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Hilton Honors offers come amazing ways to maximize your stays on points. While Hilton standard nights usually require more points than Hyatt, the good news is there are plenty of ways to stretch your Hilton points for outsized value. With the right strategies, you can still lock in great redemptions — here are some tips to help you maximize your bookings!

5th Night Free Perk

If you have Hilton Silver status or above, you get your 5th night free! (These are consecutive standard nights booked on POINTS - Hilton Free Night Rewards don’t count.) You can get Silver status by staying 10 nights, 4 stays, or the easiest way is by being a Hilton Honors American Express Cardholder.

Hilton Credit Cards:

Hilton Honors American Express Credit Card
Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card

Hilton Honors Aspire Card

All information about the Hilton Honors Aspire Card has been collected independently by by Let’s Travel Talk. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

The Hilton Honors American Express Business Card

Transferring Points to Hilton

You can transfer American Express Membership Rewards® to Hilton at a 1:2 ratio meaning 1,000 Amex points would turn into 2,000 Hilton points when you transfer. Don’t have any credit cards that earn membership rewards? I recommend starting with the American Express® Gold Card or the American Express® Business Gold Card. I also loving using the Rakuten shopping portal to boost my Amex point balance.

Transfer Bonuses

Sometimes (in the past it has been once or twice a year) American Express offers limited time transfer bonuses to Hilton that can help your points stretch even further! For example, with a 25 percent transfer bonus to Hilton, you would receive 2,500 Hilton points for every 1,000 Amex points transferred.

Hilton Hilton Waikoloa Village Example

The Hilton Waikaloa Village is 75k Hilton points for a standard night. Five nights would cost 375,000 Hilton points for the stay, but if you have Silver status or higher you get the 5th night free making it 300,000 Hilton points per night. However, you would only need to transfer 150,000 Amex points to Hilton to book 5 nights (which averages to 30,000 points per night). With a 25 percent transfer bonus, you would only need 120,000 points (which averages to only 24,000 points per night!) A 5 night stay this summer runs around $3,000 so your cost per point with a 25 transfer bonus would be 2.4 cents per point or 2 cents per point without the transfer bonus!

Homewood Suites by Hilton Jackson Example

I have a stay booked for the Homewood Suites by Hilton in Jackson Hole, Wyoming this summer. At this peak location at peak summer times, the cash price of this stay would be $4,649 but I paid with points instead! The standard rate for a reward night here is 90,000 Hilton points per night. If you take advantage of the 5th night free, 5 nights would cost 360,000 Hilton points instead of 450,000 Hilton points. You could also transfer 180,000 Amex points to Hilton to get the 360,000 Hilton points required to book or 5 night stay or only 144,000 Amex points if there was a 25 percent transfer bonus!

Tabacon Thermal Resort and Spa Example

The Tabacon Thermal Resort and Spa in La Fortuna, Costa Rica was one of my favorite stays to date! It is 80,000 Hilton points per night to book a standard night.

5 nights: 400,000 Hilton points

5th night free: 320,000 Hilton points

1:2 Transfer from Amex: 160,000 points (averaging to 32,000 points per night)

25% Hilton Transfer Bonus: 128,000 points (averaging to 26,000 points per night)

Hilton Free Night Rewards:

Hilton Free Night Rewards are another GREAT way to stay at high end luxury Hilton properties for $0! Here are some things to note about Hilton Free Night Rewards:

The Free Night Rewards can be used for any standard award room which makes them the most valuable of all hotel free night certificates! There are no blackout dates, but you must be able to find standard award room availability to use your Hilton Free Night Reward. Because of this, I like using my Free Night Rewards for luxury Hilton properties if I can find availability for standard nights!
The Free Night Rewards expire one year after issuance.
There are just a few exceptions where these cannot be used. That list can be found here.

For some ideas how how to redeem your Hilton Free Night Rewards, read here!

Here are some of the easiest ways to earn Hilton Free Night Rewards:

Hold a Hilton Honors Aspire Card and get a free night reward each account anniversary (including the year you open the card)
Spend $15k on the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card in a calendar year
Sometimes there are elevated offers on co-branded Hilton credit cards that come with free night rewards as part of the welcome offer! Note that that standard offers do not generally come with a free night reward as part of the welcome offer.

Bottom Line

With the right strategy, Hilton Free Night Rewards can turn what at first glance looks pricey into a great point redemption!

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How to Maximize Value on Your Hilton Redemptions