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American Express Hilton HHonors

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The key to understanding the Hilton HHonors cards is understanding what a Hilton Point is worth. If each point had similar value to other point programs, the card would be very attractive, because you earn in excess of 3 points per $1 spent. However, this is not the case.

NerdWallet estimates Hilton points are worth 0.5 cents, about 1/2 the value of other point programs.

Our methodology:

  • Waldorf Hotel: 50,000-60,000 points per night versus retail of $250 per night. Point value, about .05 cents.
  • Hilton Casino Gaming Chip: 40,000 points versus face value of $100. Point value, about 2.5/10 of a cent.
  • Carnival Cruise Gift Certificate: 480,000 points versus face value of $1000. Point value, about 2.1/10 of a cent.
  • American Airlines Gift Certificate: 25,000 points versus face value of $50. Point value, 2/10 of a cent.

    • The exchange rate is even less favorable when you exchange Hilton points for airline miles or buy points directly:

  • You can exchange 10,000 Hilton points for 1,500 airline miles, which is about a $15 value. Participating partners include American Airlines, Gulf Air, Hawaiian Airlines, Mexicana Airlines, Midwest Airlines, Qantas Airways, South African Airways, and Virgin Atlantic Airways
  • You can purchase points for 1 cent each when you buy more than 10,000 at a time.

    • If you’re confident you can consume all of your Hilton points at Hilton/Waldorf hotels, assume more rewards than NerdWallet’s estimate. If you never stay at Hilton/Waldorf hotels, assume fewer rewards than our estimate.
    Also, before you take the leap with HHonors, we’d recommend considering the American Express Blue Cash and Blue Sky, the Discover Escape with 2% rewards on all purchases, and the American Express Costco Card with 3% on gas/groceries and 2% on travel.
    How to decide between the Hilton HHonors, the Hilton HHonors Surpass, and the Citibank Hilton HHonors card?

  • The Citibank card only offers a base reward rate of 2 Hilton points per $1 spent, so unless you really need a Visa card, it is a poor choice.
  • The Surpass has difficult to value fringe benefits, such as airport lounge access. Excluding these benefits, the main tradeoff is that the Surpass card has an annual fee of $75 but earns points slightly faster, so we’d use our Credit Card Finder to calculate which card is a better deal based on your spending habits. Roughly speaking, you have to earn an EXTRA 25,000 points each year to offset the $75 annual fee, which translates to ~$80,000 per year in spending.
    • Matt

      It looks like Nerdwallet recently increased its estimate of how much a Hilton HHonors Point is worth from 0.3 cent to 0.5 cent. That makes this credit card a nicer choice if you like to maximize your rewards by using different cards for different categories. If you only use the Hilton HHonors AMEX for the categories that earn you 6 times the points (gas, groceries, drug stores, cable/internet/wireless services), then you can effectively earn a 3% reward rate. I think the only cards that earn a higher reward rate for wireless or internet services are business credit cards.

      • http://www.nerdwallet.com Tim

        Matt, you are absolutely right. We have recently re-examined all of the hotel credit cards by comparing point redemption rates to room rates, and have come away convinced that Hilton HHonors and Starwood both deserve a point value upgrade. While Hilton point values ranged from 0.1 cents at The Las Vegas Hilton, to 0.9 cents at the DoubleTree Times Square in New York City, in our arbitrary sample time period of August 2010, most Hilton hotels were clustered right about 0.5 cents both domestically and abroad.

        At all Hilton Hotels, there was strong correlation between point value and hotel room rates. The more expensive the hotel, the better your point value calculation turns out to be. In most cases rooms that are $200 a night works out to around 0.5 cents, whereas rooms that are around $100 a night work out to 0.3 cents. We’ll be putting out a more comprehensive hotel infographic soon, so keep an eye out!

    • David

      Can I use Hilton Honors Points Bonus for purchases at amazon.com? Love your website. Thanks

      • http://www.nerdwallet.com NerdWallet

        No, unfortunately I don’t believe you can.

    • Jeff

      This has been my primary card for a long time, and your analysis is very thorough and and spot-on!

      For folks considering this card, one other important thing to know, which is hard to quantify in dollars, is the opportunity for ‘Gold’ loyalty status at Hilton chain hotels if you make this your primary card and spend over $20K/year. There are a bunch of nice benefits, and if you travel much, that benefit can be worth a lot. For example at most of the mid and higher-end Hilton properties, you’ll get free restaurant breakfast for the family. At an average Hilton, that would cost around a $12/day per person. For a family of four, that is $100 saved for a two-night stay. Another money-saver is free wi-fi access at all Hilton properties, which saves you another $5-$10/day.

      The other thing to consider is that if you are patient and selective about when you use your points, you can redeem them at over .5c I usually get .6 or .7c, and I have gotten over 1c/point for staying when there is a special-event in town or during high-season in a vacation destination.

      • Sennix

        Consider all that benefits if you are “GOLD” …

    • Erin

      Do you get double or triple points for using the card to pay for rooms at Hilton properties?

      • http://www.nerdwallet.com/ Tim

        Hi Erin, you get 3 points per $1 spent on everyday purchases, and 6 points
        per $1 spent at Hilton hotels. So I guess you could say you get “double” the
        typical reward rate at Hilton properties.

    • John Ruth

      Do you have to use the points within a certain amount of time or do they last for as long as you have the card?

      • http://www.nerdwallet.com/ NerdWallet

        Points have no expiration date, as long as you have some activity on your card (or within your HHonors account) within the previous 12 months.

    • Ashish Khatri

      What exactly constitutes utility bills? Even though I’m not a frequent traveler I’m thinking about getting this just for utility bills, since no other card gives special rates on utilities.

      • http://www.nerdwallet.com/ NerdWallet

        According to their website, utilities includes “home and wireless phone, cable, satellite TV and Internet service providers.”

    • Meotero

      After making a purchase how long do you have to wait to make a payment to ensure you accrue the points?

      • http://www.nerdwallet.com/ NerdWallet

        You should receive your points regardless of when you make your credit card payment – it’s based on the amount you spend.