Hilton ‘Double Your HHonors’ promo for March-May now active – combines with Avios and Virgin offer

UPDATE – OCTOBER 2020:  This article is now out of date, but don’t worry.  We produce a monthly summary of the top hotel bonus point offers – please click HERE or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ menu above. 

Click here for our article on Hilton’s current ‘Double Rewards’ promotion which runs until 31st December 2020. You can register for the offer by clicking here.

Hilton is also offering a 100% bonus when you buy points until 31st December 2020. The website to buy points, and find out more, is here.

Hilton HHonors has announced that it is cutting back on global promotions and spending more effort on individual targeted deals for specific customer segments.  The slightly clumsily executed ‘100,000 free points for some but by no means all Diamond members’ offer was part of this.

Global promotions are not dead and buried, however.  ‘Double Your HHonors’ launched on Sunday and will run until the end of May.

You need to register to take part and this can be done via the Hilton website here.

It is a simple offer:

You will earn EITHER double base points or double airline miles for every Hilton Family stay you make during the promotional period, after registration.

If you select double miles, you need to switch your earnings preference to ‘points and miles’ in your Hilton HHonors account.

You can earn credit for up to two rooms per stay.  Existing reservations count.

A long list of hotels are not taking part in this offer.  Here is the full list – check before you book.

Which option should I choose?

The standard earnings package is 10 base points per $1 plus either 5 bonus points or 1 bonus airline mile per $1.  Some brands – more importantly Hampton – earn less.

However, both Iberia Plus and Virgin Flying Club are exceptions to the ‘1 mile per £1’ rule.  Here is the list of Hilton airline partners.  You will see that:

British Airways earns 1 Avios point per $1

Iberia Plus earns 15 Avios points per $10 (a better deal)

Virgin Flying Club earns 2 miles per $1

Let’s assume a 0.75p valuation per airline mile and 0.33p valuation per Hilton HHonors point.

Double Points means double base points (20 per $1) plus 5 bonus points per $1.  That is total earnings of 25 points per $1 with a value of 8.3p.

Double Miles means single base points (10 per $1) plus 3 Avios in Iberia or 4 miles in Virgin.  I would value that at 5.5p per $1 with Avios or 6.3p per $1 with Virgin.  With any other airline earning the standard 2 miles per $1 when doubled, the return is even worse at 4.8p per $1.

Double Points wins out.  Except when it doesn’t.

Hilton is running two excellent airline promotions at the moment which I have covered before:

Earn 1,500 British Airways Avios on your first stay before April 15th and 2,000 Avios on your 2nd stay (article)

Earn 300%-400% bonus Virgin miles on stays before March 31st (article)

Similar offers are also available for Lufthansa and Flying Blue.

The two offers above will work alongside the main ‘Double Your HHonors’ promotion.  This changes the maths entirely.

There is no correct answer for everyone.  I apologise if you were looking for the definitive answer!

This is because ‘Double Your HHonors’ runs until May 31st and you cannot change your double points or double miles selection once made.  The two additional airline offers above expire by mid April.

All you can do is think about the Hilton Family stays you may have between now and May 31st and decide which option is best for you.

What I can say is that, for stays before March 31st, anyone collecting Virgin miles could be laughing.  ‘Double Your HHonors’ would you give you 10 Hilton points (3.3p of value) plus 4 Virgin miles (3p of value) per $1.  You would get a further 4 Virgin miles (3p of value) from the Virgin ‘300% bonus’ promotion.  That is 9.3p of value per $1 and more if you value Virgin miles higher than 0.75p.

Remember that you MUST register.  ‘Double Your HHonors’ registration can be done here.  The two airline promotions can be registered via the links in the articles I reference above.

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