Hilton Honors Complete Guide [2021]

Getting introduced to a hotel loyalty program can be overwhelming because there are a lot of different factors to learn and consider.

You’ve got elite levels and requirements, point values, ways to earn points, ways to use points, the list just goes on.

So to make things easy, I broke down all of the most important things you need to know about Hilton Honors.

You’ll find out how to earn elite status and what the benefits are for each elite level, how much points are worth, and how to get the best use out of your points.

And finally, I cover other features of the program like points pooling, transfer partners, etc.

What is Hilton Honors?

Hilton Honors is the official loyalty program for Hilton. It allows members to receive special perks and benefits for staying at Hilton properties and also provides members with ways to get free nights.

Tip: Use the free app WalletFlo to help you travel the world for free by finding the best travel credit cards and promotions!

What are the Hilton Honors elite levels?

Here are the different Hilton Honors elite levels and the requirements for each level.

  • Member
  • Silver
    • 4 stays in a calendar year or
    • 10 nights in a calendar year
  • Gold
    • 20 stays in a calendar year, or
    • 40 nights in a calendar year, or
    • 75,000 Hilton Honors Base Points in a calendar year
  • Diamond
    • 30 stays in a calendar year, or
    • 60 nights in a calendar year, or
    • 120,000 Hilton Honors Base Points in a calendar year
  • Lifetime Diamond Status

Tip: Take a shortcut on the path to Hilton Honors Gold status with the Amex Platinum or the Hilton Surpass.

What are the Hilton Honors benefits?

The benefits you receive will depend on your specific elite level but in general you can receive benefits like the 5th night free, free breakfast, upgrades, lounge access, late check-out, and others.

Below is a breakdown of all of the main benefits for each elite status level.

Hilton Honors Member

Anybody can become a Hilton Honors Member instantly just by signing up online. In fact, you can do this right now — just click here to join Hilton Honors.

Just by signing up you’ll be granted a few perks like:

  • Hilton Honors discount rates
  • Complimentary in-room and lobby standard internet access
  • Late check-out (must be requested and is subject to availability)

The biggest reason to become a member is so you can start earning points on your Hilton stays.

If you’ve recently stayed at a Hilton with the past 30 days but weren’t a member you can still get points but you”ll need to submit a written request to the nearest Hilton Reservations and Customer Care office.

But beyond earning points, it’s also nice to receive complimentary wifi and even late check-out when available. While these perks are nice, you’ll want to be at one of the higher Hilton Honors levels to start reaping real value.

Related Reading: Ultimate Late Check-Out Guide for Hotel Stays

The Hilton Auckland, New Zealand.

Hilton Honors Silver

  • Requirement:
    • 4 stays in a calendar year or
    • 10 nights in a calendar year

Hilton Silver is very easy to obtain since you only need four stays. Hilton Silver status can also easily be achieved with the Amex Hilton Honors card.

That card earns 7X on Hilton purchases, 5X at U.S. restaurants, supermarkets, and gas stations and comes with no annual fee. So you’re basically getting these perks like the 5th night free for no cost, which is not a bad deal.

Since this is the bottom tier status level, you won’t get a lot of super valuable benefits but you do get come solid perks such as:

  • 5th night free when booking a reward stay of five nights or more using all Points
  • 20% bonus on all the Hilton Honors Base Points you earn
  • Complimentary in-room and lobby Standard Internet access
  • Two complimentary bottles of water per stay

The fifth night free benefit can end up being an extremely valuable perk, especially if you use your points to cover a night at an expensive Hilton property.

I broke down the costs in points and cash at some of the top Hilton brands like the ConradWaldorf, and Curio Collection, so you can see how much value you can get out of this perk alone (it’s a lot).

The 20% bonus on base points is okay but there’s not any notable benefits of Hilton Silver that standard Members don’t get besides the above. Thus, Silver really only adds a lot of potential value with it’s 5th night free perk.

Related Reading: What’s The Best Top Hotel Elite Status?

The 5th night free at a property like the Conrad Maldives could be very valuable.

Hilton Honors Gold

  • Requirement:
    • 20 stays in a calendar year, or
    • 40 nights in a calendar year, or
    • 75,000 Hilton Honors Base Points in a calendar year

Hilton Gold status is where things really start to heat up in the benefits department. With Hilton Gold you’ll be given the following benefits:

  • Upgrades (when available)
  • Free breakfast
  • Lounge access (but only at certain properties or when upgraded)
  • 80% bonus on all the Hilton Honors Base Points you earn

Hilton Gold status can land you upgrades at Hilton hotels. While you likely won’t receive as many suite upgrades as a Diamond member, it’s still possible to get bumped up to better rooms. The real benefit to me is the free breakfast, though.

That’s where a lot of the value of Gold status is since many travelers mostly look forward to saving some cash on breakfast each morning with their elite status.

Related: What Hotels Have Free Breakfast?

Hilton Honors Gold can be obtained in a number of ways. In terms of credit cards, one popular method is going with the Amex Platinum Card, which comes with a host of benefits but a high annual fee.

A cheaper option is to go with the Amex Hilton Surpass which is a credit card offering 12X on Hilton purchases, 6X at U.S. restaurants, supermarkets, and gas stations, and comes with a free weekend night after you spend $15,000 in a calendar year. The annual fee is only $95 and the card usually comes with a great welcome offer.

Hilton Honors Diamond

  • Requirement:
    • 30 stays in a calendar year, or
    • 60 nights in a calendar year, or
    • 120,000 Hilton Honors Base Points in a calendar year

Hilton Diamond is the top tier elite Hilton Honors level and will offer you the following benefits.

  • 100% bonus on all the Hilton Honors Base Points you earn
  • Executive lounge access
  • Free breakfasts
  • Eligible Diamond members can choose to extend their status for an additional year beyond the expiration date, one-time, for any reason
  • You are guaranteed a room when you make a reservation at least 48 hours prior to your arrival
  • Complimentary in-room and lobby Premium Internet access

The biggest perks are the upgrades, executive lounge access, and the 100% bonus on points earned.

A lot of Diamond members aren’t happy about their upgrade experiences. I know they can’t happen all of the time, but honestly I’ve had an overall positive experience with getting upgrades.

Milestone Bonuses

One thing to note about Hilton is that as you climb these elite levels, you can earn milestone bonuses.

  • 40 nights in a calendar year = 10,000 bonus points, and then an additional 10,000 bonus points for every additional 10 nights after that.
  • 60 nights in a calendar year = 30,000 bonus points.

How much are Hilton points worth?

Any points valuation is going to be inherently variable and/or subjective to a degree.

With that said, you will find that Hilton honors points are usually worth around 0.52 cent per point if you use your points efficiently and aim for higher tier properties.

However, that valuation can change quite a bit depending on the property or rewards that you are redeeming your points for.

I’ll show you a number of examples below that illustrate how to get maximum value for your Hilton Honors points as well as how to avoid getting poor value.

Getting free nights with Hilton Honors

How many Hilton points are needed for a free night?

Reward stays start as low as 5,000 points per night and go up to 95,000 per night, so there’s a huge difference between the cheapest Hilton properties and the most expensive ones.

I would say to expect to pay 30,000 to 60,000 per night for a mid-tier property in a major city on average but there can be pretty wild fluctuations in certain parts of the world where top properties can go for pretty cheap.

If you search long and hard enough, you’ll be surprised what you might find. You can use Awardomatic to try to find hotel properties within your price range.

5th night free

To get the most from your Hilton points you should highly consider trying to take advantage of the 5th night free which is available to Hilton Silver, Gold, and Diamond members.

This is one of the easiest ways to maximize the value of your points.

Free night certificates

Also, note that it is possible to get free night certificates from Hilton credit cards which can be used at even the top tier properties. So these certificates are essentially worth 95,000 Hilton points.

For that reason, you don’t want to use these certificates for cheap properties unless they would otherwise go to waste.

Related: Which Hotel Credit Card Has the Best Free Night Certificate?

The best ways to earn Hilton points

Hilton credit cards

There used to be both Citibank and American Express Hilton credit cards.

However, now only American Express issues Hilton credit cards. The good news is that there are a number of very solid Hilton credit cards issued by Amex.

Hilton Surpass

Aspire vs Ascend

The Hilton Surpass offers the following features:

  • An additional 25,000 Hilton Honors Bonus Points after you make an additional $1,000 in purchases within your first 6 months
  • 12X Hilton Honors Bonus Points at hotels and resorts in the Hilton portfolio worldwide
  • 6X Hilton Honors Bonus Points at U.S. supermarkets, U.S. restaurants, and U.S. gas stations
  • 3X Hilton Honors Bonus Points on all other eligible purchases
  • 10 free priority pass lounge passes
  • One Weekend Night Reward at a hotel or resort in the Hilton portfolio after spending $15,000 in purchases in a calendar year
  • Automatic Hilton Honors Gold status

This is a great way to quickly earn up to 100,000 Hilton Honors points with the welcome offer alone. But note that you also get Hilton Honors Gold status, which will allow you to earn more points when you stay at Hilton properties.

The Surpass also allows you to earn 12X Hilton Honors points at Hilton hotels, which is very good.

Hilton Aspire

Hilton Aspire Bonus
The Hilton Aspire comes with automatic Diamond status.
  • 14X Hilton Honors Bonus Points at hotels and resorts in the Hilton portfolio worldwide
  • 7X Hilton Honors Bonus Points on flights booked directly with airlines or amextravel.com, car rentals booked directly from select car rental companies and at U.S. restaurants
  • 3X Hilton Honors Bonus Points on other purchases
  • Complimentary Hilton Honors Diamond status
  • One weekend night at any hotel or resort in the Hilton portfolio (upon opening account and on account anniversary)
  • Weekend night after spending $60,000 on the card within a calendar year
  • Unlimited Priority Pass membership
  • $250 airline incidental fee statement credit
  • $250 Hilton resort statement credit
  • $100 on property credit at Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts and Conrad Hotels & Resorts when booking the exclusive Aspire Card package

If you don’t mind paying a hefty annual fee for a credit card, the Hilton Aspire credit card is probably the best Hilton card you can get.

While the annual fee is $450, it comes with several different travel credits that easily offset the annual fee and provide you with great perks. One of the best perks of the Hilton Aspire card is that it offers you Hilton Diamond status.

Hilton Small Business Card

new Hilton business credit car
The new Hilton business credit card.
  • 12X on Hilton purchases
  • 6X on select business and air travel purchases
  • 3X everywhere else
  • Automatic Hilton Honors Gold Status
  • Upgrade to Diamond Status by spending $40,000 on eligible purchases on your Card in a calendar year
  • Free weekend night after spending $15,000 in a year
  • No foreign transaction fees
  • $95 annual fee (not waived)

If you’re in the market for a small business credit card, the Hilton business credit card is not a bad option.

Earn from hotel stays

The most common type of way to earn Hilton points is to earn them when you stay at Hilton properties.

You will always earn 10 base points for most of your Hilton stays but you will also earn bonus points on top of those depending on the level of elite status that you have (or don’t have) with Hilton.

  • 20% bonus once you reach Silver status
  • 80% bonus once you reach Gold status
  • 100% bonus once you achieve Diamond status

Hilton Honors promotions

When it comes to hotel promotions, Hilton is usually at the top of the game. They offer many different promotions throughout the year that allow you to ramp up your earnings.

In the past, we’ve seen promotions that allow you to earn up to  54 Hilton Honors points per dollar spent! 

That’s highly impressive.

You just need to remember to register for these promotions when they come around.

Registration is usually very easy and only takes a couple of seconds so there really is no reason to not do it even if you have no Hilton stays planned in the future.

Transfer points from American Express

You can also transfer your points from American Express.

I do not recommend doing this because the value that you lose is pretty significant and it is usually not a very good deal.

I’ll show you why.

If you value American Express points at 1.8 cents per point then 1,000 Membership Rewards is worth $18. But if you transfer those 1,000 Membership Rewards to Hilton, you end up with 2,000 Hilton points.

At a valuation of .5 cent per point, then that’s an exchange of $18 of value for $10, so you can see why it’s not always a good idea.

However, there are times when you just need to top off your points and transferring your points into Hilton can make a lot of sense. This is especially true if you’re booking a stay at a top property.

So it is good to at least be aware of this option even though you probably will not be using it very often.

Earn from shopping

You can earn Hilton points when doing your everyday shopping at the Hilton Honors shopping portal.

You simply log-in to the portal and then find an online store and then click through to that store and you can earn Hilton points for your purchases. The products and prices would be the same so there’s really no drawback.

However, I’d encourage you to read my article on shopping portals and to check out CashBackMonitor to make sure that you’re getting the best return.

That’s because other portals like the Chase Shopping Portal could be more worth your while.

Hilton Honors Dining

You can also earn Hilton Honors points when you dine out.

Here are the earning rates:

  • Earn 8 Bonus Points per $1 when you dine 11 or more times in a year, and opt in for email notifications from Hilton Honors Dining.
  • Earn 5 Bonus Points per $1 when you dine 10 or less times in a year, and opt in for email notifications from Hilton Honors Dining.
  • Earn only 2 Bonus Points per $1 when you don’t opt in for email notifications.

Car rentals

You can also earn Hilton honors points whenever you have a rental car purchase.

Alamo

Earn 500 Hilton Honors Bonus Points on every qualifying rental. Plus save on everyday low prices and earn an additional 500 bonus points for every day during your qualified rental, up to 5,000 bonus points.

Enterprise

Earn 500 Hilton Honors Bonus Points on every qualifying rental. Plus save on everyday low rates and earn an additional 500 bonus points for every day during your qualified rental, up to 5,000 bonus points

National Car Rental

Earn 500 Hilton Honors Bonus Points on every qualifying rental. Plus save up to 25% and earn an additional 500 bonus points for every day during your qualified rental, up to 5,000 bonus points

Cruises

Book through Cruises for Hilton Honors, and earn Bonus Points based on the length of your cruise.

Length of cruiseHilton Honors Bonus Points earned
1–5 nights6,000
6–8 nights12,000
9–12 nights24,000
13+ nights50,000

Tip: Use WalletFlo for all your credit card needs. It’s free and will help you optimize your rewards and savings!

Purchasing Hilton Honors points

In most cases it is usually not worth it to purchase points.

However, there are some exceptions to this rule.

In this article, I talk about a lot of different scenarios where it is worth it to purchase points.

In a nut shell, purchasing points can make sense when you need to top-off your points or in other situations where it can be cheaper to purchase points to cover your hotel stay. (This usually happens where there’s a great promotion ongoing.)

All you have to do is run some simple math and usually it is pretty obvious that it would be better to purchase points and use them toward a stay versus just paying cash out right for that day.

Just make sure you’re getting the lowest rate. For example, a lot of people don’t know about special discount codes like the Hilton MVP program.

Hilton Auckland Bowhead Suite.

The best ways to spend Hilton points

Best value for your points

Finding the best Hilton redemptions is going to depend on a lot of subjective factors.

Preferences for things like location, price, dining, nearby attractions, service, suites, etc. are all too variable to list a definite top 10 list of Hilton properties in my opinion.

However, I’ve put together three charts below which show you a snapshot of the high value you can get at some of the most premier Hilton properties.

The first table looks at Waldorf properties.

The average Waldorf hotel property costs $425 per night and Waldorf Hotels require on average 72,696 points. This results in getting an average value of .57 cents per point when redeeming Hilton Honors points at a Waldorf property.

Average cash price:  $425.83
Average points price:72,696
Average value per point: 0.57

You can read more about the findings here.

The next table looks at Conrad properties.

The average Conrad hotel property costs $352 per night and Conrad Hotels require on average 57,857 points per night. This results in getting an average value of .59 cents per point when redeeming Hilton Honors points at a Conrad property.

So while Conrad properties are on average cheaper than Waldorf properties, they actually offer more cents per point on redemptions since Waldorfs offered .57 cents per point in my prior analysis.

Average cash price:  $352.03
Average points price:57,857
Average value in cents per point: 0.59

You can read more about the findings here.

The next table looks at Curio properties.

The average Hilton Curio hotel costs $300 per night and Hilton Curios require on average 55,568 points per night. This results in getting an average value of .54 cents per point when redeeming Hilton Honors points at a Curio property.

Average cash price:  $300.82
Average points price:55,568
Average value in cents per point: 0.54

You can read more about the findings here.

Hilton Points & Money Rewards

When Hilton recently overhauled its loyalty program, it introduced the new Points & Money Rewards.

This allows you to use a slider to determine a combination of points and cash that you’d like to use (1,000 Point increments). In the past, this was available for select properties, but now they’ve opened it up for all properties and for any combination of points and cash (in increment of 1,000).

You should always check to see if it is cheaper to utilize the Points & Money Rewards or if it is a better deal to just purchase points.

Something else to consider is that if you use points and cash, you will most likely have to pay resort fees. If you book entirely with points you can often avoid the resort fees but if you only book partially with points and cash you’ll probably have to pay the fee.

Amazon

Using your Hilton points for Amazon is generally not where you’re going to get the best value.

500 Hilton Honors Points equal one dollar on Amazon.com.

So that’s a value of 0.2 cent per Hilton Honors point. 

That’s way less than the standard value of .5 cent per point and so I don’t think it’s worth using Hilton points for Amazon.

Hilton points transfer partners

You can exchange points and miles with over 30 participating airline, rail, and mileage rewards programs worldwide.

But the downside is that the transfer ratios are not favorable. For example, for American Airlines, you can exchange 10,000 Hilton Honors points for 1,500 AAdvantage miles, which just isn’t an attractive option.

And for Delta, the conversion is even worse at 10,000 Hilton Honors points for 1,000 Delta miles.

So some of the transfer ratios are a little different but they are all generally not very good, so this usually is not a good idea from a value perspective.

Turn Hilton points into miles

You can click here to convert your Hilton Honors points into miles for the following program:

  • Aeroflot Russian Airlines
  • Aeromexico
  • Aeroplan
  • Air Asia BIG
  • Air New Zealand
  • Alaska Airlines
  • American Airlines
  • Amtrak
  • ANA (All Nippon Airways)
  • Asia Miles (Cathay Pacific)
  • Asiana Airlines
  • Avianca Taca Airlines
  • British Airways(AVIOS Points)
  • China Eastern Airlines
  • Delta Air Lines
  • Emirates/Skywards
  • Ethiopian Airlines
  • Etihad Airways
  • Eurowings
  • EVA Air
  • Finnair
  • Flying Blue (Air France/KLM)
  • Frontier Airlines
  • Garuda Indonesia
  • Hainan Airlines
  • Hawaiian Airlines
  • Icelandair
  • JAL (Japan Airlines)
  • Jet Airways
  • LAN PASS
  • Malaysia Airlines
  • Miles & More (Lufthansa/Swiss/Austrian Air)
  • Philippine Airlines
  • Qantas Airways
  • Qatar Airways
  • SAS Scandinavian Airlines
  • Saudi Arabian Airlines
  • Singapore Airlines
  • South African Airways
  • Turkish Airlines
  • United Airlines
  • Virgin Atlantic Airways
  • Virgin Australia

Note: Southwest Airlines is NOT a Hilton partner 

To exchange more than 100,000 points, call customer care at 1-800-4Honors or send an email to: [email protected]

Turn miles into Hilton points

You can also make exchanges the other way — from a partner account to your Hilton Honors account.

You can make exchanges with any of the following travel partners:

• Amtrak
• Hawaiian Airlines
• Virgin Atlantic
• American Express Membership Rewards
• Diners Club International Club Rewards

Pooling Hilton points

One of the best changes that Hilton made to its loyalty program is that it allowed its customers to pool their points with other people.

This is fantastic since it makes it much easier to rack up the points needed for large redemptions. There are some specific guidelines for pooling points but they are not very strict at all.

Rule for pooling points

  • Hilton Honors members can combine their points with up to 10 family and friends for no cost. (That means that a total of 11 individuals can pool their points together.)
  • There is no limit to the number of pools you can be a member to.
  • You can use pooled points for any type of award (even for things other than hotel stays).
  • You can transfer a minimum of 1,000 points and a maximum of 500,000 Points into a pool in a calendar year.
  • A member can receive up to 2 million points in a calendar year.
  • To use points pooling, you must be an active member, be in the program for 30 days, and have a minimum Points balance of 1,000 Points.

Read more about pooling Hilton points here

Expiration

Hilton Honors points will expire in an account with no eligible activity in a 12-month period.

However, there are a lot of ways for you to prevent your Hilton points from expiring.

If you earn any Hilton points that will reset the clock. That means you can stay at a Hilton property, put spend on a Hilton credit card, earn points through the shopping portal, or transfer points in or out of your Hilton account.

So keep tabs on your points and make sure you keep some activity going on so you don’t lose your points.

Hilton Honors FAQ

How much is a Hilton point worth?

The value of Hilton points depends on the type of redemption you use but generally you can expect to receive around .52 cents per point if you use your points efficiently and aim for higher-tier properties.

Lower to mid-tier properties will get closer to .4 cents per point.

How many Hilton points do you need for free night?

The number of Hilton points needed for a free night can range drastically from 5,000 points to 95,000 points.

Generally if you’re looking for a decent hotel in a major city, you can expect to pay between 30,000 and 60,000 points.

What credit cards does Hilton offer?

Hilton offers four different Amex credit cards:

Hilton Honors
Hilton Surpass
Hilton Aspire
Hilton Honors Business

Does Hilton have an award chart?

Hilton does not publish an official award chart with categories any longer.

Instead, they offer a form of dynamic pricing where the award prices will fluctuate throughout the year.

The old award chart can still give you an idea of how the prices are structured.

The prices still stay within a window but those price windows are even wider now for the most part.

This is good on the one hand because some prices are much lower but it’s a bit frustrating because you never really know exactly how much the cost of the award night is going to be.

Do Hilton points expire?

Yes, Hilton Honors points will expire in an account with no eligible activity in a 12-month period.

Final word

The Hilton Honors loyalty program can be very rewarding. What I like most about it is that you can get elite status so easily with credit cards and enjoy perks like free breakfast and upgrades.

Best Hilton Free Weekend Night Certificate Uses and How to Redeem [2021]

Offers contained within this article maybe expired.

Out of all the free night certificates out there, the Hilton free weekend night certificate is by far the best. It’s valuable in terms of being uncapped with restrictions that aren’t too inconvenient compared to other capped free night certificates.

Imagine a free weekend night certificate usable for a property that costs $2,000 a night.

In this article, I will talk about the Hilton free weekend night certificate, how to obtain it, how cancellation works, and where the best places to use the free weekend night certificate are found.

Hilton free weekend night certificate

The Hilton free weekend night certificate is a complimentary night at almost any Hilton property in the world but redeemable only on weekend nights. Weekend nights are defined by Hilton as Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

The great thing about the certificate is how it isn’t capped at a point value. So, you could redeem the certificate at a property that is worth 5,000 Hilton points or 120,000 Hilton points a night.

However, there are some properties that aren’t redeemable using the certificate: all-inclusive properties, vacation clubs, Hampton Inns in China, and a few other properties. You can see the small list of properties here. (In the scope of things, the list is so small that it shouldn’t limit your search for a property.)

Some of the properties you can redeem your free weekend night certificate could cost up to $2,000. This makes the certificate super valuable in that it has no cap for its value.

It’s actually one of the few free night certificates that is super flexible in regard of the property it can be redeemed for, especially when you compare it with IHG or Marriott free night certificates.

Tip: Use the free app WalletFlo to help you travel the world for free by finding the best travel credit cards and promotions!

How to get a Hilton free weekend night certificate

There are three cards that offer the Hilton free weekend night certificate automatically each year or by hitting the spend requirement.

One of the cards automatically gives you the free weekend night certificate upon opening the account and on account anniversary every year. While the other two of the cards require you to hit a spend requirement to obtain the free weekend night certificate.

Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card

Hilton Aspire Bonus
  • Complimentary Hilton Honors Diamond status
  • One weekend night at any hotel or resort in the Hilton portfolio (upon opening the account and on account anniversary every year)
  • Weekend night after spending $60,000 on the card within a calendar year
  • $250 airline incidental fee statement credit
  • $250 Hilton resort statement credit
  • $100 on-property credit at Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts and Conrad Hotels & Resorts when booking the exclusive Aspire Card package
  • Unlimited Priority Pass membership
  • 14X Hilton Honors Bonus Points at hotels and resorts in the Hilton portfolio worldwide
  • 7X Hilton Honors Bonus Points on flights booked directly with airlines or amextravel.com, car rentals booked directly from select car rental companies and at U.S. restaurants
  • 3X Hilton Honors Bonus Points on other purchases
  • $450 Annual Fee

The Hilton Aspire credit card gives you one free weekend night every year, at the time of application signup and every anniversary year as long as you have the card open. Then, if you spend $60,000 in one calendar year, you get another free weekend night certificate. 

The card also comes with many other benefits like Hilton Diamond status. Diamond status is Hilton’s best elite status which offers upgrades up to suites, executive lounge access, free breakfast, late check-out, and 100% bonus points on paid stays.

This card is not only handing out elite status and a free weekend night certificate, but it’s also handing out an uncapped $250 resort credit, $250 airline incidental credit, and Priority Pass membership. This is why it’s one of the top hotel credit cards in my opinion.

Hilton Honors American Express Surpass

  • Complimentary Hilton Honors Gold status
  • Spend $40,000 on your Card in a calendar year and you can earn Hilton Honors Diamond status
  • Free Weekend Night Reward from Hilton Honors after you spend $15,000 in purchases on your Card in a calendar year
  • 10 Priority Pass lounge passes a calendar year
  • 12X at hotels or resorts within the Hilton Portfolio
  • 6X at U.S. restaurants, at U.S. supermarkets, and at U.S. gas stations
  • 3X on all other eligible purchases
  • $95 annual fee

If you think you aren’t going to use those airline credits, resort credits, and Hilton Diamond status that is given to you by the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card, then the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass is the second best Hilton card out there. (Full review here.) 

You have the ability to gain one free weekend night when you spend $15,000 on the card in one calendar year.  Also, the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass comes with Hilton Gold status and those benefits include free breakfast, room upgrades, free wifi, late check-out, and free bottle of water.

The card also comes with 10 Priority Pass lounge passes a year. These lounge passes can be used at any Priority Pass lounge in the world for anyone, even if you aren’t traveling. 

If you wish for a business card, Hilton does offer a business card called the Hilton Honors American Express Business Card. Most of the benefits are the same as the Surpass card, but it’s a great card if you want to watch your 5/24 status.

How to redeem a free weekend night certificate

It’s very easy to redeem your Hilton free weekend night certificate. You will first get an email from Hilton containing your certificate ID named “reward ID”.

Once you have your ID number, all you have to do is call Hilton customer service saying you want to redeem your Hilton free weekend night. The agent will then ask for the ID number. If you forgot your rewards ID number, the agent can manually check your Hilton Honors account for any linked weekend night certificates.

Then you go through the reservation process with the customer service agent. It takes no more than 10 minutes for the reservation to be booked and confirmed. Once the reservation is booked and confirmed, you will get a confirmation email and the reservation will also show in your Hilton Honors account online and in the app.

When does the free weekend night certificate expire?

The Hilton free weekend night certificate expires one year after it is issued. I should also note that the free weekend night must be redeemed for a stay before the expiration of the certificate. That means, you can only redeem for nights before the expiration date and cannot redeem for nights after the expiration date. 

Coronavirus extension: All 2021-issued Free Weekend Night Reward certificates can be used any night of the week and expiration will be extended to December 31, 2022. 

What is the cancellation policy for the free weekend night?

The Hilton free weekend night certificate cancellation policy will differ at every property. Some properties will allow free cancellations up to a couple of days before check-in and some might allow free cancellations the same day, but if you want to check the cancellation policy of the property, it’s easy.

To check the cancellation policy for a Hilton property, you can ask the Hilton customer service representative the cancellation policy for the property you want to redeem for. Or, you can check the property’s cancellation policy by doing a test booking using points. When doing the test booking, it will show the cancellation policy of the property without even booking the property.

Best Hilton hotels and resorts for using your free weekend night certificate

Below are some of the best Hilton properties to use your free weekend night certificate. As you can see, some cost a good amount of cash or points, so you can save a huge amount when using your certificate!

Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi

Location: South Male Atoll, Maldives
Average price: $1916 USD
Points cost: 120,000+
Opening: 2019
Number of rooms: 122
Hotel website

Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi aerial view

The Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi is the newest Waldorf property that opened up in July 2019. It offers beach and overwaters villas, 11 restaurants, a private island, and an in-house reef. For the younger ones, there is a discovery park that allows kids to enjoy a safe play area.

This resort makes for a great use for the Hilton free weekend night certificate with a combination of points for a long six-night stay. Five nights would be on points, 5th night would be free, while the 6th night would be the free night certificate redemption. That means, the 6th night would save you 120,000 points or about $2000.

Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi guest room

Conrad Maldives Rangali Island

Location: Southern Ari Atoll, Maldives
Average price: $711 USD
Points cost: 95,000
Opening: 1997
Number of rooms: 151
Hotel website

Conrad Maldives Rangali Island underwater restaurant Ithaa

If Waldorf isn’t your style and prefer Conrad, the Conrad Maldives Rangali Island is still a great choice. While the resort is now 23 years old, it has undergone multiple renovations and new additions to the property since its opening. 

The most famous aspect to the resort is its underwater restaurant at Ithaa. No matter if you have a beach villa or a overwater villa, both will provide a spectacular experience with less pricey dining and activity expenses than the Waldorf. 

Plus, when you use the certificate or points at the Conrad Maldives, you can actually select overwater or beach villa. That means you can have an overwater villa without paying extra.

Conrad Maldives Rangali Island aerial

Conrad Bora Bora Nui

Location: Bora Bora, French Polynesia 
Average price: $512 USD
Points cost: 95,000
Opening: 2017
Number of rooms: 114
Hotel website

Conrad Bora Bora Nui aerial

Bora Bora vs Maldives — some will prefer the Maldives while others will prefer Bora Bora. In reality, both are very different in terms of the experience you have. Bora Bora is known to have beautiful landscapes with many activities on the islands and spectacular views of the volcano and lagoons. Plus, you can easily walk around the island seeing things off the resort grounds, unlike the Maldives you are trapped at the resort unless you pay an expensive private transfer. 

The Conrad Bora Bora Nui is well worth it. The islands of French Polynesia are spectacular and Bora Bora is claimed to be the best destination in French Polynesia. The resort is only three years old with 114 rooms, making it still fresh enough for a visit and intimate enough unlike other bigger resorts. The price is normally above $500 making it a great place to redeem your free weekend night certificate. 

Conrad Bora Bora Nui overwater villa

Conrad Koh Samui

Location: Koh Samui, Thailand
Average price: $589 USD
Points cost: 95,000
Opening: 2011
Number of rooms: 81
Hotel website

Conrad Koh Samui

The beautiful Koh Samui shouldn’t be missed if you visit Thailand. Koh Samui is a perfect destination to use your free weekend night certificate as the price is high at many properties in Koh Samui. Luckily, the Conrad Koh Samui is an intimate 81 room resort in Koh Samui with breathtaking views throughout the resort. The beaches in Koh Samui are spectacular.

Plus, all the rooms here are villas. So, your certificate here can get the base room which is a villa with your own private plunge pool.

Conrad Koh Samui

Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills

Location: Los Angeles, California
Average price: $744 USD
Points cost: 95,000
Opening: 2017
Number of rooms: 170
Hotel website

Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills

The Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills is a great city hotel in upscale Beverly Hills. Offering rooftop pool, paid private cabanas, and a free neighborhood ride in their Rolls-Royce house car. Yes, you heard that right, a free ride in a Rolls-Royce to or from destinations in the neighborhood.

Inside the hotel, you will find Michelin Starred dining, which is famed for its quality and taste. The rooms are also top quality rooms that offers many luxury amenities that would you would see in the movies. All these reasons makes this a special property for redeeming your free weekend night certificate.

Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills

Tip: Use WalletFlo for all your credit card needs. It’s free and will help you optimize your rewards and savings!

Waldorf Astoria Park City

Location: Park City, Utah
Average price: $545 USD
Points cost: 80,000
Opening: 2009
Number of rooms: 160
Hotel website

Waldorf Astoria Park City

If you love to ski or snowboard during the winter or enjoy a nice camp fire in Park City during the summer, the Waldorf Astoria Park City won’t disappoint. It underwent renovations in 2019 making 2020 a good time to stay since the refresh. 

The property is on the pricey side, but using the certificate will go along way because of the amount of money you can save by redeeming for this property, even in the low season.

Waldorf Astoria Park City

Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos Pedregal

Location: Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
Average price: $760 USD
Points cost: 120,000
Opening: 2019
Number of rooms: 115
Hotel website

Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos Pedregal

Hilton has been opening up Waldorf Astoria properties left and right. One of their newest properties is the Waldorf Astoria Los Cabo Pedregal. It’s the second Hilton property that is 120,000 points per night. On top of that, the price per night is high. That means, this is a great property to use your free weekend night certificate as you can save the points for an extra night or other property of your choosing to get max value. 

As the property is so new, you will enjoy the modern rooms and enthusiastic staff that is willing to go the extra mile. Plus, being in Los Cabo, you can enjoy whale watching from your hotel or via approved tours. When I return to Los Cabos, I would love to try out this beautiful intimate 115 room property. 

Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos Pedregal

Waldorf Astoria Amsterdam

Location: Amsterdam, Netherlands
Average price: $680 USD
Points cost: 95,000
Opening: 2014
Number of rooms: 93
Hotel website

Waldorf Astoria Amsterdam

Another fan favorite is the Waldorf Astoria Amsterdam. It’s an intimate 93 room property that is located in Amsterdam’s famous Dutch buildings. It almost blends into all the other buildings with very little to distinguish it, a design quality that I love. 

Being rated the second best hotel on TripAdvisor in Amsterdam, the Waldorf Astoria Amsterdam shouldn’t be missed. If you have an opportunity to stay here, you will get great value redeeming your your free weekend night certificate.  

Waldorf Astoria Amsterdam

Conrad Tokyo

Location: Tokyo, Japan
Average price: $497 USD
Points cost: 95,000
Opening: 2005
Number of rooms: 290
Hotel website

Conrad Tokyo

The only property that has a club lounge on this list is the Conrad Tokyo. The Conrad Tokyo is loved by many because of the modern Japanese inspired rooms that are beautiful and well maintained. The club lounge offers a great selection of drinks and canapes to please anyone to get your night started off on the right foot, before heading out to clubs or late night dining at midnight diners.  

The property has spectacular views of the bay and the neighboring park. It’s super close to many metro lines making it easy to get around or even to go to the airports. If you are interested in visiting Tokyo, I highly recommend you read my guide here

Conrad Tokyo

Hilton Seychelles Northolme Resort & Spa

Location: Glacis, Seychelles
Average price: $496 USD
Points cost: 95,000
Opening: 2015
Number of rooms: 40
Hotel website

Hilton Seychelles Northolme Resort & Spa

The all-villa Hilton Seychelles Northolme Resort & Spa is a one of a kind resort located in the beautiful Seychelles. It’s an all-villa property, making it great for redeeming points and your free weekend night certificate. It’s one of the few properties that has an age requirement, you must be 13 years or older to stay. It’s also really intimate with 40 villas. Having only 40 villas makes the property feel less like a factory resort and more like a boutique resort. 

Seychelles is one of the few less touristy islands in the world that offers luxury accommodation. I would highly recommend making your way to Seychelles, it shouldn’t be missed if you love a secluded island life while not being trapped at the resort. 

Hilton Seychelles Northolme Resort & Spa

Final word

I hope you got some inspiration from this article for using your Hilton free weekend night certificate. If you end up visiting one of these properties, drop a comment down below telling us about your experience! 

Amex Hilton Aspire Card Review: Is It Worth it? [2020]

The Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card is one of the most value-loaded hotel credit cards. It comes with a great welcome bonus, strong bonus category earnings, and a lot of perks and credits that can easily allow you to make a profit off this card. This is one of the few credit cards that I plan on keeping for a very long time and in this article I’ll tell you everything you need to know about the Hilton Aspire.

Hilton Aspire Card overview

Hilton Aspire Bonus

This is one of the most loaded premium travel credit cards in terms of benefits. Here’s a look at everything the Hilton Aspire card has to offer.

  • 150,000 points after spending $4,000 in the first 3 months
  • 14X Hilton Honors Bonus Points at hotels and resorts in the Hilton portfolio worldwide
  • 7X Hilton Honors Bonus Points on flights booked directly with airlines or amextravel.com, car rentals booked directly from select car rental companies and at U.S. restaurants
  • 3X Hilton Honors Bonus Points on other purchases
  • Complimentary Hilton Honors Diamond status
  • One weekend night at any hotel or resort in the Hilton portfolio (upon opening account and on account anniversary)
  • Weekend night after spending $60,000 on the card within a calendar year
  • Unlimited Priority Pass membership
  • $250 airline incidental fee statement credit
  • $250 Hilton resort statement credit
  • $100 on property credit at Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts and Conrad Hotels & Resorts when booking the exclusive Aspire Card package
  • $450 Annual Fee 

Related: Which American Express Hilton Card is Best for You?

Hilton Aspire card review
Hilton Americas-Houston Lobby Bar

Hilton Aspire card welcome bonus

We’ve seen different offers for this card so you’ll want to apply for one of the strongest offers if you can time it right.

The initial offer for the Aspire was for 100,000 points after spending $4,000 in the first 3 months but that offer soon increased to 150,000 points after spending $4,000 in the first 3 months.

150,000 points will set you up to cover a couple of nights at a premium Hilton brands like the Waldorf or Conrad.

The beauty is that this card also comes with a free weekend night, so you could always combine the points with your certificate to cover about two or three nights at a great hotel. Of course, you could also stretch these points at a lower tier hotel for several nights.

Related: Hilton Honors Surpass Review

Tip: Use WalletFlo for all your credit card needs. It’s free and will help you optimize your rewards and savings!

Hilton Aspire eligibility rules

Amex states:

Welcome offer not available to applicants who have or have had this Card.

This means you can only get the bonus for this card once per lifetime. Also, the standard Amex application rules of 1/5, 2/90 apply to the the Aspire.

By the way, I know credit card application rules can be complex and difficult to track, so I’d check out my new project WalletFlo if you’re looking for ways to manage your credit cards and applications.

Credit card strategy

If you are under 5/24 (meaning you have NOT opened up five new accounts in the past 24 months), you don’t want to burn a slot for the Hilton Aspire card.

Instead, you should first stick with Chase and consider cards like the Chase Sapphire Preferred, World of Hyatt Card, etc. and then move on to a different issuer. Trust me on this.

Hilton Aspire Bonus categories

  • 14X Hilton Honors Bonus Points at hotels and resorts in the Hilton portfolio worldwide
  • 7X Hilton Honors Bonus Points on flights booked directly with airlines or amextravel.com, car rentals booked directly from select car rental companies and at U.S. restaurants
  • 3X Hilton Honors Bonus Points on other purchases

At .5 cents per point, this card earns 7% back on Hilton purchases.

But since it also gives you Diamond status, you’ll earn an additional 20 points per Hilton purchase for 10% back. So that’s a total of 17% back without factoring in any promo offer (which Hilton virtually always offers).

If you regularly stay at Hilton properties, that 17% back will add up very quickly so this card should be very appealing to you.

What’s crazy is that if you spend $2,647 a year at Hilton properties, the bonus earning rate of 17% would cover the annual fee alone! So you’d then be able to cash out with over $500 gained in travel credits.

Hilton Aspire card

Hilton Diamond Status

  • Automatic Hilton Honors Diamond status

Hilton Honors Diamond status comes with a number of solid benefits like complimentary breakfasts, late check out, lounge access, and better upgrades to suites. You can read more about Hilton Diamond benefits here. I’ve been pretty pleased with our success at upgrades with Diamond status, so I think this is an excellent perk.

It does seem that Diamond status might suffer a bit of a dilution problem now that so many people can obtain the status directly, though it wasn’t very hard to earn Diamond in the past via status challenges. I think now it will make more sense to forgo the cost of a status challenge and just use those funds to cover the annual fee for the Hilton Aspire card.

Related: Check out the ultimate guide to Hilton Honors

Hilton Aspire card
Hilton Executive Rooftop Lounge at the Hilton Americas-Houston.

Hilton Aspire card free night

  • You will receive one Annual Weekend Night Reward from Hilton Honors — one after opening up an account and one after your first year anniversary.

You will receive the free night certificate within 8-14 weeks after opening your account and each year within 8-14 weeks after your anniversary date.

Hilton free nights are limited to weekend nights (Fri, Sat, and Sun), so that’s kind of a bummer but you can use these certificates at any Hilton property around the globe. I think that’s fantastic value because there are some Conrads that go for over $1,000 a night. So you’re talking about a lot of potential value here.

If you’re a couple, you may want to seriously consider each getting this card so that each year you’ll have two free nights for an amazing weekend get-a-way. This is why I include this card in my best credit cards for couples list.

Hilton Aspire Card
Hilton Cabana Miami Beach.

Hilton Aspire travel credits

The Hilton Aspire card offers up to $600 a year in credits which include a $250 airline credit, $250 Hilton Resort credit, and $100 credit at the Conrad or Waldforf (subject to booking restrictions).

$250 airline credit

This airline credit is for qualifying incidental airline purchases so it works for the same the types of purchases that work for the Platinum Card and Gold Card. You can read more about Amex travel credits here so see what type of purchases qualify for the Aspire travel credit.

$250 Hilton Resort Credit

During each year you are eligible to receive up to $250 total in statement credits for eligible purchases made directly with participating Hilton Resorts. (Each subsequent reward year begins on the anniversary of your account opening date.)

Incidental charges (including charges made at restaurants, spas, and other establishments within the hotel property) must be charged to your room and paid for with your Aspire Card in order for them to trigger the credit. You can visit hilton.com/resorts for the list of participating Hilton Resorts.

$100 property credit

When you use your Aspire Card to book through HiltonHonors.com/aspirecard or by calling Hilton Honors at (855) 292-5757, for a two-night minimum stay at Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts, and Conrad Hotels & Resorts, you will be eligible to receive a property credit of up to $100 per booking.

I highly recommend that you read up on my article breaking down these credits because there are some less obvious restrictions you may have to deal with.

Hilton Aspire credit card
Hilton Chicago Magnificent Mile Suites.

Weekend night after spending $60K

This is the one benefit of the Hilton Honors Aspire card that I’m not crazy about. $60,000 for a free night? That’s a lot of spend. If you get the Hilton Surpass you’ll be able to receive a free night after just $15,000 worth of spend, which I find much more reasonable and obtainable. So it could make sense to get the Hilton Surpass and to use that for non-Hilton purchases up to $15,000 per year — plus you’ll get Hilton Gold status. 

Related: read about special Hilton MVP discounts

Priority Pass

This card comes with Priority Pass Select (allowing for up to two free guests) which at this point isn’t quite as exciting since so many credit cards offer this perk. Also, because your membership will be through Amex, you won’t get access to the Priority Pass restaurant credits.

Still, this is a significant perk considering the value of it is at least $400.

If you’re able to take advantage of some of the travel credit offered by the Hilton Aspire card, you’ll be able to come out on top big time even with paying the hefty $450 annual fee.

Final word

The Hilton Aspire card has the potential to be one of the most valuable travel rewards credit cards. If you frequent Hilton hotels this is a no-brainer but even if you don’t, getting 100K points, Diamond Status, the free nights, $600 in credits, and Priority Pass make the Hilton Aspire card an extremely attractive offer.