Hilton is offering bonus Virgin Atlantic Flying Club miles for Hilton stays between September 26 and December 31, 2012. The bonus structure is as follows:

  • 1st stay: 1,000 bonus miles
  • 2nd stay: 2,000 bonus miles
  • 3rd stay: 3,000 bonus miles
  • 4th stay: 4,000 bonus miles
  • 5th stay: 5,000 bonus miles

You must select Virgin Atlantic as your preferred airline partner in your HHonors profile. Keep in mind these are bonus miles, and you still earn Hilton points and base miles (either fixed or variable) for your stay. In most cases you’re actually best off choosing to earn fixed miles for your stay, as you earn 1,000 Flying Club miles per stay in addition to the above bonuses and HHonors points. That means five Hilton stays will earn you a total of 20,000 Flying Club miles. The cool “trick” here is that Flying Club miles can be converted to Hilton HHonors at a 1:2 ratio, meaning you can turn those 20,000 miles into 40,000 HHonors points. That means you’re basically earning an average of 8,000 HHonors points for your first five Hilton stays through this promotion, which is an amazing return.

Registration is required prior to your stay in order to qualify.

(Tip of the hat to Gary)

Posted on September 26th, 2012 by lucky
Filed under: Great Deals, Hilton, Virgin | 37 Comments »

  1. September 26th, 2012 at 10:33 am

    London Tim said,

    It’s misleading to say it’s 8000 HH points per stay. That’s the average after 5 stays, but not everyone will get to that position.

  2. September 26th, 2012 at 10:40 am

    lucky said,

    @ London Tim — You’re right, updated the post to reflect that. Sorry.

  3. September 26th, 2012 at 10:40 am

    gomike said,

    stay five earn 40,000 HH

  4. September 26th, 2012 at 10:46 am

    Brooks said,

    This is a noob question, but does this mean any Hilton property (e.g., Doubletree) or an actual Hilton? Thanks!

  5. September 26th, 2012 at 10:47 am

    lucky said,

    @ Brooks — You can earn this bonus at any Hilton family property.

  6. September 26th, 2012 at 10:48 am

    Chris said,

    With Hilton you earn both miles AND points (i.e. “douple dip”) with each stay NOT one or the other.

    Thus you would earn your regular 10pts/$ for the stay (plus any tier bonuses, etc.) plus the reg. VA miles per stay (depends on type of property and whether you choose fixed or variable miles) plus this bonus.

  7. September 26th, 2012 at 11:01 am

    lucky said,

    @ Chris — I didn’t phrase that right at all. Sorry, fixed as well. I need some coffee, apparently.

  8. September 26th, 2012 at 11:21 am

    Gene said,

    How amazing this offer is depends on how you value Hilton points. Let’s ask Gary… ;)

  9. September 26th, 2012 at 11:24 am

    lucky said,

    @ Gene — 8,000 HHonors points are OBVIOUSLY worth $64. Everyone knows that!

  10. September 26th, 2012 at 11:34 am

    Yaswanth said,

    Lucky,

    The Hilton honors site says only 500miles per stay with the fixed option not 1000. Am I missing something?

  11. September 26th, 2012 at 11:37 am

    lucky said,

    @ Yaswanth — It shows 1,000 miles for me. See here:
    http://hhonors1.hilton.com/en_US/hh/points/earningmiles.do

  12. September 26th, 2012 at 12:01 pm

    Jon said,

    FYI, you misspelled “average” in the title.

  13. September 26th, 2012 at 12:05 pm

    SeaLight said,

    Are award stays booked on points/certs eligible for those promotions in general?

  14. September 26th, 2012 at 12:13 pm

    alexandrian said,

    Note that you need at like least 10,000 Flying club miles in order to transfer to HHonors.

  15. September 26th, 2012 at 12:17 pm

    lucky said,

    @ SeaLight — No, they’re not.

  16. September 26th, 2012 at 12:18 pm

    lucky said,

    @ Jon — Grrr, it’s one of those days where I should just give up. Thanks for the heads up.

  17. September 26th, 2012 at 12:37 pm

    Explore said,

    Per $100 stay for HH Diamonds (slightly less for Gold), I calculate the following:

    - 1000 HH base points
    - 500 points Diamond bonus
    - 500 points for Amex online booking
    - 1000 Diamond amenity points
    - 2000 base HH points transferred from VS
    - 8000 bonus HH points transferred from VS

    TOTAL: 13,000 HH points per stay

    How’s my math?

  18. September 26th, 2012 at 12:43 pm

    lucky said,

    @ Explore — Can’t beat that!

  19. September 26th, 2012 at 1:01 pm

    Andre said,

    @ Explore – You’re bonus HH row is not accurate.

    20k VS miles includes the base 5k & bonus miles (bonus is 1+2+3+4+5=15k). Bonus row would be 15k/5 stays * 2HH per VS = 6000 bonus HH.

  20. September 26th, 2012 at 1:25 pm

    Chas said,

    @Explore, also missing the 600 points you’d get from charging on the Amex card…

  21. September 26th, 2012 at 1:42 pm

    hangingchad said,

    @Yaswanth – @Lucky
    Regarding the Fixed miles, when i log into my account and try to change my double dip earning style to HHonors Points and Fixed Miles:

    I get this:
    “10 HHonors Base points per eligible U.S. dollar spent + 500 miles per stay (100 miles per stay at Hampton Inn®, Hampton Inn & Suites® and Homewood Suites®)”

    Although the link Lucky posted earlier clearly says 1000 miles / stay for Virgin Atlantic…

  22. September 26th, 2012 at 1:48 pm

    Chas said,

    Based on my math, assuming you are Gold and taxes are ~12%, you can get the cpp to under lucky’s 0.8 cpp valuation if your base rate is under ~$78 or so.

    Nothing that qualifies in my neck of the woods, but just FYI there may be mattress-runnable rates in less popular markets, depending on your valuation of HH points.

  23. September 26th, 2012 at 1:50 pm

    lucky said,

    @ hangingchad — That’s weird. I just logged in to change my preferences and I don’t see anywhere that it lists the amount again. Is it after you select the partner and enter your Flying Club number, or before?

  24. September 26th, 2012 at 4:04 pm

    Tao said,

    What’s the 500 pts for Amex online booking in Explore’s calculation?

  25. September 26th, 2012 at 4:19 pm

    lucky said,

    @ Tao — When you use either of the American Express Hilton co-branded credit cards you get 500 points whenever you make a booking with it online.

  26. September 26th, 2012 at 9:06 pm

    Nick E said,

    Just to clarify…the bonus Virgin Atlantic miles through this promo will be 1000 regardless of the type of Hilton property. However, only the full-service Hilton properties offer 1000 miles per stay; Hamptons and Homewoods only offer 200, and Home2 Suites only offer 100 (see the chart at http://hhonors1.hilton.com/en_US/hh/points/earningmiles.do).

    Since miles can only be transferred in increments of 5000, if one of your five stays happens at one of these property types, you’ll only be able to transfer the 15,000 bonus points for 30,000 Hilton HHonors points. Still not a bad deal though…

  27. September 26th, 2012 at 10:05 pm

    Andy said,

    May i ask whether Virgin Atlantic and Virgin America have some relationship? What is the value of one Virgin Atlantic mile? Could someone give a brief introduction?

  28. September 27th, 2012 at 7:32 am

    Ben said,

    The promo says “stays” but do they mean “nights” ? Will I have to stay 2+ nights (HHonor’s qualification for a stay) in order for each night credit? If so that would mean 10+ nights for 5 stays…

  29. September 27th, 2012 at 10:14 am

    lucky said,

    @ Andy — They do have a reciprocal partnership to some extent, but it’s not a very good one. Here’s a post on it:
    http://boardingarea.com/blogs/onemileatatime/2012/03/21/virgin-america-elevate-adds-award-redemptions-on-virgin-atlantic-and-virgin-australia/

    @ Ben — This promo is based on stays and not nights, unfortunately. So two consecutive nights at one hotel qualifies as one stay, unless you switch hotels or skip a night inbetween.

  30. September 27th, 2012 at 10:59 am

    Jeff said,

    I imagine you could do multiple stays at the same hotel, and just ask them to keep you in the same room…….. no?

  31. September 27th, 2012 at 11:13 am

    lucky said,

    @ Jeff — If there’s not a night inbetween the stays they’ll automatically be merged and credit as one stay, no matter how many times you check in and out.

  32. September 27th, 2012 at 1:07 pm

    Deal of the Day – FlyerTalk – September 27, 2012 | Frugal Travel Guy said,

    [...] can earn 8,000 bonus Hilton points per night by taking advantage of the Virgin Atlantic promotion with [...]

  33. September 27th, 2012 at 4:36 pm

    Jeff said,

    Merged!? bummer. Makes sense though.

    I have a business trip next week – looks like I’ll be hilton hopping! (Stays at 5 different properties, 5 consecutive nights would work, right? lol)

  34. October 14th, 2012 at 5:57 pm

    Premium said,

    I have a bunch (over 5) stays already booked. The fine print says I need to register BEFORE I book. Is that really the case? Don’t really want to cancel and rebook everything as it is a huge pain with my corporate travel.

  35. October 14th, 2012 at 8:20 pm

    lucky said,

    @ Premium — While the headline says “book and stay,” the T&Cs only state that the stay has to occur after registration, and not the booking… unless I’m missing something?

  36. October 28th, 2012 at 11:53 pm

    Andy said,

    quote: …”lucky said,

    @ Yaswanth — It shows 1,000 miles for me. See here:
    http://hhonors1.hilton.com/en_US/hh/points/earningmiles.do“…

    Hi Lucky,
    Unfortunately, hilton just removed this page.

    I kinda read somethere that, a most recent hilton promotion states that I could choose British Airways (instead of Virgin Atlantic) to earn 1,000 bonus miles for 1st stay. What is the fixed base mile earned for a stay in Hilton (not Hampton)? I could not find it on hilton’s website.

  37. October 29th, 2012 at 12:01 am

    lucky said,

    @ Andy — Unfortunately British Airways only earns you 500 miles. It’s British Midland that earned 1,000 miles, though they don’t exist anymore.

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