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The Secret to Booking Free (or Cheap) Hilton Award Stays This Season

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    Here’s another great trick to lower your travel costs this holiday season!

    Via Inside Flyer, you can use Hilton’s latest promotion to get heavily discounted, and even free, stays at Hilton!  When you pay for a Hilton stay through the Hilton app with a Visa card through January 31, 2017, you’ll get a bonus 5,000 Hilton points.

    Use This Method for Big Travel With Small Money at Hilton!

    I’ll show you how to make the most of this deal!

    Big Savings With Hilton’s Latest Promotion

    Link:   Hilton / Visa Bonus Points Promotion

    Hilton is offering 5,000 points back on each hotel stay you make through the Hilton app!  Here’s what you need to know:

    Note:   You can stack this deal and earn even more Hilton points when you register for the Hilton Triple Points promotion.

    Buy Points at a Discounted Rate to Sweeten the Deal

    Link:   Hilton Points Sale (Sign-In Required)

    Until December 5, 2016, Hilton is selling points for 50% off.  Normally, Hilton points cost 1 cent each, but with this deal you’ll pay 0.5 cents per point.

    To get the discount, you must buy at least 10,000 Hilton points.  And you’re limited to purchasing 160,000 Hilton points total per calendar year.

    Book Lower Category Hotels to Make the Most of the Bonus

    Earning 5,000 Hilton points per award stay is great.  Especially when you are staying at low-category hotels.  Because low-category hotels don’t cost many points in the first place!

    1.   Stay at Category 1 Hotels for Free

    Hilton category 1 hotels only cost 5,000 Hilton points per night.  So if you spend 5,000 points on a category 1 hotel, you’ll get all of your points reimbursed!  Your stay is free!

    Remember, to activate the bonus, you must charge something to the room and pay with your Visa through the app.

    For example, the Hilton Garden Inn Tucuman in Argentina is a category 1 hotel.  It costs ~$90 per night (or 5,000 Hilton points).

    The Hilton Garden Inn Tucuman Has a Certificate of Excellence on TripAdvisor – and You Can Stay There for Free!

    If you book this hotel with 5,000 Hilton points through the Hilton promotion, you’ll get a bonus 5,000 points.  You end up with the same amount of points, and you’ve saved $90!

    Note:   If you want to stay for free, you’ll need to have at least 5,000 Hilton points in your account already.  If you don’t, you can buy them at 0.5 cents each (a 50% discount!) here.  You must buy at least 10,000 Hilton points to get the discount.

    2.   Category 2 Hotels Are Half Price

    Category 2 hotels are also a great deal.  For example, you can stay at the Hilton Garden Inn Oxford / Anniston in Alabama for $130, or 10,000 Hilton points per night.  The promotion will give you half your points back!

    Even if you have NO Hilton points, you can buy Hilton points at 0.5 cents each and book this $130 room (or any category 2 hotel) for $25 (10,000 points X 0.5 cents each = $50 – 5,000 points back ($25 value) = $25).  That’s a savings of $105!

    For bookings at higher category hotels, you’ll save 5,000 Hilton points as well.  But it’s not as big a discount, because award stays at Hilton hotels can cost up to 95,000 Hilton points per night.

    Things to Remember When Booking

    It will take 6 to 8 weeks from completing your stay for your bonus points to deposit into your account.  So if you want to use this deal multiple times, you’ll need all the Hilton points you plan to use ahead of time.  In other words, you won’t be able to recycle the same 5,000 points day after day for multiple free stays!

    Stay at Hilton for Cheap and Save Your Money for Spending on Others This Season

    Also, this bonus will give you 5,000 bonus points per stay – NOT per night.  So you won’t be able to use this promotion for a month-long free stay at the same hotel.  You will need to split your nights up in different hotels!

    Not Interested in Buying Hilton Points?

    There are lots of ways to earn Hilton points.  If you don’t want to take advantage of the current 50% off Hilton points sale, you could sign-up for a Hilton co-branded credit card, like the Hilton Honors™ Card from American Express, or the Citi® Hilton HHonors™ Visa Signature® Card

    Also, you can transfer other miles & points to Hilton.  AMEX Membership Rewards points, Virgin Atlantic miles, and Hawaiian Airlines miles transfer to Hilton at a ratio of 2:3.  

    Bottom Line

    Through January 31, 2017, you’ll get a bonus 5,000 Hilton points when you book your stay through the Hilton app and use a Visa credit card.

    You can buy Hilton points for 50% off until December 5, 2016, and book a stay through this promotion for very cheap Hilton nights!  You can even stay for free, depending on which hotel category you choose!

    I hope this helps loosen your holiday budget!  Let me know if you book!

    Editorial Note: We're the Million Mile Secrets team. And we're proud of our content, opinions and analysis, and of our reader's comments. These haven’t been reviewed, approved or endorsed by any of the airlines, hotels, or credit card issuers which we often write about. And that’s just how we like it! :)