Hilton Points On Sale For 0.56 Cents

This is the second of two delayed “points for sale” posts so apologies for being late with the news but it couldn’t be helped.

Hilton HHonors has launched a promotion whereby customers can purchase HHonors points for 0.56c (approximately) through 8 February 2016.

The offer entitles customers to an 80% bonus on purchased points and, as the bonus isn’t tiered (i.e. you get an 80% regardless of how many points you buy), the cost per point is the same if you were to buy the minimum amount of points (1,000) or the maximum (80,000).

An 80,000 points purchase would give a 64,000 points bonus at a cost of $800 including taxes…

….which gives a cost/point of approximately $0.0056 or 0.56c.

To prove the point about points costing the same at each level here’s an illustration for a 40,000 point purchase:

A total of 72,000 points at $400 still comes out to around 0.56c/point.

I don’t value Hilton HHonors points too highly (usually at around 0.35 – 0.40 cents per point) so, at this price, I’m not inclined to buy.

Having said that, there there are opportunities to make the most of this offer if you look around.

Selecting a random date in the calendar and checking the price of the Waldorf Astoria in New York shows the price per night to be $547.79 including taxes for the cheapest room:

And the same room on the same date would cost 80,000 Hilton HHonors Points:

80,000 points, at a cost to buy of 0.56c/point, comes to $448 and that’s nearly a $100 saving on the cash asking price.

Some may wish to take into account that, with the cash rate, guests will earn Hilton HHonors points and credit towards elite status so that may change the valuation a bit…but if those are less important to you than cash savings then this could be an opportunity.

It’s not just the higher-end hotels that this may work for:

Taking the Hilton Garden Inn in Los Angeles Montebello, a random night in June costs 30,000 HHonors points or $251.01 including taxes:

If you were to buy all the points needed at 0.56c/point the night would cost $168 – a saving of $83.

Bottom Line

The maximum number of points you can purchase in a year is 80,000 excluding bonuses so bear that in mind when making your decision.

The first thing to do is to work out what you’d like to do with your points and then perform similar calculations to the ones I’ve illustrated above. If the math works for you then purchasing points should be a perfectly valid thing to do, if it doesn’t then don’t try to persuade yourself otherwise. Math is impartial, you are not.

If you only need a few more thousand points (to add to your existing balance) to be able to redeem an award you’ve been considering, 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!