I will earn 10,000 Hilton points per stay for some of my Hilton stays this summer.
Most people who follow the blog know I choose between Hilton or Marriott hotels according to which is cheaper.
Marriott and Hilton are cheaper in different locations.
I will be staying at more Hyatt hotels soon too.
Hyatt is the only hotel chain that you can transfer credit card points from without wasting your points.
If you have a Chase Ultimate card (Sapphire Preferred, Sapphire Reserve, or Ink Business Preferred), you can transfer your Chase points to Hyatt hotels and get huge value.
Otherwise, transferring credit card points to hotels is a poor use of your credit card points (i.e. transferring Amex points to Hilton or transferring Chase points to Marriott or IHG).
Don’t worry, there are other ways to earn lots of hotels points.
I will list them at the end of this post.
I will also discuss how I use cash equivalents instead of spending my own money on travel too.
It may not be for everyone, but it works for me.
I want to get Marriott Platinum status this year, so I may make a few more Marriott stays later this year too though.
Currently, I am Hilton Gold but only need 15 Hilton stays to get to Diamond status this year because of the pandemic lower elite status requirements.
I only have about ten stays left to get that which is really easy for me.
I was thinking about the $450 Aspire credit card, but since requirements for Diamond status are easier this year, I may go for the fifteen stays to get Diamond status.
I have had the American Express Hilton Surpass card for years and have been Hilton Gold for a long time.
I said I would go for Diamond status this year.
In any case, this summer, I will earn a huge 10,000 Hilton points per stay.
That is not a small amount of points for one night
You can too.
Basically, this is because of two promotions.
Hilton Summer Promotion
The new Hilton promotion allows you to earn double points on stays of 1 or 2 nights and triple points on stays of three nights or longer.
My travel this summer will involve road trips and domestic flights.
Maybe now that borders are opening, I will get to international travel soon too though.
I have not had a domestic flight since the pandemic started and am looking forward to my first post-pandemic flight.
I plan to fly to New York City.
I lived in New York City in the past, and most of my friends live there.
I usually get to New York at least once a year, but it has been a while.
I plan to stop in Washington, D.C., where I also lived.
Since Breeze Airlines is coming to my city, starting at $38 each way, I am hoping to fly often by the end of the summer to other destinations.
After New York/D.C., I also plan to fly to Chicago, L.A., and Florida.
That is just my domestic flying.
Maybe I will get to my first international flight again by the end of the summer.
When I get to international travel, I plan to go to Europe, Asia, and South America.
I have been to Europe and Africa, but it will be my first time to Asia and South America.
I want to move very fast through continents.
My road trips are usually only overnight.
Overnight trips allow me to visit more places without spending a lot of money.
This allows me to have more money for bigger trips.
I can visit a different city each week too.
Whether road trips or flying, I want to travel every week soon.
I am a blogger.
You don’t have to be a blogger to travel frequently though.
I will write a post about it later.
By travel frequently, I mean road trips, flying, etc.
My stays that involve domestic flights will be two nights.
My average hotel stay is between $130 and $170 plus taxes.
Of course, trips to New York and other cities may be just a little higher.
Again, these are all Hilton and Marriott hotels in the center of each city, so read this post on tips to save money on a hotels.
You can even read this post about how I knocked off $50 off my New Orleans Hilton hotel stay and paid $130 instead of $180 plus taxes.
This would earn me around 4000 Hilton points with the current Hilton promotion.
Here is the math for that:
- 1300-1700 Hilton points, $130 x 10 or $170 x 10 base points
- 1300-1700 points for summer promotion (double base points for stays 1-2 days, or triple points stays 3 or more days)
- 1040-1369 points, 8 points per dollar for being Hilton Gold
- 3640-4760 Hiton points
Again, I don’t use my own money for this but cash equivalents.
You can read how I do that below again.
So, for the Hilton summer promotion, I will earn 4000 points on my overnight stays.
Again, my road trips are overnight, and my domestic flights will be two days.
This works well if you have a full time job (like me) in terms of time too.
Most of the world works a full time job.
Whenever I get to international travel, my trips will be longer, at least 4 day trips though.
By keeping road trips to overnight and domestic flights to two days, I will have more money and points for bigger trips.
Points earned again: 4000 Hilton points
Second Promotion: Earn At Least 4000 Hilton Points Renting Cars
The second promotion that will get me to the rest of my 10,000 Hilton points is through renting cars with Enterprise.
Enterprise, National, and Alamo (owned by the same company) have a promotion where you earn Hilton points for renting cars.
Hilton is a partner.
This promotion will give you at least 4000 points per rental day and up to 20,000 points for multiple days.
You can read about it here.
The rental car industry is having some problems now.
There are shortages, and prices are high.
So, my trips that involve flights may not involve rental cars.
My road trips always involve rental cars.
I don’t drive my personal car.
I have a used car that I don’t put on the highway.
I have no car payments.
I may be getting a newer used car soon, but my current vehicle is not one I would put on the highway.
I like to pay cash for cars too.
This may sound cheap.
Honestly, because I plan to travel frequently (every week), I feel no need to spend too much on a car.
I could have been a digital nomad in another life.
Glad I am a blogger, so it all works out in this life.
Where I live at, I have to have a car for my day job though.
I liked renting cars often or at least I did until the rental industry had all these problems.
My newer used car that I may be getting soon will be something I can put on a highway (just a few years old), so all this may change soon.
Again, I like paying cash for cars (or as close I can get to it).
Many big airports like DCA (Washington, D.C.) are sold out of rental cars in any case.
This promotion is good for rentals with National, Enterprise, or Alamo again.
Here is a chart to see how many Hilton points you will earn with this promotion:
I usually choose a local Enterprise out of the three for my rental car needs.
I am not usually renting from the airport for my road trips.
Although the three rental car agencies are owned by the same company, most points enthusiasts love the National program that allows you to choose any car off the lot.
In my city, National is only at the airport which I don’t rent from without flying, so generally I rent from Enterprise.
The promotion works with Enterprise, National, or Alamo again though.
When I start flying, if I rent cars, I will be using National though.
National has one of the best reward programs again.
They are owned by the same company again though.
My trips that involve flights will be at least two days (unlike my overnight trips) but because of what is going on with car rentals, I may not rent cars when flying again.
I like renting cars when flying, but with higher prices and a shortage, I may just go for public transportation or Uber/Lyft if needed.
Public transportation in places like New York and Chicago is easy, so I probably won’t need Uber or Lyft either.
This blog is about not spending a lot of money on travel, mostly through using reward points.
Since there are only so many points you can earn, it is also about saving money on travel.
Maybe the car rental world will up their inventory, and I can go back to renting outside of road trips.
The Point: Hotel Points Are Not Hard To Earn
I find hotel points extremely easy to earn, and think you should too.
Always, take advantage of promotions like these two.
Remember, each chain has a promotion every 3-4 months.
The more hotel points you earn, the closer you get to your next free stay.
I will list below the many ways to earn hotels points.
Hilton points are even easier to earn than other hotels to me.
This assumes you spend money at hotels.
Hotels reward you for spending money.
I don’t mean get in debt.
I don’t even spend my own money.
Again, this blog is about spending little if anything on travel.
I mean the normal vacation or travel that you would do anyway.
This requires having a travel budget.
Even though I spend little on travel, I still start with a budget.
How I Use Cash Equivalents Instead of My Own Money On Travel
How do I not spend money on travel?
Right now, I use things like Swagbucks, bank bonuses, etc. to cover my travel budget.
Later, I plan to cover my travel budget by reselling.
Reselling is popular in the points community as a way to earn more points.
It also earns you some extra cash which will cover my travel budget.
I have not started reselling, but hear it is easy.
My travel budget is $500-$600 per month right now.
I may increase it later though.
This will be in addition to points and miles whenever I get to international travel.
Since hotels reward you for spending money, I find that using cash equivalents rewards me on stays that I do not use points.
Cash equivalents include anything from cash back credit cards to Swagbucks.
I call it cash equivalents because to the hotels, you are paying cash and therefore earning more points.
The equivalent part is because this is not my own money.
This is my own made up word, so don’t look for it on the internet.
Of course, this is extra side money that could go to other things, but so could credit card reward points.
Again, this builds up a lot of points too.
Check out my other blog to start making extra money with things like bank bonuses and Swagbucks.
Even if you are earning a million points and miles a year (will explain why that is not hard to do in another post), there are only so many points and miles.
If you don’t want to spend your own money (like me), you will need other methods like cash equivalents.
Everyone should be making extra money from things like bank bonuses, Swagbucks, etc.
Again, check out my other blog to learn how to get started putting extra money in your pocket.
You don’t have to put this extra money toward travel, but it works for me.
This money is a couple hundred dollars a month.
Ways To Earn Hotel Points
Here are the basic ways to earn hotel points:
- Stay at hotel
- Get a hotel credit card (sign up bonus and putting normal hotel pend on card)
- Participate in hotel promotions
- Use hotel dining programs
- Be an elite (extra points per stay)
Summary
Hotel points are easier to earn than most people know.
On your normal travel that you would do each year, you could and should be earning lots of hotel points.
If you stay at a hotel and do not earn points, you are leaving money on the table.
After you earn all those hotel points, save them for the right redemptions.
Good examples would be your annual summer vacation and luxury hotels.
Make sure to use this formula to make sure you are using your points wisely.
Ten thousand Hilton points is not a small amount of points for one night.
I will probably be at 100,000 Hilton points in the next month or so.
Most people who earn hundreds of thousands of hotel points or more a year (not counting credit card sign up bonuses) are out spending a lot of money.
Nothing wrong with that, but this is a way you can earn more hotel points without spending a lot of money.
Again, I don’t like spending my own money on travel.
Do you earn a lot of hotel points?
What method do you use to earn those points?
