Guide to the Sonesta Travel Pass Program (2021)
Hotel Strategies, Hotel Loyalty Program Reference Guide
800-HONORS (446-6677)
Due to the drop in travel, Hilton has made some temporary adjustments to their loyalty program.
- Free night certificates earned until the end of the year will be valid for two years and can be used on ANY night of the week (not just weekends). Unexpired certificates from between March 11th and May 1st can also be used on any night of the week and are extended until August 31st, 2021.
- Your 2020 elite status will be automatically extended for 2021 (until March 31, 2021).
- The Hilton Surpass and Aspire card earn 12x points (5.4%) on grocery spending in May, June and July. There is no cap, but Amex hasn't been immediately issuing points for people who are spending more than about $25,000 per month. In addition, restaurant charges count towards the Hilton Aspire Card's $250 resort credit (during June - August). This is an easy way to use any remaining credit on your card.
- Points from credit cards (including bonus points) count as "base" points for Hilton lifetime status.
- Point expiration is on hold until the end of the end of the year. If your account is inactive, make sure to generate some activity by then.
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Quick Guide
- Like most other hotel programs, you can earn enough points for several free nights from the signup bonuses on Hilton’s credit cards. There are four different cards that you can take advantage of. Because they come from Amex, you can only earn each signup bonus once per lifetime.
- Hilton points have the lowest value of any of the most popular hotel loyalty programs. Points are worth around .4 - .5 cents each. A standard room, at a typical hotel, in a major city, requires 40-50,000 points per night, and their most expensive hotels require 95,000 points. How Much are Hotel Points Worth?
- The number of points required for a specific hotel varies within a range, but is always capped at a value based on the hotel category.
- Unlike most other programs, you don't pay resort fees on award stays. For hotels with high fees, a points redemption is more valuable.
- Hilton Gold elite status entitles you to free continental breakfast for two at most Hilton hotels that don’t already provide free breakfast (and snacks at those that do). You can get automatic Hilton Gold status with the Hilton Surpass, Hilton Business, or Amex Platinum cards, and even better Hilton Diamond status with the Hilton Aspire card.
- Cash and point awards are never a good value with Hilton. If you can get good value from your points, you should book with an all points redemption. If not, book with an all cash redemption.
- Hilton requires very few points for Category 1 and Category 2 hotels. If you are staying in less expensive locations (mostly in international destinations), the Hilton program can be significantly more valuable.
Sonesta Hotel Brands
Sonesta has recently purchased RLH Hotels, parent of the Hotel RL, Red Lion Hotels, Red Lion Inn and Suites, Signature Inn, GuestHouse, KnightsInn, Americas Best Value Inn, and Canadas Best Value Inn. These hotels have not been integrated into the Sonesta Travel Pass program yet, and it is still unclear whether they will be rebranded or not.
Award Chart
If there are “standard” rooms available, you can always book them with your points. Unlike the other hotel programs, you won't see point costs and can't book awards through the reservation system. If you see a room available, you either fill out an online form or call a customer service representative to book it as an award redemption. You can check the point costs for different hotels on this webpage.
| Category | Cost |
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| 1 | 10,000 |
| 2 | 12,500 |
| 3 | 15,000 |
| 4 | 17,500 |
| 5 | 20,000 |
| 6 | 22,500 |
| 7 | 25,000 |
| 8 | 27,500 |
| 9 | 30,000 |
Beyond this, there are two hotels in St. Maarten that require additional points. One is "Tier 10" and requires 40,000 points per night and one is "Tier 11" and requires 50,000 points.
Cash and Points Awards
- Hilton will let you use any combination of points and cash for every reservation. There is a slider that you can use to adjust the number of points you want to use, and the amount of cash you’ll have to pay. Regardless of the number of points you use, you'll get exactly the same value per point, as an all-point reservation. For example, if a hotel costs 36,000 award points, and has a room rate of $178, the average value per point is .481 cents. For each point you use to book the room, Hilton will take .481 cents off the room rate. Conversely, for each point you reduce the normal award cost, you’ll need to pay .481 cents.
- Hilton cash and point awards never make sense—if the value per point is high enough to be compelling for you to book an award night, you don’t want to make a cash and points reservation. You would be essentially buying points at a high price. You should either make a 100% points reservation, or a 100% cash reservation.
- The only exception is if you don’t have enough points to pay the full cost for a good value award reservation. Then, you might as well use the points you have, and make up the rest in cash.
- Hilton doesn't waive resort fees on Cash and Points awards, making them an even worse value.
Acquiring Points
Acquiring last minute points
If you see a great redemption deal on Hilton hotels, there are several ways that you can acquire additional points. Get a Discounted Room Rate by Buying the Points for an Award Night.
| Purchasing Points |
You can purchase up to 80,000 points per year, in 1,000 points increments, for 1 cent per point. Sometimes promotions are available, which allow you purchase points for less money per point and enable you to purchase more points per year. Acquiring More Hotel Points When They are On Sale. |
| Transferring points between accounts |
You can pool your points with up to 10 other people for free, so it is easy to give or receive points to anyone. |
| Transferring credit card points |
You can transfer Membership Rewards points (1000:1000), Citi ThankYou points (1000:1500), or Diners Club Reward points (1250:2000) to Hilton points. We would normally recommend just paying cash, rather than using up more valuable credit card points, at these low-value transfer rates. |
| Transferring from frequent flyer programs |
For the sake of completeness, you can transfer points from a small set of frequent flyer programs, but the exchange rates are not interesting enough to make this something to consider. |
Earning points from your stays
You can earn 10 Hilton points for every dollar spent with Hilton. Silver, Gold, and Diamond members earn bonuses of 20%, 80%, or 100% on stays. You'll also earn 10,000 bonus points for every 10th night.
You won’t earn points for stays booked through online travel agents. or other channels. You need to book directly with Hilton. You’ll only earn half the normal rewards from Home2Suites and Tru hotels.
You can earn points on up to four rooms, if they are paid for on the same bill. You will only earn elite credits for a single room.
If you have a Hilton credit card, you should use it for your Hilton purchases—you can earn up to 14 additional points per dollar. This is generally as good, or better, as what you could earn from any other card. But, if you are getting a best-in-class reward rate on hotel spending, as with the Sapphire Reserve card, you would probably prefer earning more flexible points. Best Credit Cards for Travel Spending
Other ways to earn points
The best way to quickly earn a bunch of points is by signing up for the Hilton credit cards. There are four different cards that you can use. The normal bonus on the Hilton Surpass, Aspire, and Business cards is 100,000 points, and the normal bonus on the no-annual-fee version is 50,000 points. Because they come from Amex, you can only earn each signup bonus once per lifetime. Credit Cards 101.
Hilton occasionally runs promotions where you can get up to a 100% bonus on purchased points. That brings the price down to .5 cents per point. We usually don’t see enough value from points redemptions to stockpile Hilton points. But, if you tend to find more opportunities for redeeming them, this is the only other way to get ahold of substantial quantities of points. Because of the way bonuses work, this promotion doesn’t just drop the price of buying points, it also effectively increases the number of points that you can purchase—allowing you to buy 160,000 points per year, rather than 80,000.
You can earn points from Lyft. By simply linking your Hilton and Lyft accounts at hiltonhonorslyft.com, you'll earn an extra 3x Hilton points on Lyft rides or 2x Hilton points on shared rides, on top of whatever rewards you are otherwise entitled to through Lyft or your credit card.
You can also earn points from a variety of other partnerships. View other earning partners.
Keeping your Points from Expiring
Your points will expire if you have haven’t earned, purchased, or donated points in the last 15 months. Note that simply using your points is not enough. You can easily keep your account alive, by making any charge on a Hilton credit card, buying 1,000 points (for $10), crediting a car rental to Hilton, or temporarily signing up for the Hilton dining program and eating at a participating restaurant. Our Keep Your Points from Expiring article provides more details about strategies for keeping track of upcoming expiration dates, and keeping your points alive.
Member Benefits
Award nights count towards earning elite status. Like most other programs, you won’t earn credit for nights booked through 3rd parties like Expedia. Any extra qualifying nights you earn rollover to the following year.
Blue (entry level)
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| Silver (4 stays or 10 nights) 20% bonus points on stays, and adds the following benefits:
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| Gold (20 stays or 40 nights or $7,500 spend) 80% bonus points on stays, and adds the following benefits:
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| Diamond (30 stays or 60 nights or $12,000 spend) 100% bonus points on stays, and adds the following benefits:
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Shortcuts to Hilton Gold Status
- Extra nights rollover to the following year. Every night you stay beyond a status threshold, is carried over to the following year. For example, if you stay 15 nights, you'll qualify for Silver (requires 10 nights), and you'll start the following year with an extra 5 elite status credits.
- You get automatic Gold status from the Hilton Surpass, Hilton Business, and the Amex Platinum card, and Diamond status from the Hilton Aspire card. We think getting one of these cards is worthwhile, if you stay at Hilton a few times per year. You can also get Gold status by spending $20,000 on the no-annual-fee version of the card; but if you really want Gold status, you are better off paying the annual fee instead.
- You can also get Diamond status, if you spend $40,000 on the Hilton Surpass card. However, we think it is a better option to earn higher rewards for your spending with other cards, rather than losing out on around $400 in rewards, to get marginally better benefits.
- You get automatic Silver status from the no-annual-fee Hilton card. Unless you are getting the card for the signup bonus, we don’t think it is worthwhile to take up a credit card slot, just to get the Silver benefits. But, once you get the card, it is worthwhile to hold onto it, unless you are planning to hold onto one of the other cards instead. (for the automatic Gold status benefit).
- Hilton tends to be relatively generous about matching status. But you can’t count on being able to do this year-in and year-out. Boost Your Hotel Status.
The Hilton Honors Credit Cards
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The Hilton Honors Surpass card has a normal signup bonus of 100,000 points (75,000 points after spending $2,000 in the first three months, and an extra 25,000 points after spending an additional $1,000 during the first six months) Automatic gold status. A free hotel night certificate, every year you spend $12,000. 12x points on Hilton purchases. 6x points at US restaurants, supermarkets, and gas stations. 10 free Priority Pass airport lounge visits. $95 annual fee. | |
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There is a business version of the card that is very similar. Rather than earning 6x points at supermarkets, it earns them on cell phone service and shipping. In requires an extra $1,000 of spending to qualify for the initial signup bonus, and includes the possibility of earning an additional free night certificate with $60,000 in spending. | |
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The Hilton Honors Aspire card has a normal signup bonus of 100,000 points (with $4,000 initial spend). You'll get a free night certificate, a (hard to use) $250 airline incidental credit, and $250 Hilton resort credit every year you have the card. It also gives you Hilton Diamond status and a number of other benefits. $450 annual fee. | |
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The no-annual-fee Hilton Honors card has a normal signup bonus of 50,000 points ($1,000 initial spending requirement). Automatic silver status. 7x points on Hilton purchases. |
If you stay a few times per year with Hilton, and don’t already want the Amex Platinum Card, we recommend getting the Hilton Surpass or Business card to get free Hilton Gold Status, which gets you free breakfast at Hilton, as well as other benefits.
For purchases from Hilton, the Hilton Surpass and Business card’s 12x bonus points, and the Hilton Aspire card's 14x bonus points, is better, or about as good, as you can earn from any other card. However, if you have the Sapphire Reserve or Preferred card, you are probably off with 3x Ultimate Rewards points, which are a lot more flexible. The no-annual fee card’s 7x Hilton points is worse than a card that earns good reward rates on travel purchases, but better than a general-purpose reward card. Best Credit Cards for Travel Spending.
Neither of these credit cards usually makes sense to use for purchases other than with Hilton. The Surpass Card offers a potentially attractive 6x points at US restaurants, supermarkets, and gas stations. However, 6 Hilton points is only worth about 3 cents. You can do better with one of the best options for each of these categories. But, if you don’t have one of those, the Surpass card is generally better than just using your general-purpose rewards card for these categories. Best Credit Cards for Restaurant Spending. Best Credit Cards for Grocery Spending, Best Credit Cards for Gas Spending.
