Good morning everyone, happy Friday. A few days ago, I wanted to use my Hilton Honors Points to book a 2 night stay at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel San Diego Downtown. The price was 39,000 Hilton Honors Points per night, for a total of 78,000 Hilton Honors Points needed. The only problem was that I was a little short on Hilton Honors Points… I only had 73,000 Hilton Honors Points and needed 5,000 more Hilton Honors Points to book the entire award without paying the cash co-pay.
In the past, I was able to share / transfer / pool Hilton Honors Points with my friends (How to Pool Hilton Honors Points into 1 Account), but since I only needed 5,000 Hilton Honors Points, I decided to check out the transfer rates with American Express Membership Reward Points and Citi Thank You Points. As of today, American Express Membership Reward Points transfer to Hilton at a rate of 1,000 : 1,500. Therefore, I would need to transfer 4,000 American Express Membership Reward Points to get 6,000 Hilton Honors Points.
Before I made the transfer, I checked the Citi Thank You Points portal. There is currently a transfer bonus running through September 20 where you can transfer 1,000 Citi Thank You Points and get 2,000 Hilton Honors Points. Therefore, I would only need to transfer 3,000 Citi Thank You Points to get 6,000 Hilton Honors Points. That’s exactly what I did :)
The 3,000 Citi Thank You Points transfer to 6,000 Hilton Honors Points was instant.
On Sunday at 4:03pm, I received an email that the transfer was completed.
I then logged into my Hilton Honors account to see that the 6,000 Hilton Honors Points posted. I then went through the booking process to book a 2 night stay at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel San Diego Downtown. Everything went smoothly… or so I thought.
On Sunday at 4:05pm, I received an email that my Hilton Honors Points were redeemed.
On Sunday at 4:16pm, I received the confirmation email from DoubleTree. Everything looked correct until I scrolled down and noticed that the price said 73,000 Hilton Honors Points + $25.94. Uh oh, what happened here?
I double checked the reservation online and the price was the same: 73,000 Hilton Honors Points + $25.94.
I was really busy this week, so I didn’t have time to call Hilton until Wednesday afternoon. After a short conversation with the Hilton rep, I explained what happened and she was able to change the reservation from points + cash to all points. Moments later, I received an email at 4:06pm that there was a Hilton Honors Points redemption from my account.
1 minute later at 4:07pm, I received an updated confirmation email from DoubleTree. This time, everything was correct.
Again, I logged into my Hilton account and double checked the reservation online and the price was correct: 78,000 Hilton Honors Points.
Here is the recent Hilton Honors Points activity in my account.
Long story short, I would recommend that you wait a few minutes, hours, or even a day after you transfer Hilton Honors Points into your account from Citi Thank You Points or American Express Membership Reward Points. Even though the transferred Hilton Honors Points appear in your account right away, they may not be redeemable right away. Thankfully, Hilton reps can fix the problem pretty easily over the phone.
If you have any questions about transferring Hilton Honors Points or booking a Hilton Honors award night, please leave a comment below. Have a great weekend everyone!
I think you’d be better off paying 73k points and $25. As you can see, you are only getting 1 cent per Citi point.
In hindsight, that would have probably been better. The only time it would make sense to use all points would be when the hotel charges resort fees. Most resort fees are waived on all points bookings. Have a great weekend.
You can transfer points between spouse accounts.
You can transfer points for free between any Hilton accounts, not just spouses.
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