I last stayed at the Hilton almost 5 years ago in Sydney. We had flown from London at the beginning of the Easter holidays and needed a stopover before we picked up the car and drove to Canberra. I don’t remember much about the hotel but I do recall having an excellent night sleep.

Despite not being a Hilton regular, I signed up for their status match program last year and was successful in getting a Diamond card until March 2017.

This gives me a number of benefits, listed below, when staying, although the final three are probably the most useful:

• 50% elite stay bonus
• 48 hour room guarantee
• 5^th night free
• Late check-out
• Complimentary access to fitness centres and health clubs
• Two complimentary bottles of water per
• Space-available upgrade to a preferred room
• A complimentary continental breakfast
• Executive Floor Lounge Access

 

Because I don’t tend to use them, they’re not on my radar when booking hotels. As I don’t have a large points balance, it is difficult to justify using them when I could be adding to my balance with IHG who are my go-to hotel chain. My thinking is also skewed as I have platinum status with them and previously nothing with Hilton so would tend to get upgrades or benefits when staying with IHG.

I thought that it will be worthwhile looking at some possible redemptions to see where I could go to see if it is worth building up some more points with them.

This is especially timely as there is a bonus offer at the moment where you can get an 80% bonus in the number of points you buy. This is not the most generous promotion, as there was 100% bonus last year, but it is still pretty decent. Buying the maximum of 80,000 points will set you back $800, and this will attract a bonus of 64,000 points. In total, this means you are paying £566 for 144,000 points.

There are a number of other places where I could accrue some more points. American Express Membership Rewards points transfer on a 1 to 2 ratio which would give me a further 50,000 Hilton points for the 25k MR points in my account.

I can also convert Tesco Clubcard points by first sending them to Virgin Flying Club at 625 miles per £2.50, and then on to Hilton at 3 points for every 2 miles. My current stash of Clubcard points would get me about 45,000 Hilton Points. In total, I could have about 245,000 Hilton points for an outlay of £566 – but these are only worth anything if there is somewhere I want to spend them!

One example could be the Conrad Bali where the basic rooms start at $211. 5 nights including taxes for next February would be $1360 at the cheapest rate which is the one I would probably go for with cash. My points could get me 4 nights in the next category up, and the 5^th night free thanks to the Diamond status. This should also get an upgrade to the next category of room, worth over $1700 and shown below.

Diamond status would also get a late check out and lounge access, which might mean a few free cocktails in the evening but, as breakfast is included in the rate anyway, it is not going to be a deal breaker. Saying that, I could translate my $800 spent buying points into more than double the value for the stay, which is good in anyone’s books!

5 nights in a Beach Villa in the Conrad Maldives would set me back £5661, or 380,000 points. The Conrad in Koh Samui would be the same number of points but only £2600.

There is certainly some excellent possibilities for some redemptions, but I would need to have a better idea of where I was going to go before I bought points.

Have you redeemed points at Hilton? What was your best redemption?