Most of us accumulate Hilton points pretty quickly. If they’re part of your overall strategy, the Hilton cards earn points at a much faster rate than many other cobranded cards. Granted, I’d typically value Hilton points lower than many other currencies, but it’s fun to see hundreds of thousands of points when I check AwardWallet!
Right now, Hilton is offering a 100% bonus on purchased points through the end of the calendar year. In order to trigger the 100% points bonus, you’ll need to purchase at least 10,000 points for $100. This means you’re buying points at a cost of $0.005 (or half a cent) per point. Half a cent is typically right where I value Hilton points. Over the past few years I’ve been able to get an average of about 0.53 cents per point.
Hilton members can purchase a maximum of 160,000 Hilton points for $1,600.00. Unfortunately the sale is processed by Points.com, like most points sales. This means you won’t earn bonus Hilton points with your Hilton cards, but you CAN use a shopping portal for Points.com. Right now, it looks like your best options are giving out about 2% back on the purchases. Let’s say you buy 100,000 Hilton points for $1,000, netting you 200,000 Hilton points. Since you’re such a savvy shopper, you click through the Swagbucks shopping portal for an extra 2% back in Swagbucks. Since you just picked up a shiny new IHG Rewards Club Premier Card, you whip that out of your wallet for the purchase.
… then you realize that would be a TERRIBLE card to use unless you’re working on the welcome bonus, and opt for your Citi Doublecash card.
$1,000 cost – (2% Swagbucks + 2% Citi Doublecash) = 200,000 Hilton points
$1,000 cost – ($20 in Swagbucks + $20 in Citi Doublecash) = 200,000 Hilton points
$960 = 200,000 Hilton points
0.48 cents per point
Anybody else feel like their middle school math teacher would be proud of them when analyzing this kind of stuff? I think Hilton points are very easy to earn and wouldn’t usually buy them even with a bonus. That being said, it depends on your overall points and miles strategy. If you have a particular Hilton in mind and will get some good value out of the points, go for it. When do you think buying points is worth it? ONLY in these 3 instances…
If buying Hilton points at this rate makes sense for you, head over to this link and snag some! You’ll have to log in to your Hilton account. Enjoy your travels in 2021!
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
I would vote against buying points from Hilton. Here is my basis.
Several years ago I bought 80,000 Hilton points for $400. At the time, many of the hotel rooms were 10,000 points for a night, which was a nice place to stay for $50 (without a room tax). Then most of the hotels raised their rooms to 20,000 points a night. So to get these rooms now, I was using points that cost $100 for a night. This was more than the cash price for a room. Needless to say, I was VERY disappointed. But I wasn’t sure who to whine to about this.
So my vote is NO to buying points, unless there is a situation where the points equivalent price is better than the cash price. To easy to lose any advantage from having bought points. Comments are welcome.
Great points Ken – buying points speculatively is usually a bad call, they keep changing award rates!