Just a reminder that if you have any upcoming Hilton stays you are planning, to check and see if buying Hilton Honors points can save you some money. There is a current promotion ending at 12 Midnight ET on January 26th that effectively allows you to buy points for 1/2 cent each.

Sign into your Hilton Honors account at this link to see the bonus.

Loyalty programs love to devalue their points, so it is never a good idea to buy points just to stockpile them, but there are definitely times when it can make sense.

Let’s take a look at one example. I picked a random weekend at Hilton Bentley – Miami/ South Beach which is generally a relatively expensive property. The weekend of March 1-3 has a lowest cash rate of $536, which is the Honors Discount rate for 1 King Standard City View room. This hotel also charges a “Resort Fee” of $29 per night, so the total for room, resort fee and taxes for those 2 nights would be $1289.91.

As you can see in the screenshot of the rates, the number of points required for that room type on those nights is 80,000 per night. Each Hilton Honors member can buy a maximum of 80,000 points per year before any bonuses, so during this sale you could buy 80,000 points for $800 and receive a bonus of 100% giving you a total of 160,000 Hilton points.

You aren’t required to pay the room taxes or the resort fee when paying with all points, so in this case buying points would save you $489.91 for those two nights. That is a substantial discount!

To illustrate that this is only a deal in certain circumstances, I did a quick search on the same weekend, but this time in Dallas, Texas. The Statler Dallas has a lowest cash rate of $253 plus tax.

The total cash price for those two nights would be $583.39, while using points would cost you 60,000 per night and 120,000 total. In this case buying and using points makes no sense, as you forgo your points earning for the stay, and the cost for the two nights would be 120,000 points or $600. $16.61 more than the paying cash for the room!

It wouldn’t be hard to find a more extreme example of a good deal or a more extreme example of a bad deal than what I showed here. The key is to check your particular circumstance to see what makes the most sense.

Final Thoughts:

You have 2 more days to decide if this bonus on buying Hilton Honors points is worthwhile for your situation. If you don’t have an immediate need for the points, it’s fairly likely another similar sale will come around again soon. Hilton also a 5th night free benefit for elite members when paying with points, which could further increase your savings.