Earning Rewards
- You can earn points spending on different categories: 7 Hilton Honors points for each dollar of eligible purchases charged directly with hotels or resorts within the Hilton portfolio, 5 points for each dollar of eligible purchases at U.S. restaurants, at U.S. supermarkets, and at U.S. gas stations and 3 points per dollar on all other eligible purchases.
The Hilton Honors American Express Card comes with Hilton Honors™ Silver status which gets you a 20% base points earning bonus on stays, but if you spend $20,000 on the card in a calendar year you receive an upgrade to Hilton Honors™ Gold status good through the end of the next calendar year. Hilton Honors Gold comes with a better chance of upgrades, higher points earning on stays and a food and beverage credit for stays in the U.S. or complimentary breakfast for international stays. If you earn Gold status and get upgraded to an Executive Floor room on a stay, you’ll even get access to the Executive Lounge.
Redeeming Rewards
Hilton boasts a large portfolio of over 7,000 properties across more than 20 brands and they do not have blackout dates for award redemptions. However, rates can vary quite a bit. Your best bet is to search for a standard room in order to find the lowest rates. Upgraded rooms often cost twice as many Hilton Honors points.
Because there is so much variation, it’s important to shop around when looking to redeem your Hilton Honors points. In a big city, you’ll likely find multiple options ranging from suburban hotels for 30,000 to 40,000 points per night to city-center hotels for 50,000 to 80,000 points to luxury properties up to 95,000 points per night for a standard room and upwards of 100,000 points per night for a premium room. Be sure to do some searching to find the option that best suits your needs.
Paying with Hilton Honors points offers two unique benefits. First, if the hotel charges a resort fee, you will not need to pay it if paying for your hotel stay entirely with pointsor with free night certificates. Note that if you pay with cash and points, an option that generally only is useful in very specific situations, you will have to pay for the resort fee.
Secondly, when you book five consecutive award nights, the fifth night is free as a Silver member, which is a benefit of holding the card. This little known benefit can stretch your Hilton Honors points 20% further on longer stays.
One final notable feature of Hilton Honors is points pooling—the ability to share points among up to 11 family members and friends (yourself and up to 10 additional people). That means, for example, that two spouses in the same family could earn the welcome bonus from this or any of the Hilton Honors credit card offerings to help pay for that dream vacation.
Rewards Potential
Forbes Advisor uses government spending data to determine average household spending in various categories. The 70th percentile of wage-earning households, which we use to determine this card’s rewards potential, brings in $116.000 per year and can put $36,177 on a credit card annually.
This typical family spends $2,015 on hotels per year. At 7 Hilton Honors points per dollar spent the cardholder would earn 14,105 points assuming that all hotel stays are at Hilton properties. That’s in addition to the 2 bonus Hilton Honors points per dollar you’d receive with your Hilton Silver status, adding another 4,030 points to the account.
The typical family in the 70th-percentile of wage-earners spends $6,692 on groceries, $3,856 on restaurants and $2,479 on gas per year. Those three categories all earn 5 Hilton Honors points per dollar which would net our example family 65,135 Hilton Honors points.
This card is probably not a family’s best for assorted other purchases (you’re better off with a 2% cash-back card like the Wells Fargo Active Cash® Card, which earns unlimited 2% cash rewards on purchases), but if someone is stocking up on Hilton Honors points they might place additional spending of $21,135 on the card in order to earn 63,405 Hilton Honors points.
Assuming this annual spending, the family will earn 146,675 Hilton Honors points each year. If we add in the welcome bonus, this family will earn more than enough Hilton Honors points in the first year for a five-night stay at a hotel costing up to 50,000 points a night using the fifth night free.
