Last month, I wrote about a new Hilton points auction for the magnificent Maldives. Point auctions like this are a great way to get an experience or hotel stay using just points – no money. In this case, it was experiences and hotel stay and it sold for a lot of points, but it wasn’t that bad of a price (all things considered).
This Hilton Package Sold for a Record 2.9 Million Points
To read about this package in more depth, you can check out this post. But to sum it up, the winner would get 4 nights in the Sunset Water Villa at the Conrad Maldives for up to 4 people. That villa by itself goes for over $5,000 per night on many nights!
Next, it included the seaplane transfers. Again, this is quite pricey at $500 per person so if the winner brought the maximum of 4 people, that is an additional $2,000 that everyone else has to pay.
It also included breakfast and a private boat to use during the stay. On the experience side of things, it also included a day experience at the super-exclusive underwater villa called the Muraka. This underwater villa can only be bought for a minimum of 4 nights at a cost of $200,000 for that package so unless you are a super wealthy person willing to drop almost a quarter of a million dollars to stay there, this auction was the only way to see what this underwater villa is really like!
The MURAKA underwater villa
The winner was also able to choose from one of the 4 Muraka experiences:
- The Flavors collection: enjoy a champagne breakfast in the world’s first undersea restaurant, Ithaa; or escape on a luxury day cruise with catch & cook meal prepared by our Executive Chef.
- The Soul Collection: morning meditation cruise and other transformative experiences for the mind and body
- The Wanderers collection: snorkelling tour with our resident Marine Biologist, private tours on land and sea
- The Thrill collection: Jet Skiing, catamaran sailing, windsurfing, & more!
All told, this package would probably retail for at least $33,000 for the 4 people. Instead, it went for 2.9 million Hilton points! Yes, that is a lot of Hilton points! However, at the value of .5 cent per point, that equals a value of $14,500 for this package. That is more than half off what the retail would be for this package! Sure, I realize no one bidding would likely have been willing to pay over $20,000 for the package but lets take a few things into account.
Was This a Good Deal?
Hilton runs frequent sales at .5 cent per point. You can send up to 500,000 points to a single account in a calendar year and the person who is pooling the points can receive points from up to 10 other people. They can receive a maximum of 2 million points in a calendar year. Plus, it can be pretty easy to get close to 500,000 points with credit card bonuses and referrals as well.
Getting the 2.9 Million Points
So, if those 4 people pooled those 500,000 points, they would be at 2 million points. That would leave 900,000 points – if they had no other points than from maxing out credit card bonuses and some referrals! If they were to buy those remaining points, it would have cost $4,500 – a hefty sum but you could also look at it as $1,150 per person.
Altogether, it is still a ton of points to use but for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, it wasn’t that bad of a deal. Sure, you could book a solid month at a top tier Waldorf Astoria or Conrad hotel anywhere in the world (actually more than a month since you get the 5th night free on award stays). You could also redeem those points at Amazon for $5,800 in merchandise. But, if someone really wanted to go to the Maldives and enjoy an over-the-top stay and experience, this was the way to do it.
Hey, we could do that same rational for the old SPG Moments package of throwing out a first pitch for Game 7 of the World Series (and we did) but Dan from Dan’s Deals still says it is one of his favorite point redemptions of all time!
Whoever won this Hilton package, enjoy your ultimate stay!
