More Luxury Hilton Properties Are Opening in 2019 Than Any Previous Year — Here’s How to Book Without Spending a Fortune

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INSIDER SECRET: You can get free breakfast at Hilton hotels if you have Gold Hilton status or higher. Gold status is easy to earn with all sorts of different Hilton credit cards or either of the Amex Platinum cards.

This year Hilton has already opened four new luxury hotels and has seven more scheduled to open, which will be more new luxury Hilton properties than any other year in the company’s history. Most of these additions will fall under the Waldorf Astoria and Conrad brands.

Personally, I prefer to use my hotel points and credit card perks to stay at upscale accommodations that I wouldn’t otherwise pay for with cash. If you’re looking to stay at a luxury Hilton property there are lots of ways to make it happen without shelling out $500+ a night. You can use Hilton points or free night awards you can earn with certain Hilton cards.

Best Ways to Book New Luxury Hilton Properties

The new Hilton luxury hotels and resorts that have opened or are scheduled to open in 2019 are:

• Conrad Hangzhou
• Conrad Hangzhou Tonglu
• Conrad New York Midtown
• Conrad Shenyang
• Conrad Tianjin
• Conrad Washington, DC
• The Biltmore, Mayfair in London
• Waldorf Astoria Dubai International Financial Centre
• Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos Pedregal
• Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi
• Zemi Beach House Resort & Spa in Anguilla

Hilton doesn’t have an award chart, so prices vary throughout the year, but you can get a general idea of how much a specific property will cost by using Hilton’s Points Explorer. Currently, top-tier Hilton hotels cost up to 95,000 points per night for a standard room (although one hotel costs 120,000 points per night).

You can also use the free weekend night certificates you can earn with certain Amex Hilton credit cards at almost any Hilton location. Keep in mind there are ~40 Hilton locations that the free weekend night certificates are not valid at (plus the certificates can’t be used at Hampton hotels in China).

The best way to earn Hilton points is to open an Amex Hilton card. The choices are:

• Hilton Honors American Express Card – 90,000 Hilton points after you spend $2,000 in the first three months of account opening
• Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card (formerly the Hilton Ascend card) – 130,000 Hilton points and a free weekend night after you spend $4,000 in the first four months of account opening. You can earn another free weekend night award when you spend $15,000 on purchases in a calendar year.
• The Hilton Honors American Express Business Card – 130,000 Hilton points and a free weekend night after you spend $5,000 in the first four months of account opening. You can earn a free weekend night after spending $15,000 in purchases on your card in a calendar year and a second weekend night after spending an additional $45,000 in purchases ($60,000 total) on your card in the same calendar year.
• Hilton Honors Aspire Card from American Express – 150,000 Hilton points after you spend $4,000 in the first three months of account opening and a free weekend night award (at participating Hilton hotels) when you open your card, then every year on your account anniversary. You can earn a second free weekend night when you spend $60,000+ in eligible purchases on the card in a calendar year.

The information for the Hilton Aspire card and Hilton Surpass card has been collected independently by Million Mile Secrets. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

I have the Hilton Aspire card, which has tons of perks beyond the points and free weekend night (check out our Hilton Aspire review to learn more). But right now the Hilton Honors, Hilton Surpass and Hilton Business cards all have limited-time increased offers that end on August 28, 2019. Normally the Surpass and Hilton Business card don’t come with a free weekend night award as part of the intro offer, so if you haven’t had those cards before then now is a great time to apply.

You can also transfer Amex Membership Rewards points to Hilton at a 1:2 ratio, if you need more points in a pinch.

To learn more about Hilton, check out these guides:

• How to earn Hilton Honors points
• How to set up a Hilton account
• Best use of Hilton points
• Hilton award chart
• Do Hilton points expire?

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