Earn 4%-5% Cashback Even If You Have Status (But Not Diamond)

If you’ve ever tried to go through a shopping portal when booking a Hilton stay, you might’ve noticed the frustrating terms that the higher cashback level is usually only reserved for non-Hilton Honors members or for members who don’t have any kind of status.

For anyone with any kind of Hilton status (which isn’t hard to get thanks to the various Hilton credit cards), you’re usually limited to earning a maximum of 1% cashback. There does appear to be an exception though – the Capital One Shopping app. Even if you have status, you might be able to earn 4% cashback.

The Deal

Key Terms

• Hilton Diamond members are ineligible from earning Shopping Rewards on Hilton.com.
• Shopping Rewards are not available on purchase of HH points, group tours, purchase or redemption of gift cards, corporate rates, HHonors redemption bookings, bookings that are made in conjunction with another offer, and bookings made in the following locations: China, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, and Saudi Arabia or bookings made at the following hotels: British Colonial Hilton, Nassau, Buena Vista Palace Resort & Spa, FL, Hilton Aruba, Caribbean Resort & Casino, Hilton Barbados, BB, Hilton Buenos Aires, AR, Hilton Cartagena, Hilton Curacao, Hilton Lima MiraFlores, Hilton Panama City, Hilton Princess Managua, Hilton Princess San Pedro Sula, Hilton Richmond Downtown, Hilton San Louis Potosi, Hilton Sao Paulo, Morumbi, Trinidad Hilton & Conference Center.

Quick Thoughts

Note that these rates are what I’m seeing in the Capital One Shopping app, not the Capital One Shopping website. Although they’re effectively the same thing, the app often has better rates than you’ll find on their website and Cashback Monitor doesn’t currently support the rates listed in the app.

Part of the reason for that might be because the rates offered in the app are sometimes targeted. Last year some people were able to earn 8% cashback in the Capital One Shopping app at Giftcards.com, but that wasn’t always available for everyone. The same might be the case here too – while I’m seeing rates of 4%-5% for Hilton, you might possibly see a better or worse rate.

It’s the cashback rates for Silver and Gold members that’s notable though. As mentioned earlier, most shopping portals only offer 1% cashback for anyone with Silver, Gold or Diamond status. In my experience it’s a rare exception when members with status will earn much more than that, although I did earn 4% through Kiindly several years ago. Earning 4% through the Capital One Shopping app is therefore – to the best of my knowledge – the best you can do right now if you’re a Silver or Gold Hilton Honors member.

For those of us with Diamond status – whether earned organically or received via the Hilton Aspire credit card – we’re sadly out of luck as Diamond members are so special that we’d earn nothing with Capital One Shopping. Other shopping portals do offer cashback for Diamond members though, so you might as well click through from a different portal for ~1% cashback.

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