How do you accumulate Hilton Honors points?

[busy mom]

We are looking to book the DoubleTree Suites for our next Disney trip.

Is there a good credit card for Hilton Honors points?

Any other opportunities for points that have been successful for you?


Thank you for sharing!!!

 

[rnorwo1]

Hilton is a very difficult program to earn a significant amount bc they require so many points per night (and make sure when you check to see how many points will be needed for your hotel that it's giving you a per night quote and not per stay). Citi and AmEx have Hilton cards, sign up bonuses can usually be had at 50k. You can apply for a few (between you and your spouse and the different brands) to cover the cost. You can also look at generic travel cards like Barclay or Capital One Venture that will work at any hotel.

 

[supersnoop]

I always found Hilton to be the easiest chain to earn points. They have a couple of cards and frequent bonus offers. Besides the sign-up bonuses, the best way to earn points is to stay there. I'm pretty sure I was earning 20 points per $1 when staying there; sometimes more.

 

[okeydokey]

We earn way more points with Mariott than with Hilton. I book a lot of travel for work and we earn have earned a lot of points the last couple of years.

 

[rnorwo1]

Yes, but many decent Hilton hotels require 40-50K points per night!

 

[supersnoop]

Yes, but many decent Hilton hotels require 40-50K points per night!

The rate you earn points at Marriott seems to be in the 5-10 per $1 range, and many hotels require 25,000+ points per night.
At Hilton, you tend to earn 15-20 points per night, and rooms require 35,000+ points.

More points doesn't mean more expensive. You have to account for the valuation of the "currency."

 

[DisMommyTX]

We've had the Hilton Honors American Express for 15 + years. No annual fee so it just hangs around as our barely used back-up card. The points used to be great. We've had some amazing free stays from London to Times Square, even Russia! However they have not been worthwhile to us since they changed the structure of their rewards about 5 years ago. Still, no complaints on the card.

 

[TeamSy]

We earn way more points with Mariott than with Hilton. I book a lot of travel for work and we earn have earned a lot of points the last couple of years.

I completely agree. We have both cc's and our points definitely seem to get us a lot more/go further at Marriott.

 

[kawc1945]

We have a Hilton Honors credit card and earn 3x's points per dollar spent on regular purchases and I think 13x's points per dollar on hotel stays. They also will email with extra bonuses throughout the year, and there is usually a large sign up bonus. We have been able to stay for free for 10 days on points in Europe using their points/cards. It's easy.

 

[rnorwo1]

The rate you earn points at Marriott seems to be in the 5-10 per $1 range, and many hotels require 25,000+ points per night.
At Hilton, you tend to earn 15-20 points per night, and rooms require 35,000+ points.

More points doesn't mean more expensive. You have to account for the valuation of the "currency."

All true, and my brain does not seem to be able to calculate what points are worth, so I follow all of those blogs with smart people who are able to calculate the value! The general consensus is that Hilton points are not worth it because you can get so much more value from other hotels or focusing on getting free flights. That being said, if OP knows this is where they want to stay, and if they can get a free stay from sign up bonuses, then they should definitely go for it. DH and I each got 50k Hilton points, and we were able to stay at an excellent place in San Diego for two nights and an average place in New Mexico for two nights, all for free with those points. Like a PP said, the cards don't have annual fees, so that's a great way to go (if the sign up bonus(es) will cover OP's stay).

 

[descovy]

We have a Hilton Amex, I pretty much use at just Costco (or for Hilton rooms)

We road trip many of our vacations and sometimes find rooms for 10,000 points.

We are loyal to Hilton (namely Hampton Inn, Embassy Suites, Homewood Suites) because we are a family of 5. They seem to have the best options for 5 person occupancy. Rooms are always decent and good breakfasts too. It's something we know we can count on.

 

[monarchsfan16]

I have the Hilton Amex. I went for the one with the biggest sign up bonus. Happens to be the highest level card. It does have an annual fee, but I've earned so many points with it and had so many free stays in a little over a year, that the annual fee has paid for itself for the next several years. It's a great card, and the points accumulate quickly, even though I only use it for the best earning categories (grocery stores, restaurants and gas stations). I use my Southwest Visa everywhere else, and anywhere Amex isn't accepted.

 

[kydisneyfans]

We have the Hilton citi card, 50K sign up bonus and 10K in points if you spend $1,000 on it per year. With all the bonus point offers, we were able to build up over 275,000 points in 2015. That's roughly from 20 nights in Hilton hotels, although some of those nights were business related and somewhat expensive rooms in major cities. The card is used for Hilton charges only. We plan on banking points this year and use them for free lodging on our overseas trip next year. I've seen new Hampton Inns with a redemption rate of 10K points per night, and older properties in weird locations wanting 70K points. It's really random. We tried the Marriott program too, but weren't building many points at all. We also favor Embassy Suites/Homewood Suites/Hampton Inn in that order. We are going to use 12K points + $50/night to stay at an Embassy Suites with a rack rate of $209 in Ohio in April.

 

[sarahk0204]

I do surveys through e-rewards and earn Hilton points that way. I agree that staying there is a good way. They have lots of double and triple point promotions throughout the year.

 

[jmmess]

Another Hilton AMEX card holder here - this is my main card for when my other card gives me less return. Accumulated points very quickly plus there are bonuses for certain categories.

 

[C-CMom]

OP - were you trying to save enough points for your Doubletree stay or want to earn starting there?

I agree that a cash back or generic travel card may be better for many (and I have those, too), but I have found I get a good value with my Hilton Honors Surpass American Express. This one has an annual fee ($75), but pays better point rewards (12 per dollar for Hilton stays). I typically calculate it before I do the annual fee every year, and I usually far exceed the cost of the card to get extra value of points. You would need to travel enough, and choose Hilton properties enough to make this math work, though. I find there are usually plenty of Hilton options wherever I am headed, that it is easy to use this chain. There is decent consistency. Higher level Honors status gets a few perks (wifi, executive level, breakfast, extra points), and those do seem to be consistently delivered. Have stayed lots of places free, from quick overnights on road trips to a week at great places such as the Hilton Waikoloa in Hawaii. Some locales don't have quite what we need for a Hilton property, so we stay elsewhere (fairly loyal, but not exclusive customers).

My basic earning strategies:
-Signing bonus Surpass Card (current 60K points, but have to charge $3K in 3 months, one per account "ever" as I understand it)
-Each stay gets 500 point American Express co-brand bonus if reserve and pay on Amex Card
-VIP level bonus depends on your status and type property (example 250 per stay at Hampton, 1000 at Doubletree)
-Extra base points per level (25% for Gold, 50% diamond)
-Periodic bonuses, usually per quarter, offers change (maybe extra for weekends, or multiple during a time frame)
-Can choose points + miles with air partners, I choose points + points (50% extra base)
-Some types expenses earn extra: Hilton stays 12pts/$ (good), groceries/gas/restaurants 6pts/$ (fair) - note this is not %, is somewhat less for that

My basic spending strategies:
-There are sometimes wildly different "values" depend on property, each room point price has to be calculated for value. Have heard that Hilton values each point around 3-4 cents, but it is possible to get rooms with a point value closer to (and occasionally over) $1. This is when I choose to spend the points. If spending points will only get that low rate value, I spend $ which earns more points to use when the deal is better (especially if a good quarterly bonus offer is in the calculation). Example, I won't typically spend 50K points on a Hampton room, but might be a good deal for a Hilton on the beach (and sometimes have to include what else you don't have to pay, example may not have to pay resort fee if is a reward stay). Low end example: have booked 2 Hamptons for road trip to/from Disney (can't drive there in one day), each only 10K points. We've stayed in these specific hotels before, and Tripdadvisor rings no alarms, so should be excellent deal (by Hilton valuation, is equivalent of $40-ish, but I usually value points higher, so I feel I'm spending $60-70ish), both prices better than the $100+ they wanted for cash stay.

-Can also get better point rate if stay longer (think the cut-off is 4 days)
-Sometimes can get "specialty" rooms for good rate, occasionally better than standard
-Sometimes there is a special offer that makes paying with $ better (Amex card $)

Hmm, that got to be probably to much... basically, I find it works for me, and I like it. Sounds complicated, but is not for me now. Easy after understood structure, and I do kind of enjoy calculating the values (some would definitely call that work). I can see how/why others like other chains and reward structures. To each his/her own.

OP - even if you don't earn enough points to pay for your Doubletree stay, if you end up staying there anyway, I recommend get at least whatever points you can for the stay. I suspect you can squeeze out at least a free night somewhere with little effort.

 

[busy mom]

Thank you for all of the replies. We are looking to earn points ahead or our trip, in the hope that we can use them for a portion of our stay. I appreciate all of the great ideas!

 

[DebbieB]

I got the Hilton AMEX last summer to get the points I needed for a free night at the LAX Hilton the Sunday night after D23 (my flight was in the morning). I forget how many I got but I had enough to also get a free night at the Pittsburgh Airport Doubletree the night before my flight to California (6:30am flight). I had points already in my account. I had a couple of 12 night stays for work last May & June that earned about 14,000 points each. I think you get 10 points per $1 spent on the room, plus there were some bonus & promo points.

I was just looking at my account, I have about 63,000 points left, which would get me a couple nights (my airport hotels were 30,000 points each).

 

[wekhogan]

Hilton Amex is now 85k points after 3k spend. If you've already applied under a different offer, just call.