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What happened when my son joined the Hilton Honors training day at Chelsea FC

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On Thursday morning I headed down to Stamford Bridge with my son for a special tour of the stadium and a training session with some of the club coaches, organised by Hilton Honors.

This event was bookable for Hilton Honors points as we wrote about here although Hilton offered us a place for free.

We thought it was worth showing you what went on as it was a unique ‘behind the scenes’ experience and may be repeated next season.

Hilton Chelsea FC training day

At 8.30am we arrived at Stamford Bridge and were taken to the press room for a briefing, familiar from many contract signing photo shoots. The Chelsea mascots were there to greet us for a photo opportunity.

We started with a tour of the dressing rooms for the Home and Away teams. As you would expect, they are not the same.

Here is the rather sparse Away changing room:

Chelsea FC Hilton training session

…. and here is the substantially plusher Chelsea changing room!

Chelsea FC changing room

As we entered the Home dressing room we got to see a beautiful replica of the Champions League trophy:

Chelsea FC changing room

The kids headed onto the Chelsea pitch for an hour of skills training, entering down the players tunnel to the (recorded) sound of thousands of cheering fans.

Chelsea players tunnel

Apparently Chelsea spends more than £1 million on keeping the pitch in shape every season.

Chelsea Hilton Honors training day

The parents took seats in the stands while the kids were split into age groups. My son was put into a group of 12-14 year olds to practice dribbling, shooting and general ball skills:

Chelsea FC Hilton training session

and

Chelsea FC Hilton training session

After the training we all headed to the Chelsea museum. This includes an experience where you could take penalties to recreate the Champions League final shootout vs Bayern Munich in 2012.

There is also a display of historic boot styles worn by famous Chelsea players from past seasons:

Chelsea Museum

It was a genuine ‘once in a lifetime’ experience for my son and pretty cool even for a non-football loving parent. You can’t fail to be impressed by being out there on the pitch and seeing behind the scenes.

If your child is a football fan then this is a Hilton Honors redemption worth looking out for if it returns next year. The 125,000 points cost included a night at the Hampton London Waterloo hotel, transfers to the stadium and a large pile of Chelsea goodies to take home. We didn’t stay at the hotel as we live nearby but Rob reviewed Hampton London Waterloo here in 2020.

Thank you to Meriel @ Tin Man and the Hilton Honors team for the invitation.

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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 2025)

There are various ways of earning Hilton Honors points from UK credit and debit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses.

There are two dedicated Hilton Honors debit cards. These are especially attractive when spending abroad due to the 0% or 0.5% FX fee, depending on card.

You also receive FREE Hilton Honors status for as long as you hold the debit cards – Gold status with the Plus card and Silver status with the basic card. This is a great reason to apply even if you rarely use it.

We reviewed the Hilton Honors Plus Debit Card here and the Hilton Honors Debit Card here.

You can apply for either card here.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 30th April 2025, the annual fee on the basic Hilton Honors debit card is halved from £60 to £30. The sign-up bonus is also easier to earn – you need to spend £1,000 either in the UK or abroad within three months. The usual bonus rule requires you to spend the full £1,000 outside the UK.

NEW: Hilton Honors Plus Debit

10,000 bonus points, Hilton Gold status and NO FX fees Read our full review

NEW: Hilton Honors Debit

2,500 bonus points, Hilton Silver status and 0.5% FX fees Read our full review

There is another way of getting Hilton Honors status, and earning Hilton Honors points, from a payment card.

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

You can also earn Hilton Honors points indirectly with:

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

and for small business owners:

The conversion rate from American Express to Hilton Honors 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.

Category

Hilton Honors

Comments (23)

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

  • BJ says:
    2 Jun2 June 06:17

    I don’t think there’s anything unique about this experience, AFAIK many clubs organise something similar for their young fans, and not just training sessions but events to meet with players and the manager too.

    The difference in the home and away changing roons will make it difficult for Stamford Bridge to host European finals, my understanding is that those at Wembley are identical for this reason.

    • Ryan says:
      2 Jun2 June 07:48

      It will certainly feel unique to Rob’s 12-14 year old son I guess….

      Whilst you may be correct in that other teams offer a similar experience, I haven’t come across them being funded by loyalty points, which is probably why it is being featured on a blog/website that focuses on loyalty points……

      • BJ says:
        2 Jun2 June 08:33

        Yes, probably unique from loyalty POV but I’m not sure it’s up to much if Chelsea offer similar direct to young fans anyway although I have no idea if they do.

    • Ken says:
      2 Jun2 June 08:29

      It’s pretty rare to be able to play on the pitch unless you win a competition or shell out a fair amount of money (£2k at Anfield for example).

      • Ryan says:
        2 Jun2 June 09:34

        Absolutely.

        Any stadium tour I have ever been on (with, and without children) getting on the pitch is almost impossible, hence the reason Chelsea spend £1M per season keeping the pitch in shape….. And don’t want pesky tourists ruining it….

        As you can see from the photos above, there’s a reason why this event has taken place off season, as the pitch is clearly about to be ripped up as it looks in dreadful shape!

    • BSI1978 says:
      2 Jun2 June 09:48

      The away room might be one reason, but I think it highly unlikely Stamford Bridge would ever get to stage a major final.

      It’s far too small, not easy to get too (relative to London stadium and others) and there are at least 4, arguably 5 better options just in London.

      • lumma says:
        2 Jun2 June 11:27

        Wembley, Tottenham, Arsenal, West Ham. What’s number 5?

        • TGLoyalty says:
          2 Jun2 June 11:41

          Could be to use twickenham as a venue?

          • BSI1978 says:
            2 Jun2 June 11:52

            Correct, although if I remember correctly, the local residents have a veto on any football being played there.

          • lumma says:
            2 Jun2 June 15:50

            Can’t see Twickenham bidding for the final of an association football tournament to be fair. I don’t even think it’s suitable. Rugby fans generally arrive earlier and are more likely to stay longer after the game and even then getting away from the stadium after a match is a nightmare

  • Michael C says:
    2 Jun2 June 06:43

    The Away changing room looks like my 1970s junior high school!!

    Cool experience, though – our youngster would love it.

  • ankomonkey says:
    2 Jun2 June 09:49

    Nice to see a write-up of this, Conny. My 12 year old son attended – probably in your son’s group – and appears in one of your photos!

  • Mayfair Mike says:
    2 Jun2 June 10:08

    Trophy room can’t have taken long to visit 😂

    • TGLoyalty says:
      2 Jun2 June 11:44

      They might not be Liverpool and Man Utd level but they have a decent haul!

      Six league titles, eight FA Cups, five League Cups, UEFA Champions League, the UEFA Europa League and FIFA Club World Cup plus charity shields and super cup.

  • Aston100 says:
    2 Jun2 June 12:20

    All the away changing rooms I’ve seen at various stadiums were substantially worse than the home changing rooms.
    Done deliberately as confirmed by the stadium tour guides.

    • TGLoyalty says:
      2 Jun2 June 14:43

      Believe it’s a requirement for them to be much closer in spec to be a FIFA or UEFA competition host but doesn’t need to be identical … why would you have home team images colours etc in a designated away dressing room.

  • Mutley says:
    2 Jun2 June 12:42

    I thought he was an Arsenal fan? If Chelsea spend more than a million quid on it they should be sacking the groundman.

    I took my son on the Bernabeu tour in February half term ( bookable in advance) cost was 30 euros and the San Siro tour at Easter, cost 30 euros (turn up on the day) which tours every half hour, with a superb Milan and Inter museum and the Italian National side museum at no extra cost cost. No messing about on the pitch though! Interestingly the home and away changing rooms in Madrid and Milan were of a similar standard, so much for the British sense of fair play eh!

    • Chabuddy Geezy says:
      2 Jun2 June 12:56

      The pitch does not look great but you are paying for undersoil heating, a grassmaster hybrid surface that includes artificial fibres. Lamps to make the grass grow. A lot goes into it.

  • Chabuddy Geezy says:
    2 Jun2 June 12:48

    It depends on the stadium. Chelsea would not be awarded any big FIFA or UEFA men’s matches due to capacity, transport links, poor views from some lower tier seats etc so they have no incentive to meet the nice away dressing room criteria either. St James’s Park also has a worse away dressing room but they would argue it used to be the home dressing room so was good enough for the home team in the 90s/00s. Tottenham stadium has 2 large modern dressing rooms for NFL games.

    • Kevin C says:
      2 Jun2 June 15:42

      I believe The NFL dressing rooms at Tottenham are separate to the footie ones and are on the other side of the stadium.

      I had hospitality tickets for the NFL last year (thank you Marriott) and we had access to the regular Tottenham dressing room plus the showers!

  • MT says:
    2 Jun2 June 13:15

    Sorry but all I could think was he came away from the day a worse player than when he arrived!

    More seriously is nice to get an insight on what these type of points opportunities offer to allow others to decide if worth the spend!

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