7 ways to redeem points with the Hilton Honors program

Hilton Honors may not be the most rewarding hotel rewards program, but it can still provide some significant value. The chain has over 8,000 properties across six continents, and all of them — even the most luxurious Conrad and Waldorf Astoria properties — can be booked with points.

And you're not just restricted to hotel stays when you redeem your Hilton Honors points. Keep reading to find out seven ways you can redeem points with the Hilton Honors program.

Related: Great ways to use Hilton Honors points and a free night reward

Redeem Hilton points for hotel stays

Hilton Honors is a hotel loyalty program, so naturally, you can redeem your points for hotel stays in the Hilton portfolio. Unfortunately, the program doesn't provide a published award chart, so your only way to know the award price for a particular hotel is to search for your dates.

A good starting point, though, is the program's Points Explorer tool. This tool highlights the maximum award rate of a property, as well as the lowest price recently booked by other members. These "discounted" prices tend to come up when cash rates are lower.

To book an award room, start at hilton.com and sign in to your loyalty account. (You don't have to be logged in to search for award availability, but it makes it easier.) After entering your destination and dates, select "Special Rates" in the search box, tick the "Use Points" option and click "Done."

If your dates are flexible, check "Shop by price" in the date box to see a calendar. This makes it easy to spot the cheapest dates.

Hilton Honors points are worth 0.6 cents apiece according to TPG's March 2025 valuations. However, given the lack of standardized award-chart pricing, the value you get will vary from hotel to hotel.

For example, we found a night at the Conrad Washington, DC that is bookable for $386 with the Hilton Honors Semi-Flex discount rate or for 85,000 Hilton points. You'll get a redemption value of just 0.45 cents per point if you redeem points in this case.

Daily Newsletter

Reward your inbox with the TPG Daily newsletter

Join over 700,000 readers for breaking news, in-depth guides and exclusive deals from TPG’s experts

Email address

Sign up

By signing up, you will receive newsletters and promotional content and agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe at any time.

On the other hand, some hotels will give you more than 0.6 cents per point in redemption value. This usually happens during peak times, when cash prices skyrocket but award prices are capped at a property's maximum standard rate. For example, on New Year's Eve, the Conrad New York Downtown in New York City starts at $958 per night. Alternatively, you can book the same room for 95,000 points per night, giving you a value of 1 cent per point.

When redeeming Hilton points for hotel stays, pay close attention to the individual hotel's cancellation policy. Most award stays are free to cancel until a couple of days before arrival, but some properties have stricter policies.

There are a few other ways to redeem Hilton Honors points for a stay. As you go through the booking process, keep an eye out for the following booking options.

Customize your award with the Points & Money slider

In addition to booking stays completely with points, the Hilton Honors program allows you to use a combination of points and money.

Unlike many other programs that use fixed amounts of points and cash for this award option, Hilton lets you customize the amounts using a slider on the final page before confirming your reservation. You'll still select the full award price from the search results, but then you can drag the slider to whatever points-and-money combination you want:

Note that there is a 5,000-point minimum for Points & Money redemptions. The combination of points and money you select is final once you book. However, you will earn Hilton Honors points on the cash portion of these stays. If you're short on points or don't want to burn all your points on one stay, this can be a nice option.

Related: How to earn and redeem Hilton Honors points at SLH properties

Redeem points for premium room awards

One of the best things about Hilton Honors redemptions is that you're not restricted to one room type. You can redeem points for premium rooms, including suites or rooms with better views or club lounge access.

The booking process is the same. Once you've selected your desired hotel, you can choose between a standard room reward and a premium room reward, like this example at the Hilton London Paddington.

As you can see, premium rooms will cost more points than standard rooms. In some cases (like the above), it's likely not worth it.

However, if you're looking for extra space for your family, it's great to have the option to burn additional points for a larger room or suite instead of hoping your Hilton elite status will score you an upgrade at check-in.

Fifth night free for Hilton Honors elite members

Hilton Honors members with Silver status or higher get every fifth night free when booking a standard room reward stay. This perk extends to stays of up to 20 nights — during which you'd enjoy four free nights. If you don't have Hilton Honors status, consider applying for one of Hilton's American Express cards for automatic status.

The following cards provide complimentary Hilton status:

• Hilton Honors American Express Card: Silver status
• Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card: Gold status
• Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card: Diamond status
• The Hilton Honors American Express Business Card: Gold status

Related: How to choose the best Hilton credit card for you

Redeem Hilton points for event credits

You can also redeem Honors points for a discount when you plan a wedding, conference or other Hilton event — but please don't. You can choose a voucher for various denominations for a set number of points. Here's how much they cost:

• 25,000 points: $50
• 50,000 points: $100
• 75,000 points: $150
• 125,000 points: $250
• 250,000 points: $500

These vouchers provide a value of just 0.2 cents per Hilton point, well below TPG's valuation, so we don't recommend this redemption.

Related: Earn easy Hilton points by eating at your favorite restaurants

Redeem Hilton points for experiences

Another option is to redeem Hilton points for travel experiences through Hilton Honors Experiences.

Available experiences often include sporting events, dinners at top restaurants and concerts. Some of these can be purchased immediately with points, while others require you to bid against other Hilton Honors members.

There are some pretty neat experiences available as of writing this piece, including a 60-minute full-body oil massage at the Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi Spa (50,000 points) and a Maldivian Indigenous signature spa treatment at the Conrad Maldives Rangali Island (100,000 points).

While you're generally best off redeeming Hilton points for hotel stays, snagging a unique experience can make for a fantastic redemption. This is how TPG's Katie Genter enjoyed a 60-minute couples massage and a four-course dinner for two with just 20,000 Hilton Honors points.

Look through the Hilton Honors Experiences page to see if anything interests you.

Hilton used to offer another way to book experiences with points: by linking your Hilton Honors and Ticketmaster accounts. As of January 2025, this option is no longer available — which is fine by us, since it didn't provide much value anyway.

Related: The most exclusive travel experiences you can book with points and miles

Transfer Hilton points to airlines

Hilton Honors has 26 airline partners and one resort partner to which you can transfer your Hilton points, but the transfer ratios are less than ideal. For example, you can exchange 10,000 Hilton Honors points for a mere 1,000 United Airlines MileagePlus miles.

As a result, we think you're better off booking hotel stays with your points — but transferring points to an airline could make sense if you're short a few miles for your next award flight.

Transfer ratios vary from one airline to the next, so check Hilton's transfer site for your airline of choice. You'll have to enter your airline loyalty number to see the points-to-miles exchange rate.

Redeem Hilton points on Lyft rides

Hilton has a partnership with Lyft, which is a fantastic way to earn some extra Honors points on your Lyft rides. On the redemption side, however, it's not so pretty.

You can convert your Hilton points into Lyft credits (similar to gift cards) of varying amounts. But regardless of how many points you redeem this way, you'll get a piddly 0.22 cents each.

Redeem Hilton points for car rentals

Hilton partners with National, Alamo and Enterprise, so you can redeem your points for your next rental on Hilton's car rental page. However, this option doesn't provide a good return on your hard-earned points. In our tests, using Hilton points for a rental car consistently provided a value of around 0.2 cents per point — effectively cutting the currency's value by two-thirds.

For example, a five-day midsize SUV rental with Alamo at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) will set you back over 315,000 Hilton points.

You can reserve the same car on Alamo's site for a grand total of $613, providing a value of only 0.19 cents per point.

Related: The easiest ways to save on rental cars

Redeem Hilton points for Amazon purchases

Finally, you can redeem Hilton Honors points to cover Amazon purchases. Just link your Hilton Honors account to your Amazon account and select Hilton Honors points as your payment method at checkout. Amazon will tell you how many points it takes to cover your order, and you can use your points to cover the entire purchase or just part of it.

Should you use Hilton Honors points for Amazon purchases? Our research found that Hilton points are worth 0.2 cents each when redeemed toward Amazon purchases, so this redemption isn't ideal.

We're all for having additional options for using your points and miles, but in general, you wouldn't be maximizing your Hilton points (or any other currency) at Amazon.

Related: How I'm spending 4 million Hilton Honors points

How to earn Hilton points

Of course, all of the above redemptions require you to have Hilton points in your account. One of the quickest ways to boost your balance is by adding a new Hilton Honors card to your wallet. Here are the available cards and their welcome offers:

• Hilton Honors American Express Surpass Card: Earn 155,000 Hilton Honors bonus points after spending $3,000 on purchases in the first six months of card membership. ($150 annual fee; see rates and fees).
• Hilton Honors American Express Card: Earn 100,000 Hilton Honors bonus points after spending $2,000 on purchases in the first six months of card membership. (no annual fee; see rates and fees).
• The Hilton Honors American Express Business Card: Earn 175,000 Hilton Honors bonus points after spending $8,000 on purchases in the first six months of card membership. ($195 annual fee; see rates and fees).
• Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card: Earn 175,000 Hilton Honors bonus points after spending $6,000 on purchases in the first six months of card membership. ($550 annual fee; rates and fees).

Bottom line

As you can see, there are many interesting ways to redeem Hilton Honors points. However, we recommend sticking with hotel stays — this option generally provides the most value, getting you closer to (or even higher than) TPG's March 2025 valuation of 0.5 cents per Hilton point.

The other option we'd recommend considering is Hilton Honors Experiences, especially if you find a unique event that may not be otherwise available to you.

For rates and fees of the Hilton Surpass Card, click here.
For rates and fees of the Hilton Amex Card, click here.
For rates and fees of the Hilton Amex Business Card, click here.
For rates and fees of the Hilton Aspire Card, click here.