$1130 Stay at the Waldorf Astoria Amsterdam for 95$

Hotels in Europe can be very expensive.  Since we only had 2 nights in Amsterdam, we wanted to stay in a convenient location.  The Waldorf Astoria Amsterdam is located on the Herengracht Canal and is in walking distance (or biking distance) to museums, parks, shops, restaurants, and everything else that Amsterdam has to offer.

Citi Hilton Reserve Welcome Bonus

Update: This Citi card is unfortunately no longer available. In June 2017, Hilton announced a decision to have an exclusive partnership with Amex.  Their partnership with Citi has ended.  But this is still a great example of how much potential value you can get from just one bonus.

This Europe trip was in the works for a while so we had plenty of time to figure out a strategy for getting most of our hotels with credit card rewards.  We decided to get the Citi Hilton Reserve card because instead of coming with a welcome bonus in the form of points, it earned us 2 free nights at almost any hotel in the Hilton collection, regardless of category.  A few caveats:

• There are exclusions.  If you’re considering this card for a specific stay, make sure your hotel of choice is not on this list. 
• The stay must be on weekend nights but this includes Sunday. So your options are Friday, Saturday, and Sunday
• A standard award room (the lowest room possible on points at any given hotel) must be available for your date(s)

Citi Hilton Honors Reserve

Note that there are a few different Hilton credit cards, including 2 others issued by American Express.  But this is the only one that comes with free night certificates as opposed to points.  For example, I’ve seen offers for 100,000 Hilton points from the Amex version.  As you will see below, 100,000 points would only get you 1 night.

This card does come with a 95$ fee but if you’re using the nights for a stay that would normally cost over 10x more, it’s worth it.  The minimum spend for the offer above is $2500 in 4 months.  I received my weekend night certificates via email soon after my statement in which I met the minimum spend closed.  This card also comes with Hilton Gold Status, but so does my American Express Platinum.  If you frequently stay at Hilton Hotels, it may be worth it to keep this card.  Since I prefer to put my spend on other cards, I canceled the card just before the anniversary to avoid paying another 95$ annual fee.

Using Hilton Free Weekend Night Certificates:

I used dates for next spring for this example:

Note that the available room on points is listed as a standard room reward.  This is what you’re looking for when confirming availability to use these certificates. Since the lowest rate is 527 euros, I will use that number. 527 euros is currently about 565$ USD. $565 x 2= $1130

So for a $95 annual fee, we were able to get 2 nights at the #1 hotel in Amsterdam according to Trip Advisor.

And just in case you’re wondering if the rates could be cheaper by using other websites, they’re not!

Get Maximum Value with Hilton Free Weekend Night Certificates

Now we need to talk about making sure you’re getting a good value. As I’ve stated before, not all rewards, points, and miles are equal.  Since these certificates can be used at almost any Hilton Hotel, you want to maximize the value by choosing higher-end properties with expensive rates.

As always, you can email, comment, Facebook, or Instagram any questions! I just started a Facebook page and I plan to post any information that I feel is important, but may not necessarily warrant a blog post.

Thanks for your support! Cheers!