Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

A short article on the best hotel promotions for January …. because there isn’t much about

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UPDATE – APRIL 2024:  This article is now out of date, but don’t worry.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.  Thank you.

Hilton Honors is offering a 100% bonus when you buy points by 14th May 2024. Click here to buy.

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Regular Head for Points readers will know that, once a month, we do a round-up of the best hotel promotions currently running.  This allows you to plan your stays to maximise the number of hotel loyalty points you earn.

This article is going to be very short, because the current position is pretty weak:

IHG Rewards Club – is not running a global promotion at present (‘Double Points Plus More’ finished on New Years Eve)

Radisson Rewards – is not running a global promotion at present

World of Hyatt – is not running a global promotion at present

Le Club AccorHotels – is not running a global promotion at present

This means, if you’re planning your stays for January, you only have two options:  Hilton Honors and Marriott Rewards.  Let’s take a look at what is on offer.

Here are quick links to the registration pages you need for each offer – do it before you forget:

Hilton’s ‘Double And Triple Points’ (ends tomorrow) – register here 

Hilton’s ‘Points Unlimited’ (starts on Friday) – register here 

Marriott / Starwood ‘MegaBonus In More Places’ – register here 

Hilton (Hampton, Conrad, Waldorf-Astoria etc):

Until tomorrow (Thursday), Hilton is running its ‘double points’ offer.  It is very simple – register and you’ll receive double base points on your stay, or triple base points at luxury and resort hotels.  You MUST register for the double and triple points offer by visiting this page of hilton.com.

From Friday, Hilton is running its new offer – ‘Points Unlimited’.  You can register here.

You will earn 2,000 bonus Hilton Honors points for every stay between 4th January and 5th May.

Even better, you will earn an additional 10,000 bonus Hilton Honors points for every FIVE stays OR TEN nights you complete, whichever comes first.

There is no cap to what you can earn and there are no minimum stay requirements.  The bonus should also trigger on reward stays given how similar promotions have worked in the past.

Given that I value a Hilton Honors point at around 0.33p, you are getting a good return on your spending here.  Someone who only ever spends one night at a time in a hotel would be earning – when you include the 10,000 bonus points per five stays – 4,000 bonus points per stay.  I would value that at £13 which is a VERY good return especially as it doesn’t include your base points or any status bonus.

If your hotel stays are generally just for one night then you should seriously consider moving them (in chunks of five) to Hilton this Spring.

There is no small print except that you need to register in advance via the Hilton website here.  Existing bookings count, there is no minimum stay rule and all Hilton Honors hotels (apart from Hampton properties in China) are taking part.

Hilton is still status matching too.  If you have status with another hotel programme, Hilton will match you to Gold or Diamond for 90 days – I explain how to do it in this article.

The Hilton booking page is here.

Marriott and Starwood (Renaissance, The Ritz-Carlton, Sheraton, Westin, W, Aloft, St Regis, Luxury Collection, Moxy etc):

If you don’t like the Hilton Honors promotion, Marriott’s MegaBonus is your only alternative!

Following the merger of Marriott Rewards and Starwood Preferred Guest on 18th August, the two companies are now operating as one even though the individual brands will remain until at least March.

The current offer is called ‘MegaBonus In More Places‘.  It runs until 31st January, although registration closes on 7th January.

You receive:

2,000 bonus points for every 2+ night stay plus (which I would value at £10)

1,000 bonus points for each new brand, starting with your 2nd brand (which I would value at an extra £5)

10,000 bonus points for staying at 10 different brands (which I would value at £50)

(a virtually impossible) 29,000 bonus points for staying at all 29 Marriott and Starwood brands

Given that Marriott / Starwood now covers all of these brands – AC Hotels, Aloft, Autograph, Courtyard, Delta Hotels, Design Hotels, Edition, Element, Fairfield Inn, Four Points, Gaylord, Le Meridien, Marriott, Protea, Renaissance, Residence Inn, St Regis, Sheraton, The Luxury Collection, The Ritz-Carlton, Springhill Suites, Towneplace Suites, W, Westin – you won’t be struggling for places to stay.

Our main article on MegaBonus In More Places is here although it does not mention the 10 brand / 29 brand targets as these were added later.  You can register for the promotion here – remember that registration closes on 7th January..

The main Marriott booking page is here.

And finally …..

If you are booking a luxury hotel this month, remember that we can offer you exclusive additional benefits at Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, Peninsula and similar hotels.  Click here for details of our luxury hotel booking service in association with Bon Vivant / Virtuoso.  Feedback from readers who have used this service so far has been excellent and we have booked over £890,000 of rooms so far.

Hotel offers update – April 2024:

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.

Want to buy hotel points?

  • Hilton Honors is offering a 100% bonus when you buy points by 14th May 2024. Click here.
Category

Hilton Honors, Marriott Bonvoy

Comments (60)

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

  • Alex W says:
    2 Jan2 January 07:29

    A summary from the last quarter IHG spending. Mrs W and I managed to earn approx 200k IHG points from approx £1750 spend, so around 50% rebate. This was mostly from our RTW trip. There was a lot of hassle from IHG though about what counted for the promotion so we certainly had some additional unecessary spending, including 2 mattress run nights. I’m not sure I could be bothered with the hassle to chase such a promotion again!

    • Alan says:
      2 Jan2 January 20:47

      Cool – I managed to hit all targets in 3 stays, total cost ~£400 for 60k points so approx 60% rebate. Worked out very nicely – plus quite nice having the relief of not trying to chase Hilton Diamond (was just no way I was going to make it so didn’t even try) so could mix around my stays.

  • Dannyrado says:
    2 Jan2 January 08:11

    OT

    My SPG Amex was cloned last week. Mrs SPG Amex cloned this week.

    The wife’s being of most concern, it was in the safe…

    I guess they are both on amazon, but then so are all my gold and plat cards.

    • meta says:
      2 Jan2 January 10:51

      My BAPP was cloned yesterday. I last used in July/August to book BA flights and it was part of breach. Amex replacing card.

  • Paul says:
    2 Jan2 January 08:31

    Have been granted a Diamond challenge by Hilton with my existing Gold HH membership. Need 10 stays (or 18 nights) to achieve this and have 6 trips already planned in next 90 days – any tips on finding cheap Hilton rates if need to do a couple of mattress runs to complete the challenge?

    • Rob says:
      2 Jan2 January 08:44

      Day rates (search for check-in and check-out on same day) can be cheap and SEEM (not done it myself) to trigger nights credit which PRESUMABLY counts towards this. Absolutely no promises though.

      Otherwise you really need somewhere near your home, office or commute, or potentially where you are already travelling to – eg if you are at a Hilton in Berlin, on the day you leave check in to a cheapo Hampton on a 1-night stay and then continue your journey to the airport.

      • Michael Jennings says:
        2 Jan2 January 13:28

        I made two trips to Turkey and did a pile of very cheap one and two night Hilton stays last year. If I had time I’d be tempted to do another one and go for Hilton Diamond at the same time. (I don’t have time, alas.

        • the_real_a says:
          2 Jan2 January 14:37

          You are not wrong on prices for Turkey… I have a spare week coming up… hmmm

    • Oh Matron! says:
      2 Jan2 January 08:47

      If you’re in London, the Hilton Garden in by Hatton cross can be had for £55 a night around the weekends. There are cheaper hiltons in the north too…

    • Craig says:
      2 Jan2 January 08:52

      Out of London the DoubleTree Sheffield Park is sometimes just over £50 a night. IIRC, Mon, Wed & Fri that have 2 hours of free drinks for Gold/Diamond.

      • Craig says:
        2 Jan2 January 08:53

        *they

        • Dan says:
          2 Jan2 January 09:26

          Not sure how many points you have, or how highly you value diamond over gold, but using points for stays usually counts towards these sort of targets too (if you’d rather use them over spending cash).

    • TripRep says:
      2 Jan2 January 09:37

      Paul – what about cheap redemptions?

      Fancy a weekend in Industrial Yorkshire, approx £50-60 nr Sheffield

      Even some LHR hotels (DT / HGI) can be under £60 on a Sunday eve in late Jan with the Public Sector code

    • paulm says:
      2 Jan2 January 10:33

      If its close to you the Doubletree Milton Keynes is regularly £45 ish for Fri, Sat, Sun nights

    • Paul says:
      2 Jan2 January 11:04

      Thanks for all the tips guys!

    • Dace says:
      2 Jan2 January 11:31

      10? I though it was 8 stays?

    • Kai says:
      2 Jan2 January 16:49

      Just a warning – Hilton seems to be still having issues with posting reward stays, and many people have their diamond challenge failed due to this.

      • What's the Point says:
        2 Jan2 January 21:42

        Agree with this statement 100%
        I finally got some resolution out of their twitter team, the staff that reply to emails are useless.
        I managed to get a reward stay to track correctly that was booked last week. Anything prior to that has not showed up – and is unlikely to now as we are in 2019.
        I’ve probably lost a couple of 1,000 points Diamond MYWAY bonuses, but my main aim was to keep Diamond until March 2020.

  • Erico1875 says:
    2 Jan2 January 09:18

    Pointshound seem to have some outsize value some of their selection of hotels, eg 3800 Avios for 2 nights in Aberdeen £63 per night.

  • George says:
    2 Jan2 January 09:42

    Rob, would it be possible / is there sufficient interest to do a similar article on car hire points promos? I’m probably fairly niche in renting heavily but I certainly struggle to keep on top of the current run and others who hire less frequently might find it useful?

    Alternatively, are there any authoritive sources for this kind of info? I see commenters mention it all the time but never seem to find it myself!

    • Rash says:
      2 Jan2 January 11:39

      Hi George, rent quite heavily myself. Did 49 last tear with Hertz. Rob usually promotes decent offers but if you need more help or others you can email me at rashras at gmail (not sure if I can put my email)

    • Rob says:
      2 Jan2 January 11:59

      The problem is that the car hire offers tend to be more varied. If Avis has a good Alitalia deal, are any (UK) HFP readers going to care? The latest Avis / BA and Virgin offers are on their websites. We do cover good deals when we see them but I’ve never seen the point in running a dedicated list.

    • George says:
      2 Jan2 January 13:11

      Rash – thanks for your reply, I’ve sent you an email.

      Rob – thanks, totally understand. Out of curiosity, do you hear about these things from Avis/carriers or through readers? I can totally see why it might not make sense to publish but I’d love to have an idea of what’s available at any given time.

      Cheers both

      • Rob says:
        2 Jan2 January 13:53

        Depends who it is. I never get them from Avis or Hertz directly but sometimes the airlines send us stuff, other times readers or non-UK blogs highlight interesting bonuses with other airlines.

    • Lady London says:
      2 Jan2 January 22:35

      Have you found Flyertalk car hire sections any good ?

      My one tip would be to find ways to check the various car hire sites from different “countries” – sometimes the offers available vary a lot.

      If you collect Miles&More I’ve seen some stunning car hire offers over there that can rack up some nice chunks of points, you need to go to the website and check regularly.

      Iberia is the same in that lots of offers they never seem to publicise, of all sorts, can be found by the odd squizz at their FF site. Especially the .es version. Those are not all requiring Spain residence.

      • Alan says:
        3 Jan3 January 00:35

        Agree, I’ve noticed big differences sometimes between Hertz UK, US, AU websites for pricing for the same trip.

    • Charlieface says:
      2 Jan2 January 22:47

      Try frequentflyerbonuses dot com

  • RangersPilot says:
    2 Jan2 January 10:20

    OT, but Hilton-related.
    I noticed there’s a new Curio property in the Maldives available (95,000 points per night) to book from August. Currently available over Xmas, unlike the Conrad.
    Sorry if it’s old news!

    • New Card says:
      2 Jan2 January 15:07

      There will also soon be a Waldorf Astoria option in the Maldives too, so more choice for your Hilton points. However, if rumours are to be believed, the Conrad Rangali is being sold and may potentially de-flag.

  • DW says:
    2 Jan2 January 10:33

    OT

    Trying to book long-haul BA (out econ, return prem econ) via Amex to trigger £200 off £600 spend.
    Even multi-trip won’t allow for different classes on different legs. any tips?
    Anyone know if offer would be triggered if i called to book (T&C say online only) as i can’t book what i want online?

    many thanks

    • YB says:
      2 Jan2 January 13:26

      Had this problem before. Can’t be done. Offer is online only, and same class on all legs is what you’re allowed to book online.

      • D says:
        2 Jan2 January 17:17

        Thanks for replies.

        I bit the bullet and phoned amex – they agreed to allow me to have the offer when booking over the phone (they will add it manually when I phone to book) as a goodwill gesture as I can’t book what I want online.

    • kevbar says:
      2 Jan2 January 13:41

      same here, I took the hit and bought PE both ways. But the price was the same as BA website and the offer triggered immediately

  • Whizz68 says:
    2 Jan2 January 12:13

    Hi, Do you know if I can earn more than 1 free night certificate for the, stay 2 nights get 1 night free IHG promotion?
    Thank you

    • LB says:
      2 Jan2 January 12:33

      I queried this too but haven’t seen a response yet.

    • Alan C says:
      2 Jan2 January 14:44

      Anybody know a way of searching IHG for cheap nights for these hotels? I know with Hilton you can search by Flexible Dates.

      • Genghis says:
        2 Jan2 January 14:51

        When looking for mattress runs, I enter my home postcode and then on the search you can say the distance you’re prepared to travel and then sort by price. This of course means searching on a night by night basis depending on your own availability

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