Hilton HHonors 101: Redeeming Hilton HHonors Points for Rewards Nights
In this post, I will cover how to find and book Hilton HHonors rewards nights. I will also explain how to use the standard Hilton HHonors rewards chart to redeem points for free nights. Natalya has become my very dedicated Hilton apprentice for the year as she is collecting points for an upcoming trip (details on that coming up!)
(Photo Credit: Japan Times)
Standard Hilton HHonors Rewards Chart
Hilton hotels, excluding Waldorf Astoria and Hilton Grand Vacations properties, are divided into 7 Categories. The hotels in each category cost a specific number of points to redeem Hilton HHonors Rewards according to the following chart:
The above chart is only for availability in the standard rooms. At any given hotel, standard room awards may be sold out. You may still be offered a redemption in a non-standard room, but the pricing for that is much more expensive.
Waldorf Astoria and Hilton Grand Vacation Clubs have their own award chart, which you can find here, along with the standard awards.
In a later post, I will discuss the Citi Hilton HHonors Reserve card. For this card, the signup bonus is free weekend nights rather than Hilton points. These nights are eligible for redemption at Waldorf Astoria as well. Rewards nights for standard rooms at Waldorf Astoria can go up to 80,000 a night at Maui Grand Wailea. So if you want to spend a weekend at one of these, go for the Citi Hilton HHonors Reserve card as otherwise the stay will cost you 240,000 points!
Side note: A preview of multi-night awards
If you are staying 4 or more nights in a single property, you can often save a lot of points by using a multi-night AXON award. The London Hilton Park Lane, where my parents are staying on their trip to London and the French Riviera with miles this summer, is a Category 7 hotel. It costs 50,000 a night according to the above chart. Since they have the Amex Hilton HHonors Surpass card, they have access to the Amex AXON multi-night award and only need to pay 145,000 for a 4 night stay.
Finding and Booking Hilton HHonors Award Nights
As an example, Natalya and I are going to check for availability at the Conrad Tokyo (TripAdvisor link: Conrad Tokyo).
When searching for an award, it is best to be logged out of your account. If you are logged in and don’t have enough points for the award, the award search engine will often hide availability from you.
She thinks she wants to visit Tokyo for 2 nights in April. She need to check whether this hotel has standard rooms available for my dates. She enters her dates for Arrival and Departure and make sure she has Use HHonors Points checked.
The search will bring up rooms at different rates, with standard rooms not always being first. Since this is a Category 7 hotel, the standard award will cost 50,000 points. I am looking for a room costing 50,000 points, which will only be the standard room. In this case, I find there are rooms at the standard rate. Score! Natalya now has the option of staying 1 or 2 nights at 50,000 a night or going for a multi-night award if she wants to stay 4 or more… but she won’t know how to book those until our next class!
If standard rooms are not available, you will still see points rates, but these will not be for a standard room and will be much higher. These are not eligible for multi-night awards.
This concludes the explanation for redeeming Hilton HHonors points for Rewards Nights.
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