8 days sale: Hilton offering 100% bonus on Honors points

[Edit: Heads up, Hilton has quietly raised the prices on several of its cheapest hotels without any prior notice. The DoubleTree JB has been affected, as have other erstwhile 10,000 points per night hotels. Read more here and here]

Hilton is holding a week-long sale on points that allows you to pick them up at 0.5 US cents each, the lowest public sale price we see. From now till September 21, 11:59am Singapore time (or whenever packages sell out), Hilton is selling 3,500 packages of 40,000 points each.

Hilton normally caps the total points you can buy in a year to 80,000 (before bonus), but for this promotion they’re lifting the cap and allowing members to purchase up to 2x 40,000 points packages beyond the cap.

Buy Hilton points at a 100% bonus here

As you can see in the screenshot below, you only have two options to choose from: 80,000 points at US$400, or 160,000 points at US$800.

Possible redemption ideas

I mentioned during the hotel hacks workshop that there can be some significant savings obtained by buying points for stays instead of paying the revenue rates.

I gave a specific example of the Conrad Maldives, where the cheapest non-refundable rate can be about US$1,200 after tax, whereas if you redeemed points and got the fifth night free, you’d be paying the equivalent of US$380 a night (without fifth night free you’re paying US$475, which is still a heck of a deal). Remember that points reservations are cancellable, so if you’re comparing this to a non-refundable rate you’ve got an even better proposition on your hands .

Here are some other snapshots of how much selected properties would cost if you bought points versus paid revenue rates.

This isn’t meant to be a recommendation of what you should redeem for, but rather an idea of how at the budget and mid-range level it may be better to pay revenue rates especially if you can buy during a sale. However, at luxury properties you could be looking at some great value by buying Hilton points.

Budget

• Hilton Garden Inn Singapore Serangoon (20,000 points; US$100 per night)
• DoubleTree by Hilton Johor Bahru (10,000 points; US$50 per night)
• DoubleTree by Hilton Kuala Lumpur (10,000 points; US$50 per night)

Mid-range

• Conrad Bali (40,000 points; US$200 per night)
• Conrad Bangkok (40,000 points; US$200 per night)
• Conrad Macao (40,000 points; US$200 per night)

Luxury

• Conrad Koh Samui (95,000 points; US$475 per night)
• Conrad Tokyo (95,000 points; US$475 per night)
• Conrad Maldives Rangali Island (95,000 points; US$475 per night)

In order to get the fifth night free benefit, you need to have at least Hilton Silver status. Fortunately, that can be easily obtained by anyone who has the AMEX Krisflyer Ascend card, and if you’re planning to go down the route of buying points for a stay at a top tier Hilton property you should really ensure you get this status before making your booking.

What card should I use?

Points purchases are processed by points.com and billed in USD, so here’s what I’d recommend.

• BOC Elite Miles World Mastercard: 5 mpd, uncapped
• UOB Visa Signature: 4 mpd, minimum $1,000, maximum $2,000 per statement period
• DBS Woman’s World Mastercard: 4 mpd, capped at $2,000 per month. You may need to manually appeal to get the bonus 2.8 mpd credited
• Citibank Rewards: 4 mpd, capped at $12,000 per year
• SCB Visa Infinite: 3 mpd, min $2K spend per statement period

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