Before I dove into the points & miles game (circa 2011), I was a bit of a Hilton fan. At some point they had given me free Gold status through some kind of promo with Delta Airlines. And I found that I really liked the free breakfasts and room upgrades that Gold status offered. So, when all else was equal, I picked Hilton for my hotel stays. Once I was deep into points & miles, though, I developed a taste for luxury — especially when I could get a good deal with points. Several programs offered ways to stay at luxury properties for reasonable numbers of points. Hilton offered that too, but they didn’t have many highly rated luxury properties. I found myself instead staying at Hyatt, Marriott, and Starwood (now Marriott) hotels. And Necker Island too. Over time, my wife and I canceled our Hilton cards and invested our point earnings in other programs. We rarely stayed at Hilton hotels over the past 12 years. But now, things have changed. Hilton has expanded its high-end portfolio with luxury brands such as LXR Hotels & Resorts, Signia, and Curio Collection; added new hotels to their existing Waldorf Astoria and Conrad brands; and purchased the luxury lifestyle brand NoMad. Most significantly, Hilton has partnered with SLH (Small Luxury Hotels of the World) with nearly 300 luxury properties already integrated and more to come.
Hello Hilton. I’m back!
But would you mind making one little enhancement?…
Earning points & free nights
Thanks to Hilton’s partnership with SLH, I recently jumped on a couple of great opportunities to earn Hilton points and free night certificates. First, my wife and I signed up for the Hilton Business card while it still offered a free night certificate after $15,000 spend (as of July 1, 2024, the card no longer offers that feature). The welcome bonus at the time was for 175,000 points after $8K spend in 6 months. Plus, the card was already earning 5x for all spend (on up to $100K spend per year). So, after $15K spend on these cards, we each earned 175,000 points plus 75,000 (5 x 15,000) points plus a free night certificate. Next, we each signed up for the Hilton Surpass card which was (and still is at the time of this writing) offering 130,000 points plus a free night certificate after $3K spend in 6 months. Instead of stopping at $3K spend, though, we spent the $15K required to get a free night certificate. We each earned lots of points plus two free night certs from the Surpass card. Now, combined, we have oodles of points and six free night certificates. Or, we would have six except that I’ve already used three for an upcoming stay.
Going forward, I expect that we’ll each continue to earn a free night with $15K spend each year. Also, once the second year annual fee comes due for each of our Hilton Business cards, I expect we’ll cancel them and apply for the Hilton Aspire card which automatically offers a free night each year. That way, going forward, we’ll have 4 free nights to use annually.
Additionally, we tend to earn tons of Amex Membership Rewards points through welcome bonuses, referral bonuses, Rakuten portal spend, bonus categories and more. Membership Rewards points transfer 1 to 2 to Hilton and Amex often has transfer bonuses that increase the transfer ratio by 30% or more. When we see good transfer bonuses in the future, we’ll consider transferring a bunch of points to Hilton.
Redeeming points & free nights
To say that I’ve been excited about Hilton’s partnership with SLH would be a huge understatement. This partnership has unlocked many amazing properties. Some of these cost thousands of dollars per night if you pay cash, but you can now book them instead with free night certificates or points!
I recently used free night certificates to book three nights at the Hermitage Bay all-inclusive resort in Antigua. The reviews of this place are out of this world. And cash rates are out of this world too. If I had paid cash for the same room for the same three nights, it would have cost $11,071.38 after taxes and fees. That’s $3,690 per night. The same nights were bookable with free night certificates (which is what I did) or with points for 130,000 points per night. Compared to the cash rate, that’s a value of $3,690 / 130,000 = 2.8 cents per point (which is phenomenal for Hilton points).
The challenge with the SLH hotels is that standard room awards can be very difficult to find. Fortunately there’s an easy way to do it. See this post for details: How to find SLH hotels bookable with Hilton points & free night certificates.
Expanding luxury portfolio
Hilton’s partnership with SLH has massively expanded their luxury portfolio in one fell swoop. That said, they’re also investing in expanding their luxury portfolio within Hilton’s own brands: Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts, Conrad Hotels & Resorts, LXR Hotels & Resorts, NoMad Hotels and Signia by Hilton. A Hilton spokesperson told me that they currently have over 100 luxury hotels and have 60 more in the pipeline. Some that are opening this year include Ka La’i Waikīkī Beach, LXR Hotels & Resorts; Conrad Orlando; Conrad Bahrain Financial Harbour; Conrad Chongqing; Waldorf Astoria Seychelles Platte Island; Umana Bali, LXR Hotels & Resorts; and Waldorf Astoria Costa Rica Punta Cacique.
My enhancement request: suites
One of the things that I love about Hyatt is that, unlike Hilton, they offer many ways to get a good deal when booking suites. Hyatt offers standard award pricing for both standard suites and premium suites. Additionally, they offer multiple ways to upgrade from a standard room to a suite. When traveling for a special occasion, I love being able to splurge by upgrading to a suite with extra points or an upgrade certificate while also knowing that I’m getting great value for my points. And for those who travel with a family of three or more, suites can be the best way (and sometimes the only way due to capacity limits) to stay together without booking extra rooms.
With Hilton’s own hotels (I’m not talking about SLH hotels now), unless a suite is considered a standard room, there doesn’t seem to be a way to get a good deal in advance. Suites are available only as premium room awards rather than standard room awards. And premium room awards usually (maybe always?) mean bad value for your points. And there’s no way to upgrade from standard rooms to suites with points.
My request to Hilton is this: follow Hyatt’s model and make suites within reach. Ideally Hilton would make one or both of these enhancements:
- Add the concept of Standard Suite Awards. Just as standard room awards are capped, by property, you could do the same with suite awards. For example, at a property that is capped at 100,000 points for a standard room award, maybe offer standard suite awards for 150,000 points.
- Offer Suite Upgrade awards. Once we’ve booked standard rooms, let us upgrade at the time of booking to a suite either with a reasonable number of points or maybe with some kind of elite benefit or milestone upgrade reward.
Wrap Up
Thanks to recent changes, Hilton Honors has quickly become one of my go-to hotel programs. It’s still not my single favorite program, but the race has become tight: Hyatt continues to offer the best top-tier elite benefits, but let us down with poor redemption value towards Mr & Mrs Smith properties; Marriott continues to offer the best selection of hotels worldwide, but elite benefits are inconsistent; And then there’s Hilton with its great SLH partnership, its expanding luxury portfolio, and the only program that offers uncapped free night certificates.
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