Hilton HHonors - Intangibles aside, how much do you value an HHonors point at these days?

I'm trying to make a decision whether to continue directing most of my credit card spend to my HHonors AMEX, or to another card. But I'm having a hard time determining how to value HHonors points in dollars and cents.

Since reward categories are assigned based on demand and popularity for each hotel, there doesn't seem to be any solid correlation to the number of points required for the property versus the average rate you would pay to stay at that property if you paid cash.

So intangibles aside (status, lounge access, stay credit), how do you value what an HHonors point is worth these days?

Generally, I value Hilton HHonor points at 0.4¢. I value most Airline points at 1¢.

Somewhere between .005 and .007 depending on how you use them. Sure you can find higher dollar uses for them, but this is a general calculation.

I value HH points at almost 1 cent each. This is simply because I concentrate my redemptions on high end properties using longer stays with GLON6 type of awards ^

Last week I cashed in 50k points saving about $200 in room costs or 0.004 $/point . This is typical as HH has had nil pointsavers promos in the past few years.

MisterNice

I expect at least 1 cent for every point. Using them with programs like glonp's makes that fairly easy. But,I only use them for my europe vacations. 175,000 points can easily bring back more than $1,750 in savings.

I am relatively new to HH, but I value mine at .8 cents each. I believe they can be worth a penny+ if used for AXON/GLON/ALON awards.

Knowing that I can create HH's out of my AA's also helps increase the value of the HH's that I do have.

I value my Hilton points at about $.007. GLON awards would give it a higher value, but Hilton points are horrible for short stays (1-2 nights). My gold status is from the 20K/annual spend, and I keep Hilton as a backup to Marriott and Hyatt.

I would never trade AA miles for HH points. I can get a better deal on long haul travel in C and F with the AA miles.

wow, Hilton points don't seem to be worth much. But then again you earn them twice as fast, right. I value my SPG points at a minimum of $0.02. I was going to move 100k AA miles over to get a decent balance in my recently reactivated Honors account which currently has a 0 balance.

Depends whether you'll redeem internationally for long periods of time.

GLON awards mean you'll probably stay at some hotels you normally wouldn't consider (at least it does for me). That can be an experience in itself and is worth something. European hotels can easily run 200, 300, 400 Euros in capital cities at certain times of the year.

On the other hand if your likely to redeem at category 2's then its a lesser value. I personally believe that spending electronic points is always better than spending cash. I used 280,000 points this summer at a category 2 hotel with point-savers at 12,000 a night for a $85/night room. That is 0.7 cents per point. I also used 175,000 points for a 6 night stay that would have cost over $2100. That is 1.2 cents per point. If your thinking of the Hilton Maldives you'll find room rates of $1000/night - I haven't gone but when I do it will be with points. I have stayed at Seychelles when rates were 650 euros per night or about 900 USD/night = 3 cents per point.

If your staying in the US/Canada then its harder to get the "value". Also, remember that the HH AMEX has no yearly fee - so for free your getting points. Sounds like a pretty good deal to me.

Slightly OT but this got me wondering what it costs to acquire a HH point through hotel stays, and how it compares to acquiring airline miles. Obviously they are very different models. The number of airline points/miles you earn is almost completely unrelated to the $$ spent, and the $$ you save by redeeming an award is only slightly more related to the number of points/miles you use. It's possible to find opportunities to get more value from the miles than what it cost to get them.

Not so with hotel points. They are directly tied to spend, so absent special promotions, it's impossible to find an opportunity to earn, say, 10,000 HH points by spending $100.

Assuming a 10% tax rate -- you have to pay tax to earn the points but don't earn points on the tax itself -- and taking HH points instead of airline miles for the double dip, the "normal" cost to earn a HH point is as follows:

Blue 11 cents
Silver 8.5 cents
Gold 7.3 cents
Diamond 5.5 cents

The absolute best case would be a Diamond who stays at a cheap Hilton ($100+tax room rate), takes 1,000 bonus points instead of the breakfast, takes an extra 50% bonus points instead of crediting an airline, pays with a HHonors credit card (6 points/$), books the room online (500 bonus points), and is lucky enough to stay during a decent promo (like the Q2 1,000 point per night bonus). That gets you down to a cost of less than 2.2 cents/point.

Not sure how one uses this info, as no sane person would pay to stay at a hotel only to earn the points. (MRs to get/retain status don't count.)

I originally valued them at about 0.5 cents each, but am now valuing them at 0.7 cents each.

When you redeem a GLON award for 6-14 nights in a Category 6, it works out to a bit less than 30k points per night. Many of those hotels (New York, Hawaii, Europe, resorts) are easily worth $200 per night. (Many of them COST considerably more than that [some up to $1000/night], but I just can't justify spending more than $200/night [and even $200/night is pushing it], so that's the highest I value most places.) $200/30k is a bit less than 0.7 cents per point.

When I'm paying, I typically stay at Hampton Inns or other less expensive Hilton family hotels, typically for $80-$100/night (and get free breakfast and close to 30 points per dollar).

I take fixed AA miles for one night stays at HGI/FS properties when the room rate is less than $100/night because it yields more AA miles versus HH points. It also helps keep my AA account alive since I don't fly AA and only get AA miles from Marriott travel packages, Hilton stays and some online shopping/AA dining.

I find it hard to redeem Hilton points for anything less than a category 3 for the most part, so I would rather save my points for a longer stay at an overseas property (no need to pay the fee to convert for a foreign currency as well when using points to pay for the stay). It is easier and cheaper for me to find lower category Marriott and Hyatt properties for short award stays.

In the past I valued them at $.01 each based on all of the awards I recall redeeming in Hilton over the past 10 years I've been a member:

Point Stretcher at HHV
GLON at Hilton Key West using Diamond Force during high-demand period x 2
GLON at Hilton Barbados
AXON at Hilton Paris ADT
2-night award at Hilton Long Beach during Grand Prix using Diamond Force
2-night award at HGI Omaha Downtown during Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting using Diamond Force

All those awards combined I would easily value at $.01 value overall. Note that being Diamond the Diamond Force adds significant value to the points that other non-Diamond members may not be able to achieve.

With the Surpass card my earning rate has increased significantly and I may have to lower my threshold for redemption though, we'll see.

wow, Hilton points don't seem to be worth much. But then again you earn them twice as fast, right. I value my SPG points at a minimum of $0.02.You say you're gold in SPG, that gets you 3 points/dollar + 2 points/dollar if you use the SPG AMEX (that has a modest annual fee). At Hilton you'd get 12.5 points/dollar + 6 points/dollar with the No Annual Fee AMEX or 9 points/dollar with the relatively high annual fee AMEX, plus you could get an additional 5 points/dollar more or take airline miles too, plus an online booking bonus of 500 points/stay for booking with your AMEX. Anyway, my point is, the earning is a lot more than double, though it can vary with earning options chosen and room rates (the fixed Hilton earnings favor lower room rates).

It should also be noted that I believe Hilton Gold > SPG Gold because it gets you free breaksfast at all properties, the only real benefit of SPG Gold is the bonus points (which are greater percentage wise than Hliton Gold admittedly).

For a Diamond with Points+Points and using the Surpass card, you can get 29 points per dollar. 10 Base + 5 Diamond + 5 Points+Points + 9 Surpass. Plus any other bonuses. Valuing points at 0.7 cents each, that's essentially a 20% rebate on any room price. When I spend $100/night for my family to stay at a Hampton Inn, it's really more like $60/night because I earn $20 worth of points and get [conservatively] $20 worth of breakfast.

For a Diamond with Points+Points and using the Surpass card, you can get 29 points per dollar. 10 Base + 5 Diamond + 5 Points+Points + 9 Surpass. Plus any other bonuses. Valuing points at 0.7 cents each, that's essentially a 20% rebate on any room price. When I spend $100/night for my family to stay at a Hampton Inn, it's really more like $60/night because I earn $20 worth of points and get [conservatively] $20 worth of breakfast.Plus 250 point MyWay bonus at Hampton plus 500 point online booking bonus.

Friends don't let friends piss their HH points away on $100/night Hampton Inns.

I figure that I get a value of about 1 penny per point by cashing them in for GLONP awards exclusively.

Friends don't let friends piss their HH points away on $100/night Hampton Inns.

:D

I don't recall ever using any hotel points to get a room in the mainland US- there are often many options, and the international value proposition is much greater.

You say you're gold in SPG, that gets you 3 points/dollar + 2 points/dollar if you use the SPG AMEX (that has a modest annual fee). At Hilton you'd get 12.5 points/dollar + 6 points/dollar with the No Annual Fee AMEX or 9 points/dollar with the relatively high annual fee AMEX, plus you could get an additional 5 points/dollar more or take airline miles too, plus an online booking bonus of 500 points/stay for booking with your AMEX. Anyway, my point is, the earning is a lot more than double, though it can vary with earning options chosen and room rates (the fixed Hilton earnings favor lower room rates).

It should also be noted that I believe Hilton Gold > SPG Gold because it gets you free breaksfast at all properties, the only real benefit of SPG Gold is the bonus points (which are greater percentage wise than Hliton Gold admittedly).

I would agree with your statement regarding elite status, but your comparison of SPG vs HH needs to take into account the greater promotional opportunities with SPG. At the top tiers, I think both properties are more equal with SPG stronger on room upgrades and HH better on lounge access/free breakfast.

I think the other variable to keep in mind is how many points you currently have. I try to keep at least 250k points in my account at all times. When my balance goes higher than 500k points then I tend to spend them more freely.

IMO hoarding points for a rainy day is a bad opinion. It hasn't happened recently, but you never know when Hilton is going to come out with a mass point deflation / new terms for the program that require many more points for a stay.

At the top tiers, I think both properties are more equal with SPG stronger on room upgrades and HH better on lounge access/free breakfast.You also get the Platinum amenity from SPG at Plat, so I would agree they are more equal. The big thing that keeps SPG Plat from clearly being better than HHonors Diamond is the lack of consistency in getting upgrades. Not sure why I threw that in anyway ... not feeling 100% today, so I was rambling a bit ...

Hi, it’s Beth from Amex Customer Care.

The Hilton HHonors Card from American Express is fee free. You earn:

6 HHonors bonus points for each US dollar of eligible spend at Hilton Family Hotels. (Domestic and International) .
6 HHonors bonus points for each US dollar of eligible spend at supermarkets, gas stations, drug stores, phone. (wireless and land line), Internet service providers, cable and satellite television. (Domestic purchases only).
3 points - all other US dollar of eligible spend. (domestic only) .
Savings of 15,000 HHonors bonus points when you book a 4 night reward stay at any category 5 or 6 hotel.
Online reservation bonus of 500 HHonors bonus points when paying with the Hilton HHonors Card.

In addition, there is no cap on the number of HHonors bonus points and Silver VIP for life of the Card (Gold VIP with minimum of $20,000 of eligible annual spend on the Card).

I hope this information is helpful.