Hilton extends expiring free night certificates through January 2022
Editor's Note
Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.
If you're excited to redeem your Hilton free night award but haven't had a chance to do much trip planning, here's some great news: Hilton is extending all free night awards set to expire on Aug. 31 until Jan. 3, 2022. This is very positive news if you've been dreading the upcoming deadline and needed more time to put your free nights to proper use.
As a reminder, Hilton issues free weekend nights annually for those with a Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card, while those with the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card and The Hilton Honors American Express Business Card earn a free night after $15,000 spent in a calendar year. Aspire cardholders can earn an additional free night when spending $60,000 in a calendar year.
The information for the Hilton Aspire Card has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
These certificates are delivered via email and you can redeem them by calling the Hilton customer service line. The best way to track them is to set up a separate folder in your email for storage. That ensures you won't accidentally delete the email and lose out on a free night.
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Summary of expiration dates
This is now the third time Hilton has extended free night awards. If you're currently holding onto one (or more) of these free nights, here are some expiration dates to be aware of:
- Free night certificates issued before May 1, 2020 that were set to expire Aug. 31, 2021 are now valid until Jan. 3, 2022
- Free night certificates issued from May 1, 2020 through Dec. 31, 2020 are valid for 24 months
- Free night certificates issued between Jan. 1, 2021 and Dec. 31, 2021 will expire on Dec. 31, 2022
These weekend nights are valid at virtually any Hilton property, with a few exceptions. Since the pandemic, Hilton has also extended the use of these free night awards to any day of the week.
If you've been accruing these free Hilton nights over the last year and have your eye on a property with a high point requirement, this is your chance to book it without having to save up hundreds of thousands of points.
However, the expiration dates tied to your certificates may not be extended automatically. If you call to use a certificate for a stay past the previous Aug. 31 expiration date, you may need to get the elite desk to manually extend your certificate before applying it to a reservation.
Bottom line
In 2020, Hilton became the first of the major hotel loyalty programs to announce elite status extensions and has consistently made customer-friendly moves throughout the pandemic. The news around Hilton temporarily eliminating elite breakfast benefits at U.S. hotels in lieu of a food and beverage credit has received mixed reactions. But if you've stayed at a U.S. hotel during the pandemic, you realize that breakfast isn't what it used to be and the F&B credit is sometimes a welcome (albeit temporary) alternative.
In addition to extending the validity of free night certificates, the program has suspended point expiration until December 2021, while elite status set to expire in 2020 and 2021 has been extended through March 2022.
Overall, Hilton has introduced several positive changes to its loyalty program during the pandemic. The extension of free night certificate expiration dates is a continuation of that effort.
