Daily Getaway May 23: Hilton HHonors Points
Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.
American Express and the US Travel Association (a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting US travel) have partnered to offer discounts and deals with various travel brands and loyalty programs during the next month, including hotel packages, points/miles purchase promos, rental car discounts and more. These deals are called the Daily Getaways.
Each day we'll hash out the details of that day's deal to see whether it's worth taking advantage of.
Today's deal goes live at 1 pm EDT, and you can sign up for alerts if you'd like to be notified when the deals go live.
All of these promotions have the added benefit that you can save an additional 10% for purchasing with an Amex card, like the Platinum and Premier Rewards Gold, or even co-branded cards like Gold Delta SkyMiles Credit Card from American Express and the Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express.
Daily Getway For Friday, May 23: Hilton HHonors Points
- 100,000 Hilton HHonors points for $550 (160 available) *$495 with Amex Discount
- 150,000 Hilton HHonors points for $825 (200 available) *$743 with Amex Discount
- 250,000 Hilton HHonors points for $1,375 (200 available) *$1,238 with Amex Discount
In this case, the marketing for this promotion comes as is: offers to buy points packages that can be redeemed at any hotel within the Hilton portfolio.
These deals all offer points at 0.55 cents each (or about .5 cents per point with Amex discount)-exactly the same price as in 2012, although Hilton has massively devalued since then. Still, there are worthy redemption options if you can find standard availability in expensive cities. Essentially, you don't want to sit on these points without having a plan to use them soon (in case another devaluation is forthcoming).
In some situations the points don't offer good value. For example, one night at the Conrad Hilton Tokyo in June would be $440 or 123,539 points. Clearly, in this situation the cash price is less expensive.
However, I priced out 4 nights at the San Diego Bayfront Hilton in June at $459 per night, for a total of $1,836. This hotel costs 60,000 points per night, so you could instead purchase the 250,000 point package for $1,238 (Amex discount included), and save $598 over those 4 nights (plus 10,000 unused HHonors points). In this scenario points are by far the better option.
In conclusion, my advice regarding these Hilton HHonors packages is to buy if you already have a specific trip in mind and you've checked to ensure that your redemption options offer better value than the cash price. If you don't already have plans to use the points, sit this one out.
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