Hilton Honors adds nine new airline partners, drops 11 and improves the transfer rate on two

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Tomorrow, 2nd April, sees a number of big changes at Hilton Honors, primarily the scrapping of ‘points and miles’. I will recap the key issues on Monday.

That is not new news. What is new news is that Hilton is also making big changes to its list of airline transfer partners. A lot come in, a lot go out and a couple see their transfer rates improved.

Whilst you can no longer earn airline miles from your stays, you CAN still convert your Hilton Honors points into airline miles.

Starting tomorrow, Hilton has nine new airline partners:

Air Asia – 10,000 Hilton points = 2,000 Air Asia Big points

Asiana Airlines – 10,000 Hilton points = 1,000 Asiana Club miles

China Eastern – 10,000 Hilton points = 1,000 China Eastern miles

Emirates Skywards – 10,000 Hilton points = 1,000 Emirates miles

Eva Air – 1,000 Hilton points = 100 Eva Bonus miles

FinnairPlus – 5,000 Hilton points = 1,000 FinnairPlus miles

Garuda Indonesia – 10,000 Hilton points = 1,000 GarudaMiles

SAS EuroBonus – 8,000 Hilton points = 1,000 EuroBonus points

Turkish Airlines – 10,000 Hilton points = 1,000 Miles&Smiles miles

As a reminder (nothing has changed) for the two UK airlines:

British Airways Executive Club – 10,000 Hilton points = 1,000 Avios

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club – 10,000 Hilton points = 1,500 Flying Club miles

In addition, Lufthansa Miles & More and Singapore Airlines Krisflyer have improved their earning rate:

Miles & More – 5,000 Hilton points = 625 Miles & More miles (was 500 previously)

Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer – 4,000 Hilton points = 500 KrisFlyer miles (was 400 previously)

The following are no longer Hilton transfer partners as of tomorrow:

Air Baltic
Air China
China Southern
Czech Airlines
Gulf Air
JetBlue
Multiplus
OK Cashbag
SriLankan Airlines
Thai Airways
TopBonus

Full details of these changes are on this page of hilton.com.

How to earn Hilton Honors points and status from UK credit cards (December 2021)

There are various ways of earning Hilton Honors points from UK credit cards. Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses.

Do you know that holders of The Platinum Card from American Express receive FREE Hilton Honors Gold status for as long as they hold the card? It also comes with Marriott Bonvoy Gold, Radisson Rewards Gold and MeliaRewards Gold status. We reviewed American Express Platinum in detail here and you can apply here.

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Did you know that the Virgin Atlantic credit cards are a great way of earning Hilton Honors points? Two Virgin Points can be converted into three Hilton Honors points. The Virgin Atlantic cards are the only Visa or Mastercard products in the UK which can indirectly earn Hilton Honors points. You can apply here.

You can also earn Hilton Honors points indirectly with American Express Gold (20,000 bonus points), the American Express Rewards Credit Card (5,000 bonus points) and – for small business owners – American Express Business Gold (20,000 bonus points) and Business Platinum (40,000 bonus points).

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which can be used to earn Hilton Honors points.

(Want to earn more hotel points? Click here to see our complete list of promotions from the major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.)

Category

British Airways and Avios, Emirates and Emirates Skywards, Finnair and Finnair Plus, Hilton Honors, Lufthansa and Miles & More, oneworld alliance partners, Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

GenghisForPresident says:

1 Apr1 April 05:13

There was a comment on here the other day that said Hilton gives you status benefits based on date of booking, not date of stay. For example, if I am Diamond now and drop to Gold in May 2018, I could book some stays for 2019 and get Diamond benefits when those stays come around. Is this true? Is this what other people have experienced?
- Rob says:
  
  1 Apr1 April 08:06
  
  I have experienced this too but it is not policy, more to do with their IT which seems to track status by booking date. I am sure the hotel can refresh the data but many don’t. Only a guess though ….
  - GenghisForPresident says:
    
    1 Apr1 April 08:50
    
    Thanks Rob – Happy Easter. Sounds like it is not worth the risk.
- J says:
  
  1 Apr1 April 09:00
  
  Good idea worth a try because I had a similar thing where I had done a status match to diamond so jumped from silver to diamond but they still had me down as silver when I checked in.
- George says:
  
  1 Apr1 April 09:22
  
  This is only indicative of one hotel’s IT system (Doubletree Leeds) but I had a complimentary Diamond status expiring on the day of my one-night stay (which, turns out hard-lands you to Silver afterwards) and what happened was that I was greeted as a Diamond, extended all the courtesies and benefits (including free breakfast), but, on check-out the following day I was asked to pay for the breakfast. After I said that I was told that the breakfast would be complimentary for Diamond members, the staff member checked a few things on his computer and said, ‘don’t worry, I’ll deal with it’ and merrily saw us off.
  
  So that hotel did refresh the database on that particular time…
  - Lady London says:
    
    1 Apr1 April 14:14
    
    I’m glad you shared this experience with the Doubletree Leeds. This means I’ll definitely have them in mind for my next stsy in Leeds. Such decent commonsense fair behaviour by a hotel should be rewarded with further business wherever possible!
- RussellH says:
  
  1 Apr1 April 10:59
  
  A couple of years ago now my partner gold IHG Gold benefits due to a booking made when she still had that status, bus used some months after her status had lapsed.
Mark says:

1 Apr1 April 05:21

I have useless amounts of Thai airways and air Asia miles kicking around its a shame we can’t conver them from miles to Hilton points!
J says:

1 Apr1 April 08:58

As I am a travel agent IHG works so much better for me because I earn points from travel agent rates whereas Hilton you do not. I am therefore going to transfer my remaining Hilton points to Virgin then transfer them to IHG.
- Genghis says:
  
  1 Apr1 April 09:14
  
  But Sir, the Holiday Inn is much better than the brand new Hampton next door…
  - Lady London says:
    
    1 Apr1 April 14:18
    
    Haha. Had many of those conversations with travellers at a bank I worked in. The bank’s expenses incurred by staff were an even higher percentage of revenue than was usual in investment banking, and subsequently they had to be acquired by another bank.
    - Mr(s) Entitled says:
      
      1 Apr1 April 18:33
      
      They had to be acquired just becauses of expenses? Which investment bank?
      
      Geez, we bought Bear Sterns but that was just because it was cheaper than buying their building in NY.
- TripRep says:
  
  1 Apr1 April 09:58
  
  Really, sounds such a poor conversion rate.? I guess if you only have a handful you don’t mind, think I’d use them up for a HH redemption first, even using part pay option.
Jon says:

1 Apr1 April 09:46

Is anyone else finding Hilton’s web site (and especially the booking pages) has become impossibly slow recently?
- TripRep says:
  
  1 Apr1 April 10:05
  
  Works fine for me, my own quibble is the phone app doesn’t allow flexible dates yet.
  
  I have found Hilton update their DB at 2-3am EST so balance info isn’t always available.
TripRep says:

1 Apr1 April 10:08

No bits today, so here’s an off topic that should be an April Fool, but isn’t…

I’m normally a fan of Virgin, but thinking they have messed up their PR on this one, loads of passengers with allergies complaining…

https://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahturner/2018/03/19/the-newest-ways-airlines-are-trying-to-improve-the-flight-experience-and-minimise-jet-lag/
- TripRep says:
  
  1 Apr1 April 10:17
  
  Speaking of fragrance on flights…
  
  Another gem that you might of missed which should of been an April Fool…
  https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/921133/plane-emergency-landing-transavia-airlines-passenger-smelly-farts
Graham Walsh says:

1 Apr1 April 10:46

Another Virgin one https://youtu.be/5xp7oJkzL4o
- Save East Coast Rewards says:
  
  1 Apr1 April 12:54
  
  Definitely not an April fool: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIU1p_6Ap4k
Paul says:

1 Apr1 April 18:39

Do point from the Hilton credit card count towards status?
- Alex says:
  
  1 Apr1 April 18:44
  
  Silver for holding. Gold for £10,000 spend in a calendar year. Otherwise no
meta says:

1 Apr1 April 19:41

O/T but Hilton related. Anyone has experience of checking in through app? I can see that I’ve been upgraded, but I am not sure whether I should check in as I need to put my Hilton CC on file instead of Platinum to get extra 2500 points for first four stays?
- TripRep says:
  
  1 Apr1 April 21:47
  
  used it a few times, often actually phoning the hotel to discuss room options and points earning prefs + selected CC
  - meta says:
    
    1 Apr1 April 21:59
    
    Thanks for sharing your experience.
    - Genghis says:
      
      2 Apr2 April 08:03
      
      Most of the time I’ve got a better upgrade by waiting and checking in at the hotel.