Tag Archives: Hilton Hotels

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Need to Change Hilton Reservation? Call to Keep Same Points Price (Don’t Change Online)

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Good morning everyone, happy Thursday!  I’m going to Iceland in September, I already booked my Icelandair flights (Booking my First 5x Membership Reward Points Flight on AMEXTravel.com Using American Express Business Platinum Charge Card), and 3 nights at the Hilton Reykjavik Nordica (Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday night). So what’s the problem?  The problem is that I land in Reykjavik, Iceland, on Saturday night, but I don’t have a reservation for Saturday night. Uh oh…

I booked the Hilton Reykjavik Nordica several months ago before the new Hilton Honors program was announced and I was able to get pretty good prices on the rooms.  For 2 nights, I used cash + points (16,000 Hilton Points + 7,407.67 Icelandic Krona = $70.73 USD) and the third night, I used 40,000 Hilton Points, since there was no cash + points option available.

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How to Pool Hilton Honors Points into 1 Account

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Good morning everyone, happy Monday!  I had a great time in Minneapolis this past weekend at Frequent Traveler University (FTU) Advanced.  I enjoyed catching up with old friends, meeting readers, and networking with fellow travel hackers.  If you missed FTU, the next travel conference I will be at (and speaking at) is Chicago Seminars, on October 20-22.

Last week, I wanted to book a 5 night Hilton stay, but I only had enough Hilton Honors Points to cover the first night.  I could have booked the first night and then racked up the remaining Hilton Honors Points over the next several months to book the rest of the nights, but I wanted to take advantage of Hilton’s 5th Night Free feature, where when you book a stay of 5 nights or longer, you do not need to pay points for the 5th night.  I reached out to my travel hacker friends on Facebook and Twitter and asked if someone would let me borrow 91,000 Hilton Honors Points so I could book the 5 night stay.  Luckily, 1 of my friends agreed to help me out and we were able to test out Hilton’s new point pooling feature. Here is how you can pool Hilton Honor Points into 1 Hilton account.

As you can see, I only had 69,365 Hilton Honors Points, but I was short 90,635 Hilton Honors Points needed to book a 5 night stay that cost 160,000 Hilton Honors Points.  Rates were 40,000 Hilton Honors Points per night, but since the 5th night was free, I only needed to pay 160,000 Hilton Honors Points (4 x 40,000 = 160,000). To get started pooling Hilton Honors Points, sign into your Hilton account and click on More Ways to Use Points under the My Points section on the left side on the page.

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Forgot Expiration Date or Misplaced Citi Hilton Honors Reserve Credit Card Free Weekend Night Certificate?

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Good afternoon everyone, I hope you had a great Mother’s Day weekend.  Over the last few months, I have received my 2 free weekend night certificates from my 2 Citi Hilton Honors Reserve Credit Cards after spending $10,000 on each credit card during my card member year.  This is possible if you sign up for a new Citi Hilton Honors Reserve Credit Card every 2 years and keep your existing Citi Hilton Honors Reserve Credit Card open (that satisfies Citi’s 24 month rule where you cannot open or close that card or a card in the same rewards family within the last 24 months).  As an example, I got my first Citi Hilton Honors Reserve Credit Card in February 2013 and my second card in March 2016.  I plan on getting a third card after March 2018.  I wonder if you can convert an existing Citi credit card to a Citi Hilton Honors Reserve Credit Card.  Does anyone know?

Anyway, I wanted to share some details about the old and new Citi Hilton Honors Reserve Credit Card Free Weekend Night Certificate.  Depending on when you applied for that credit card, your free weekend night certificate may look like the old or new format.  The old format is not very pretty but it contains more useful information.  The new format is cleaner, but doesn’t provide as much information.

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ICYMI: Travel News Roundup for Friday, April 28, 2017

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Here’s all the news that caught my eye this week – let me know if you learn something new!

Airlines + Miles

Starting Monday, Alaska Airlines lounges in Seattle, Portland, and Los Angeles will no longer allow Priority Pass cardholders to bring guests into the lounge. [Travel Codex]

Alaska flights to/from Seattle are moving to Terminal 2 at SFO starting next week. [Flyertalk] They also announced they will be moving both Virgin and Alaska flights to Terminal 7 at JFK later this year, joining their partners British Airways, Qantas, and Icelandair. [Travel Codex]

Gogo bought more capacity on a satellite over the Pacific Ocean, which it will relocate to provide enhanced in-flight wifi coverage for the West Coast, Alaska, Hawaii, and transpacific flights. [Runway Girl Network]

Canadian airline WestJet says it’s going to launch a low-cost carrier. [Cranky Flier] Continue reading →

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My Favorite Hilton Lounge in the World is…

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Do you have a favorite hotel lounge? I don’t mean one that’s good, but rather one that takes good and turns it into GREAT. Seems to me, many lounges are fine, or even good, but in each hotel chain there are usually a few standouts.  I previously mentioned my 13 criteria for the perfect hotel lounge.

I’ve already talked about my favorite Sheraton lounge and Hyatt lounge, so what’s my favorite Hilton lounge?  There are a few Hilton lounges that I like, but the Hilton in Budapest is great and my favorite pick from the Hilton’s I’ve stayed at.  And if I’m paying cash for a hotel stay, I always use Pruvo to monitor for price drops! In general, I had a fantastic experience at this hotel and highly recommend it. (Lounge images courtesy of the Hilton Budapest staff)

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