sdsearch

Hilton points are not worth enough to offset the 2.5% or higher fee you have to pay.

If you use airline miles only for super-expensive fares (like longhaul international business and first class), and you wouldn't fly economy (coach) if that wasn't available, then maybe (some will disagree) you could value miles at enough cents per mile that earning one mile per dollar spent would offset a 2.5% fee.

But Hilton points are generally valued so lowly, as are miles used for comparatively cheap domestic (and near international) fares, and miles used for coach fares to almost anywhere, that you're unlikely to get net value out of using a service that charges 2.5% when earning 1 mile per dollar (which is the most you're likely to get from using an airline miles card for such a service).

And so if you don't mind flying everywhere in coach, you're not likely to get enough value out of miles to offset a 2.5% fee.

And even if you wouldn't fly at all if you couldn't get business class seats with airline miles, you have to be skilled at getting award flights too (it's not always that easy), just to get such good theoretical value out of airline miles. "Anytime" awards which get you any seat on the plane at any time are typically not high value, only "saver" awards (which are only fleetingly available) can be that high value.