This post contains references to products from one or more of our advertisers. We may receive compensation when you click on links to those products. Terms apply to the offers listed on this page. For an explanation of our Advertising Policy, visit this page.
Hilton Honors is the loyalty program of one of the largest hotel brands in the world. It targets both leisure and business travelers in city centers, near airports, convention centers and popular tourist destinations.
Hilton Honors members who book directly through Hilton get exclusive discounts, amenities, award nights and elite status. Find out everything you need to know about Hilton Honors below.
Personal Credit Cards
Business Credit Cards
| Redemption Options | Hotel stays Points & Money Travel partners Hilton experiences On property rewards Car rentals Cruise discounts Shopping Charitable donations |
| Value Per Point | $0.002 – $0.01+ $0.006 on average |
Hilton Honors Brands
With 18 distinct brands in over 6,800 locations across 122 countries, Hilton Honors has a hotel for every style, budget and occasion.
The Hilton portfolio includes the following brands:
Hilton Honors Elite Status
Hilton Honors has three tiers of elite status. As you spend more nights at Hilton properties, you’ll move up in status.
| ELITE STATUS | REQUIREMENTS |
| Silver | 4 stays or 10 nights |
| Gold | 20 stays or 40 nights or 75,000 base points |
| Diamond | 30 stays or 60 nights or 120,000 base points |
With each tier, you’ll unlock more VIP benefits.
Once you earn an elite status level, you’ll have it for the rest of the calendar year and all of the following year. Click here to see updated and complete information.
Earning Hilton Honors Points: Co-Branded Cards
American Express (Amex) issues two personal Hilton Honors credit cards and one small business card. Using these co-branded cards for your everyday purchases is a quick and easy way to stack up on Hilton points.
HILTON HONORS AMERICAN EXPRESS SURPASS® CARD
Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more.
The Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card has an offer for 130,000 Hilton Honors bonus points when you spend $2,000 within 3 months of account opening. The total 130k bonus points are worth around $780 per our valuation.
Earn 12 points per $1 spent on a hotel or resort within the Hilton Portfolio. This chain of hotels consists of over 5,000 locations. Earn 6 points per $1 on purchases at U.S. restaurants, U.S. supermarkets and U.S. gas stations. All other purchases will earn 3 points per $1.
Other benefits include complimentary Gold Status and a Weekend Night Reward after you spend $15,000 on purchases in a calendar year.
The card has an annual fee of $95 (See Rates & Fees, Terms Apply).
HILTON HONORS AMERICAN EXPRESS CARD
Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more.
The Hilton Honors American Express Card has a welcome bonus offer for 80,000 Hilton Honors Points when you spend $1,000 in purchases in the first 3 months of Card Membership. Our valuation puts the 80k points at around $480 in value ($0.006 per point).
This Hilton credit card earns 7 Hilton Honors points per $1 spent directly with a hotel or resort within the Hilton Honors portfolio of brands. U.S. restaurants, U.S. supermarkets and U.S. gas station spending earns 5 Hilton Honors points per dollar. All other purchases will earn 3 Hilton Honors points per dollar.
Other features include no foreign transaction fees and free Hilton Honors Silver Status. This card has no annual fee. See Rates & Fees, Terms Apply.
THE HILTON HONORS AMERICAN EXPRESS BUSINESS CARD
Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more.
The Hilton Honors American Express Business Card has an offer for 130,000 Hilton Honors Bonus Points and a Free Night Reward after you $5,000 in purchases within 3 months of Card Membership. We value these 130k points to be worth around $780. Also, earn a Free Night Reward after you spend $10,000 in the first 6 months. Limited time offer ends 12/21/22.
This card earns 12 points per $1 on purchases made directly with hotels and resorts in the Hilton portfolio. It earns 6 points per $1 on select business purchases:
- U.S. gas stations
- Wireless telephone services purchased directly from U.S. service providers
- U.S. purchases for shipping
- U.S. restaurants
- Flights booked directly with airlines or with Amex Travel
- Car rentals booked directly from select car rental companies
All other purchases will earn 3 points per $1.
Spend $15,000 on purchases in a calendar year and you’ll earn a Weekend Night Reward. Earn another Weekend Night after you spend an additional $45,000 in purchases on your Card in the same calendar year. You’ll also get free Hilton Honors Gold Status with this card.
There are no foreign transaction fees and the annual fee is $95. See Rates & Fees, Terms Apply.
Earning Hilton Honors Points: Other Ways
Earn points on hotel stays. The amount depends on which Hilton brand you stay with and your elite status:
| STATUS | MOST HILTON BRANDS | TRU & HOME2 SUITES HOTELS |
| Member | 10x points | 5x points |
| Silver | 12x points | 6x points |
| Gold | 18x points | 9x points |
| Diamond | 20x points | 10x points |
*This chart is for illustrative purposes only. It is incomplete and subject to change.
You must book directly with Hilton, a travel agent or through a corporate travel portal to qualify. Using third-party websites (Expedia, Orbitz, etc.) or credit card portals (Chase Ultimate Rewards Travel, Citi ThankYou Travel Center, etc.) will not earn Hilton points.
Pool your points with up to 10 other people for award stays. This is a great option if you’re going on vacation with the extended family or a group of friends.
Points pooling is free to use. You can transfer a minimum of 1,000 Hilton points at a time and up to 500,000 points in a calendar year. Each Hilton Honors member can receive a maximum of two million Hilton points every year.
Sign into your account for more information.
Link a debit or credit card to Hilton Honors Dining to earn bonus points every time you eat out at a participating restaurant.
There’s no minimum spend required. Plus, you’ll earn on tax and tips.
Maximize your earning potential with our guide to everything you need to know about dining programs.
Through the Hilton Honors Event Planner Program, earn 1x Hilton points on qualifying events at participating Hilton hotels.
There’s no minimum spend required, and you can earn up to 100,000 Hilton points per event.
Because Hilton Honors is an Amex Membership Rewards transfer partner, you can move your Membership Rewards points to Hilton at a 1:2 ratio. Keep an eye out for promotions that offer bonuses for your transfer.
This isn’t the best way to “earn” points, because you can often get better value with other transfer partners. But it is a decent solution if you’re just shy of an award stay.
Earn points with Hilton travel partners: Alamo, Enterprise, National, Cruises Only, Priority Pass and Lyft.
Car rentals. Get 500 Hilton points every time you rent a car from Alamo, Enterprise or National. Receive an additional 500 points for each day of your rental, for a maximum of 5,000 points.
Cruises. Earn up to 50,000 Hilton points when you book through Cruises Only’s Hilton partner site. The number of points you’ll receive depends on the length of your cruise.
Lounge access. Get up to 10,000 Hilton points when you purchase a membership with Priority Pass. The number of points you’ll receive depends on which plan you choose.
Rideshare. Earn up to 3x Hilton points on Lyft rides.
If you’re short of a redemption, you can purchase the Hilton points you need – up to 80,000 points every calendar year at a rate of $0.01 per point.
Every once in a while, Hilton will do a promotion for as low as $0.005 each point. Log into your account to see the current promotions and cost for buying points.
Redeeming Hilton Honors Points
As we take a closer look at all your Hilton Honors redemption options below, keep in mind that Hilton points do expire after 12 months of inactivity.
Unfortunately, Hilton Honors does not have an official award chart. Award pricing depends on brand, location, time of the year and demand. That said, an award night will cost between 5,000 points to 95,000 points for a standard room. If you tend to travel to popular destinations at peak times of the year, expect a higher number of points required for your award stay.
In general, you’ll find better award rates if you book more than 90 days before your stay and with the following brands:
- Embassy Suites
- Hampton by Hilton
- Home2 Suites
Don’t have enough points for an award night? Hilton Honors lets you pay with both points and cash. You can decide how many points you want to use, starting at 5,000 points and in 1,000-point increments.
Depending on where you want to stay, using Points & Money might be a cheaper option than purchasing the points you need. Keep in mind, your Points & Money selection is set in stone. There’s no way to cancel and get a partial cash refund.
Hilton Honors has many travel partners including the following:
- AeroFlot Russian Airlines
- AeroMexico
- Air Asia
- Air Canada
- Air France/KLM
- Air New Zealand
- Alaska Airlines
- All Nippon Airways
- American Airlines
- Amtrak
- Asiana Airlines
- British Airways
- Cathay Pacific
- China Eastern Airlines
- Delta Air Lines
- Emirates
- Ethiopian Airlines
- Etihad Airways
- EVA Air
- Eurowings
- Finnair
- Frontier Airlines
- Garuda Indonesia
- Hainan Airlines
- Hawaiian Airlines
- Iceland Air
- Japan Airlines
- Jet Airways
- LATAM
- Malaysia Airlines
- Philippine Airlines
- Qantas Airways
- Qatar Airways
- SAS Scandinavian Airlines
- Saudi Arabian Airlines
- Singapore Airlines
- South African Airways
- Turkish Airlines
- United Airlines
- Virgin Atlantic
- Virgin Australia
In most cases, 10,000 Hilton points will get you 1,000 airline miles. As you can guess, this is not the best use for your Hilton points. You’re much better off redeeming your rewards towards award stays.
Besides Hilton experiences, I wouldn’t recommend using your Hilton points for any of the other redemption options below. You’ll get far less value than the average $0.006 per Hilton point.
| OPTION | POINT VALUE |
| Hilton Experiences | Varies |
| Charitable Donations | $0.0025 |
| On Property Rewards | $0.002 |
| Shopping | $0.002 |
| Car Rentals | $0.002 |
| Cruise Discounts | $0.002 |
*Actual point value is subject to change but the redemption value for these other options are likely to always be less than the average value for Hilton Honors points in general.
Hilton Honors Tips & Tricks
Now that we’ve covered how to earn and redeem Hilton points, let’s talk about how to make the most out of your Hilton Honors membership.
You’ll get automatic Silver status with the Hilton Honors American Express card and on the fast track to Gold status by spending $20,000 in a calendar year.
You’ll receive automatic Gold status with the following credit cards:
If you have Silver elite status or higher, you get your fifth night free on award stays. As you can imagine, this can mean huge savings and more value for your Hilton points.
Bear in mind, all five nights have to be available as standard room awards. Also, you can get a maximum of four free nights in one stay, which means you can book up to 20 consecutive nights with this perk.
If you’re in between two status levels and it’s nearing the end of the calendar year, you get to keep your current status for the rest of the year and all of the next year. Then when the new year comes, any elite stays or nights you earned will roll over to the new year. So it’ll be a breeze to requalify.
Hilton Honors is one of the very few hotel loyalty programs to offer this feature.
You can earn lifetime Diamond status two ways:
- By earning 2,000,000 base points over the entire course of your membership, or
- By completing 1,000 paid or award nights.
In addition to one of the above qualifications, you must also have held Diamond status for at least 10 years in your account history.
Bottom Line
Perhaps the biggest drawback to Hilton Honors is its complex dynamic award pricing, as opposed to a user-friendly award chart. However, the elite status program lets you earn more points than any other comparable hotel loyalty program. Paired with an Amex Hilton Honors credit card, and you’ve got earning potential that is unmatched.
That said, Hilton Honors is not a perfect loyalty program. But for any frequent traveler looking to easily earn points toward free hotel stays, Hilton Honors could very well be an excellent fit.
READ MORE: See The Best Bank Promotions Here And The Best Investing Promotions Here
