Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Hilton launches its May – July promotion, ‘Double Your HHonors’

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A couple of days ago I covered the new Starwood promotion for May to JulyHilton HHonors has also launched its own promotion for the same period, and it is not dramatically different.

It is called ‘Double Your HHonors’.  You can find full details of the promotion, and register, here.

However, do not register without thinking first, as the promotion requires you to make a choice.

Under ‘Double Your HHonors’, you can choose either:

double Hilton HHonors base points

or

double airline miles

You must select one option, and it cannot be changed later.

If you choose double points and set your Hilton earning preferences to ‘Points and Points’, you will be earning 25 base points per $1 spent.  This is before any elite bonus.

If you choose double miles and set your Hilton earning preference to ‘Points and Miles’, you be earning 10 base points per $1 plus 2 airline miles per $1.

If you choose ‘double miles’ and later switch to taking ‘Points and Points’ then you will just receive the standard 15 points per $1.  If you choose ‘double points’ and later switch to taking ‘Points and Miles’ then you will receive 20 base points per $1 and 1 airline mile.  I hope that is clear!

I tend to value Hilton HHonors points at £3 per 1,000 and airline miles at 0.75p (both very conservative numbers).  On that basis, taking ‘double points’ would earn me (25 x 300/1000 =) 7.5p per $1 spent.  Taking ‘double miles’ would earn me 4.5p per $1 spent.

It’s not that simple though

Hilton is running a generous Avios promotion at the moment which I wrote about here.  You will earn 1,500 bonus Avios on your first stay before the end of July, and 2,000 bonus Avios on your second stay.

This will probably swing the maths towards taking the Avios points and setting your Hilton account to ‘Points and Miles’.  It is almost certainly the best thing to do if you have only two one-night Hilton stays before the end of July.  If you have lots of expensive Hilton stays, ‘Points and Points’ may still work out better.  You need to do the maths before you register.

Beware excluded hotels

There are a whopping 600 hotels which have chosen not to take part in this promotion.  However, the vast majority are in the US.  The only UK non-participant in the Doubletree in Aberdeen, bizarrely.  This compares positively to the new Starwood promotion which excludes virtually all of their UK hotels!

The promotion runs until July 31st.


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

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

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

There are two dedicated Hilton Honors debit cards. These are especially attractive when spending abroad due to the 0% or 0.5% FX fee, depending on card.

You also receive FREE Hilton Honors status for as long as you hold the debit cards – Gold status with the Plus card and Silver status with the basic card. This is a great reason to apply even if you rarely use it.

We reviewed the Hilton Honors Plus Debit Card here and the Hilton Honors Debit Card here. You can apply for either card here.

NEW: Hilton Honors Plus Debit

12,000 bonus points (special offer), Hilton Gold status and NO FX fees Read our full review

NEW: Hilton Honors Debit

3,500 bonus points (special offer), Hilton Silver status and 0.5% FX fees Read our full review

There is another way of getting Hilton Honors status, and earning Hilton Honors points, from a payment card.

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 great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

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.)

Comments (30)

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

  • Dave Williams says:

    Seems pretty hard and fast that you cant change:

    “Choose carefully because your selection cannot be changed.”

    • Keith Jenner says:

      You can’t change whether you want double points or double miles, but you can change your earning preferences between points and miles or points and points any time you want, in my experience.

      So I don’t see why you can’t select double points, but change your earning preferences so you only get awarded miles on two occasions.

      Even if you couldn’t change the earning preference then it would probably still be worth selecting double points and having your earnings as points and miles, to benefit from both offers.

  • David says:

    Would I be right in thinking the numbers would be different for those who credit their miles to IB or VS?

    • Rob says:

      Yes, offset by the fact that there is no Iberia or Virgin miles promo running on top. More of a marginal decision there.

  • Dave Williams says:

    Gotcha.

    I switch my earning preference every other day atm between virgin, BA and miles and more promos all coming along at once.

    I think (and someone with better chat than me may be able to confirm) to get the double points you have to have the earning preference set to points and points. I wouldn’t have thought it would work if you select double points but have pref set to “points and miles”.

    I may however be getting confused with this PHD level promotion…. 🙂

    • Keith Jenner says:

      I don’t think you need to have points and points selected to get double points.

      It’s clear that you need points and miles for double miles (there would be no miles to double otherwise). It also says so in the FAQ’s

      “Do I have to change my MyWay™ Earnings Style Option in my HHonors account in order to receive Double Miles for this promotion?
      Yes. You must change your profile to Points & Miles in order to earn miles. You must also have a preferred airline selected in your HHonors profile.”

      However, the FAQ’s indicate that you don’t need points and points selected to get double points:

      “Do I have to change my MyWay™ Earnings Style Option in my HHonors account in order to receive Double Points for this promotion?
      No. However, to maximize the number of points you can earn during the promotion, selecting HHonors Points & Points would be best.”

      • Dave Williams says:

        Good spot!

        That’s great news. Love it when a plan comes together 🙂

  • Fenny says:

    I’m too tired to even contemplate all of this and currently only have Google docs to create a spreadsheet on!

    I’ve got 4 Hilton stays covering 5 nights coming up in May. I’ve currently got my preferences set to points & miles and registered for the Avios promo. So if I register for this at double points, I can get the extra avios on 2 of the 4 stays, but can I switch between p+m and p+p as I choose? The most valuable $ value stays are 1 and 3, and the least valuable are 2 & 4. Stay 2 is a Hampton, so lower avios.

  • N says:

    I’d recommend not switching your preferences immediately before a stay. I happened to have just checked in at a Hilton when I read about the BA promo, so immediately switched from points+points to points+BA miles, replacing my old IB number with my BA one. They managed to credit that stay as points+IB miles. 🙁

    • Alan says:

      Out of interest, had you already made the booking when your IB number was down as your preferred FF programme and then changed it to BA on the Hilton website? If so this doesn’t have the desired effect, you need to change it with the hotel itself for existing bookings.

      • N says:

        The IB number was down as my preferred number when I booked, but I had been on points+points for months, ever since they dropped fixed miles.

        I had read somewhere that you could change earning preferences any time before checkout, but that clearly isn’t true.

        • Alan says:

          No you can, but see my other post on this page – the preference for points or miles can be done up until late on the day of checkout, but you FF preference is locked from time of booking UNLESS you get the hotel to change it at the reception desk.

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