One of the things I miss most about british midland, with its acquisition by British Airways, is that it was my go-to program to credit Hilton stays to. Hilton offers ‘double dip’ and on cheap short stays “points and fixed miles” was my favorite earning option. I’d receive 1000 bmi miles per night up to three nights per stay. And that’s in addition to Hilton points.
Most of my Hilton stays are short, and a one-night Hilton stay will still earn 1000 Virgin miles. Plus I usually credit my one-day Avis rentals to Virgin for 1000 miles as well, so that becomes my go-to strategy.
Virgin Atlantic’s miles aren’t the greatest, the fuel surcharges are high, but at 1000 miles per rental day and per one-night Hilton stay they do rack up pretty quickly. So Virgin is a double dip strategy with Hilton I really like — not nearly as good an option as bmi was, but the best of the lot currently in my book.
Registration is required for this new promotion where you can earn progressively more bonus Virgin miles — on top of what you’d already earn for your stay.
Through the end of the year, when you choose Virgin Atlantic as your double dip partner (whether points and variable miles or points and fixed miles), you’ll earn:
- Stay 1, 1000 bonus points
- Stay 2, 2000 bonus points
- Stay 3, 3000 bonus points
- Stay 4, 4000 bonus points
- Stay 5, 5000 bonus points
The bonus is capped at 5 stays, and staying 5 times (even one-night stays) would earn 15,000 bonus miles — on top of the 5000 Virgin miles you’d earn regularly.
Update: worth highlighting Chas from the comments:
Worth noting that (though this is not Gary’s preferred strategy) VS points can be converted back to HH points at a 1:2 ratio. You actually earn more HH points using this strategy on one-night stays (even without the bonus promotion, assuming your one-night stay costs less than $400)…you earn more HH points using this strategy than double-dipping with HH itself.
And then those 20K total VS miles may be transferred back to Hilton for 40K HH pts, so each stay earned an 8K HHonors bonus.
Worth noting that (though this is not Gary’s preferred strategy) VS points can be converted back to HH points at a 1:2 ratio. You actually earn more HH points using this strategy on one-night stays (even without the bonus promotion, assuming your one-night stay costs less than $400).
Clarification: you earn more HH points using this strategy than double-dipping with HH itself.
Is the best redemption of these miles a RT to Europe?
Thanks for the heads up on this – just switched my HHonors earnings style to Points + Miles and added Virgin Atlantic to my profile – after registering for the promo of course. Whether you want HHonors points or Virgin miles, this is a much faster way to accrue them.
Staying at the hilton will not make you a virgin.
I feel the need to point out that Hilton still gives 1000 miles/night (not stay, up to 3 night) with BMI, which you can transfer to BA. I feel this is better use, since you can get 4500 Avios short-hops ( < 650 miles).
@TT, as exemplified by Paris Hilton
What makes you write that the BMI option isn’t there anymore? I can still see it;
http://hhonors1.hilton.com/en_US/hh/points/earningmiles.do
Sorry I didn’t say that bmi is no more, just suggesting it’ll be going away and I’ve moved on, perhaps prematurely since points can still be moved over to BA
Just a side note: If you are staying at Hampton Inn & Suites or Homewood Suites you only earn 200 points for the fixed miles double dip (100 at home2suites) vs the 1,000 double dip at all other Hilton Brands or 2 points per dollar on the variable miles double dip.
Getting the 15,000 bonus points makes this still a great deal. 15,000 bonus plus the 1,000 double dip (200×5 stays) = 16,000 x 2 for the transfer back to Hilton = 32,000 HHonors points (rather than the 40k mentioned above).
I mention this because I have 4 – 5 upcoming 1 night stays already planned for work at various Hampton Inns in smaller markets that do not have their full-service brands. I just set things up and registered as you suggested. This should be a great way to top of my HHonors accounts with stays I already had planned. Thanks!
Think this will also be running with other airlines, there is a Miles and More link albeit not active yet http://www.hiltonhhonors.com/quadruplemiles&more
This is a great promo. I registered as soon as it arrived at my e-mail address. Had it not been for this, I would have moved stays away from Hilton in 4Q because Hilton’s own promotion seems to be anemic.
This is more lucrative than BMI to BA for single-night stays. For cheap 3 night stays BMI is still useful, I use those for intra-Asia CX redemptions.
After I max this one out I’m using the Hilton M&M promo, 2000 miles/stay from the 4th stay (no limit). It goes 500 first stay, 1000 2nd, 1500 3rd and then 2000 onwards. Only useful for 1n stays I think, otherwise BMI still wins.
BMI will be back… sort of!
http://atwonline.com/airline-finance-data/news/newly-independent-bmi-regional-plots-its-strategy-0925?NL=ATW-04&Issue=ATW-04_20120925_ATW-04_902&YM_RID=daniel.blum@faa.gov&YM_MID=1342081
If you booked 5 one night stays in a row at the same hotel, checking in and out each night, will that work for the 5 stays? Or do you actually have to change hotels each night?
@Glenn that would be treated as 1 stay…
@Patrick Mc, you’re right about the lower earning rates at Hamptons & Homewoods, but you can only transfer Flying Club miles to Hilton HHonors points in increments of 5,000, so with five Hampton stays, you would earn 16,000 VS miles but only be able to convert 15,000 of them to 30,000 Hilton points.
http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/en/us/frequentflyer/fcpartners/hotels/hiltonworldwide.jsp
Are all HH properties participating?
@Gary sorry for the newbie questions, this is all very new to me. What about if you had two rooms at the same hotel during the same dates, would that count as two stays?
I read the promotion page and did not seen a list of properties not participating. Has anyone seen it?