My usual double dip partner with Hilton is british midland, at 1000 points per night up to 3000 points per stay. Great for those cheap Hilton Garden Inn stays in small towns, for sure.
On shorter says, the best current value though is double dipping with Virgin Atlantc. (HT: Loyalty Traveler) Registration is required to earn 3000 Virgin miles per stay from April 1 through June 30. A cheap one-night stay will earn 3000 miles (in addition to some Hilton HHonors points).
In order to earn the flat 3000 miles per stay, you need to select your “earning preference” as points and fixed miles. The offer is actually for triple miles regardless of earning preference and brand, which means that Homewood Suites and Hampton Inn stays earn 600 miles instead of the usual 200. And folks choosing “variable miles” instead of “fixed miles” as their earning option earn triple miles based on spend amount as well.
I’m in general not a huge fan of the Virgin program for their fuel surcharges on award tickets and inability to combine partners on a single award booking. But they’re often a good acrrual partner, for instance I use them as my default earning option on one-day Avis rentals where there’s a fixed 1000 miles per Avis rental. On longer rentals there are often more lucrative promos, but it’s rare you’ll do better than 1000 miles on a one-day car.
Thanks for tip. Sadly I almost never stay in Hilton Hotels, but.. useful.
Like you I dislike Virgin’s huge fees (though BA’s the same) but the VS black card is a good earner – with a base 1.5miles/$ and a bonus of 15,000 miles annually if you spend $25,000, that translates into 52,500 miles for $25k – over 2miles per dollar – and thats for general anything spend. Pretty darn good. Factor in affiliate shopping partners if you click through on your VS account to purchase and you can get another mile per dollar at least. Use the miles on Singapore or Air New Zealand or another partner who doesn’t make fuel surcharges, and you have a nearly free very long haul flight.
I still mourn the loss of the 1700 BD points per Hertz rental. Thanks for reminding me…
I’m confused, do you get 3k for staying at Hampton Inn or 600? Trying to see if it’s worth a little mattress run
@Phil Hamptons are a lower earn rate so 600 instead of the usual 200. The brands like Hilton Garden Inn etc earn 3000 instead of the usual 1000. Probably not going to be worthwhile to mattress run just for the Virgin miles, though there may be a Hilton somewhere for under $50…
@Jeff yes that is sad indeed.
I assume one cannot combine this Virgin A promo and the
new 1000 point per night promo at the same time?
Perhaps someone would be kind enough to give me some advice. I’m staying 5 nights at a Hilton within this time period.I don’t currently have a Virgin ff# and never fly Virgin, although I do fly United which is another Star Alliance member. Is this promo worth it for me? Can I transfer the miles out or use them in some other way that would benefit me or am I better off getting standard mileage with an ff program that I do use? Thanks.
This promotion is based on stays not nights so 5 nights would essentially earn you 3000 miles which isn’t very much to deviate from your normal program of choice.Virgin miles can not be transferred out of the program to my understanding and certainly not to United
If you take a Virin Atlantic credit card sign up offer for 50,000 miles and then utilize this promotion it might be worth signing up for.Off topic but one reason I enjoy being a member of Virgins program.If you fly to Australia one can redeem on V Australia through Virgin Atlantic and book one way or RT with better availability than United.Perhaps Gary can shed some light here that I may be overlooking.
You can always transfer your Virgin Miles to Hilton 1 for 1 at no cost and no fee, but in 10,000 mile chunks. I have 8000 Virgin Miles orphaned and one can rent a car through Avis to also get 1000 Miles to Virgin. Really trying to get that extra 2K.
In the past I collected Virgin to use NH (All Nippon Airways), but when I tried to book a flight between HKG-NRT, the call-center girls were working from inside their homes, and it was impossible to get a seat on any of those empty planes. I was very disappointed; therefor, I popped 30,000 Virgin Miles for 30,000 Hilton HHonors points for the point stretchers in Nagoya. It really ticked me off.
Did I get a flight? Right away through the EXP desk on American.
ED
Virgin Atlantic miles transfer to Hilton at a 2:1 ratio.
http://hhonors1.hilton.com/en_US/hh/points/milesforpoints.do
I just called VS to confirm the 2:1 ratio was informed that
it is 1:1 and that there must be a mistake on the HH website.