Hilton Hhonors 1Q 2013 Promo - Double miles or Rewards

Quote from mail4asim : Rooms usually start at 35,000 points for hilton. I like Holiday Inn's priority Club much better. Their rooms are normally 15,000 points, but you can also find rooms for 10,000 points or even 5,000 sometimes thru pointbreaks.

I noticed this too - Hilton's program is the same as Marriott's - 10 points per $ spent however even for a ~ $110 room Hilton wants like 35k points whereas that's the MAXIMUM for a Marriott room - I was looking at going to NYC later on in the month and for a ~ $300/night room near Times Square, Marriott wants 35k points. A $110 room near my mother's place in upstate (Syracuse area) NY is 35k Hilton points. WTF? Plus with Marriott, if you are a higher level (Gold, Platinum) you earn at better than 10/$1 - up to 20/$1. Lastly, Marriott gives out free nights like crazy - I don't stay a lot with them, but have gotten 4 free nights placed in my account in the past month.

It is a good program if you travel a lot and stay Gold or Diamond status. I was a diamond for five years in a row and took several free vacations with my points. I liked it and learned how to work it. I still use if but my travel has declined a lot. I recommend it as a heavy user from the past.

If you reach Diamond Status you must use the "Diamond Desk" for help with free room bookings. They will go the extra mile to help you secure a room. I got rooms at the Waldorf Biltmore in Phoenix that were not even available on the website. Used the Diamond Desk.

I signed up for this yesterday - seems like a good deal to me, but I travel a moderate amount for work.

Thanks!

The key to rewards is to pick a hotel chain and stick with it. I personally use Marriott Rewards, it was always highly rated on FlyersTalk.com. As you get through different status tiers in their program for nights stayed in the year you get more and more points. Not to mention they run bonus specials every quarter that can get you 15,000 to 20,000 more in that qtr. Plus I use the Chase Marriott card to further load up the points, you have to pay for the card but they give you a free night certificate so it more than offsets the csot.

Also, they have specials where hotels in areas I travel will give an extra 1000 to 2000 points per night bonus for a stay. Marriott gives you free room certificates for being in the program, I currently have 4 nights for free hanging out there between the Marriott and Chase.

Between that and the fact that you can stay in hotels that run from 7,500 points a night (fairfield) up to the Ritz Carlton, well it is all good for me!

Quote from dealsalways : By stars being aligned, I don't necessarily mean blackout date issues. It's more like me having the need for a hotel (which is somewhat infrequent for me), and then having a hotel in the right tier in the place( I looked at hotels like Hampton Inn I just stayed in for $80-$100 thanks to the 50% off deal around now, and they needed 25000 points! which seems to be the default tier for all decent places). The 25000 point requirement/cliff seemed to make these points highly "illiquid" or unusable. But I might be missing the "insider" secrets to using the HH points, so successful people's experiences might be useful.

There are often hotels that have half off specials for reward points. I too travel frequently for business and use Hampton Inn or other Hilton brands. When I redeem, there are often hotels with 12,000 - some with 7500 threshold that I have used. Might not be available in all areas, and the 7500 point hotels are not the nicest in any manner (from the pictures - haven't stayed at one). But, being able to get a hotel for 12,000 points works good enough for me when needed.

I'm a former FlyerTalk member and I opted for Hilton Honors for the numerous promotions offered, including many that provided gold status. Not to mention it was easy to accumulate points through other reward programs (My Points and eRewards to name a few) that could be converted to Hilton Honors points. This program much like all others can be beneficial for anyone determined to stay abreast on the promotions and take advantage of mishaps that do occur.

Quote from mail4asim : Rooms usually start at 35,000 points for hilton. I like Holiday Inn's priority Club much better. Their rooms are normally 15,000 points, but you can also find rooms for 10,000 points or even 5,000 sometimes thru pointbreaks.

I can buy a Chevy for less than half the cost of a Mercedes as well.

Quote from Dr. J : I noticed this too - Hilton's program is the same as Marriott's - 10 points per $ spent however even for a ~ $110 room Hilton wants like 35k points whereas that's the MAXIMUM for a Marriott room - I was looking at going to NYC later on in the month and for a ~ $300/night room near Times Square, Marriott wants 35k points. A $110 room near my mother's place in upstate (Syracuse area) NY is 35k Hilton points. WTF? Plus with Marriott, if you are a higher level (Gold, Platinum) you earn at better than 10/$1 - up to 20/$1. Lastly, Marriott gives out free nights like crazy - I don't stay a lot with them, but have gotten 4 free nights placed in my account in the past month.

You get more points for Hilton as well with status. 15% extra for silver, 25% for gold, and 50% for diamond. Also with the double dip you can either get 1 airline mile per $(or 500 per stay) or an extra 5 Hilton points per dollar so if you only want Hilton points you get a minimum of 15 per $. They also have benefits like this double points offer every single quarter and double points is generally the worst it will get. Some are better than others. 2 years ago they had one where any 4 stays got you a free night at any Hilton property worldwide. I used it on a 600 euro a night room in Venice.

If you are a frequent traveller the key is to stay at hotels that have current promotions. Loyalty with a chain is useless in the long term.

Thanks OP!

I've been HH gold for over 10 years. We charge everything on amex HH card and pay off every month.

Have been at least 8 free weeks in that time. Just applied for surpass amex in Nov and now due to previous years spend, I am diamond. So if you are gold and charge over $40k/yr, wait till Nov and apply for surpass, you will be diamond on Jan 1. Its $75/yr for surpass, but IMO the added bonus points on AMEX and stays are worth it.

Quote from descendents1 : I love Hilton Honors. I also signed up for the AMEX credit card bonus. Overall, I'm super satisfied with how much deals just stack heavily on top of one another. It's fantastic.

Can you link the AMEX credit card bonus? Thanks!

Quote from lilprincess : I'm a former FlyerTalk member and I opted for Hilton Honors for the numerous promotions offered, including many that provided gold status. Not to mention it was easy to accumulate points through other reward programs (My Points and eRewards to name a few) that could be converted to Hilton Honors points. This program much like all others can be beneficial for anyone determined to stay abreast on the promotions and take advantage of mishaps that do occur.

This is very true, staying abreast of these is the only way to benefit. I used to be Holiday Inn Priority point guy, but found that where I like to vacation there were no good HI properties. So another factor when picking rewards programs is availability of property where you may end up. This is usually discovered when you are already knee deep and want to book a reward, then find out there is nothing.

This Hilton deal is good, but for someone already in the "points game", I don't think it is worth a switch or even slickdeal worthy. I say this because other chains (marriott in this case) run a similar special every 4 months or so which makes this less special from Hilton. It is the norm for Marriott.

For instance, Marriott had a 35,000 point bonus special from Sept 15 of last year to Jan 15 of this year. Stay 20 nights and get the bonus. Stay another 5 and you get 50,000. So my total points accumulation for that period was:

20 hotel nights - 32,000 points
Marriott Visa - 20,120 points (extra points when using Marriott Visa to pay for Marriott hotel)
20 night bonus - 35,000 points

Grand total was 87,000 points for a 4 month period. Which if I were to redeem for 7500 hotel rooms in Fairfield that amount to $90 a night (after tax) yeilds a benefit of $1044. Not that I use them there, but just for an example.

In 2009 I stayed for a week at the Marriott slopeside in Vail for 180,000 points...this is a $500 a night room. So a $3000 value on those points.

In 2012 I stayed at the Ritz Carlton slopeside in Beaver Creek for a week for 320,000 points, it was my wedding anniversary so a full residential suite with mountain view, $ 799 a night. That is a $4,794 value for these points.

For those that want to evaluate programs, at least you have some real-life numbers to work with.

I generally go with whatever hotel will give me free Gold or better status. Lucked up on a HH Gold deal last year by using a Russian address and have so far enjoyed the points & perks. Gold gives me bonus points, free internet and free breakfast. I generally stay in Hiltons for business travel, they have great locations downtown in most major cities and the hotels are definitely higher class than Marriott. Hilton also has some special brands & point sales.. like they have the Bentley Hotel in Southbeach and have the WestGate Towers in Vegas. Both outstanding properties where you can use/earn points. Hilton also has bonus redemptions, right now I can stay at the Bentley in South Beach on Valentine's Day weekend for 50,000 points a night.. this is a $1,000 a night place.

If I had to rank the points programs:
1) Starwood points are most valuable. Generally 1point per dollar. Sheraton's redemption rates from 4000points nightly and can redeem 1:1 for airlines. Lots of bonuses.
2) Hilton points are 10 per dollar. Redemption starting at 30,000 points a night. Lots of bonuses.
3) Marriot points are most convenient for redemption as there is a Marriot everywhere. And its very easy to get Silver status with Marriot. But the hotels are generally stuck with in the 80's & 90's design and out of the way. Many Marriots still have the big cube TV's and very slow internet. Marriot doesnt have many outstanding/prestigious hotels like Starwood & Hilton.

The most important thing is to get a free status upgrade if possible. Then stick with that program for the next entire year. The bonus perks, room upgrades and extra points is what you really want. Review each hotel rewards program the beginning of the year to make sure the program you use, is the one delivering the most awards.