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Through May 28, 2019, you can buy Hilton Honors points and get a 100% bonus on the points purchased. You will need to log in to your Hilton account on that page before the sale details are displayed.

Hilton points normally cost 1 cent each. With the 100% bonus, the price drops to 0.5 cents per point.

The maximum amount of Hilton points you can purchase in a year is 80,000*. If you buy 80,000 by May 28, you’ll receive 160,000 points for $800. You can buy any amount of points from 5,000 to 80,000 in 1,000 point increments during the promotion, which means 10,000 to 160,000 points including the bonus.


*If you need more than 160,000 points (remember 80,000 is the max you can buy per account per year), then buy more points through a friend or family member’s account and pool your points for free.


When to Buy (Math)

Is buying Hilton points for 0.5 cents each a good deal?

In general I do not recommend buying points or miles speculatively. They’d need to be nearly free for me to buy without an immediate use planned. But if you do have an immediate redemption in mind, buying points can be a good deal. You just need to compare the cash price of the hotel you’d like to book to how much it would cost you to buy the points necessary to book it as an award night. Pick whichever avenue is cheaper.

If you have an idea of where you want to go but not where you want to stay, you can use Hilton’s Points Explorer Tool to see different hotels in your destination and how many points they will cost. The tool shows you a range, with a minimum and maximum amount points a hotel will cost.

For instance, let’s look at the price of a night at the Hilton Garden Inn Vienna South in Austria. The cheapest rate available, paying upfront, costs 95.20 Euros or $106.30 USD for a Friday night in early August:


The Points Explorer Tool shows us that the maximum (and minimum, in this case) points we’d pay for a night at the Hilton Garden Inn Vienna South would be 10,000 points, which with the currently sale is just $50.


That’s a savings of over $50 a night if you buy points to book award nights instead of booking your stay with cash.

You can get an even bigger discount on five night stays as the fifth night is free to those with Silver Elite Status*. That drops the per night price of the example above to $40 a night, or $200 worth of points at the current sale price (40,000 Hilton points) for five nights instead of around $530 if you booked with cash. That’s a savings of $330!


Karlskirche, also known as St. Charles Church in Vienna, Austria. Photo by Arian Zwegers

*At least Silver Elite status, if not Gold, is granted by all of Hilton’s American Express credit cards.

Consult Hilton’s website to see how many points you’d need to book the hotel you want for a specific night(s). Search the dates you’d like to stay to see the paid price. If buying the points makes sense, there is award space on your dates, and you are ready to redeem now, buy the points.

Also keep in mind that you don’t need to buy points when you can just open Hilton branded credit cards for free stays. More on that below.


Buy Hilton Points with These Credit Cards

Hilton points purchases are processed by points.com, so the purchases will not code as a bonus “travel” or “hotel” purchase on any credit card. You will not earn category bonuses from the purchase of Hilton points.


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That means you should make the purchase with whatever card you need to meet a minimum spending requirement on, or whichever card you earn the highest return on for everyday spending.


Another Way to Amass Hilton Points Quickly

The Hilton Honors American Express Card is offering 75,000 bonus points after spending $1,000 in the first three months. It has no annual fee. The Hilton Honors Ascend Card from American Express is offering 125,000 bonus points after spending $2,000 in the first three months. It has a $95 annual fee. You can turn $3,000 of every day spending into 209,000 Hilton points! Some of Hilton’s most expensive properties, like Grand Wailea Waldorf Astoria Resort in Hawaii, the Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills, or the Conrad Maldives Rangali Island, cost 95,000 points per night. If a couple each opened both cards and met the spending requirements on both cards, they’d earn more than enough points for 4 nights at any of those top-tier properties.


Aerial view of the Conrad Maldives Rangali Island

Small business owners can earn 125,000 bonus points for spending $3,000 within the first three months of opening a Hilton Honors American Express Business Card. Serious Hilton patrons can rake in even more via the Hilton Honors Aspire Card, American Express’ premium Hilton-cobranded card. The bonus is 150,000 points for spending $4,000 in three months, and the $450 annual fee is offset with various lucrative perks like Diamond status, the top-tier Elite level.


Bottom Line

May 28 will be the last day to buy 10,000 to 160,000 Hilton points for 0.5 cents each with the current 100% bonus sale. Don’t buy speculatively, but there are a lot of immediate awards you can book where that price offers great value.