We are an independent publisher. Our reporters create honest, accurate, and objective content to help you make decisions. To support our work, we are paid for providing advertising services. Many, but not all, of the offers and clickable hyperlinks (such as a “Next” button) that appear on this site are from companies that compensate us. The compensation we receive and other factors, such as your location, may impact what ads and links appear on our site, and how, where, and in what order ads and links appear. While we strive to provide a wide range of offers, our site does not include information about every product or service that may be available to you. We strive to keep our information accurate and up-to-date, but some information may not be current. So, your actual offer terms from an advertiser may be different than the offer terms on this site. And the advertised offers may be subject to additional terms and conditions of the advertiser. All information is presented without any warranty or guarantee to you.

This page may include: credit card ads that we may be paid for (“advertiser listing”); and general information about credit card products (“editorial content”). Many, but not all, of the offers and clickable hyperlinks (such as a “Apply Now” button or “Learn More” button) that appear on this site are from companies that compensate us. When you click on that hyperlink or button, you may be directed to the credit card issuer’s website where you can review the terms and conditions for your selected offer. Each advertiser is responsible for the accuracy and availability of its ad offer details, but we attempt to verify those offer details. We have partnerships with advertisers such as Brex, Capital One, Chase, Citi, Wells Fargo and Discover. We also include editorial content to educate consumers about financial products and services. Some of that content may also contain ads, including links to advertisers’ sites, and we may be paid on those ads or links.

For more information, please see How we make money.

Hilton Quietly Makes a Million-Point Change to Its Loyalty Program

  • Million Mile Secrets

    • Signing up for credit cards through partner links earns us a commission. Terms apply to the offers listed on this page. Here’s our full advertising policy: How we make money.

    Update: One or more card offers in this post are no longer available. Check our Hot Deals for the latest offers.

    Via View From the Wing, Hilton has changed their loyalty program Terms & Conditions for the better!

    You can now reinstate up to 1,000,000 expired Hilton points.  But you’ll need to make the request within 18 months after your points have expired.  I’ll give you the details!

    If You’re an Infrequent Hilton Guest, This Is Excellent News for You

    Hilton Will Reinstate Your Expired Points

    Link:   Hilton Honors Terms & Conditions

    Hilton points will expire if your account hasn’t been active in 12 months.  Some things you can do to prevent your points from expiring are:

    Note:   Pooling Hilton points from family and friends does NOT keep them from expiring.

    Previously, Hilton has not had an official policy to restore expired points.  But they’ve given folks reinstatement offers (for example, complete 4 stays in 1 year to earn your points back).  But Hilton has now updated their Terms & Conditions to include a section about reinstatement.  Here’s what you need to know:

    View From the Wing speculates that reinstating points will NOT cost any money.  And he has 1 data point to support that.  But the Terms & Conditions refer to the reinstatement as a “purchase”.  If you have any data points, I’d love to hear them! Update:   Thanks to reader Jack who let us know that it will cost $2.50 per 1,000 points to restore between 1,000 and 100,000 Hilton points.  And a flat rate of $250 to restore between 101,000 and 1,000,000 Hilton points!  And if you ask nicely enough, they just might restore them for free. 😉

    One strange detail is that they did NOT communicate this change with Hilton Honors members!  It’s a positive change, after all.  And it’s a little unnerving that Hilton feels comfortable silently changing its Terms & Conditions (and backdating the changes to March 1, 2017!).

    Want More Hilton Points?

    There are lots of ways to earn Hilton points.  For example, you can transfer AMEX Membership Rewards points, Virgin Atlantic miles, and Hawaiian Airlines miles transfer to Hilton at a ratio of 2:3.

    And you can apply for a Hilton co-branded credit card, like:

    Plus, AMEX will introduce 2 brand new Hilton credit cards, and refresh their 2 current Hilton cards, on January 18, 2018!

    Bottom Line

    Hilton now has an official policy on reinstating expired Hilton points.  Hilton will restore up to 1,000,000 expired points per Hilton Honors account.  But only points that have expired in the past 18 months can be reinstated.

    This is good news for folks who rarely stay at Hilton hotels!  Though it’s extremely easy to keep points from expiring if you know a few tricks.

    Let me know if you use this new policy to retrieve your expired points!

    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! :)