Most people don’t realize that Travel Hacking even exists. Deals like this are well known within the community, but outside of the community people either no nothing about it, or are skeptical that it works. These types of things, when analyzed and thought out, can save you hundreds of dollars and make it easier to realize your travel dreams!
From now until February 26, 2019 you can get a 100% bonus on the purchase of Hilton Honors points. Hilton normally sells their points for .01 a piece, and there is a yearly limit of 80,000 points before any bonus. With this sale you can buy 80,000 points and get a bonus of 80,000 points for a total of $800, which works out to .005, or a half a cent each.
This deal appears to be targeted, but most people seem to have been targeted. You can log into your account and check here >
Good deal or not?
As always in this game, that depends on your situation.
Let me give you a real world example for a hotel stay I had last week. I was in Costa Rica for 2 weeks, but didn’t have a place booked for the last 5 nights, and I needed to stay near the airport, so I took a look at the prices for the hotels around there and settled on the Doubletree by Hilton Cariari San José – Costa Rica, for those 5 nights.
The lowest cash rate was $173 per night plus tax. The grand total was $980.05 total for the 5 nights.
The points rate > 30,000 Hilton Honors points per night! So, for the 5 night stay that would be a total of 150,000 points. When you pay with points, in this case, you pay only the points, so there is no other cost to you for the room.
So, let’s see if it makes more sense to buy these points or to pay the cash rate. As we mentioned earlier, you can buy 160,000 points through this deal for $800. 5 nights would be either $980.05 or 150,000 points.
Since you can buy the points needed for the 5 nights for $750, you could have kept $230 in your pocket!
It gets even better though, if you have any sort of status with Hilton.
Silver, Gold and Diamond members have a benefit that in this case would save you a further $150. Those members that book a reward stay can get the 5th night free, so in this case, that brings the total number of points needed for the 5 nights down to 120,000. Buying those 120,000 points would cost $600 vs. the cash cost of $980.05!
I ended up using points because it was by far the best deal around, but just to show you that this deal works in the future, here are 5 nights next week at the same hotel >
To be totally fair, buying points will not always represent a deal. There also is an opportunity cost associated with using points for a stay. You don’t accumulate points for your stay when paying with points, but a cash savings of over 40%, as in this case, is hard to turn down.
So keep this in mind next time you see one of these sales. If you have an upcoming stay you are planning, it is worth your time to do a little math to see if buying points could save you some serious money!
Hilton Honors points purchases are processed by Points.com, so if you do buy points, make sure to maximize your return by going through a shopping portal. Currently Topcashback is offering 2.5% back on Hilton points purchases.