Hilton Honors Points & Money Rewards: Is It Worth Using?
Hilton Honors has a handy payment slider tool when booking hotels that would allow you to combine cash and Hilton points. On the surface, this makes Hilton points more flexible as it’s possible to use them even when you don’t have enough points required for a hotel. But, is it worth partially redeeming your Hilton points for stays? Let’s take a look at some examples.
How does the Hilton Points & Money Slider Work?
When you try to make Hilton bookings on points, the points slider tool will be presented to you, and you can simply use the slider to gauge how many points you’d like to use for the booking.
To be able to combine cash and Hilton points booking, you’d need to at least have 5000 Hilton points available, which you can then incrementally increase by 1000 points. The redemption value will differ depending on what hotel you book and when, since Hilton Honors run a dynamic, but capped, award pricing.
If you decide to pay with combined cash and points, you do have to pay the taxes and fees on top of the cash portion in most properties, while a full points redemption cover taxes and fees in most cases. With Points & Money, the cash portion you pay will earn you Hilton points back on the room rate excluding taxes and fees. The amount will depend on your Hilton status, with Diamond having the highest multiplier (base 10 points, plus 100% more).
Hilton Points Redemption Value on Points & Money
To figure out the points redemption value on Points & Money, you need to compare it to the value you’d receive when you book the hotel in full all on points. Let’s take a look at some examples:
Let’s have the Doubletree by Hilton Van in eastern Turkiye as a low-cost hotel example. A full redemption cost 10,000 points/night for a ~$52.50/night rate (1 TRY=.054 USD). This in turn would result in ~.525 cent per point redemption.
If we would redeem 5,000 points instead, which is half the requirement for full points redemption, we’d need to pay the cash portion of ~$26.23, which is about half of $52.50 rate. The points redemption value is still roughly .525 cpp!
Next, let’s move on to a more upscale option like Hilton Tashkent City in Uzbekistan. At a random date selected, it’d cost $265/night or 59,000 points/night for standard room. A rough points redemption value of ~0.45 cpp.
As I only have 23k points as of the time of this post, I’d have to pay ~$161.31 (~1.8 mil UZS) on the cash portion if I’d redeem all 23k points that I have currently. I subtract $265 with $161.31, then divide by 23,000 points, and I’d get a ~0.45 cpp points redemption value. Again, it’s very similar to the full points booking redemption value!
Let’s take a look at another example at the Conrad Osaka in Japan. At a random date selected, it’d cost ~$563.61/night or 95,000 points/night. A rough points redemption valuation of ~0.59 cpp. Keep in mind that Conrad Osaka charges a 15% service fee on top of tax that’s reflected on the total bill.
Again, since I only have 23k points, I’d have to pay the cash portion of ~$427.45 if I choose to redeem all 23k points. The taxes and fees are incrementally decreased with Points & Money if you haven’t noticed. So, subtracting $561.31 with $427.45, then divide by 23,000, and I still have the similar redemption value of ~0.59 cpp!
Overall, using Points & Money with Hilton Honors have very similar points redemption value compared to full points booking. This makes for a consideration when you try to book Hilton hotels on points and open up some stacking opportunities while saving leftover Hilton points that can be used for more aspirational stays.
Stacking Opportunities with Hilton Honors Points & Money
A possible stacking opportunity would be with the Amex Hilton Honors Aspire Card since it gives an annual $250 Hilton Resort credit as one of its benefits. I’ll use Rome Cavalieri, A Waldorf Astoria Hotel as an example for a Hilton Resort.
For Rome Cavalieri, it costs ~$400/night or 80,000 points for a standard room at a random selected date. A rough redemption value of 0.5 cpp.
If I’d want to use my $250 Hilton Aspire credit, I can use Points & Money to stretch the leftover Hilton points for future stays, but still earn a free stay at the Rome Cavalieri. Plus, you’ll earn Hilton points back on the cash portion outside of taxes. Since you’ll be paying wit the Aspire Card to use the credit, and it comes with Diamond status, you’ll end up receiving 34x Hilton points back!
Another stacking opportunity would be through Amex Offers. Amex Offers regularly would offer deals on Hilton brands like “Spend x, earn y back”. This allows further opportunity to stretch your Hilton points towards future stays and gain more value out of your cash purchases as well.
Conclusion
Using Hilton’s Points & Money is worth considering since the point redemption value falls within the same range of all-points booking. It’s definitely useful in situations where you’d only be willing to pay certain amount of cash for a hotel, but at the same time, don’t want to burn too many points and save some more that can be used for a future higher value stay.
The fact that you’d earn Hilton points back on the cash portion make it an attractive option to think about, since you don’t get points back when booking all-points stay. Plus, there are stacking opportunities to be had if you have the Amex Hilton Aspire Card, or have Amex cards that usually offer deals on Hilton brands.