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Wondering how to earn Hilton points so you can book a fabulous award stay at one of Hilton’s 5k+ hotel properties around the globe?
You’re in luck (and in the right place)!
Just keep in mind, there are plenty of ways to earn Hilton Honors points but not all of them give the best value. It’s important to know which ones to take advantage of so you get the most from your Hilton points-earning efforts.
15 Ways to Earn Hilton Points
1. Hilton Credit Card Offers
Obvious, I know. So, let’s start here.
Credit Card welcome offers are the easiest way to give any airline or hotel loyalty account a quick boost of points or miles.
Hilton and American Express are partners and offer several co-branded Amex Hilton cards.
- There are 3 personal American Express Hilton credit cards.
- Hilton Honors credit card – No fee
- Hilton Honors Surpass – Terrific grocery spending bonus category
- Hilton Honors Aspire credit card -This premium card offers instant Hilton Diamond status and perks like a free night certificate and credits for airline and resort costs.
- American Express also offers the Hilton Honors Business card which comes with Gold status and a variety of useful spending bonus categories for businesses like gas and shipping. There are also perks like a spending tier for a free night and Priority Pass benefits.
2. Hilton Hotel Points from Paid Stays
Paid stays booked directly with Hilton will earn all Hilton Honors members 10x the base points per dollar spent.
If you have Silver, Gold, or Diamond status with Hilton, your point earnings for paid stays increases depending on your status.
So, for 1 paid night at a Hilton hotel for $200:
- Silver status members earn 2000 base points + 400 bonus points for a total of 2,400 Hilton points.
- However, for the same paid night, Hilton Diamond members earn 2000 base points + 2000 bonus points for a combined 4k Hilton points.
3. Hilton Honors Promotions
Throughout the year, Hilton runs limited-time promotions to earn bonus points for paid stays.
These earnings are on top of what you’d already earn in base points and for your Hilton status. Typically, you must register for these promotions, which is why it’s important to join Hilton Honors and look out for emails detailing these offers.
As an example of the type of Hilton points promotion you might see, take a look at the one Hilton ran at the start of 2018 pictured above.
Hilton Honors members earned 2k bonus points per stay for an unlimited number of stays during the promotional period.
For every 5 stays, members would earn another 10k Hilton bonus points on top of everything else.
4. Earn Hilton Points with Lyft
Link your Hilton Honors and Lyft accounts and earn 3x Hilton points for every dollar spent on rides and 2x Hilton points when you take a shared ride. This offer is only for rides in the U.S. and Canada.
Remember you can pay with a Hilton Honors credit card or another credit card which earns bonus points for ride services like Lyft.
5. Hilton Dining Rewards
Similar to shopping portals, dining rewards programs earn bonus miles and points in your favorite airline and hotel loyalty programs.
With the Hilton Dining program, you’ll earn bonus points for signing up and up to 8 Hilton points per dollar spent just for dining at or taking out/ordering delivery from a participating restaurant.
This is a set-it-and-forget-it way to earn Hilton points. The points will post automatically perhaps without you realizing you even ate at a participating restaurant!
Learn more about dining program basics in this guide.
6. Hilton Points from Everyday Spending
Sign-up bonuses are fantastic but using your travel rewards credit cards for your everyday spending is the win for the long haul.
Use one of the Hilton credit cards listed above. Whether it’s paying insurance or cell phone bills or buying gas and groceries, make your money work harder for you.
Earn Hilton points for every dollar you spend with a co-branded Hilton credit card.
7. Amex Hilton Credit Card Bonus Categories
Piggy-backing on #6, make sure you’re targeting your Hilton credit card’s bonus categories.
Use your Hilton card to pay for Hilton hotel stays to earn up to 14x the points. This is in addition to the points you earn as a Hilton Honors member.
But, if you have the Hilton Honors Surpass, for example, you’ll also earn 6x the points for dining, groceries, and gas plus 3x the points on all other purchases.
By the way, the points you’d earn from the Hilton Dining program mentioned above are on top of what you’d earn from a restaurant bonus category on your credit card.
Cha-ching!
8. Hilton Honors Partners for Travel
Book rental cars or cruises with one of Hilton’s partners like Alamo or Cruises Only, which sells cruises with major brands like Royal Caribbean and the like. By doing so, you’ll earn bonus Hilton points.
If you don’t have a credit card that offers Priority Pass, you can purchase a membership through the special link for Hilton Honors members and earn bonus points.
Find out more about these travel partners and if they make sense for your travel plans.
As always, comparison shop for that rental car or cruise to make sure the amount you pay makes sense. Bonus points are always nice but not necessarily when you’re paying a much higher price to earn them.
9. Hilton Hotel Partners for Products and Services
Similarly, Hilton partners with brands like LifeLock and E-Miles. If you’re looking for creative ways to earn Hilton points, it’s always worth a look at the More Ways to Earn menu option on the Hilton Honors website.
10. Buy Hilton points
From time to time, Hilton will offer bonuses for buying points. The historic best has been a 100% bonus on purchased points.
So, essentially if you bought the maximum allowed in a year, 80k points, you’d walk away with 160k points.
However, I don’t recommend buying points just to buy them. Have a specific use in mind or use a sale to top off your account for an immediate redemption.
Some people choose to buy points during these sales to essentially lower the per-night cost to stay at a premium property. It all depends on your strategy, travel budget, and style.
Points aside, I wouldn’t pay $800+ a night to stay in a hotel so the math just doesn’t work for me, either way.
Always check the value per point you’d be paying. Hilton points value is generally .004 or .005 cents apiece so be sure you’re getting the best value if you decide to buy Hilton points.
11. Look for an Amex Hilton Offer
Amex Offers sometimes have Hilton points-earning opportunities or statement credits.
There have been Hilton Amex offers like getting a $45 statement credit for spending $250+ at a Hilton or Curio stay. The statement credit certainly is nice and combined with the 12x-14x the points on a Hilton Ascend or Aspire, it’s a pretty sweet deal.
12. Pool Hilton Points
One really positive aspect of the Hilton Honors program is the ability to pool your points with family and friends. All the more reason to be nice to that mildly annoying uncle, right?!
You must be a member for at least 30 days before pooling your points. You can give up to 500k points and get up to 2 million points in the same year.
There are no fees to pool Hilton points, making it easy for a family or group of travelers to grow their balance in a single account and use their points together.
13. Hilton Milestone Bonuses
For those of you who are business travelers logging lots of nights per year in Hilton hotels, you’ll now earn 10k bonus points for every 10th night, after completing 40 nights in a calendar year.
If you make it to 60 nights in the same year, Hilton will give you 60k bonus points, not to mention you’ll have also earned Diamond status.
14. Membership Rewards Transfer Partner
American Express Membership Rewards credit cards like the Amex Platinum or Everyday card earn flexible points. Hilton, as well as other airlines and hotels, is a Membership Rewards transfer partner.
Points transfer to Hilton at a 1:2 ratio, meaning for every Amex Membership Rewards point you transfer, you’ll get 2 Hilton points.
At first glance, this may seem like a good deal, but it’s not.
American Express points are worth about 2 cents apiece while Hilton points are worth roughly .5 cents apiece. You can clearly see the loss of value here.
So, yes this is one way to earn Hilton points. It’s not recommended. You can get much better value from your Membership Rewards points with the Amex airline partners.
15. Exchange Miles and Points
Hilton also partners with Amtrak and several airline partners which allow you to convert your miles in these programs to Hilton points.
But, the conversion rates are not great and your airline miles can bring in much more value when redeemed for flights.
So while it’s an option for adding to your Hilton Honors account, I’d recommend you look elsewhere.
With so many ways to earn Hilton points, it’s easy to build up your point balance and redeem for the award stays you need to reach your travel goals.
How do earn Hilton Honors points?
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