Hilton HHonors - 500 & 1500 HH Point Awards Now Offered by My Coke Rewards

In case if you missed it, in the past week or so My Coke Rewards started offering two redemption options for HHonors points:

500 HH for 225 MCR points
1500 HH for 800 MCR

If you are into MCR (if you aren't familiar with MCR and you have a couple days to kill there's a huge FT thread dedicated to it here (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/s-p-m/668470-my-coke-reward-points-master-thread.html)) you'd probably agree that these are pretty crappy redemption rates, however maybe if you need some point activity to keep an HH account active or if you need a few points to top off your account to reach an award this might be an option.

Oh!

I didn't know that! :) Thanks!

Spock Seat @:-)

Strange that it doesn't list a restriction on the number of redemptions per member, like it usually does with PC points. Why would I pay 800 MCR points to get 1500HH, when I can get 500 HH rewards for 675 MCR?

I don't think it's a good redemption rate for MCR. I get more value out of using 40 points for the 20-oz coke product coupons. Those are great to have with you when you are travelling to use at places like Walgreens when I want a dansi or coke zero.

THe also had $25 Hilton gift cards for 1,750 poitns which I thought was an AWFUL value for MCRs.

The way I rationalized it was like this -

I picked a random Cat 3 hotel, which normally costs 25 k HH pts per night or ~125 dollars if I went the cash route.

It would cost me 11250 coke points to get 25000 HHonors. ((25000/500)*225).

On the other hand, it would cost me 8750 coke points to get $125 in AMEX gift cards. ((125/25)*1750).

While the redemption value isn't great on the gift card, for me it still seems better than buying the points outright. I am essentially getting the same end result (a free night) for 2500 less coke points.

The values obviously change if you are staying at a higher category hotel or if the rates are extremely high.

In the end, I guess it depends on what the best available rate is at the Hilton property. Which is the best value, points or cash?

Then again, that's the proverbial question on these boards.

The way I rationalized it was like this -

I picked a random Cat 3 hotel, which normally costs 25 k HH pts per night or ~125 dollars if I went the cash route.

It would cost me 11250 coke points to get 25000 HHonors. ((25000/500)*225).

On the other hand, it would cost me 8750 coke points to get $125 in AMEX gift cards. ((125/25)*1750).

While the redemption value isn't great on the gift card, for me it still seems better than buying the points outright. I am essentially getting the same end result (a free night) for 2500 less coke points.

The values obviously change if you are staying at a higher category hotel or if the rates are extremely high.

In the end, I guess it depends on what the best available rate is at the Hilton property. Which is the best value, points or cash?

Then again, that's the proverbial question on these boards.

In your case it would be a smart move to go for the gift cards if you are going to use 25,000 points on a $125 night hotel room.

For 1750 coke points, I could over 200 20-oz sparkling certificates. While I would never drink that much, a bottle of coke zero costs around $1.75 at Walgreen and a bottle of bottled water cost around $1.25. Those coupons are nice to have when travelling and I also keep a couple in my car. They are great if I realize when I am half way to my gym that I forgot a bottle of water and can just go to the Rite aid by my gym and grab one or if I am making a long drive and stop for gas and decide I want something to drink.

For people that collect MCR's there is a very good thread about it in the milebuzz section

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/s-p-m/668470-my-coke-reward-points-master-thread.html

I have received several good tips there on maximizing points

Hilton used to be the initial redemption partner of MyCokeRewards until Priority Club supplanted them.

Hilton came on board around 2006 as this post indicates.

However, you are not going to like how much the cost in Coke Rewards points has skyrocketed in order to redeem the 500 HHonors points. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/5404376-post3.html

Hilton used to be the initial redemption partner of MyCokeRewards until Priority Club supplanted them.

Hilton came on board around 2006 as this post indicates.

However, you are not going to like how much the cost in Coke Rewards points has skyrocketed in order to redeem the 500 HHonors points. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/5404376-post3.html

Wow and I thought it was bad they increased the point for a 20-oz sparkling from 30 to 40 points.

I wish they still had 500 points for 30 MCR. That was a great redemption rate, especially seeing you are getting 22 mcr's each day if you have 2-coke zero caps this week.

My rationale is that over the years the items offered by MCR redemptions are so undesireable that at least if I redeem for HH points I actually have an almost valid reason to keep participating in MCR. What do I need with one more cheesy t-shirt or cap? Even though the redemption ratio for the HH points isn't the best deal in the world, I still went for it since letting my points just sit in my MCR account certainly gives me zero return.

A few years ago I redeemed a bunch of MCR points for the 20oz certs hoping to use them at the AP in the sterile area. I could not find a single vendor that would take them.

My local convenience store would not take them.

They had very short dates for redemption that I did not even notice. Went to use one less than a month after getting them and it had expired.

Then the redemption went from 30/cert to 40/cert. That's a pretty steep devaluation. We won't even talk about the 12 pack devaluation.

I enter the sweepstakes. Won an instant win! Got a video game worth $60 and a year of Sports Illustrated.

I did buy a set of the mixing bowls (1950 points!) for my son that is a cook. He said that they are a $200 set of very high quality bowls.

A few years ago I redeemed a bunch of MCR points for the 20oz certs hoping to use them at the AP in the sterile area. I could not find a single vendor that would take them.

My local convenience store would not take them.

They had very short dates for redemption that I did not even notice. Went to use one less than a month after getting them and it had expired.

Then the redemption went from 30/cert to 40/cert. That's a pretty steep devaluation. We won't even talk about the 12 pack devaluation.

I enter the sweepstakes. Won an instant win! Got a video game worth $60 and a year of Sports Illustrated.

I did buy a set of the mixing bowls (1950 points!) for my son that is a cook. He said that they are a $200 set of very high quality bowls.

Seems like most airport vendors won't take coupons period. I was taking a red eye home earlier this year from LAS and the quiznos wouldn't even allow me to use a quiznos gift card there:(

The convenience store by my office won't accept the coupons, but I found out she doesn't get her products directly from the coke distributor so she can't reimbursed. Fortunately places like 7-11, Walgreens and CVS will accept them which is great for when I travel.

I'm finding the best value right now is the 20 points for a free chicken mcbites coupon(they cost $2.99 at McDonalds). I also recomend anyone that enters coke rewards to check out the master thread on FT. There are a couple 10 point codes you can enter every day.