Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

REGISTER NOW: Hilton HHonors launches its Spring promotion

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Click here for our article on Hilton’s ‘Points Plus’ promotion which runs from 1st January to 1st May 2024. You can register for the offer by clicking here.

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Hilton HHonors has launched its Spring promotion.

Whilst there is nothing wrong with it, especially when you look at what is available from many of its competitors, it does rub in how exceptionally generous (for many people) the second version of IHG’s Accelerate promotion is.

Hilton has chosen to give another outing to one of its favourite promotions, called ‘Double Your HHonors’.  You can find details of the promotion, and register, here.

Hilton Helsinki Airport

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

The promotion will run from 1st January to 30th April.

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.

Remember that Hilton and Avios is ‘a bit weird’:

If you credit to British Airways then, as I mentioned above, you earn 1 airline mile per $1 which is doubled under this offer to 2 per $1.

If you credit to Iberia Plus, you earn 15 airline miles per $10 which is doubled under this offer to 30 per $10.  There is a cap of 1,000 miles per stay, however.  This makes crediting stays to Iberia Plus 50% more valuable but only if you will be spending under $500.  

You can read more about the discrepancy between BA and Iberia earning with Hilton in this article.

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’ in British Airways would earn me 4.5p per $1 spent.

There are no excluded hotels – every Hilton Family property is taking part.  The chain has intimated that this will be standard practice going forward.  This is something I fully support, having once been caught out unexpectedly and missing a bonus because of it.

You can register and make your ‘double points’ or ‘double miles’ choice here.

PS.  Remember that Hilton is still matching other hotel status cards.  I am now a Hilton Diamond until March 2017 thanks to my Accor Platinum status.  More details in this article.


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 and they come with generous sign-up bonuses. 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.)

Comments (38)

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

  • Danksy says:

    In effect hotels.com gives 10% back since it requires 10 visits for a free night.

    The 8.4% therefore is pure additional value to you; and more importantly you can choose where to spend it!

    Just be minded that you are very unlikely to get any elite benefits at hotels when booking this route; which can add up. I made this mistake when I booked a hIlton in texts. I went to breakfast with my wife and we were charged an extra $60 at checkout. In that case I would have had better value by booking direct and getting the free breakfast that hilton gold gave me!

    Depending on where and when you are booking you may be well worth checking out the ihg accelerate promotion that is mentioned elsewhere on this site! Sign up for ihgrewards ..its free, register for the promo and log in to see your challenges! You might earn enough bonus points which when added to the points you’d earn on the bookings could give you one or two free nights worth $300 each!

    • Danksy says:

      Sorry should have read texas not texts !.

      The point I was trying to make is that there’s a difference between lowest cost and best value!

      Good luck!

  • Mr(s) Entitled says:

    I have applied for Accor status via my Amex Plat with a view to requesting a Hilton match. Does anyone know how long the Accor typically takes to process?

    • xcalx says:

      I did the same, not sure how long it actually took but when I checked my pre existing accor account online 6 days later I had been upgraded to Platinum. 8 days later I was Hilton Diamond.(sent a cropped screenshot as I had no card to scan)

      • Mr(s) Entitled says:

        Great – thanks. I want to wait until Jan so I can get diamond through Q117. Sounds like timing will allow this.

    • AndyR says:

      It took 5 days for me.

  • Ian says:

    I’ve always just gone for hilton points.

    Now I actively collect avios am I better having airline miles?

    Or sticking with points for free nights?

    • Ian says:

      Am a little confused by the article as to whether either is good value as it talks of points being valued at say. 7p then earning at 4.5 per $

      • Rob says:

        You’re getting 10 Hilton points per $ which I value at 0.3p, so 3p per $1 PLUS (with double miles) 2 Avios per $1 which I value at 0.75p each. That gets you to 4.5p per $1.

    • TimS says:

      What do you intend to do with your Hilton Base points?

      Ie do you intend to keep them to use for hilton redemption or do you intend to convert them to more avios?

      • Ian says:

        I have never converted them to anything else.

        Just used them for stays in hotels every now and then.

        Got a trip in this period involving about 30 hilton hotels! So need to pick the best option!

        Am just rather confused as Raffles seems to be comparing two different pricing formats when saying how much the points are worth.

        • TimS says:

          Well it depends on your own personal preference.

          Which do you value more?

          15 hhonors points or 3 IB avios/2 BA avios?

      • Rob says:

        I generally top up with Amex MR points (1:2 transfer rate) and use for a Hilton redemption. ‘Cash and Points’ can be good deals if the rate is available, which it often isn’t.

  • Paul Irving says:

    I sent a copy of my platinum Accor card along with my Hilton details and they email back saying I didn’t give the write information and also asked for a copy of Accor statement.

  • TimS says:

    To clarify, the 1000 Avios cap for Iberia applies to the basic Avios only, therefore you can actually earn up to 2000 IB avios on the 2x promotion.

    I put this to the test earlier this year with a points & miles stay where I earned 549 “double dip” IB avios and a further 549 avios from the 2x promotion earning 1098 IB avios (and 3660 hhonors points) on a $336 stay.

    Therefore I think Raffles’ $500 bill cap guidance for IB earning should really be $1000.

    • Rob says:

      Thanks Tim. I wondered about this but decided to play it safe. I will amend the text.

  • Andy says:

    I’m amazed that you found a 10% off coupon that actually works, usually there’s just a handful of hotels they work for and major chains are excluded.

    • Brian says:

      Indeed – that’s another reason not to use them and to focus on the Rewards scheme, instead.

  • Nick Burch says:

    My IHG Accelerate 2 targets were silly – including need a 4night stay when I normally do 1-nighters, and wanting 10 paid stay when I only did 1 paid night with IHG in Q4! All for not many points either…

    As such, the simpler and “less exciting” Hilton promotion is going to be my main one, while the “cool idea, shame about the implementation” one from IHG will get 2 stays to trigger a couple of bonuses then that’s it. I’d say that IHG probably ought to be worrying, as I’m probably not their only elite member deciding to stay elsewhere due to repeated impossible promotions!

    • Anon says:

      Agreed on IHG, I had a 5 nighter!

      Besides, I’m saving HHs to go back the island…. (Conrad Maldives)

    • Leo says:

      Yep my 2 accelerate targets have been unachievable and due to current goodwill regarding Hilton from their giving me Diamond against my Spire status I’m putting the IHG visa in the drawer and switching planned paid IC stays over to Conrads. I don’t think IHG will care but it makes me feel better lol!

      • Alan says:

        Ditto – I’d hoped after not having any stays during the current Accelerate promo that they’d give me something more achievable for the next one, sadly not – 5-night stay (very rare I have one of these), bonus point rates, multiple countries – a pretty rubbish promo again I’m afraid. By comparison the Hilton one is simple and applies to all properties so they’ll be getting more business from me! (esp for having continued my Diamond status to 2017 for me!)

    • John Graham says:

      Yeah, how silly to have targets that mean you’ll have to stay more than usual 😉

      • Nick Burch says:

        They need to be realistic though! If I’ve done 1 paid night and 1 redemption night in the last quarter, then set me something a little higher, but not crazy. Going from 1 paid night to 10 paid nights + a 4 night stay is just a stupid ask

        This is something like their 4th iteration of this offer, so they ought to know by now which targets I (and others) will make an effort to throw more business their way for, and which will just annoy us!

  • What's the Point says:

    Typical Hilton boring promotion, why don’t they chuck a few free nights in to tempt us more?
    Still, its simple and everyone gets rewarded.

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

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