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Bits: US flights from Manchester for £1000, 100% bonus when you buy Hilton points

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News in brief:

Business class US flights from Manchester for £1,000

For reasons no-one quite understands, American Airlines is offering business class flights from Manchester to two US cities:

  • San Antonio
  • Little Rock (and possible other parts of Arkansas)

….. for almost exactly £1,000.

You must fly between April and September and book by 22nd March.

The flights involve a change of plane in Chicago which means you will receive 360 British Airways tier points return (140 + 40 + 40 + 140).  You will also earn Avios if you decide to credit the flights to a British Airways Executive Club account.

100% bonus when you buy Hilton Honors points

Hilton Honors is offering a 100% bonus when you buy points before 3rd May.  See here for details.

This is the first bonus promotion since the new Hilton redemption process kicked in.  Under this new offering – which applies to purchases of 5,000 points or more – the cheapest price you can pay is 0.40p based on $800 for 160,000 points.

Does this still make sense under the new structure?  In theory, yes.  Or, to put it another way, it makes as much sense as it ever did.

Whilst the redemption cost of Hilton properties is now more closely linked to the prevailing cash price, there is still a cap on the points required.  The best value will generally be at properties which are selling for a very high price but where the points ‘cap’ has kicked in.

If I look at the Conrad Tokyo for a night in April when I am there, for example, it is selling for 95,000 points or £517 including tax (this is peak tourist season pricing).  That gets me 0.54p per point.  My room at the Waldorf-Astoria in Beijing the following week works out at 0.48p per point.

At both of these hotels, buying points under this offer would have been somewhat cheaper than paying cash although you should net off any points you would earn back.

One upside of the new Hilton redemption structure is that your downside for buying points is limited.  You can now use points as part-payment for any hotel at any time and you should get back at least what you pay under this offer – and hopefully more.

The link to buy is here if you’re interested.

How to earn Hilton Honors points and status from UK credit cards

How to earn Hilton Honors points and status from UK credit cards (April 2024)

There are various ways of earning Hilton Honors points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses.

Do you know that holders of The Platinum Card from American Express receive FREE Hilton Honors Gold status for as long as they hold the card?  It also comes with Marriott Bonvoy Gold, Radisson Rewards Premium and MeliaRewards Gold status.  We reviewed American Express Platinum in detail here and you can apply here.

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Did you know that the Virgin Atlantic credit cards are a great way of earning Hilton Honors points? Two Virgin Points can be converted into three Hilton Honors points. The Virgin Atlantic cards are the only Visa or Mastercard products in the UK which can indirectly earn Hilton Honors points. You can apply here.

You can also earn Hilton Honors points indirectly with:

and for small business owners:

The conversion rate from American Express to Hilton points is 1:2.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which can be used to earn Hilton Honors points. 

(Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from the major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.)

Category

American Airlines and AAdvantage, Hilton Honors

Comments (81)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • where2travel says:
    17 Mar17 March 09:29

    You can route via HEL for £907. At least you can for SAT anyway. MAN-HEL-ORD-DFW-SAT for 600 TPs return.

    In the end I booked outbound MAN-PHL-PHX-SAT which pushed up the price a little but you can do that in one day with no overnight needed en route. I’m doing the return via HEL which has the advantage of a longer overnight compared to those very short, brutal east coast US to the UK overnights.

    You can also get some JFX-LAX routings in the mix too if you want to try the nice A321 cabins (and 140 TPs).

  • Colin MacKinnon says:
    17 Mar17 March 10:03

    GLA-DEN return in business is available to buy until 28 March for £1140-1240 – flights throughout the year.

    Unfortunately for Avios collectors, the AA route GLA-PHI is on the world’s worst business class – squishy seats like on the train!

    I have booked GLA-AMS-LAX-DEN with AMS-LAX on a KLM 747 and got seat 1A for £1330!

  • Katy storie says:
    17 Mar17 March 10:15

    Do three flights have to be searched for and booked through AA? Can’t see prices anywhere near these on BA app?

    • Colin mackinnon says:
      17 Mar17 March 11:18

      I just use Google flights – easier than ITA Mateix for simple journeys.

      And a quick check on Skyscanner.

      That a confirmation on the airlines web site – for Denver it seems Google has wrong times!

  • Nate1309 says:
    17 Mar17 March 10:22

    Do Hilton normally do a spring sale?

    • YL says:
      17 Mar17 March 17:49

      There have been a Hilton EMEA flash sale in March in the last couple of years. For some reason have not heard anything this year so far….I am waiting for it!

  • Ammar says:
    17 Mar17 March 13:46

    OT – Does the Hilton AmEx offer £250 and get £50 back only apply to one stay or is it cumulative, i.e can I do multiple stays that add up to £250 or is it just one transaction of 250?

    • Nate1309 says:
      17 Mar17 March 14:01

      Previous comments would suggest it’s cumulative. The last Hilton offer with the different style sign up page was cumulative, it was £20 off £150, and I got it from 2 £80 bookings. Sure if it doesn’t track a message to AMEX customer services would get it sorted.

      • Ammar says:
        17 Mar17 March 15:23

        Thank you, another quick Q. I have Hilton Visa Card, but if I want to use my Amex offer, how can I trigger the 2500 points bonus with the card – do I just buy a kit kat whilst staying? how do they track that to a stay? If it is not tracked, can’t I just walk into any hilton and just buy a kit kat to trigger the bonus?

        • Rob says:
          17 Mar17 March 15:24

          Tricky. You could try splitting the bill, nothing to lose.

        • Louise says:
          17 Mar17 March 17:17

          I’ve paid for dinner on my hilton card and didn’t get the bonus points, but i think bonus points tracking is pretty poor anyway

        • Alan says:
          18 Mar18 March 17:20

          You can ask checkout (ideally when it’s quiet!) to put different amounts on different cards – I did that with the £50 off £250 offer. I’ve found the 2,500 pts very rarely post properly, but got decent compensation out of Barclaycard for that!

    • Alan says:
      18 Mar18 March 17:19

      It’s cumulative – if it doesn’t post then just message Amex. Mine didn’t post and I messaged them – they apologised saying the 2nd one had been coded incorrectly on the system and they immediately applied the £50 credit.

  • Chris says:
    17 Mar17 March 14:32

    Might I suggest that when valuing points, it is not just the amount of points a night costs against the cost of a room that needs to be considered. If a room costs, say 100,000 points, or £500 at first it seems to be 0.5p value per point. But if you get 10,000 points for a cash booking, and can get an advance payment price less than the £500 lowest flexible rate, then the value is much lower. BUT; if you do not have to pay resort tax, then the value is higher, dependent on the tax.
    It is just not as simple as I first thought to value points. Bob, when you value points do you take all factors into consideration?
    Also, can you clarify if the Hilton will charge resort tax on the whole value, part value, or zero if paying part points part cash?
    Thanks for the great info week after week.

    • Rob says:
      17 Mar17 March 15:27

      The new system was wiping off resort charges if you part paid with points but this may be a bug (probably is).

      Obviously points valuation is more complex but it is driven by personal circumstances – eg you may need a flexible room (so you compare with AdvP).

    • Alan says:
      18 Mar18 March 17:22

      Hilton lurker on FT was very clear that zero taxes policy only applies to full points stays – sadly this is a devaluation cf previously when both all points and points+money didn’t have a charge. Hilton IT may still be a little flaky in implementation but they’re definitely only intending zero taxes to be on full redemptions.

  • Bill Rimmer says:
    17 Mar17 March 15:41

    As a regular business class traveller to LIT (Little Rock) using mainly Avios through a variety of airports or using virgin miles, this offer looks too good to be true. The taxes alone are over £500.
    I can find flights for £1006 through the AA site but entering the same dates through BA, this comes out at £3000. However, there are some dates bookable with BA at the £1k level.
    Being a new reader of HFP (having been tipped off by a friend) and just collected a shed load of Avios by paying the tax man (thanks for that), I am curious as to how I can collect BA tiers and Avios if booking though the AA site? Or is that not simply possible?
    Thanks

  • Roger says:
    17 Mar17 March 16:07

    OT-MBNA Black Virgin Card.

    Not sure if this is typo but on Virgin website it states the bonus is 18.5 + 13.5 = 32K miles not 25K miles posted on March CC update page.

    http://www.virginatlantic.com/gb/en/flying-club/credit-card.html

    • Genghis says:
      17 Mar17 March 16:49

      For me it says 18.5+6.5

      • Roger says:
        17 Mar17 March 17:15

        This is the text I see.

        2. 18,500 bonus miles will be credited to your Flying Club account after your first card purchase, providing you use either of your cards within 90 days of your account opening and supply your Flying Club membership number to MBNA. A further 13,500 bonus miles will be credited to your account when you apply by 3 April 2017 and spend £3,000 on either card in the first 90 days of your account opening and supply your Flying Club membership number. Please allow six to eight weeks for bonus miles to be added to your account. Bonus miles are not awarded on balance transfers, money transfers or cash advances.

        • TGLoyalty says:
          17 Mar17 March 23:34

          yep strage i see the same but it says 25k in the main advert at the top

    • Anon says:
      17 Mar17 March 18:07

      I’m still chasing the 13.5k remainder of my 32k bonus from my sign up in VS LGW CH back in Nov… They’ll get there in the end… 🙂

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