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Back in May Hilton and Lyft announced a partnership that allows Hilton Honors members to earn points on the rides they book with the ridesharing service and today the partnership expands to allow riders to use Hilton Honors points for their trips instead of cash…but don’t get too excited.
Since the Hilton/Lyft partnership was announced it has been possible to earn 3 Hilton Honors points per dollar spent on most Lyft rides (up to $10,000 in spending per year) and, from today, users who have linked their Hilton and Lyft accounts will see two new features in their accounts.
Buy Lyft Credits With Hilton Honors Points
The main Hilton/Lyft webpage now offers users the option to redeem Hilton Honors Points for Lyft credits…
…and following that link shows exactly what kind of deal is on offer:
Users can buy Lyft credits for themselves or for friends and family members (you’ll need the phone number associated with the account being credited) but most informed Hilton Honors members will probably shy away from this opportunity….and here’s why.
Hilton Honors members choosing to redeem points for Lyft credits will be getting approximately 0.22 cents of value out of each point used and that’s not a very good deal at all.
Hilton will happily sell you points at 0.5 cents each (at best) and it takes next to no effort whatsoever to get in excess of 0.4 cents/point of value when you redeem Hilton Points for hotel stays, so the opportunity to get just 0.22 cents of value when buying Lyft credits isn’t one I expect most people to jump at….but some may.
If you have more Hilton Honors points than you know what to do with (yes, some people are in that fortunate position) or if you have a low Hilton Honors balance that shows no sign of being increased any time soon it may be worth your while to burn some points in exchange for Lyft credits as the points will probably go unused otherwise. Everyone else would do well to use their points in a more economical way.
Book Lyft Rides Direct From The Hilton App During A Stay
Hilton has introduced the in-app functionality which now allows Honors members to request Lyft rides directly from the Hilton Honors app during a stay.
The “request a ride” feature appears within the “stays” tab of the Hilton app during a stay (apologies for the poor image but that’s all Hilton has provided!) and the hotel location will be pre-populated as the rider’s pick-up point.
With the Lyft app already being more than capable of knowing a person’s location when a ride is requested and with the Hilton app not being a particularly obvious place to head to if you need to book a Lyft, I’m struggling to see any real value of this new feature for Hilton Honors members.
When most people need to book a ride they’re not going to think of accessing the Hilton app (they’ll head straight to the Lyft app) so this new feature has probably got more to do with getting more Honors members aware of the Hilton/Lyft partnership (they’ll see the Lyft logo every time they access the Hilton app during a stay) than it is about offering any truly useful new functionality.
Bottom Line
Adding the ability to redeem Honors points for Lyft credits was always the next logical step for the Hilton/Lyft partnership but while users can only get 0.22 cents of value out of each point they use this will probably just be an option used by the ill-informed and a limited number of other Hilton Honors members.
