Hello All,
Long ago I asked for review/feedback about my questions and plan to have a hotel card, and airline card, as opposed to a catch all travel card. Long story short, people said it’s not a terrible Idea if nobody cares about the $AF.
However.. people did point out that often Hilton Points, (My duo would be Hilton + Delta, as Ive been staying and flying with them already) that Hilton Points, are worth less CPP then say, amex.
Is this true? Im not an expert on CPP redemption ofc, but I currently have a generous SUB offer for the Aspire, and it doesn’t seem bad. However I also was debating the AMEX gold (also have decent sub offer) as I was matched for that as well.
The difference is 50k points, which sure, is alot, but I hear that AMEX is more travel use only, thus some airlines for example may have higher CPP.
Then you may be asking if Im gonna do Hotel + Airline why it even matters, and well the answer is, Idk. I guess I want to know if 150k hilton points, when redeemed for travel, is basically the same as say 100k amex points. Ykwim?
Long story lol
Are Hilton Points really not worth much? Idk where I heard this but it seems to be repeated here and there
byu/ManyLegal48 inCreditCards
Posted by ManyLegal48
11 Comments
You can check this yourself. Go find a Hilton and look at the amount of points it would take to book a room, and compare it to the cash price. You’ll likely find that valuation is not great.
Amex MR is valued highly because of its flexibility in being able to transfer to many partners, and thus being able to take advantage of sweet spots.
Hilton’s point model (which is akin to most hotel systems other than Hyatt) is high-volume earning of low-value points. You can earn 34 points per dollar when you book a Hilton hotel and pay with the Aspire (considering the card bonus and elite bonus), but the points are worth under 0.5 cents apiece. Amex MR transfers to Hilton at 1:2 and even that is generally not worth it; 1 MR is probably worth 3-4 Hilton points. This doesn’t mean it’s bad to get a Hilton card since the high volume can make up for the low individual point value, just that Hilton points are indeed low value.
100k amex points is literally transferable to Hilton at 1:2, so 100k amex points = 200k Hilton points. That should answer any sort of question you have.
I’m not sure who told you it’s not a terrible idea, but if Delta and Hilton are the cards you’re considering, then it IS a terrible idea. Both hold much much less value than Amex points do.
>I want to know if 150k hilton points, when redeemed for travel, is basically the same as say 100k amex points
At a very direct, basic level, 100k Amex points can convert directly to 200k Hilton points (or as many as 260k Hilton points during promotional periods). So no, 150k Hilton points aren’t the same as 100k Amex points. And people generally don’t think the 100 to 200 Amex to Hilton conversion is a good value, unless you have a strong Hilton redemption ready to book.
Hilton points are generally considered to be worth ~1/3 the value of an amex MR point. But the value, when it comes down to it, depends on how you would use them.
Part of the problem is that Hilton has been devaluing at a rapid pace. Some examples from the small circle of Hiltons that I like staying at, in less than two years:
-From 80K to 95K
-From 40K to 50K
-From 90K to 100K
-From 50K to 70K
Hilton points, as I understand it, gets sold for ~$0.005, so you should think of that as baseline value (even if you are able to get >0.5 cpp at higher end properties).
Amex MR surely is valuable at least 1.5cpp if you use air travel partners and easily 1cpp.
So, 100K MR is easily higher value than 150K Hilton.
Key question to ask is if Gold benefits matches your organic card spending.
Do the math out. Look up stays and divide the cash price by the points to get their value
I got Hilton honors because I wanted a travel credit card.
Don’t do it. I got 80k bonus points for a sign up and I can get MAYBE 2 nights if I go for a 2 star place, but it’s really just enough for one night.
I would do some more research on what a point is worth. Different points have a general “value”. Hilton value is .005, so 150k points is $750. Amex, ata minimum is .01, so 100k points is $1000. So Amex points are obviously worth more.
At the end of the day though it’s all just monopoly money. You need to actually use the points. So look up what type of traveler you are and what brands you want to use, then do some point searches and see how many points are needed. Then you can make a strategy of how you’ll get those points.
Personally I try to get as many hotel points as I can since I prefer to cover the cost of accommodations vs airfare. So I think it’s worth getting more Hilton points.
It’s good that you’re asking these questions, but honestly the way to “win” the game is to get multiple cards to get multiple bonuses, even aid it’s a variety of points. So feel free to consider getting bothered the Hilton card and the Gold card
I just have the Hilton aspire for the diamond status but I do not use that card for anything other than that.
Gawd are people this dense??? This has been asked so many times.
Let me ask you, is $100 worth of yen worth less than $100 worth of dollars??? Does spending a $1 on your credit to earn 3 cents worth of yen worse than earning 3 cents???
Hilton points are worth 0.5 cpp as that is value you can simply buy from Hilton. It can buy you a five night stay at Conrad Downtown for $480 per night vs $1300 cash price.
Hyatt points are worth 2 cpp and they can buy you a similar property for $700 per night in points.
The value of what the points buy is what matters. And the strength of Hilton points program is letting you stay at their nicer properties for less than competitors. Hilton is unfortunately catching on to this and raising point prices but there still many great deals out there.