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Unlike most hotel loyalty programs, Hilton has allowed its members to pool points for several years. There’s no fee to pool Hilton Honors points and up to 11 people can participate in the pooling, so this is definitely something all Hilton Honors members should be aware of.
Who can transfer/pool Hilton Honors points?
Anyone with an active Hilton Honors account that’s at least 30 days old and has a balance of at least 1,000 points can participate in points transfers/pooling.
After 90 days of enrollment, a new member is eligible to pool, transfer, or receive Points regardless of their account activity.
There’s no limit to the number of pools a Hilton Honors member can take part in.
Up to 11 people can take part in a single Hilton Honors pool with up to 10 accounts transferring points into an 11th account.
The people participating in a pool do not have to be related or share an address
How Many Hilton Honors Points Can You Pool?
The minimum number of points which can be transferred is 1,000.
A single account can transfer out a maximum of 500,000 Hilton Honors points in a calendar year.
A single account can receive a maximum of 2,000,000 Hilton Honors points in a calendar year.
Each Hilton Honors Member is limited to making 6 transfers to other member accounts and 6 Hilton Points Pooling transactions per calendar year.
How To Pool & Transfer Hilton Honors Points
Hilton Honors has a dedicated page where you can set up your points pools, and it looks like this (click to enlarge):
You can find this page by logging in to your Hilton Honors account, clicking on your name in the top right of the screen, and clicking the ‘points’ link in the menu bar that should have just opened:
This opens a general “points” page and, if you scroll to the very bottom, you’ll see the “pool points” option within the “do more with your points” section.
Clicking the link opens the main points pooling page from where you can invite up to 10 other Hilton Honors members to pool points with you.
Note: Once a Hilton Honors member has received an invitation to join a points pool they have to use the dedicated “pool your points” link within the invitation email to access the transfer page.
Hilton Honors members who wish to transfer points to an account outside of a points pool can use the dedicated transfer page set up on the Hilton Honors website which looks like this:
All points transfers are managed by Points.com and are usually instantaneous.
Be aware that Hilton doesn’t classify points pooling or points transfers as account activity so the act of pooling points or transferring points in or out of an account will not extend the expiration of an account balance.
Why pool points?
There are a few reasons why you may wish to pool points into a single account:
- To move small points balance (which isn’t big enough for an award booking) into an account with a bigger points balance where combined, an award booking is possible.
- To transfer points that are about to expire into an account with a balance that’s not going to expire.
- To build up a balance of points in one account that’s big enough to book a 5-night stay (and to make the most of the 5th-night free benefit that Hilton Honors offers).
- To ensure that a booking is made by the member of the traveling party who has the highest Hilton Honors elite status (therefore maximizing that status).
- To maximize Hilton points sales where the number of points an Honors member needs exceeds the maximum number of points that can be purchased in a calendar year – multiple accounts can maximize their allowance and pool the points into the account that needs them most.
When Hilton runs a sale with a 100% bonus, pooling points can be a great way to book fantastic high-end redemptions at a significant discount.
Bottom line
When Hilton Honors members pool their points into a single account it can open up a number of benefits that all the individual accounts may not have had access to (e.g the 5th-night free benefit) and it allows members to make the most of any good points sales that come around.
With Hilton making it as easy as it has for up to 11 people to pool their points, this benefit is a valuable tool that all Hilton Honors members should be making the most of.
