If you have access to Hilton Honors points, primarily through holding an American Express or Citi Prestige card, then you can enjoy once-in-a-lifetime experiences through the Hilton Honors Auction site.

Yesterday I was lucky enough to join an Hilton Honors auction winner at the Formula One qualifying in Melbourne, and had an awesome time.

In this guide, I explain how it works, outline a few options to get your hands on more Hilton Honors points, and use my experience to give you a taste of what to expect.

How Hilton Honors Auctions work

There are four types of experiences you can use your points on:

  • Music: access to premium seats at concerts, e.g. Coldplay
  • Sports: access to VIP areas, e.g. Formula One
  • Culture: meet-and-greet and award ceremonies, e.g. The Grammys
  • Food: culinary experiences, e.g. food tours

and you have two methods of using your points:

  • Bid Now: just like on eBay and SPG Moments, you submit bids in an auction in increments of 10,000 points
  • Redeem Now: you can secure tickets on a first-come, first-served basis

This program is very similar to the Starwood Preferred Guest Moments program.

For example, you can currently bid on two VIP tickets to the U2 concert in Washington DC for 148,000 points, or redeem 100,000 points straight away for two VIP tickets to Neil Diamond in Nashville.

Hilton Honors auction results

You can search by date and country – Australia isn’t explicitly listed in as one of the search options but sometimes there are events that are featured here. The events are mainly located in the US, followed by Western Europe and North Asia (Japan, South Korea and China).

Hilton Honors auction results

It is very important to note that you must have the sufficient number of Hilton Honors points already in your account to make a bid or redeem and the points will be automatically deducted if you are the winner.

You can read more in the terms and conditions of the program.

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My experience at the Melbourne Formula One

A friend won an auction around 4 weeks before the event for a pair of tickets to the Grand Prix qualifying that took place yesterday for around 350,000 HHonors points. This was labelled as a “McLaren-Honda VIP experience” and included:

  • VIP hospitality in the McLaren-Honda Suite
  • Tour of the McLaren-Honda garage to see the cars up close
  • Two (2) nights’ accommodation at Hilton Melbourne South Wharf, including breakfast
  • Transfer to and from the Albert Park Circuit

The same package was available for race weekend, and sold for 625,000 Honors points.

Hilton Honors auction banner

Hilton are leveraging their corporate relationship with McLaren-Honda thanks to their sponsorship of the team – these, in my opinion, make the best experiences because they truly are ‘money can’t buy’ – and yes, it really hit the mark.

First, we met at the Hilton Melbourne South Wharf to meet and collect our tickets for the day.

Hilton Honors McLaren-Honda F1 Experience Ticket

From there we were taken to the Paddock Club, the area at the heart of every Grand Prix – this included a car transfer directly into the circuit, saving a heap of time getting through entrance lines.

Melbourne F1 Paddock Club
Hilton Honors McLaren-Honda F1 Experience

The Paddock Club is immediately above the pit lane – we were hanging out immediately above the McLaren garage, with all of the other goings-on of other teams close by.

Hilton Honors McLaren-Honda F1 Experience

McLaren-Honda’s private suite was our home for the day – with unlimited snacks, drinks, and a professionally hosted schedule of entertainment – plus a view over the pit lane.

Hilton Honors McLaren-Honda F1 Experience
Hilton Honors McLaren-Honda F1 Experience
Hilton Honors McLaren-Honda F1 Experience
Hilton Honors McLaren-Honda F1 Experience

Stoffel Vandoorne, McLaren’s new Belgian driver, came by after qualifying for a Q&A session too.

Hilton Honors McLaren-Honda F1 Experience

However the rooftop was probably the best place to most easily catch a good view of the action on track – the view was much better than from in the box.

Hilton Honors McLaren-Honda F1 Experience
Hilton Honors McLaren-Honda F1 Experience
Hilton Honors McLaren-Honda F1 Experience

The McLaren-Honda team were excellent making their garage open for organised tours for guests, so at one point in the afternoon we were given some more VIP passes to head out for a full-on garage experience – this allowed us a walk-through of the pit area plus full access to the McLaren-Honda garage.

Hilton Honors McLaren-Honda F1 Experience
Hilton Honors McLaren-Honda F1 Experience
Hilton Honors McLaren-Honda F1 Experience
Hilton Honors McLaren-Honda F1 Experience
Hilton Honors McLaren-Honda F1 Experience
Hilton Honors McLaren-Honda F1 Experience
Hilton Honors McLaren-Honda F1 Experience
Hilton Honors McLaren-Honda F1 Experience

It was a well-organised, excellent day out. The friend who won the auction was really pleased with the experience, and I got lucky with my invite. He earned his Hilton Honors points from a mixture of spend on his Citi Prestige Mastercard, and stays at Hilton properties.

How to earn Hilton Honors points

One of the more appealing credit card options for transferring points to Hilton is from the Citi Prestige Mastercard, which offers a transfer rate of 1 Hilton Honors point per Citi Rewards point, or an equivalent of 2 Honors points per dollar spent domestically, or 5 points per dollar on spend overseas.

Otherwise, here’s some links to some more summaries on Hilton Honors earning options:

For clarity – Point Hacks doesn’t have any commercial relationship with Hilton or McLaren.

Summing up

This was great day out for an F1 fan, and Hilton’s execution of the entertainment was top-notch. Hopefully their other events would have the same level of polish and fun.

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Using Hilton Honors points for a money can’t buy day at the F1 in Melbourne was last modified: December 15th, 2021 by Keith