Hilton Free Night Rewards
Hilton Honors, the loyalty program of Hilton Hotels & Resorts, offer many benefits for its members. One of the main perks is being able to stay at more than 6,000 hotel worldwide for free. You normally have two ways of achieving this goal; by accumulating Hilton Honors points, or by earning Free Night Rewards.
The Hilton Free Night Reward is a great benefit that you can earn through credit card cards or through different promotions. Considering the price of a hotel stay is usually a few hundred dollars at least, and possibly as much much as $2,000, a Free Night Reward can easily offset the annual fee of your Hilton credit card.
Here we’ll take a look at how these Free Night Rewards/Certificates work, and the best options to extract maximum value.
How To Earn Hilton Free Night Rewards
You can earn Hilton Free Night Rewards on three American Express Hilton Honors co-branded credit cards. This comes as an annual benefit just for holding a card, or by spending a certain amount in a calendar year. We also see Free Night Rewards as a welcome bonus or a limited time promotion.
Check out the three Hilton Honors credit cards that can earn you Free Night Rewards.
Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card
- Earn a Free Night Reward when you open your account and every year after renewal. Cardholders also can earn an additional Free Night Reward by spending $60,000 in eligible purchases within a calendar year.
- Automatic Hilton Diamond Elite Status
- Annual Fee: $550
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Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card
- Earn a Free Night Reward after spending $15,000 within the first year and each calendar year thereafter.
- Automatic Hilton Gold Elite Status
- Annual Fee: $150
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The Hilton Honors American Express Business Card
- Earn a Free Night Reward after spending $15,000 within the first year and each calendar year thereafter. Cardholders also can earn an additional Free Night Reward by spending $60,000 in eligible purchases within a calendar year.
- Automatic Hilton Gold Elite Status
- Annual Fee: $95
- LEARN MORE
Redeeming Hilton Free Night Rewards
Your Hilton Free Night Reward can be redeemed for one standard accommodation, double occupancy, subject to availability at properties in the Hilton portfolio. But there are a few exclusions that you can find here. These are normally vacation clubs, all-inclusive properties and select few other hotels.
Until 2022, these Hilton free night certificates could only be used on weekends. However they are now valid any night of the week, making it much easier to redeem them.
After meeting the specific requirements to earn a Hilton Free Night Reward, you will receive an email in 8–14 weeks that will inform you that it has been deposited in your account. You also can see your available free night rewards and expiration dates on the Hilton Honors website and in the mobile app. These certificates are valid for 12 months from the date of issuance. Hilton Free Night Rewards cover the room rate, as well as taxes and fees for most bookings.
When it comes to booking a stay using a Free Night Reward, you need to call Hilton at 1-800-446-6677, or you can log into your account and book with a representative through the online chat. There’s no option to book a stay yourself using one of these certificates.
Finding Eligible Award Stays
Before calling Hilton, or opening the Hilton chat to use your Free Night Reward, you need to find an eligible stay.
In order to use your certificate, the property where you plan to stay must have standard award inventory available for your date(s). To check on availability, go to hilton.com, enter your search criteria, check the box to “Use Points”, and look “Standard Room Reward” in the results.
Here’s an example for stays later this month at Conrad New York Downtown:
Hilton makes it easy to identify eligible rooms. In this case, only the first room would be bookable with a certificate since it is a “Standard Room Reward”. The other rooms are “Premium Room Reward”.
Each hotel sets its own rules for what qualifies as a standard room, and they don’t always make sense.
Free Night Rewards Tips
- You can use multiple Free Night Rewards in the same reservation. So you can book a two-night or three-night stay with two or three certificates.
- You can combine points and certificates in the same reservation.
- While it’s officially not possible, you can actually use certificates with Hilton’s fifth-night-free benefit.
- You might be able to extend these certificates past the expiration date, but even if it works, it might just be a few extra days, or a week or two at most.
- You can enjoy your elite status benefits on stays booked with Hilton certificates.
Maximizing Hilton Free Night Rewards
Now that you know how to earn these certificates, and how to go about booking a stay, it’s time to look at where to use them. In the example above for a stay at Conrad New York Downtown, you are getting a value of $391, since that would be the price of the stay booked in cash. However, you can book some of the best Hilton properties out there, if you find availability. And that could make a Hilton certificate worth even $2,000 or more.
The Hilton Honors program no longer publishes an award chart. But until a few years ago, top-tier properties would coset up to 95,000 points for standard awards. The award coset has gone up, but you can still use your certificate for a stay, even if that “Standard Room Reward” is priced 150,000 points per night.
Chasing maximum value is probably the best idea for everyone. I would suggest to just use the certificates where they make the most sense for you, even if you’re getting a value of $500 instead of a $1,000. But if you’re going for gold, then check out some of properties where you can extract the most value out of your Hilton Free Night Reward.
Best Properties to Use Free Night Rewards
Before we get to the list, it’s worth mentioning that the higher priced a property is, the harder it gets to find a “Standard Room Reward”. In some cases they are almost non-existent.
Here’s a list of 10 top-tier Hilton properties:
- Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi
- Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos Pedregal (Mexico)
- Grand Wailea, A Waldorf Astoria Resort (Hawaii)
- Conrad Maldives Rangali Island
- Mango House Seychelles, LXR Hotels & Resorts
- Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills
- Hilton Seychelles Labriz Resort & Spa
- Conrad Bora Bora Nui (French Polynesia)
- Conrad London St. James
- Conrad New York Midtown
Guru’s Wrap-up
Hilton Free Night Rewards are easy to earn through American Express credit cards. You can earn them as a signup bonus, or just for holding a card.
They provide great value and can be used almost anywhere. They are even easier to use now that they apply to stays on any day of the week. I wish they could be used online to book, but that’s not possible yet. You still have to call or chat with a Hilton representative.
If maximized at some of the top Hilton properties, you can easily get a value of close to $1,000 or even $2,00 in some rare cases. With that said, I would probably put a value of about $400-$500 on these certificates.
Leave a comment and let me know about some of the best properties you have booked with a Hilton certificate, or just your thoughts in general.
DDG
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