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The Hilton Honors Military Program is available to both military veterans and their spouses. Hilton Hotels offers separating or retiring military servicemembers and their spouses 100,000 Hilton points to help them search for their next job.
If you are separating or retiring from the military, here's what to do with your annual fee waived cards like the The Platinum Card® from American Express or the Chase Sapphire Reserve® Card.
Before you pick up your DD-214, I recommend you also pick up an annual fee waived Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card. You can start building Hilton points to aid in your job search.
Listen to the Military Money Manual Podcast episode where we covered the Hilton Honors Military Program:
How Military Veterans Can Earn 100,000 Free Hilton Points
The National Association of State Workforce Agencies (NASWA) partners with Hilton to offer up to 100,000 points to transitioning servicemembers and veterans to support travel for employment.
The Hilton points can be used for any employment purpose such as an out of town job search, training for a new job, or finding housing after separation. Your state must participate in the program. Currently 31 states participate.
To start your application for the 100,000 free points, you must contact your state point of contact.
Update 15 August 2022 – The state POCs have been removed per request of NASWA to protect privacy. I am working on getting another point of contact to assist military servicemembers and their spouses in utilizing the Hilton Honors Military Program.
The current point of contact for the Hilton Honors Military Program is hiltonhonors@naswa.org
Hilton Honors Military Program State Contacts
Send an email to the point of contact for the state you are separating from, moving to, are a legal resident of, or your home of record is listed in that state: hiltonhonors@naswa.org
Thirty-one states are participating in the Hilton Honors Military Program: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Utah, Virginia, Texas, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
Interview Questions
Questions they will probably ask you when you apply for the hotel points are:
- Where are you currently located?
- Where are you traveling to?
- Is this request to attend a specific employment event like an interview, training, or housing search post offer?
- If so, when and where is the event?
- How many Hilton Honors points will be required for the event? (Max is 100K)
- What is your Hilton Honors Account Number?
- The contact will need to see a DD-214 or orders that show you are transitioning out of the military.
You may just want to provide this information when you first contact them to avoid back and forth emails. Mention you saw this list of questions on the Military Money Manual :)
After your application is approved, the points are deposited into your account. There is no further follow up to see if the points were used for employment related activity.
Here is what the email looks like when the points are sent to you.
And here are the 100,000 points in your Hilton Honors account:
I hope this information is useful! Please share on Facebook or Reddit if you found it valuable. If you used the program and received Hilton points, please leave a comment below so other's know about the value of the program.
Hilton Honors Military Program FAQ
The National Association of State Workforce Agencies (NASWA) partners with Hilton to offer up to 100,000 points to transitioning servicemembers and veterans to support travel for employment. The Hilton points can be used for any employment purpose such as an out of town job search, training for a new job, or finding housing after separation. Currently 27 states participate in the program.
To start your application for the 100,000 free points from the Hilton Honors Military Program, you must contact your state point of contact. The list of state contacts is updated most frequently here but it's also available on my website.
It depends on your state, but it appears that military spouses can also apply for the Hilton Honors Military Program and receive up to 100,000 free Hilton Honors points to help them transition.
Could you do multiple requests for 100k points if you have invites to interview with several different companies that are out-of-state?
No, I do not think so. The program is setup for 100,000 points per veteran or veteran spouse.
What do 100,000 points equate to? I do Transition Counseling and if I suggest this to people I can to be able to say what it means nights stay/dollar wise. Thank you!
It’s very dependent on location, hotel type, and time of the year. However as an example in Huntsville, Alabama in June 2022 you could stay at several properties for 20,000 or 30,000 per night. That’s 5 or 3 nights for the free 100,000 points.
I have also properties (mostly overseas) for 10,000 points per night, so that’s up to 10 free night stays for 100k points!
Likely varies from state to state, but this mentions it’s also available to milspouses!
https://des.az.gov/sites/default/files/media/hilton_honors_military_faq.pdf