A Guide to the Hilton Honors Rewards Program

The Hilton Honors Rewards Program is a free membership that anyone can join. Once you become a member, you can earn points in a variety of ways, like when booking stays at Hilton properties, dining out or renting a car. You can redeem points to book experiences, air travel or hotel stays and shop on Amazon, to name a few.

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Once you earn elite status, you’re able to speed up your points earning with bonus points. Each level of membership status gives you other benefits, such as free Wi-Fi, rollover nights, room upgrades and guarantees.

What is the Hilton Honors Rewards Program?

The Hilton Honors reward program is Hilton’s way of giving back to its loyal guests. When a Hilton Honors member books a qualifying service or stays at a Hilton property, they earn points. The points can then be cashed in for various awards, such as:

• Free stays at Hilton properties.
• Shopping expenditures with various partners.
• Experience packages.
• Shop on Amazon.
• Donate points to nonprofits.

Joining the Hilton Honors program is free and you can sign up anytime on Hilton’s website. You’ll enter your name, phone number, email and physical addresses, then create a password to become a Hilton Honors member.

How to earn Hilton Honors Rewards points

There are multiple ways to earn Hilton Honors rewards points beyond just booking a stay at a Hilton property.

Hotel stays

Hilton awards 10 points for every $1 you spend on Hilton hotel stays. The only exceptions are Home2 Suites by Hilton properties and Try by Hilton, which earn 5 points for every $1 spent.

Hilton’s 16 properties you can earn 10 points per $1 spend are:

• Canopy by Hilton.
• Conrad Hotels & Resorts.
• Curio Collection by Hilton.
• DoubleTree by Hilton.
• Embassy Suites by Hilton.
• Hampton by Hilton.
• Hilton All-Inclusive Resorts.
• Hilton Garden Inn.
• Hilton Hotels & Resorts.
• Homewood Suites by Hilton.
• LXR Hotels & Resorts.
• Motto by Hilton.
• Signia by Hilton.
• Tapestry Collection by Hilton.
• Tempo by Hilton.
• Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts.

Hilton Honors American Express Cards

If you have any of the Hilton Honors American Express cards, you can earn on purchases like groceries and cell phone bill payments. There are other ways to earn from everyday spending, which vary by card.

There are multiple Hilton Honors American Express cards to choose from:

• Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card.
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• Hilton Honors American Express Surpass Card.*

Dining and ordering food

If you dine at or order food online from participating restaurants, bars or nightclubs, you can also earn Hilton Honors points. If you spend at least $25 in the first 30 days of being a new Hilton Honors member, you get 1,000 bonus points. Dining 11 times or more in a year earns you VIP status, which means you earn 8 bonus points per $1 spent.

Car rentals and Lyft rideshare

Renting a car through Alamo, Enterprise or National through the Hilton Honors portal allows members to earn up to 5,000 points per rental. When you link your Hilton Honors account to your Lyft rideshare account, you can earn two ways:

• Book an economy, luxury or extra seat to earn 3 points per $1 spend.
• Earn 2 points per $1 when booking shared Lyft rides.

Guest opinion rewards

Letting Hilton know your opinion can also help you build up Hilton Honors points. After signing up, you earn 1,250 points on your first survey. Additional surveys earn more points, which vary by survey opportunity.

Buying points

You can also buy Hilton Honors points if you want to redeem for a reward but are low on points for the redemption. Hilton allows you to buy up to 80,000 points in a calendar year.

How to redeem Hilton Honors points

Just like earning points, there are multiple ways to redeem your Hilton Honors reward points.

Free nights at Hilton properties

Hilton has almost 6,900 worldwide hotels and resorts and no blackout dates, which means you can cash in your Hilton Honors points any day of the year. Each night will cost anywhere from 5,000 to 95,000 points.

Use Hilton’s Points Explorer to find out points pricing by location, room type and destination. Redemptions typically require a larger amount of points during peak season, which varies by location.

Points slider

If you don’t have enough points to redeem a specific location, you can use Hilton’s Points Slider to combine points and money to book your room. To do this, navigate to Hilton.com, choose “Special Rates,” then click on “use points.” Once you make your selection, there’s an option to “pay with points & money.”

Fifth night free

Once you earn elite status (more on that below), you’re eligible for a free night when you book five or more consecutive nights on a Standard Reward Stay. You can book and get the fifth night free automatically, whether you book through the Hilton Honors app, online or by calling the Hilton Honors hotline at 1-800-4HONORS (1-800-446-6677).

Transfer points to partners

Not only can you earn points by booking Lyft rideshares, you can also redeem them for credits to use on Lyft services. For airline travel, Hilton partners with over 36 airlines, including major airlines like Qantas Airways, Delta AirLines and United Airlines.

Events and experiences

Another way to use your Hilton Honors points is for VIP events and experiences. These one-of-a-kind bookings vary by location, as do the points required for redemption. Events and experiences you can use points for include:

• Chef-created spreads and offerings.
• Concerts with VIP access.
• Exclusive restaurants.
• Spa treatments at Hilton resort spas.
• Sporting events through Ticketmaster by linking your Hilton Honors account.

Shop on Amazon

By linking your Hilton Honors and Amazon accounts, you can purchase over a million products when shopping on Amazon. When you’re ready to checkout, you have the option to use points to pay for part or all of the items in your shopping cart. You can also change your payment options to apply Hilton points automatically to future purchases.

Donate points

If you don’t need the many Hilton Honors points you’ve accumulated, you may want to donate them to an accredited nonprofit of your choice instead. Hilton has a partnership with PointWorthy, which allows you to donate a minimum of 4,000 points, which is equal to $10 in cash value. There are three categories to donate to:

• Arts and culture.
• Education.
• Environment.

Pool points

If you’re planning a trip with family or friends, you can pool points together to maximize your redemption. You can combine points with up to 10 other Hilton Honors points members without paying any transaction fees. These points can be used to book stays, airplane tickets or experiences.

How much are Hilton Honors points worth?

How much Hilton Honors points are worth depends on your redemption method. Hilton uses a dynamic pricing system, which means point value can fluctuate by day, demand, property and travel date. When transferring points to Amazon or to use on Lyft rides, you may only get around 0.2 cents per point. Donating points has an approximate value of 0.29 cents per point. The general average is $0.6 per point.

Current Hilton Honors elite status

The Hilton Honors program has the basic membership and three elite status tiers. Each tier earns you more benefits that also include the prior status level benefits.

Member

Besides the ability to earn and redeem points, basic members get the following benefits:

• Reward stay resort fee waiver.
• Free Wi-Fi.
• Hilton Honors experience access.
• Choose a room of your choice up to 24 hours before your stay, if available.
• Digital key access.
• Digital check-in and check-out.

Silver

Members are eligible for Silver status after booking three hotel stays, seven nights total or earning 17,500 points.

Once you reach Silver status, you can enjoy these benefits:

• 20% bonus points.
• Fifth night free on reward stays.
• Free bottled water for each stay.
• Elite rollover nights.

Once you meet a status level for the year, all other qualifying nights can rollover to the following year, which allows you to hit the next elite status level faster.

Gold

You can reach Gold status by booking 14 stays, 28 nights or earning 52,500 points.

Enjoy the following benefits when you reach Gold status:

• 80% bonus points.
• Room upgrades when space is available.
• Up to $25 per guest in complimentary beverage and food credits for each night in U.S. hotels.
• Complimentary continental breakfast when staying outside the U.S.

Diamond

To earn Diamond status, book 21 stays, 42 nights or reach 84,000 points.

The most elite status, Diamond, provides the following benefits:

• 100% bonus points.

• Share Gold status with other Hilton Honors members through Elite status gifting.

• Executive lounge access.

• 48-hour room guarantee.

• Milestone bonuses per calendar year.

  • 30 eligible nights = 10,000 bonus points.
  • 60 eligible nights = 30,000 bonus points.

If you earn Diamond status for 10 consecutive years, you’re awarded Lifetime Diamond status.

Hilton Honors vs. competitors

Hilton isn’t the only hotel rewards program around. If you’re loyal to Hilton properties, it may be your best option versus competitors. But if you’re not brand loyal, you may earn points faster and get better redemptions at other hotels.

For instance, the Marriott Bonvoy rewards program has over 5,500 nationwide hotel properties compared to Hilton’s 5,300. It also has more international properties, with almost 2,500 to choose from, whereas Hilton only has around 1,400.

However, both rewards programs have more properties than the World of Hyatt, which only has around 750 U.S. properties and about 250 international properties.

If points value is most important, you may get the most with World of Hyatt’s program. Its average redemption is a respectable 2.21 cents, while Marriott Bonvoy’s is around 1.00 cent. Both programs have better redemption values than the Hilton Honors average of 0.6 cents.

All programs have the same point expiration date after 24 months of account inactivity.

Best Hilton Honors credit cards

There are four Hilton Honors credit cards to choose from: three personal options and one business option. Our top three picks are below. We left out the Hilton Honors Aspire card because of the hefty $450 annual fee, though this card may be worth the fee if you spend a lot of nights in Hilton hotels.

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The basic card_name is a great option for members who want to pay annual_fees annual fee (Rates & Fees).

Approval for the Hilton Honors card comes with built-in benefits:

• Foreign transaction fees: foreign_transaction_fee (Rates & Fees).
• Automatic Silver elite status.
• Earn Gold status when you spend at least $20,000 in the calendar year.

You can also earn points faster with the Hilton Honors Card:

• 5X bonus points when using the card on gas at U.S. gas stations, U.S supermarkets and U.S. restaurants
• 7X bonus points on Hilton hotel stays.
• 3X bonus points on other eligible purchases.

Hilton Honors American Express Surpass Card*

The Hilton Honors American Express Surpass Card* comes with a $95 annual fee, but offers more bonus points per category and automatic Gold status. If you spend $3,000 on eligible expenses in the first six months, you can also earn 150,000 bonus points automatically.

Enjoy the following built-in benefits with the Hilton Honors Surpass Card*:

• Foreign transaction fees: None.
• Automatic Gold status.
• Spend $15,000 in a calendar year to get a free night reward.
• Spend $40,000 in a calendar year to get a Diamond status upgrade.
• Enroll in Priority Pass Select membership to earn 10 complimentary lounge visits per year.

Bonus points are higher with the Surpass Card*:

• 6X bonus points when using the card at U.S. gas stations, U.S. grocery stores and U.S. restaurants
• 12X bonus points on Hilton hotel stays.
• 3X bonus points on other eligible purchases.

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Business owners can use the card_name to earn points and benefits on business expenses. It has the same annual_fees annual fee (Rates & Fees) as the Surpass Card and you can bonus_miles_full.

The following built-in benefits come with the Hilton Honors Business Card:

• Automatic Gold status.
• Foreign transaction fees: foreign_transaction_fee (Rates & Fees).
• Spend $15,000 in a calendar year to get a free night reward.
• Spend $60,000 in a calendar year to get an additional free night reward.
• Enroll in Priority Pass Select membership to earn 10 complimentary lounge visits per year.

There are multiple ways to earn Hilton Honors bonus points:

• 6X bonus points on U.S. gas stations, U.S. restaurants, U.S. wireless phone services, domestic shipping, domestic airline flights booked direct or through Amex Travel, car rentals booked through select car rental companies in the U.S.
• 12X bonus points on Hilton hotel stays.
• 3X bonus points on other eligible purchases.

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Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

How many Hilton Honors points are needed for a free night?

How many Hilton Honors points you need to redeem a free night depends on the room cost, timeframe and hotel property. You can redeem a standard room for 5,000 to 95,000 points per night. Some properties providing specialty accommodations can require up to 120,000 points per night.

Do Hilton points ever expire?

Hilton points expire when your account has been inactive for 2 consecutive years, or 24 consecutive months.

How to get Hilton Diamond status?

You can get Hilton Diamond status in one of three ways: book 21 stays, 42 nights or earn at least 84,000 points in a calendar year.

Can I use my Hilton Honors account to book a room for someone else?

Yes, you can book a room for someone else using your Hilton Honors account. You can also pool points with others or gift points to someone else to book their own room or use in other ways.

Eligibility and benefit level varies by card. Terms, conditions and limitations apply. Please visit americanexpress.com/benefitsguide for more details. Underwritten by New Hampshire Insurance Company, an AIG Company).

*All information about Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card has been collected independently by TIME Stamped. Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card is no longer available through CardRatings.com.

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