“Hilton Honors members can restore points expired in past 18 months at the rate of $2.50 per 1,000 points or a flat rate of $250.00 to restore 100,000 to 1,000,000 expired points.”
About Restoring Expired Hilton Honors Points…
That paragraph was excerpted from this article which was written by Ric Garrido of Loyalty Traveler — who had Hilton Honors points which had expired and were eligible to be restored.
I have stayed at hotel properties during 2017; so I had no Hilton Honors points which either expired within the past 18 months or were eligible to be restored — and therefore I have no access to that information as a result despite seeing a link to Restore Your Points.
Ric Garrido was able to access the terms and conditions for restoring expired Hilton Honors points:
Hilton Honors members can reinstate up to 1,000,000 expired Hilton Honors Points. Only Points balances that have expired in the previous 18 months are eligible for reinstatement. Only one reinstatement transaction is permitted per Hilton Honors account. Email address is required and will only be used for transaction and marketing communications related to this purchase. Points reinstated do not count towards elite tier qualification. Points.com and Hilton Honors reserve the right to terminate this reinstatement program at any time.
Although I trust information which he reports, I still had questions: is the reinstatement of expired Hilton Honors points only good once for the lifetime of a membership account? If so, why? Could this not be a potential revenue stream for Hilton? Is the cost of restoring expired Hilton Honors points the same for all members who are eligible?
Official Response
When I asked one of my contacts who represents Hilton about additional information pertaining to restoring expired Hilton Honors points, the official statement which I received in response is as follows:
The Points reinstatement is a very new offering that was just rolled out in the past few weeks. We’re still working through the details, so it’s still in its initial phase and I don’t have many details to share. The cost will vary based on the member and it’s only for eligible members whose Points have already expired.
Summary
Considering that purchasing 1,000 Hilton Honors points would cost me ten dollars and purchasing 100,800 Hilton Honors points would cost me $560.00, the point restoration option is clearly significantly less expensive — assuming it is similar to the option available to Ric Garrido — leading me to believe that Hilton would rather you simply purchase new Hilton Honors points rather than restore them.
When compared to purchasing Hilton Honors points, restoring expired ones are a bargain. I suppose having a significantly less expensive option of restoring expired Hilton Honors points is better than not having that option at all — even if it does mean that you only have one opportunity to do so.
For a variety of reasons, I personally believe that frequent travel loyalty program miles and points should not expire in the first place — as one example, Delta Air Lines SkyMiles do not expire for as long as the SkyMiles member lives — but then again, my point of view is that of the consumer and not of the corporate entity; and there is no shortage of people who disagree with me on this specific topic.
Obviously, a less expensive option is to never allow your points to expire in the first place — and fortunately, a number of options are available to prevent the expiration of points from happening…
Photograph ©2009 by Brian Cohen.
