How to earn 10,000 Avios with your next five Hilton stays

UPDATE – SEPTEMBER 2023:  This article is now out of date, but don’t worry.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 ‘Multiply Your Points’ promotion which runs until 31st December 2023. You can register for the offer by clicking here.

Hilton Honors is offering a 100% bonus when you buy points by 19th September. Click here to buy.

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Hilton has launched an aggressive promotion with Avios to encourage you to move your stays across to them this Summer.

You can earn 10,000 Avios from your next five Hilton stays.  Importantly, there are no spend, brand or night caps.

It may even be enough to tip the balance if you were thinking of doing a mattress run for Hilton Diamond or Gold status.  Let me explain ….

How the deal works

The current general Hilton Honors promotion, which runs until 31st August, offers double base points on all stays (triple points for Hilton Diamond members).  I wrote about this promotion here and you will find the registration link in that article.  You should register for that offer even if you intend to take part in this new Avios offer.

The new Avios promotion works alongside the double points offer.  You will receive both.

The Avios offer is outlined on this page, where you can also register.

In summary:

You will earn 2,000 bonus Avios on each of your next 5 Hilton stays

ALL Hilton stays count, at any brand, of any length of stay, of any price.  Reward stays may or may not count, as you would usually not receive miles – only points – on incidental spend on reward stays.

You need to register for the offer via this page

You need to change your Hilton Honors earning preference in your profile to ‘Points and Miles’ and set British Airways Executive Club as your airline partner

Stays must be completed by 31st August

This offer will work alongside the ‘double base points’ offer.  So, for example, for a member without status:

‘Points and Miles’ standard earning rate: 10 base Hilton points per $1 spent plus 1 Avios per $1 spent

Rate after registering for the Avios offer:  10 base Hilton points per $1 spent plus 1 Avios per $1 spent plus 2000 Avios bonus

Rate after registering for both offers:  20 base Hilton points per $1 spent plus 1 Avios per $1 spent plus 2000 Avios bonus

This is a pretty chunky rebate.  A spend of £50 would trigger, adjusting for VAT, roughly 1,080 Hilton points plus 2,042 Avios.  That is worth about £20-£25 to most people.  Hilton status members would receive even more.

Don’t forget to register for the ‘2000 Avios’ offer here and the ‘double base points’ offer here.

Why should you consider a mattress run to get Hilton status?

Hilton is currently offering a path to status until 31st March 2019 if you have status with another hotel programme.

Here are the rules:

If you have top tier status in another programme, you will get 90 days of Hilton Diamond with an extension to 31st March 2019 if you complete 8 stays in 90 days

If you have mid tier status in another programme, you will get 90 days of Hilton Gold with an extension to 31st March 2019 if you complete 4 stays in 90 days

Hilton status can be valuable.  A Diamond member is guaranteed club lounge access at properties with a lounge, plus free breakfast.  A Gold member is guaranteed free breakfast.  (Some brands are excluded from this, mainly Waldorf-Astoria.)  There are also upgrade and late check-out benefits.

The full list of Hilton Honors Diamond status benefits is here.

Let’s imagine that you can’t move 4 or 8 stays to Hilton within 90 days.  Do you, however, have a cheap Hilton property near where you live or work?

Let’s imagine there is a local hotel selling for £50 on a quiet Friday, Saturday or Sunday night.  If you booked yourself in for 4 or 8 one-night stays, you would earn 2,000 Avios on each of your first five stays plus double Hilton base points (triple base points if you are doing a Diamond challenge) via the other promotion.

Depending on how you valued the Avios and Hilton points, your net cost for achieving Hilton Diamond could be around £250.  Hilton Gold could have a net cost of at little as £100 after factoring in 8,000 Avios plus the base Hilton points from 4 x £50 stays.

This is a worse case scenario.  If you can manage a few Hilton stays from your existing travel plans, the net cost to do the extra mattress run nights would be even lower.

You need to think this through, of course.  Hilton Diamond doesn’t have much value if your travel plans between now and 31st March 2019 won’t feature a few high-end Hilton / Conrad / Waldorf-Astoria hotels, preferably ones with executive lounges.

For what it’s worth, I registered for the Hilton Diamond match before our recent trip to Asia and, through a combination of holiday stays, work stays and a couple of mattress run nights, I will hit the eight nights target.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (September 2023)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points.

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

EDIT: Applications for this card are temporarily suspended due to IT issues with the British Airways On Business SME loyalty scheme.

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.