Buy Hilton Points At Half Price Through 5 October 2017

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[thirstylink linkid=”25174″ linktext=”Hilton has launched its latest points promotion” class=”thirstylink” title=”Hilton has launched its latest points promotion”] in which it’s offering a flat 50% off the regular price of points. The promotion doesn’t appear to be targeted (a sure sign of targeting is when I only get a 40% offer and that hasn’t happened this time!) and the offer runs through to 5 October 2017.

Buy Hilton HHonors Points – Headline T&Cs

These are the main terms and conditions you’ll need to know in order to make an informed decision (the full terms can be found at the bottom of [thirstylink linkid=”25174″ linktext=”the offer page” class=”thirstylink” title=”the offer page”] after you log in:

• The current promotion runs through 11:59pm ET on 5 October 2017
• Members may purchase a maximum of 80,000 points in this promotion
• Members may purchase a maximum of 80,000 points in a calendar year
• Hilton’s points sales are processed by Points.com so you won’t earn credit card category bonuses awarded for hotel/travel spend.

The Math

The math on this promotion is pretty simple because there’s no tiering or structure to the promotion and, unlike some points offers we see, there’s no benefit to buying a lot of points. The only small caveat is that you have to buy 5,000 points or more in order to qualify for the 50% discount.

Outside of its frequent promotions you can buy Hilton points at 1.0 cent each so, with a 50% discount that brings the cost/point down to 0.5 cents each.

It doesn’t matter if you buy the very minimum number of points available at the discounted rate…..

….or if you buy the maximum allowed…..

….you’ll still only pay 0.5 cents per point purchased.

Should You Buy Hilton Points At 0.5 Cents Each?

At 0.5 cents/point this is the cheapest we’ve been able to buy Hilton points this year and, as it happens, the cheapest Hilton ever seems to sell them for.

A stumbling block in this promotion is the fact that that Hilton won’t let customers buy more than 80,000 points in a calendar year and Hilton’s premium hotels (which a lot of people like to book with points) can cost more than that – they cost up to 95,000 points/night for a standard room.

But there is still value there if you look for it.

Rates in expensive cities like New York are always a good place to start if you’re looking to get value out of points and, if I take the a random October Saturday night at the [thirstylink linkid=”25201″ linktext=”New York Hilton Midtown” class=”thirstylink” title=”New York Hilton Midtown”] as an example, you should be able to see what I mean.

The cheapest option is $440 before tax and, when you add the tax in, the nightly rate rises to over $500:

This promotion would allow to to buy the 80,000 Hilton points you’d need for an award night in this example (for $400) and, although you wouldn’t earn any points on this stay, you would end up saving over $100 – that’s not a bad deal at all.

The Deals Can Get Better…But It Will Depend On Your Travel Plans.

At this point I could say that you can get great value if you buy Hilton points in this promotion and then use them at somewhere luxurious and expensive…..like the [thirstylink linkid=”25204″ linktext=”Conrad Maldives Rangali Island” class=”thirstylink” title=”Conrad Maldives Rangali Island”] (and you can) but there would be some pretty big flaws in that suggestion.

Image – Hilton

A randomly selected night at the Conrad Maldives sees the best available rate at $771 before taxes and fees….

…which comes to a painful $962.80 after you add on the taxes and service changes:

The same night can be booked for 95,000 Hilton points which, at 0.5 cents each, would come to $475….that’s a $487.90 saving.

That’s impressive but, as I mentioned a little earlier, flawed.

The issues:

• You can’t buy 95,000 points in this promotion so you’d have to already have Hilton points banked in order to book this award.
• Who goes to the Maldives for a single night? You would have to pay for any other nights you’d like to stay….and that’s cash coming straight out of your pocket.

These issues go away if you already have a large Hilton points balance and were looking to add to it get an extra night in the Maldives…… or if you’re happy to pay for some nights in cash and were looking to add on another night to your stay

But that doesn’t describe most people.

If you fall into one of the two categories above then yes, this promotion could save you money on your trip but, otherwise, this argument does not apply to you.

One Other Thing To Remember

If you have Hilton elite status and already have a stack of HHonors points it’s worth remembering that Hilton offers the 5th night free on award bookings.

If you only have enough points for 3 nights then it would almost certainly be worth buying enough points for a 4th night just to get a fifth night for free.

Bottom Line

With a 50% discount on Hilton points there’s definitely value to be had….you just need to look for it. As always, the most important thing is to have a plan for the points before you buy them – do not stockpiling points as the next devaluation is never far away.

If you have an idea what you’d like to use the points for then do the math, make sure it makes sense and only then [thirstylink linkid=”25174″ linktext=”buy what Hilton points you require” class=”thirstylink” title=”buy what Hilton points you require”].

If you’re in two minds as to whether or not to buy Hilton points then walk away. This isn’t a one time offer from Hilton and there will always be another promotion.