Recently, I was asked what I thought about options for redeeming hotel points for cruises. I have not previously given this option a good look, though I tacitly knew it was available with Marriott Rewards. Turns out that you can cash in your Hilton HHonors points for a cruise too. Let’s take a look at what’s available.
Marriott Rewards
I’ve been an on and off customer of Marriott’s over the years. Just depends on my travel patterns. I appreciate Marriott’s consistency of service as much as anything. I’ve collected a few points here and there, most of which have been redeemed for hotel stays. Like many airline programs, you can book your cruise using Marriott’s portal and earn bonus rewards points. Currently (ends 10/31/14), if you book an oceanview or higher stateroom, you’ll earn 6 points per dollar spent. Better than a stick in the eye if you’re booking a cruise anyway. Here’s the example provided.
Actually paying for your cruise is a much less attractive deal.
You can book a $5,000 cruise for 1.25 million points…..wow. Or knock $500 off for 125,000 points. For just 105,000 points, I can book a room for 3 nights at the JW Marriott Marquis in Miami in January. Currently, the hotel is pricing at $431 per night if you’re paying. My point? The only way I’d spend a Marriott Rewards point on a cruise is if they really, really, really annoyed me beyond the point of no return, and I wanted to liquidate…. something that I never envision happening. Actually, I’m not even sure I’d pay for a cruise with points under that circumstance either! 🙂 If you’re minting points left and right, then have at it.
Hilton HHonors
Hilton offers earning and redeeming options as well through their cruise booking portal. Again, if HHonors is a program you play in, then you may as well pick up a few points for doing something you’re going to do anyway. Earnings are currently based on the number of nights booked with double points for oceanview and higher staterooms. Currently, cruises of 1 to 5 nights are offering 12,000 bonus HHonors points, while 13 or more nights earns 100,000 bonus points. On the redemption side, you can spend 120,000 HHonors points for $250 off your cruise or up to 480,000 points for $1000 off!
Some of the points amounts Hilton wants for a room nowadays are so mind-blowingly shocking that I might actually be tempted to throw a few HHonors points at a dollars off coupon for a cruise, that is if I had any HHonors points left. Cruising brings me joy. Paying 582,000+ points for 3 nights at the Hilton Miami Downtown, not so much.
Conclusion
Both Hilton and Marriott offer you the opportunity to earn points if you’re booking a cruise, much like the airlines do. If you’re playing in a program, there’s no harm in picking up a few extra points for something you’re going to be doing anyway. Redeeming hotel points for a cruise is a bad deal as far as I can tell. I say just don’t do it.
Up next in cruising coverage – a look at the value of premium beverage packages.
-MJ, October 25, 2014
Don’t use the Hilton Honors cruises or any other cruisesonly.com portal! They won’t give you your points. They’ll ignore emails with screenshots, and put you on hold for hours until you hang up. Credit card companies won’t help you either, the CC company will say you bought the cruise but not the points.
Please learn from my experience and don’t rely on them.
The one time I used a cruisesonly portal (Delta), it worked fine. But that was just my one experience with it. Have you tried reaching out to the frequency program you were crediting to? Which one was it, just for curiosity?
Excellent post. I really like all of the cruising content you’ve been posting recently. I’m still thinking about pulling the trigger on perpetual cruising — at least for a year — 2018!
I thought Hilton maxed out at 90k per night. How can he Miami Hilton be so much?
It was a 1-bed suite, weekend of January 16, 2015. Pricing at 194,040 points per night at the moment.
I saw on the Southwest portal you could book a Royal Carribean cruise in a Crown loft room for 1.25 million points. if you’re into manufactured spending that may be an option, that cruise (oasis or allure)usually runs 10-12k depedning on season, #passengers, etc.
I wish I had the time and motivation to MS that much, sw. 🙂