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Hilton are currently running a pretty decent Winter Sale which we’ve written about previously. The upshot is 35% off for weekend (and some weekday) bookings in Europe, Middle East and Africa, made before the end of January.

Nice enough, but this is InsideFlyer – we can do better than that.

We have discovered a Secret Page on Topcashback that is offering 19% cashback when making a “Winter Sale” booking with Hilton (when you’re on the Hilton website, make sure the rate you book actually says “Winter Sale” or the cashback will be less!).

I can’t be certain when it will end, but given that Topcashback have a public rate of 18% cashback for the next four days, I would strongly advise that you book as soon as possible!  If you don’t have a Topcashback account yet, sign up here and we get a small referral credit (so thanks!).

“But you said 38%+, not 19%?”

Absolutely right:  You see, Topcashback can be transferred to Tesco Clubcard Points, which in turn can be used for a whole range of things (restaurants, train/coach tickets, hotels, etc) at at least 2x face value. Or, if you just want to use them for shopping, you can wait for one of Tesco’s regular ‘Double Up’ promotions and get 2x face value then too.

Tesco Clubcard Points can, of course, also be transferred to British Airways Avios at a rate at a rate of 1 Clubcard Point = 2.4 Avios, or Virgin Flying Club at a rate of 1 Clubcard Point = 2.5 Flying Club Miles.

Take a look at this post from yesterday for more information about Tesco Clubcard.

Time for some number crunching!

‘Worst’ case scenario:

Assuming you’re completely new to Topcashback and don’t have any status with Hilton, the following is what you would get back, in total, from a one night £100 stay at a typical Hilton.

• 19.19% Topcashback (you get a 1% bonus as a standard TCB member- yay!) = £19.19.

• Transfer to Tesco Clubcard (everyone gets a 5% bonus for transferring to Tesco) = 2,014 Clubcard Points (face value £20.14).

• If you used the Clubcard Points for 2x face value (very easy to do) that would essentially be a £40.28 (40.28%) rebate, from Topcashback. Pretty good.

Bearing in mind that most people reading this are likely to have at least a casual interest in air miles and hotel points, we can add even more value to the rebate pile.

Members of Hilton’s loyalty programme ‘HHonors‘ (it’s free to sign up so you might as well),  earn 10 Hilton HHonors points per $1 spent. You then get to choose either an extra 5 points per $1 on top (what Hilton call ‘Points and Points’), or  ‘Points and Miles’, where you get 1-1.5 airline mile per dollar extra, instead of the the 5 additional Hilton points. Given the current exchange rate, spending £100 would therefore get you about 1,440 standard points + 720 additional points or 144-216 airline miles of your choice.

Hilton are also offering a nice promotion  at the moment as well, so the figures would actually work out at 3,600 points, or 1,440 Points + 288-432 Miles.

I value Hilton points at about 0.4p each and most airline miles at roughly 1p each, so £14.40 for ‘Points and Points’, or £8-10 for ‘Points and Miles’.

‘Worst’ case scenario total: £40.28 cashback + £8.00 in points and miles = Approximately £48.28 back on every £100 spent.

Quite impressive, but onto the Best Case! (not every element will apply to everyone, so mix and match what suits you best!)

‘Best’ case scenario:

Same £100.00 example as before.

• Topcashback ‘Premium’ members get a 5% bonus rather than 1%, so 19% becomes 19.95% cashback = £19.95.

• Transfer to Tesco (with 5% transfer bonus) = 2,094 Tesco Points (face value £20.94)

• If you used the Clubcard Points for 2x face value (very easy to do) that would essentially be a £41.89 (41.89%) rebate, from Topcashback.

What though if you’re an airline miles collector? Assuming you value Avios and Virgin Flying Club Miles at about 1 pence each like I do, you can transfer the 2094 Tesco Points to 5,025 Avios or 5,235 Flying Club Miles, worth £50.25 or £52.35.

Assume there’s  another 15% Tesco to Virgin transfer bonus (there’s bound to be one at some point!), and we are up to 6,020 Virgin FC Miles, worth £60.20

What about on the Hilton HHonors side?

The chance to Status Match has ended now, but there must be a lot of new Hilton Diamond members (If you missed it, you can at least still fast-track to Gold), so we’ll assume top level status.

Diamonds get an extra 1,000  points per stay (at most Hilton brands) and an additional 50% points bonus too, so add 1,720 to what we had before (3,600 points, or 1,440 Points and 288-432 Miles) = 5,320 points (enough for a stay at a Category One hotel!)  or 3,160 points + 288-432 Miles.

Total value of rebate to me: £60.20 worth of Virgin Flying Club Miles + £21.28 (5,320 Hilton points x 0.4p) = £81.48, or 81.48%

If you’re eligible for this targeted offer as well – they would be more or less paying you to stay!