What to know about Hilton.

First off, I’m sorry this newsletter hasn’t shown up in your inbox for a bit - things are busy here at Go Somewhere headquarters (my couch).

Thankful for all of your business!

I know I blab about Hyatt a lot (and I should, it’s so good), but I wanted to touch on another program today, Hilton.

I really don’t think it’s the program you should be focusing on, but I want to educate you a bit on some of it’s benefits.

Get ready to learn!

How to get Hilton status:

You can get Hilton’s highest status (Diamond) from just getting one of their credit cards.

Yea, the annual fee is $550, but Diamond status is pretty cool:

WOW PREMIUM WIFI?!

Some of these benefits are so silly.

But having status can always be a good thing!

The problem with Hilton Diamond status: if everyone has it, no one has it.

If you check in expecting an upgrade to the presidential suite and the 10 other people in line all have an Aspire card, you’re not getting that suite, I guarantee it.

Earning Hilton points:

This is where your Diamond status comes in handy. You can earn 20 points per dollar on eligible dollars spent at Hilton properties (money spent on room rate, food and beverages, telephone, laundry, pay-per-view movies, entertainment and recreational facilities, and incidental charges to your room during your stay).

Dang!

And with that Aspire card, you earn 7x on airlines, 7x at restaurants, and 3x on everything else.

You also earn a free night every year holding the card, another after spending $30k, and another at $60k. And those free nights are VALUABLE.

Why? They can be used at any Hilton property in the world.

These FNA’s will have you asking Chat GPT questions like this:

So, let’s just take someone who spends $90k/year on credit cards. If you spent:

• $2,000 at Hilton properties.

• $7,000 at restaurants.

• The rest on random stuff.

You’d earn about 332,000 points/year + 3 free night awards.

Redeeming Hilton points:

This is what is annoying. Hilton points are not worth very much.

But you’re earning a lot of them… so that can work out.

Here’s a beautiful hotel: Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos - this is a standard room:

You can book this for 140k points/night. I know, a lot right. But the cash rate is about $2,000/night!

And remember, you have 3 free night awards.

So, you could get 5 nights here (2 with points, 3 FNAs).

That’s a $10,000 hotel stay.

Remember, you spent $90k on your card + the annual fee, but you got $10k in travel.

That’s an 11% return on your spending. Not bad at all.

I also have to mention Hilton 5th night free benefit. If you pay with points for 5 nights, you get the 5th night free! (You can’t stack this with FNAs though).

I find with both Hilton & Marriott, you get a better return at the high luxury hotels like this Waldorf.

Amex is your friend:

One last thing to know - Amex transfers to Hilton at a 1:2 ratio!

That’s typically not a good use of Amex points, but if you needed a few more points, you could send 30k Amex points over to Hilton and get 60k points!

I’ve had many clients do that who were short Hilton points.

Like anything in the points & miles world, there is a ton more information to know, but I’ll spare you for now.

Your takeaway? You can win with almost any program. You have to learn the ins & outs.

I much prefer using Amex/Chase/Capital One cards, but if you like what I shared here, you could only use Hilton cards and enjoy a nice yearly trip to Cabo:)

Happy travels!