12 ways to earn more Hilton Honors points
It has become easier to earn Hilton Honors points over the years. The hotel chain partners with American Express to offer cobranded Hilton credit cards and periodically runs lucrative hotel promotions.
Even though Hilton Honors points aren't as valuable as other hotel points, you can still get substantial value if you know how to maximize your Hilton redemptions.
With so many ways to earn these points, though, it can be hard to remember all your options. We'll highlight some of the best ways to earn Hilton Honors points as you work toward planning your next award trip.
Earn Hilton points through hotel stays
Hilton Honors is a hotel loyalty program. So, as you'd expect, you can earn Hilton Honors points when you stay at Hilton properties worldwide. Your earning rate depends on several factors, including:
- The brand of the property.
- The price of your stay.
- Your Hilton Honors elite status.
- Any promotions you've registered for.
At most Hilton properties, you'll earn 10 points per dollar spent on room rates and other eligible charges (excluding taxes and fees). However, you'll only earn 5 points per dollar spent at Home2 Suites by Hilton and Tru by Hilton.
Additionally, Hilton Honors elite members earn an additional points bonus on each stay. The higher your status tier, the more points you'll earn:
- Silver: 20% bonus.
- Gold: 80% bonus.
- Diamond: 100% bonus.
Hilton Honors MyWay benefits
Gold and Diamond members can also earn additional bonuses at certain brands with the program's MyWay benefits. The MyWay benefit varies by brand, and mid- and upper-level elite members must choose between earning extra points and other welcome amenities when staying with some brands.
The potential bonus earnings are minor at some brands. For example, as a Diamond member, you can choose 100 bonus points per stay or one bottle of water and one snack item when staying at Home2 Suites.
However, the earnings are more significant at other brands. For example, a Diamond member would earn 1,000 bonus points per stay at brands like DoubleTree, Curio Collection and Conrad Hotels. At these brands, the bonus points are on top of other MyWay perks like room upgrades and daily food and beverage credits at U.S. hotels or continental breakfast at non-U.S. hotels.
If you are a Gold or Diamond member, you can see (and select) your MyWay benefits on Hilton's website.
Related: Which hotel has the best free breakfast? TPG ate 10 meals to find the winner
Earn bonus points through Hilton promotions
Like most hotel programs, Hilton frequently runs promotions that award bonus points to its Hilton Honors members. These offers make it even easier to earn Honors points on paid stays.
For example, Hilton members could earn double points on all stays and 1,000 points for each different brand they stay at through the Double Up & Explore promotion offered when we published this story.
Keep an eye on Hilton's promotions page for an up-to-date list of promotions. You can also visit your promotion page on Hilton's website to see any targeted offers, verify your registration and track your progress. We recommend enrolling in all of them — after all, you never know when you may need a last-minute stay at a Hilton property.
Related: These promotions will make your next hotel stay more rewarding
Earn Hilton points with credit cards
American Express currently offers several cobranded Hilton Honors credit cards: three personal cards and one business card. These cards can be an excellent way to earn Hilton Honors points on travel and everyday purchases.
New cardmembers may be eligible to earn a welcome bonus. Here's a closer look at the current offers:
- Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card: 170,000 bonus points after spending $3,000 in the first six months of card membership. ($150 annual fee; see rates and fees).
- Hilton Honors American Express Card:Earn 100,000 bonus points after spending $2,000 in the first six months of card membership. (no annual fee; see rates and fees).
- The Hilton Honors American Express Business Card: Earn 130,000 Hilton Honors bonus points after you spend $3,000 in purchases on the Hilton Honors Business card within the first three months of card membership. ($95 annual fee; see rates and fees).
- Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card: Earn 100,000 bonus points after spending $2,000 in the first six months of card membership. ($550 annual fee; see rates and fees).
The information for the Hilton Aspire card has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
Related: Choosing the best Hilton Honors credit card for you
Transfer points from American Express Membership Rewards
You can transfer American Express Membership Rewards points to Hilton Honors at a 1:2 ratio. In other words, you can turn 1,000 Membership Rewards points into 2,000 Hilton Honors points. But we don't necessarily recommend transferring your hard-earned Membership Rewards points to Hilton Honors unless you have a particular high-value redemption in mind.
Our reasoning is simple: TPG currently values Membership Rewards points at 2 cents, while Hilton Honors points are worth just 0.6 cents each. This means that you're effectively losing 0.8 cents per point in value, not to mention missing out on some terrific sweet spots with the Membership Rewards program.
Similar to buying points, you might want to take advantage of a Membership Rewards transfer bonus if you plan on booking an expensive hotel with Hilton Honors points.
That's why TPG contributor Sarah Hosteler transferred 225,000 American Express Membership Rewards points to Hilton Honors to top off her account to book the Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi. By doing so, Sarah booked a $2,200 overwater bungalow on points, getting 3.8 cents per Amex point. That's 90% higher than TPG's valuation of 2 cents each.
Related: Redeeming American Express Membership Rewards for maximum value
Pool Hilton points
Hilton Honors allows you to freely share points with up to 10 people. This is useful if you combine points for a family vacation and want the balance in one place. Your spouse might have enough points for a two-night award stay, while you may only have enough for a night. Combining balances to book stays under a single reservation is very useful.
Hilton Honors Dining
With Hilton Honors Dining, you can earn extra points at participating restaurants.
Sign up for a Hilton Honors Dining account and link your favorite credit cards for restaurant purchases to earn points. Then, when you swipe one of those cards at a participating restaurant, you'll automatically earn extra Hilton Honors points. These points are in addition to regular points or miles you'd earn with your credit card, so make sure you link a card that earns bonuses on dining purchases for the highest points earned on eating out.
After signing up for Hilton Honors Dining, opt in for email notifications. Doing so will give you "select member" status and let you earn 5 Hilton points per dollar spent at participating restaurants. If you opt out of receiving emails, your earning rate will drop to just 2 points per dollar spent. While your privacy is important, giving your email address is a small price for earning an extra 3 points per dollar spent — especially if you dine out a lot.
Finally, if you dine with Hilton Honors Dining 11 times a year, you'll be upgraded to the service's VIP status tier. This boosts your earning rate to 8 points per dollar spent at participating restaurants. You can keep VIP status indefinitely by dining with the program 11 or more times yearly.
Related: The most generous airline and hotel dining rewards programs
Earn Hilton points through travel partners
Like most loyalty programs, Hilton Honors has a suite of partners that you can use to earn even more points. You can use these partners to boost your Hilton account balance on everyday activities. Here's a look at some additional ways to earn Hilton points.
Earn Hilton points with Hilton Events
Planning a wedding, corporate function or other event at a Hilton hotel? Add your Hilton Honors number to your event, and you'll earn 1 Hilton point per dollar spent on events up to $100,000. This may not sound like much, but it can give you huge returns if you're planning an expensive multiday corporate event.
Earn bonus points with Lyft
You can earn bonus Hilton points whenever you hail a Lyft at the following rates:
- 3 points per dollar on Lyft rides.
- 2 points per dollar on shared Lyft rides.
These earnings are capped at $10,000 in total Lyft spending every year, and they're in addition to the points you'd earn with a credit card like the Chase Sapphire Reserve or Chase Sapphire Preferred Card (which offer extra points on Lyft purchases through March 2025).
Unfortunately, you can no longer stack this with Lyft's Delta partnership. You might be better off selecting Delta SkyMiles as your Lyft earning partner if you take Lyft rides to U.S. airports since these rides earn 2 SkyMiles per dollar.
Alaska Airlines has a similar Lyft partnership that earns 1 mile per dollar on all rides in the U.S. and Canada. Run the numbers and see which works best for your travel strategy.
You can link your Hilton and Lyft accounts here.
Book a rental car
You can also earn Hilton Honors points when renting a car through Alamo, Enterprise or National. When you book your rental through the Hilton portal, you'll receive 500 Hilton Honors per day, up to 5,000 points — not bad if you're already renting a car.
You may not earn car rental rewards when booking through the Hilton Honors portal. Further, you can't use corporate codes when renting cars through Hilton. So shop around to ensure you find the best deal.
Transfer Virgin Atlantic points to Hilton
By contacting Flying Club, you can transfer Virgin Atlantic points to Hilton Honors at a 2:3 ratio. You can only transfer in increments of 10,000 Virgin Atlantic points.
This means you can convert 10,000 Virgin Atlantic points into 15,000 Hilton points.
While this may seem like an attractive ratio on paper, we advise against this transfer because you'll usually lose value. TPG's valuations peg the value of Virgin points at 1.5 cents per point, meaning you'd lose 0.6 cents per point in value when transferring your points to Hilton.
Related: How I'm spending 4 million Hilton Honors points
Buy Hilton points
Another way to boost your Hilton Honors balance is by purchasing points. Generally speaking, buying points or miles is a poor value proposition, as you usually need to pay an excessive amount. However, it could make sense with certain programs and circumstances.
For example, Hilton recently ran a 100% points purchase promotion that lowered the price to 0.5 cents apiece, slightly below TPG's valuations. At this rate, it may make sense to purchase the points outright for a specific redemption, especially if the cash rate is sky-high.
Related: 8 ways to maximize Hilton Honors redemptions
Bottom line
Hilton Honors points are some of the easiest hotel points to earn. Not only can you rack up a nice stash of points from hotel stays and promotions, but the extensive suite of cobranded credit cards provides valuable earning opportunities.
Use a combination of the methods above to rack up points for your next hotel stay at any of over 7,000 worldwide properties across all Hilton brands.
Additional reporting by Edward Pizzarello and Kyle Olsen.
For rates and fees of the Hilton Surpass Card, click here.
For rates and fees of the Hilton Aspire Card, click here.
For rates and fees of the Hilton Amex Card, click here.
For rates and fees of the Hilton Business Card, click here.