Way back in April 2017, Hilton made several positive changes to their Hilton Honors loyalty program. And one of the best new features was the addition of their points & money redemptions and the ability to pool your points with other Hilton Honors members simply and easily.
In our opinion, Hilton's points pooling feature is one of the most lucrative benefits offered by any hotel program. You can easily take advantage of it with the new increased welcome offers on the co-branded Hilton American Express suite of credit cards.
What is Hilton's Points Pooling Feature?
With Hilton's points pooling feature, Hilton Honors members have the ability to combine the points in their Hilton Honors loyalty account with up to 10 other Hilton Honors program members.
You must have a minimum of 1,000 points in your account to make a points transfer, and you can transfer a maximum of 500,000 points per calendar year. Additionally, Hilton caps members from receiving a maximum of 2,000,000 points per calendar year, which is quite generous.
Hilton makes this easier than any other hotel program, and it is a great way to stockpile points to use for a stay that you otherwise wouldn't have enough points for on your own. On top of that, Hilton Honors makes allows you to tranfser points to friends and family with no fees or strings attached. If you and a spouse both have a balance of Hilton Honors points, you can transfer them into one account to make managing them easier.
What is our favorite part of Hilton's points pooling feature? The process couldn't be easier. You can create your points pool or transfer points between accounts instantly by visiting this link while logged into your Hilton Honors account.
Use Hilton's Points Pooling Towards a Fifth Night Free Redemption
Using Hilton's points pooling feature makes the points you earn on the current welcome offer bonuses significantly more valuable. It allows you to combine welcome offer bonuses earned from friends, family, spouses or significant others into one Hilton Honors account and have enough points to take advantage of Hilton's fifth night free on award redemptions benefit.
Hilton offers elite members of their Hilton Honors program a fifth night free on all standard room redemptions. Just for holding the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass Card or the American Express Hilton Business card you receive Hilton Honors Gold status which allows you to take advantage of the fifth-night free redemption.
Hilton's Points Pooling Benefit in Action
Let me give you an example of how this would work. If you and a significant other both open the Hilton Honors Surpass card, you would each have roughly 135,000 Hilton Honors points after receiving the welcome bonus offer and meeting the minimum spending requirement of $2,000. The current welcome bonus offer is 125,000 points after spending $2,000 in the first 3 months of card membership.
You will also earn 12x Hilton Honors Points per dollar spent at Hilton hotels, 6x Hilton Honors Points per dollar spent at U.S. restaurants, U.S. supermarkets, and U.S. gas stations, and 3x points on all other purchases.
Using Hilton's points pooling feature, you can combine these points into one account and would instantly have roughly 270,000 Hilton Honors points. With 270,000 Hilton Honors points, you can book a 4-night stay at the new Waldorf Astoria Las Vegas.
I was able to find nights for 57,000 points, so a 4-night stay would cost 228,000 points. This is just one of many examples, but with Hilton's fifth night free on award bookings benefit, you have just unlocked a free five-night stay with the welcome bonuses from two credit cards with 42,000 points to spare. It's hard to argue with that kind of value.
Bottom Line
Hilton's points pooling feature unlocks a lot of possibilities when it comes to seeing more of the world for less. Just for holding the Hilton Honors Surpass or the Hilton Honors Business credit card, you can take advantage of the fifth-night free benefit on award bookings. Combine this benefit with Hilton's points pooling and transfer functionality and it instantly makes your points 20% more valuable.
The best Hilton Ascend offer is 150k through a referral link. Not sure where your 109k is coming from.
Thanks for the comment. My math was wrong and I fixed it. My math is based on the current best public welcome bonus offer for the Ascend card of 125,000 points.
Important detail: Do you have to have the same address in order to pool points?