Embassy Suites Anchorage

The Embassy Suites Anchorage is located fairly close to the airport although you will need a shuttle to get to the hotel. Make sure to give them a call when you arrive as the shuttle does not run periodically. The hotel is located a few miles away so it will take some time for the shuttle to arrive at the airport.

As a Category 8 hotel, one night did cost a pricey 50,000 Hilton HHonors points (although you will find most other Anchorage hotels also charging exhorbitant amounts for what they offer as well). Likely the best compromise would be the Sheraton Anchorage which probably offers better value for their points.  Sadly, I had already run out of SPG points so I had 'settle' for this hotel.

American Airlines 'A Little Extra' & 'Daydream' Sweepstakes

American Airlines and Hilton are partnering to give away an amazing grand prize to Hawaii here at their 'A Little Extra' Sweepstakes which runs until August 30. The winner will get 180,000 AAdvantage miles which may be used by the winner and his/her guest to travel to Maui. The prize also includes a six night hotel stay at the Grand Wailea, a Waldorf Astoria resort, including a couples massage, a $350 AA VacationsSM gift certificate and an Avis/Budget 7-day care rental.

Also, American Airlines is also running a 'Daydream' sweepstakes is located here and runs until July 24th. Go back daily to sign up for a chance to win one of twenty-nine prizes of 25,000 AA miles, enough for a roundtrip domestic flight!

Hilton's Great Getaway Giveaway Sweepstakes

Hilton HHonors just started another sweepstakes here with 4 trips to be given away. The actual prize, however, is decided by the participants. Each phase consists of 4 potential trip destinations, of which the most popular selection will be given away as the prize for that period.  All of the prizes consist of coach airfare for two, 5 nights accommodations and $500 Hilton gift card. See the official rules for more details on the rest of the prize packages as they vary slightly.

The potential places to pick from are as follows:

Phase 1 - Relaxation (now until June 21, 2013)

Hawaii Big Island

Puerto Rico

Florida

Thailand

Phase 2 - Adventure (June 24 until July 7, 2013)

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

Whistler, BC

San Jose, Costa Rica

Orlando, Florida

Phase 3 - Culture (July 8 until July 21, 2013)

New York

Chicago

Nashville

Santa Monica

Phase 4 - Food and Wine (July 22 until August 4, 2013)

Napa Valley

New Orleans

Turkey

Montreal

For me, Thailand sounds mouthwatering. What destination would YOU pick?

Hilton's The Ultimate Road Trip Sweepstakes

Hilton is currently running 'The Ultimate Road Trip' Sweepstakes here for a chance to win a 2014 Ford Mustang V6 Convertible (options selected by sponsor). In lieu of that, the grand prize winner may also select to win $20,000 USD in cash! Additionally, the winner will receive five gift certificates each good for a one night stay and a $500 USD Hilton HHonoros Gift Card. There will also be five first prizes awarded each consisting of a package that includes: two certificates, each good for a one night stay, one $200 USD rental gift coupon for Alamo/National Rental Car and a $100 USD Hilton HHonors Gift Card. Good luck to everyone!

Win 25k Hilton HHonors Points from Embassy Suites Orlando North

The Embassy Suites Orlando North is running a sweepstakes to give away 25,000 Hilton HHonors points. While they're not going to be as valuable after the overall program devaluation on March 28, 2013, it never hurts to top off your account with some free points! Just enter your email here after 'liking' them on Facebook and you're on your way to a chance to win!

Trip to the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival Sweepstakes

There's only a few days left but still enough time for you to get in your entries for a trip to the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival in NYC! To enter, 'like' Conrad hotels here and fill in an entry. The first grand prize winner gets a pair of business class flights from anywhere in the US/UK to NYC, a pair of Vesey Passes to the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival for 3 days (access to most Festival screenings) and 3 nights accommodation at the Conrad New York! You can get a second entry via the Hilton Facebook page here. The 2nd grand prize winner gets the same except the 3 nights accommodation are at at the Millenium Hilton instead! It pays to be the runner-up as well as you get 2 nights at any Conrad Hotel worldwide so sign up now!

Hilton Tokyo Executive Lounge Breakfast

I just had to do another piece on the Hilton Tokyo's executive lounge breakfast as it was really quite an nice experience. As mentioned, the executive lounge is only opening to those residing on the executive floors although they seemed to be a bit lax on the checks. In any case, the lounge had your typical assortment of western items such as scrambled eggs, sausages, bacon and there was actually a nice international variety of stuff like siu mai and stir-fried noodles.

Hilton Tokyo

This was my first visit to Japan and knowing how expensive Tokyo can get, I decided to make use of some of the points I had stashed up. Of the major programs, Starwood and Marriott both had relatively few offerings in the vicinity and all of those were quite high up in category so I decided to stay at the Hilton Tokyo, a Category 6 hotel. This would usually go for 40,000 HH points per night but with the AXON code (for Hilton American Express card members), a 4-night stay was redeemed for just 125,000 points, a discount of almost 9,000 points (or almost 22%)! That meant this cost even less than my Category 5 redemption at the Embassy Suites Montreal! And given that a regular room generally costs at least $300 USD, I was getting pretty much getting 1 cent / HH point which was outstanding value, especially at a top tier hotel in Japan!

The Hilton Tokyo is located near the major Shinjuku Metro/Rail station and almost right next to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, known for its observation deck on the 45th floor, which is free to the public but which I unfortunately didn't get a chance to use this time around.

"Hawaii Five-O" Go Hawaii Sweepstakes

Hilton is running a sweepstakes offering you the chance to win one of three awesome prizes:

1) Round trip for 4 to Honolulu with business class flights, seven nights at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach, $50 per person daily dining credit, admission for 4 to the Waikiki Starlight Luau, Spirit of Aloha Catamaran Sail for 4, Island Tour for 4 and a DVD set of seasons 1 & 2 of Hawaii Five-O

2) A trip for two to Waikoloa in coach with 5 nights at the Hilton Waikoloa Village, a Seaside Cabana Kohala couples massage and admission for 2 to the Legends of the Pacific Luau

3) Trip for two to Honolulu in coach with 5 nights at the Hilton Waikiki Beach plus breakfast for 2 daily and dinner for two at Mac 24-7

All you gotta do is enter your Hilton account info here to get a chance to win!

More Family Less Distance Sweepstakes

Embassy Suites is running a sweepstakes for a chance to win one of three 5-night family reunion getaways.  This includes coach airfare for you and 10 others to the Embassy Suites destination of your choice in the continental US.  The prize includes a $5000 gift card, 6 double/double 1 bedroom suites for 5 nights and a check of $5025 (for taxes)!  Go here to sign up for a chance to win!

Hilton 25 Prizes in 25 Days

Hilton is running another fall sweepstakes where they are giving out 25 prizes in 25 days.  Some of the prizes include 1 million HHonors points and 1 year of Hilton Diamond status!  The link to sign up for the sweepstakes is located here.

500 Free Hilton Points!

Hampton Inn is offering 500 free Hilton HHonors points by liking Hampton Inn's page on Facebook, then watching their video, sharing it, and then filling out a quick form.  Nice and easy!  While 500 HHonors points might not be a lot, every little bit definitely counts!

Hilton Charitable Golf Sweepstakes

Hilton is running another promotional sweepstakes (presented by Citi) for a trip to LA on Oct 8-10, 2012 to participate in two rounds of golf at the Riviera Country Club. The trip includes round-trip airfare to LA, a two-night stay at the Beverly Hilton and a $500 gift card. You can sign up for the sweepstakes here.

Hilton 25th Anniversary 25 Million Point Sweepstakes

To celebrate Hilton's 25th anniversary, they'll be giving away 25 million Hilton HHonors points (one for each day of the contest starting from August 25, 2012 to September 18, 2012). There will also be a chance each day to be one of 6 instant winners of smaller prizes as well! So sign up for a Hilton account if you don't already have one and register to win here!

Last Day for More Than You Ever Imagined Sweepstakes

Today's the last day for the Embassy Suites' More Than You Ever Imagined Sweepstakes. Winner will receive Hilton hotel accommodations of the winner's choice, ground transportation and flights up to $45000.  A check of $5000 will also be provided. This also includes a check for $16000 for any tax liabilities. So enter here for a chance to win!

Triple Your HHonors Sweepstakes

Hilton is running another sweepstakes to have your Hilton HHonors account balance tripled with a minimum of 300k HHonors to be given out!  Check out the details here!

Citi Hilton HHonors Reserve Card

Looks like Citi just launched a new Hilton branded Visa card today here with more competitive features resembling the recent Fairmont card from Chase. With this card however, the complimentary two free nights are restricted to weekend nights (Friday/Saturday/Sunday) so combining your nights with friends/family might not be as easy to do here. However, coming from Citi, this is certainly a highly welcome addition to the party in which Chase has been dominating for the past year.

Two free nights at some of the top-tier aspirational properties can be extremely valuable as regular Category 7 hotels go for 50k points per night, valuing 2 nights at 100k points. Given the terms that the redemptions might be only available at 'select hotels' give me pause as to whether the certificates will be honored at the highest tier Waldorf Astoria hotels and resorts without blackout dates, but if they can, that would give spectacular value at up to 160k worth of points as one resort can go up to 80k per night during high season!

Hilton Seven Tickets to Paradise Sweepstakes

Hilton is currently running a sweepstakes with seven different dream getaways (with one new one unlocking every two weeks) until August 31st, 2012.  From relaxing to golfing to dining to shopping, there's something for everyone!  So sign up now for the Hilton Sweepstakes here (you can get additional entries via stays at Hilton properties from now until the end of the contest as well) and the best of luck to everyone!

As mentioned here, Hilton points are among the most useful especially if redeemed at their top end aspirational properties like the Conrad Tokyo which typically easily go for $500 USD per night. Those 500,000 Hilton HHonors points that come along with the prizes could certainly come in handy there!

Hotel Loyalty Overall Program Comparison

For easier reading, I decided to create one overall post focusing on the loyalty programs of four of the bigger mid-upscale hotel players in the travel business - Starwood, Hilton, Marriott & Hyatt.  As Priority Club, Accor, Best Western, Choice, Club Carlson, Fairmont operate in a slightly less standardized fashion, I'll likely address those separately at some point in the future.

*Last updated in 2012 prior to 2013 program changes. Look for updates soon!*

Property Categories - Hyatt ( Coming soon! )
Free Night Redemptions - Hyatt (See analysis here)
Room/Suite Upgrades/Redemptions - SPG / Hyatt (See analysis here)
Cash & Point Redemptions - SPG / Hilton (See analysis here)
Earning points with hotel stays - Marriott / Hilton (See analysis here)
Point Conversion Partners - Hilton (See analysis here)
Airline Transfer Partners - SPG (See analysis here)
Credit Card Earnings Partners - Hyatt / Hilton HHonors (Coming soon!)
Membership Levels and Benefits - Marriott/Hilton (See analysis here)

Embassy Suites' 366 Days of More Sweepstakes

Just wanted to give a heads up to those who don't already know about the Embassy Suites 366 Days of More Sweepstakes which gives you a chance to win 2 free nights at any Embassy Suites every single day. The sweepstakes will continue until 2/28/2013.