Why I Love Having Stacks On Stacks Of Hilton Credits Now

Using Hilton Quarterly Credits

If you have listened to the Miles to Memories podcast over the last year or so then you know I have had a mostly hate relationship with these Hilton quarterly credits. And boy have I had a lot of them to deal with the last year or so. These credits were the bane of my existence for a while there. Maybe it was because I always tried to use them while traveling, which involved split tendering multiple credits on one stay etc. That was a craps shoot every single time. So, what changed? How am I using Hilton quarterly credits now? Let’s dig in!

Which Cards Have Hilton Credits?

For this write up I am talking about using Hilton quarterly credits, which are different from the resorts credit on the Hilton Aspire credit card. Those are locked to specific Hilton resort properties, where the Hilton quarterly credits work at any Hilton hotel. The following credit cards have these $50-$60 credits per quarter:

• Hilton Surpass card ($50 quarterly credit)
• American Express Platinum Business card ($50 quarterly credit)
• Hilton Business card ($60 quarterly credit)

We currently have 6 Hilton Surpass cards and 1 Amex Business Platinum card. That means we have $350 in Hilton quarterly credits to burn every 3 months. That sounds like a pretty daunting task, but it really isn’t – at least not any more.

Local Hilton Hotels For The Win

I decided to start focusing on using my Hilton quarterly credits at local hotels versus forcing myself to use them while traveling. This would allow me to have a much more stress free experience when on the road. The trick was finding a hotel that would work to use my Hilton credits at.

Cottage Hotel

The first location we tried was at a favorite restaurant / hotel of ours up by our cottage. We would stay there a few times a year in the offseason, and would pay cash since it was an independent boutique hotel. I was super excited when it joined the Hilton Curio collection because I thought we would be able to use our credits at their restaurant. The problem was that the restaurants POS system wasn’t on the Hilton network. So charges in the restaurant didn’t work unless we had a room to bill it back to. I did speak with the general manager and they thought we may be able to run gift cards through the Hilton network, but I have yet to try it. We talked about this hotel in a bit more detail on a recent MTM Travel episode.

Local Hotel Gift Card Failure

Next up I tried a Hilton a few miles away from my house. This was another Curio hotel, but a much bigger production versus the boutique cottage area hotel. I decided to try buying a gift card there, but they sold their hotel’s gift cards and not a Hilton gift card. It was processed on a tablet at the front desk, which once again was not on the Hilton network.

The Restaurant Finally Offered A Win

Next up I decided to try the bar and restaurant in the same hotel’s lobby. We went during happy hour and had a few drinks and small bites. The credit never came though, at least not during the normal timeline. I figured it was another failure, but I checked back a few weeks later and the Hilton quarterly credit was actually triggered. Victory!

It ends up that this lobby bar has an amazing happy hour every weekday from 3PM – 6PM. We can get half off their signature cocktail list, draft beers and the small plates options. The food and service is really good. That means we have 7 “free” date nights baked in every single quarter. The Hilton quarterly credits cover our drinks, food and tip most of the time. An amazing deal!

This Is Replicable

Using your Hilton quarterly credits at a local Hilton is possible a lot of places. It may not be 2 miles away like ours is (we are super lucky here), but there may be one near by. It may not be a swanky restaurant or bar, but it could be something like a Starbucks in the lobby. Maybe it is just a regular lobby bar, or a grab and go area by the front desk. I encourage you to explore your nearby Hilton hotels to see what they have to offer. Then do some test charges and see if it works.

You could do something similar when traveling too. Even if you are not staying at a Hilton hotel, there may be one nearby with a cool bar or restaurant to check out. I think if you start treating these Hilton quarterly credits as dining credits things just get easier.

There is even a really awesome spreadsheet floating around, with recent data points, that was shared on reddit. You can take a look for options in your area on there. I wish I had seen this before I started all of these test transactions, but I am glad it is available to all of you though. If a location near you is not on this list it is still worth probing. Do a test charge and see, you may just be surprised.

Using Your Hilton Quarterly Credits As Dining Credits

Sometimes we have preconceived notions on what something should be used for. I fall victim to that as well. All it does is limit our options when we think that way though. If we open these Hilton quarterly credits to being dining credits, like Resy or inKind, then it gives us something else to shoot for. Hopefully you have a useful option in your area that makes using these credits easier in the future for you. Let me know if you are using your Hilton quarterly credits as dining credits too down below or in our MTM Facebook Group.