Several months ago, Hilton launched a partnership with the cruise company Explora Journeys that enabled people to earn Hilton points when booking a cruise.
That partnership has been expanded further today, providing additional benefits on cruises for those with Hilton status. It’s now also possible to redeem Hilton points for Explora Journeys cruises, but as things stand that ability should be ignored as the value proposition is awful.
You can find the landing page for this partnership here. There are several elements to this partnership.
Save on fares
Hilton Honors members are eligible for a 5% discount on all fares. It’ll be worth checking pricing through other avenues though as my understanding of cruise pricing is that in general it can be highly variable depending on how/where you book.
Earn points
You’ll earn 10 Hilton points per dollar on bookings, as well as bonus points based on your elite status (if any)—the same way you earn bonus points on Hilton stays (percentages are listed in a moment).
Redeem points
Hilton Honors members can now also redeem points for the cost of cruises. More about the poor value that this offers shortly.
Receive elite benefits
If you have elite status with Hilton, you’ll receive the following:
- Silver – Welcome gift, 5% savings on Explora Journeys merchandise, signature loyalty delight, dedicated customer support, and 20% points earning bonus on stays
- Gold – All Silver benefits plus a surprise ritual or signature gift, an exclusive cocktail event with ship leadership, and 80% points earning bonus on stays
- Diamond – All Gold benefits plus Journey Experience Credits for Ocean Wellness and Destination Experiences, one complimentary laundry bag per Journey, and 100% points earning bonus on stays. Per the Explora Journeys website, Journey Experience Credits “can be spent on Destination Experiences including curated, immersive shore excursions that range from intimate small-group cultural tours and exclusive foodie experiences to private bespoke adventures.”
- Diamond Reserve – All Diamond benefits plus one complimentary laundry bag per day, private port transfers, a behind the scenes bridge tour (subject to availability) and 120% points earning bonus on stays.
Earn elite status
The nights stayed on the cruise ship and the amount spent for the cruise will count towards earning Hilton elite status.
Other details
We had several questions regarding the finer details of how this partnership would work, so we reached out to our rep who was able to confirm several things.
Yes to Points + Cash, no to free night certificates
One thing we were curious about is to what extent award bookings would be possible. They’ve confirmed that in addition to regular award bookings with Hilton points, you’re able to book using a mix of Points + Cash. Sadly, however, it isn’t possible to redeem free night certificates for free nights on the cruise.
No 5th night free
Hilton Honors members with any level of elite status (i.e. Silver or higher) benefit from a 5th night free benefit when booking award stays. That’s available for hotel stays, but it’s not being extended to bookings with Explora Journeys.
Earning rates with Hilton credit cards
The various Amex Hilton cards award 7X, 12X, and 14X bonus points when paying for Hilton stays, depending on which card you use. However, despite the partnership, these cruises won’t count as bonused Hilton spend.
That means that if you have a Hilton Honors American Express, Hilton Honors American Express Surpass®, or Hilton Honors American Express Aspire card, you’ll earn 3X points which is the default ‘everywhere else’ earning rate on those cards.
Somewhat similarly, the Hilton Honors American Express Business card will award 5X points as that’s the card’s default earning rate for unbonused spend. That 5X rate is available on up to $100,000 spend each calendar year.
Benefits when 2+ passengers in cabin have status
There’ll likely be situations where two or more people in a cabin will have elite status with Hilton Honors, so we wondered whether the elite benefits would be extended to both members.
Unfortunately they won’t—elite benefits will only be extended to the primary Hilton Honors member who books the room on the cruise. For most people, that’ll mean it’ll be worth booking in the name of the person who has the highest status level in order to benefit from the superior elite benefits.
The exception to this will be the complimentary welcome cocktail party for those with Gold status or higher. That benefit will be available for both the primary member and their plus one.
How to redeem Hilton Honors points for Explora Journeys & how much points are worth
When researching award pricing for these cruises, I’d initially overlooked how to redeem points for the cruise. The checkout page only seemed to offer credit card as a payment method and selecting an award booking hadn’t been an option earlier in the booking process.
What I’d missed was the ‘Use Hilton Honors Points’ link on the right hand side, just above the journey total.
If you click on that, you’ll see a popup with a slider allowing you to adjust how many points you want to redeem towards the cruise. You can redeem points in chunks of 1,000; as you can see, I only had ~170K points in my account, so I’m not sure how many points would’ve been required for the cruise.
As you can see, the original cost of this cruise for two people in the cabin I selected was $8,710. That price dropped to $8,370 if I also redeemed 170K points. That means redeeming 170K points would save $340, so a redemption rate of 0.2 cent per point. That’s awful value as it’s significantly lower than the already low Reasonable Redemption Value of 0.35 cents per point.
Adjusting the number of points to redeem didn’t do anything to raise the value of those points. Redeeming only 70K points would save $140—also a 0.2 cents per point redemption rate.
Assuming the 0.2 cents per point value is what’s being applied across the board for all cruises, that would suggest that you’d need to have 4,355,000 points in order to fully cover the cost of an Explora Journeys cruise costing $8,710.
Quick Thoughts
This isn’t the first opportunity to redeem hotel points for cruises (Marriott, for example, lets you do that, albeit at not amazing value either), so on the one hand it’s great that Hilton is striking up partnerships like this to give Hilton Honors members more opportunities to redeem those points. The disappointing aspect is that redeeming points for Explora Journeys cruises offers very poor value and so it should be avoided.
While points redemptions aren’t great, the rest of the partnership is. You’ll earn 10X Hilton points when paying cash for these cruises, along with bonus points of anything from 20%-120% if you have elite status. Add on all the other benefits that Hilton Honors elite members receive on these cruises and it’s a very worthwhile partnership from that perspective.
It certainly sounds like taking one of these cruises would be a very pleasant experience even without the various perks that you get if you have Hilton status. All Explora Journeys cruises include the following:
- An in-suite welcome bottle of champagne and a bottle of spirit of the guests’ choice upon arrival
- Nine distinct culinary experiences, including in-suite dining
- Unlimited beverages, fine wines, and premium spirits, speciality coffees, teas, and soft drinks available anytime, including in-suite mini-bar
- Access to the spa thermal area
- Wellbeing and fitness programs on board and at the destinations
- All on-board gratuities
- Unlimited, high-speed WiFi throughout the ship
- Shuttle services from port to city center (where required / available)
That’s a very good suite of inclusions, especially considering it includes things that would normally be an additional charge with other cruise lines like gratuities and WiFi.
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$6000 at 0.5cpp = 1.2 million points per person.
Minus the 5% discount.