One of the worst things that can happen to any point collector is having their points expire. While it can happen to anybody, sometimes it is difficult to get your points back.
Many programs have policies where points will expire based on some set criteria. In the case of Hilton Honors, points expire if there is no activity within a 12 month period. To be honest, this is quite a short period of inactivity before points expire. It would certainly not be surprising if many small account balances expired every year.
Honors Points Reinstate
Hitlon Honors have added the ability to buy back any expired points. The Terms and Conditions of the program have recently been updated to include the following:
Hilton Honors Points Reinstate
Hilton Honors members can reinstate up to 1,000,000 expired Hilton Honors Points. Only Points balances that have expired in the previous 18 months are eligible for reinstatement. Only one reinstatement transaction is permitted per Hilton Honors account. Email address is required and will only be used for transaction and marketing communications related to this purchase. Points reinstated do not count towards elite tier qualification. Points.com and Hilton Honors reserve the right to terminate this reinstatement program at any time.
When logged into your account there is a new option under ‘My Points’ to restore points. Clicking on this link sends you off to Points.Com. It would seem the idea here is that you can pay to restore your points. I am unable to see the cost of the points through this option as I don;t have any expired points. I would like to think that they are cheaper than buying points through the normal channels.
While you can now pay to reinstate your points, there is no change to the actual expiration policy. This remains at 12 months where there has been no activity in your account.