Related Posts:
- Earning Status with Hilton
- What does Hilton Status Get You?
- Earning Points with Hilton and the Double-dip Option
- Redeeming Points Utilizing Hilton AXON Awards
- Redeeming Points Utilizing Hilton’s 5th Night Free Awards
- AXON vs. 5th Night Free Award – Which One is Better?
- The New Hilton Honors Program
UPDATE: Hilton no longer offers AXON awards.
One of the many unknown benefits of the Hilton rewards program are AXON awards. Utilizing this benefits can possibly allow your points to be stretched further and to get a better redemption out of your Hilton points.
First let me start out by saying that the only way to have access to the AXON awards is by having one of their two co-branded American Express credit card: Hilton Honors™ Surpass® Card from American Express and Hilton Honors™ Card from American Express. The Citi cards will NOT give you access to AXON awards as this is a special perk of just the two Amex credit cards – even having status will not get you this special award charts.
AXON awards are available on stays of 4 nights for categories 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 hotels:
- Category 5 hotel, typically requires 30,000 – 40,000 points
- AXON5 discount for 4 nights = 130,000 points total, so 32,500 points/night
- Category 6 hotel, typically requires 30,000 – 50,000 points
- AXON6 discount for 4 nights = 160,000 points total, so 40,000 points/night
- Category 7 hotel, typically requires 30,000 – 70,000 points
- AXON7 discount for 4 nights = 190,000 points total, so 47,500 points/night
- Category 8 hotel, typically requires 40,000 – 70,000 points
- AXON8 discount for 4 nights = 220,000 points total, so 55,000 points/night
- Category 9 hotel, typically requires 50,000 – 80,000 points
- AXON9 discount for 4 nights = 260,000 points total, so 65,000 points/night
- Category 10 hotel, typically requires 70,000 – 95,000 points
- AXON10 discount for 4 nights = 300,000 points total, so 75,000 points/night
As you can see from above, AXON award are not a great redemption when a hotel requires the lowest range of points to be redeemed (typically off-peak times). AXON awards used to be much more valuable prior to the massive award redemption change in March 2013. Also, these awards cannot be booked online, and you’ll need to call Hilton reservations (1-800-920-5649).
Remember, if you have Hilton status (Silver, Gold, and Diamond) you also have access to the 5th night free benefit. However, you cannot combine the savings. You need to pick the one that will give you the higher discount. For category 1-4 hotels, the 5th night free option is better since AXON awards are not available for those categories.
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This series is super useful as i am planning on booking my first hilton honors stay with points! Have access to Axon an Glon but going to category 6 hotels so I will probably leverage the Axon discount for a 4 night stay. I will also stay in another hotel for 2 or 3 nights in a rown (category 5). need to read on whether GLON can save me money. Thanks!
@Mariana – Glad this helps!
No need to ever use AXON cat 5 REWARD as GLON would be a better deal for a 4 night stay, imho
Cheers,
PedroNY
I am planning a 5 night trip in August and would like to know if the 5 consecutive nights have to be at the same hotel? I was hoping to spend 3 nights in one city and 2 nights in another.
@David – Unfortunately this is only for consecutive nights at the same hotel.
@PedroNY. I misspoke. I will be staying 4 nights at a category 6, and 3 nights at a category 5. so I can only use the discount in the category 6 hotel with Axon.
[…] Hilton elites can save when they go to redeem their points, so even though that doesn’t apply to your free night certificates it will stretch the value of the points you earn, which you may need to do to tack on some weekday nights to your reservation. You can save 15% of the points necessary for a 4-night stay, 20% for a 5-night stay, and 25% for a 6-night stay. Still, you should consider getting a American Express Hilton card too for access to special AXON awards. […]
[…] with elite status (okay, the last one’s not bad unless you already benefit from special AXON and GLON awards from Hilton-branded credit […]