NJA Hilton Honors

[acaTerry]

Is there a way to convert Hilton Honor points to airline miles?

 

[Hair-on-Fire]

Yea, but the exchange rate is really bad. Mostly 10,000 HH points = 1500 miles. Details here:

http://hhonors.hilton.com/en/hhonors/rewards/exchange_2.jhtml

You can also exchange HH points for tickets directly.

http://hhonors.hilton.com/en/hhonors/rewards/airline.jhtml

 

[acaTerry]

Thanks, I kinda found out that they don't go too far..

 

[208starcheck]

I convert mine to round trip SWA tickets for 85000 pts. You can also trade 10,000 pts for one SWA credit.

 

[Semore Butts]

Yep, I'm at it again

Just booked tickets and hotels using points to get my kid off to school..

I love being a "Ninja Pilot"!

Had to actually pay for hotel in Laramie though (no chains).

Another great perk, always positive tickets and rooms. Cooool!!!!!

 

[Ultra Grump]

Thanks, I kinda found out that they don't go too far..

That's why the Hilton Amex card is not as good a deal as getting the miles on the company card. Unless of course you already have pass benefits on an airline and just need the points for hotels.

 

[acaTerry]

But doesn't the company card top out at 40,000 points? Not really too much you can do with that.

 

[Ultra Grump]

But doesn't the company card top out at 40,000 points? Not really too much you can do with that.

40,000 points = $40,000. You will never spend that on road expenses on your Hilton Amex card. The difference is your airline tix are purchased on your company card, if you have it = many more points.

If you want to convert Hilton points to airline miles, you're shortchanging yourself. You get about 5 points per dollar spent on the Hilton card, but it costs 10 points per airline mile. So the Hilton points are twice as expensive as company card points, and you won't rack up as many dollars worth. This is why the Amex card is only worthwhile if you don't need airline miles.

 

[AA717driver]

I've got less than three years to retirement at AA (age 50 while on furlough) so I get passes and paltry medical (once I turn 100... ).

I've also got platinum status at Marriott with 250,000 points and climbing. TC

 

[Diesel]

Hey now you can buy a couple of these.

Ugh below was supposed to be a marriot rewards link to a new watch. Stupid internet.

http://www.skymall.com/marriottrewards/productDetail.do?pid=69724423

 

[NJA Capt]

I'm not here.

 

[AirBear8]

I have the Amex Hilton Honors card but am thinking about going with the company card. Right now I put all my reimbursable expenses on the Amex. That dollar amount converts to about 5,000 Hilton Points per month, 60K in a year. A Hampton Inn is 20-25K points, a regular Hilton property is 30K or more. So using the card gets me 2 or 3 more free nights. The company card gets me 40K points good for almost any airline. That's enough for 1 unrestricted ticket a year or 3 restricted tickets every 2 years (I assume the points don't expire?)
So it boils down to 2-3 free nights or 1 free roundtrip per year. Also, with the company card you can file expenses online. A lot of Pilots file for their per diem and tip reimbursement soon as they get home and then do the rest a week or so later when the hotel charges show up.

AirBear

 

[Diesel]

airbear fill out the new form online that enable direct deposit for those of us using our own credit cards. That will make the deposit quicker

 

[NJA Capt]

I wasn't here either.

 

[Diesel]

Are you sure about getting only 200,000 a year. I know i got about 250,000 in 5 months because my wife needed them for something. So i kept pretty hard track of them to make sure i knew when she got the points.

 

[AirBear8]

I did email in the direct deposit form for my expense money, but I still have to do paper copies of everything and mail them in. Using the company card is a little easier and I think you get your money faster.

The 5000/month Hilton points I'm talking about are just from using the Amex card, not from my stays. I started at NJA in late March and stayed in Hilton Properties during training. I now have around 110,000 total Hilton points in a little over 8 months. I could have more if I used the "double points" or whatever they call it option but I chose to get 500 miles on US Airways per stay instead. I have almost 40K miles on US Airways but only 18K is actual flight miles, the rest is from my Hilton stays.

NJA Capt, please explain how the airline Visa card works. I though you just get 1 mile per dollar spent? If I only used it for NJA expenses I'd average around $1,500/month = 18K extra miles per year.

I still have non-rev available on US Airways but my wife doesn't want to risk space-a travel. She goes to conventions around twice a year so 2 tickets is what I need at a minimum, more would be nice for leisure travel.

AirBear

 

[Ultra Grump]

But....
Those of us using the (Insert airline of choice) VISA card are doing much better than the measly 40K points. I routinely earn over 100,000 airline points annually.

Yes, but those 100,000 are not solely from NJA expenses (I'd bet it's not even 1/3). They are also your own personal expenses. I get that much per year on our personal Amex too, but I don't include that in the total I earn via NetJets. Basically, I'm earning miles and points several ways: up to 40,000 per year on co. card (which is enhanced by all the airline tickets bought on it - you won't get that through your airline visa), points on personal Amex expenses, and Hilton points and airline miles through stays at Hilton properties. Put all that together and it'll outshine using just my personal card any day.

 

[NJA Capt]

nevermind...

 

[Ultra Grump]

You're half right.....almost.
Yes, my airline card is our "family" card. But a quick glance at one of my last statements shows 1000 points from personal use and 8000+ points from NJA use.

Man, what are you charging to the company? I never see that high of monthly expenditure on the road. Mostly hotels, and that doesn't come close.

 

[NJA Capt]

skip it....

 

[Ultra Grump]

What do the airline legs have to do with your credit card? I'm missing something here.

Is it that you have (for example) an AA visa card, and the company happens to send you on AA on these cross-country airline legs, so you're counting those in your total? If so, that's misleading, since you'd get those miles regardless. I get miles on just about every airline there is, but those aren't counted in my calculations because I'll be getting those anyway.

I suppose if you were based, for example, in ATL, it'd be to your benefit to use a DAL Visa card, because chances are you'll be flying DAL and can maximize miles on one particular airline. I guess that's something else to consider when looking at which card to use. But for me, the company has sent me out on NWA, AA, DAL, Alaska, Southwest, UA and several others, I'm sure. Too many airlines flying out of my gateway. So having a particular airline's card wouldn't benefit me as much as the company card.

 

[av8orboy]

Double Dip... 16 hilton stays = 1 SWA ticket.

 

[Ultra Grump]

skip it....

Actually, it was a serious question. If I'm missing something, I'd like to know.

 

[be-400xpdriver]

]Man, what are you charging to the company?[/B] I never see that high of monthly expenditure on the road. Mostly hotels, and that doesn't come close.

Wade did say in company recurrent that one guy had bought a jet ski.

 

[MasterOfYaw]

Credit Card Points

Ultra Grump,
If you use the company card, it is used to purchase your airline tickets. Really adds up over the course of the year.

 

[Ultra Grump]

Ultra Grump,
If you use the company card, it is used to purchase your airline tickets. Really adds up over the course of the year.

Yeah, that's why I use it. I am curious how one gets 8000 points/miles in NetJets expenses per month on a personal card. If that's really possible, I'll be switching back.

 

[Diesel]

Some months I've ranged from 15,000+ points to 2,000 points. The lower it was probably because i wasn't working. I copied and pasted my statement then figured it gave a little too much info about me.

Average month is about 10,000 points. Figure 2000 points a month are the wife's.

 

[Ultra Grump]

Some months I've ranged from 15,000+ points to 2,000 points. The lower it was probably because i wasn't working. I copied and pasted my statement then figured it gave a little too much info about me.

Average month is about 10,000 points. Figure 2000 points a month are the wife's.

Thanks Diesel, but you're talking about Hhonors points, are you not? To convert those 10,000 Hhonors points to miles, you'd get 1,000 miles. Not worth it to me. Good deal if you're going for free hotel rooms, though.

 

[Diesel]

ahhh i didn't realize we were talking money vs. hotel points.

For me getting 200k of hotel points are worth it for me because it gives my wife and i the freedom to travel around europe at the expense of hilton.

Getting over there is cheap on the airlines. Spending a month in europe during the summer is not.

 

[AirBear8]

Some months I've ranged from 15,000+ points to 2,000 points. The lower it was probably because i wasn't working. I copied and pasted my statement then figured it gave a little too much info about me.

Average month is about 10,000 points. Figure 2000 points a month are the wife's.

I average over 2.0% cash back on my ALPA Mastercard. I have my latest statement in front of me. $3776.78 in new charges (big car repair bill, usually it's less than $3K). My cash back was $58.94 + $32.85 Bonus Earnings. Total for this billing period is $91.79 which works out to 2.4% cash back. Would you be better off taking the $200+/month (assuming 10K/month charges)?

AirBear