Get VIP tickets to the BMW PGA golf with your Hilton Honors points

A few weeks ago, Emirates Skywards was offering tickets for the BMW PGA Golf Championship at Virginia Water from 15th to 17th September. The cost was 60,000 Emirates Skywards miles PER TICKET, which I’d value at £600 if used for flights.

Hilton Honors has now popped up with an identical offering. The price is 60% less than Emirates is asking!

Hilton Honors is offering VIP packages for the BMW PGA tournament from 115,000 Hilton Honors points for TWO tickets. Thursday packages were just 100,000 points but they sold out yesterday.

To put this in comparison:

• I value a Hilton Honors point at 0.33p so, at 115,000 points for two VIP tickets for the Friday, you are giving up £383 of free hotel rooms for two VIP packages

• I value an Emirates Skywards mile at 1p so, at 60,000 miles per ticket, you are giving up £1,200 of free flights for two VIP packages

If you look at it from the point of view of converting American Express Membership Rewards points:

• 57,500 Amex points gets you 115,000 Hilton points for two Friday VIP packages

• 120,000 Amex points gets you 120,000 Emirates miles for two Friday VIP packages

The only benefit of the Emirates packages is that they take ages to sell out because of the high price – the ones I wrote about three weeks ago are still there.

Based on last year, the Hilton packages will have disappeared by lunchtime today once this article has been widely read. Thursday packages had already gone by the time I wrote this piece.

Amex transfers to Emirates are also instantaneous if your accounts are already linked (it may take an hour or so if not) so there is no risk of a package disappearing whilst you wait for a transfer to complete. Amex to Hilton transfers take 1-2 days to complete which is risky here.

You can see details on the Emirates sport tickets website here and the Hilton Honors Experiences website here.

---

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

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:

• American Express Gold (20,000 bonus Amex points)
• American Express Rewards Credit Card (10,000 bonus Amex points)

and for small business owners:

• American Express Business Gold (20,000 bonus Amex points)
• American Express Business Platinum (40,000 bonus Amex points)

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.)