for just $300 in the current promotion….
….you can actually save over $250 on just one night.
As you can buy at least 180,000 points in this promotion you can actually book this room for 3 nights and save an incredible $750 on your stay (yes, the rate stays the same as does the number of points/night).
You can find similar deals at more premium properties too.
Take the Conrad New York as an example.
On a random night in June this property will cost you $536 + taxes or 80,000 Hilton Honors points:
$536 + taxes comes to $620.99 for the night:
In the current sale the 80,000 points needed to book this award would set you back $425 which would save you over $195 on the best available cash rate.
Buy Hilton Points via this link
Bottom Line
It’s always worth remembering that the maximum number of Hilton HHonors points you can purchase in a year is 80,000 excluding bonuses (unless you’ve been targeted for an increased allowance this time around) so you’re not going to be able to buy a lot of cheap nights at high-end properties with a “buy points promotion”.
It’s also worth remembering that the hotels I’ve discussed above are just examples so there may be cheaper properties available on the same nights that suit you just as well….but that doesn’t make the deals I’ve highlighted bad.
The most important things to do are to….
- Work out what you’d like to do with your points, where you’d like to visit and when
- Perform similar calculations to the ones I’ve shown above.
If the math works then buying points in this promotion is probably a good idea (go for it), if not then stay away.
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.
