Major Hilton HHonors Devaluation Announced: Aspirational Awards Become More Expensive, New Categories and Seasonal Pricing

they are all making it hard to jump to a better program since all seem to be devaluing their points. Guess I will be hitting priceline more often

Wow, that’s crazy, you’re absolutely right in that they’re consumer unfriendly.

This will be the end of my work in collecting HHonors points. Will cancel or convert my citi hilton card becos 40k hilton points for room costing $150 or less is way too much

Yea, free breakfast is nice, but with more independent hotels offering wifi and perks like breakfast, I don’t think Hilton should be so cocky to think that alone will keep members engaged when they tear about their HHonors program

Boo. I don’t see any reason to stick with Hilton anymore. Just a total rip off. They are the Delta of points, but at least if you play Hilton right you can get some good deals on partner airlines. With the ceiling raising by 45k points in some instances, it just doesn’t add up anymore. Good riddance I guess.

Yea.. I find an almost doubling of redemption rates to be offensive. I don’t wish to reward a company that is that brazen in how they devalue their rewards program

Anything booked until March 27 will be at the current price levels. So book now!

Ugh, that looks like the Hindenburg there. While everybody’s been busy devaluing, this is just atrocious. I expect to do more of my booking at Starwood hotels now with this. I’ve been going Diamond Hilton/Gold Starwood because I’ve liked Hilton properties and points earning from CC and whatnot, but this will change that.

PDF for redemptions effective 3/28

http://hhonors3.hilton.com/resources/media/hh/en_US/pdf/HotelCategoryChart.pdf

I was starting to dabble with Hilton, but on principle now I will redeem all of my points at the current rates and be done with them until they come back to reality

you are our hope, tell these bastards to be fair
thanks

agree, i got free breakfast and room upgrade free with my AA and united miles. during my recent stay in Thailand. much better than using 40k hilton points gold or not

With all of the hotel devaluations this year, airbnb (with 2x points on Chase Sapphire) is looking better and better.

Although there are 18 Hyatt properties within 27 miles of my house, there aren’t enough in the rest of the world

let’s complain about this on their facebook page. if more people convince them what they are doing is unfair, maybe they will change
https://www.facebook.com/HiltonHHonors

I am liking Club Carlson more and more with all the devaluations announced this last week.

I’ve been playing around with Hilton Gold and Hyatt Platinum status and testing the two brands. I really like the frequency of upgrades, plus free breakfast & WiFi at Hilton, but that is already tempered by the fact that a top tier Hyatt redemption was only 22,000 vs. Hilton’s 50K+. Now it’s going to be Hyatt’s 22,000 vs. Hilton’s 95,000? That’s a laughable gap. Like TPG, I’ll likely be winding down my relationship with Hilton.

I’ve been saving for a Conrad AXON/GLON top-tier redemption, and I feel like I just got majorly screwed. This devaluation is sending me to Hyatt for sure…. Until next time, Hilton…..

Brian — have you considered that the hotels may be engaging in anti-trust (aka conscious parallelism) by simultaneously triggering points devaluation? I hate to jump to conclusions, but the travel industry’s history doing these things has not been very pro-consumer. If I’m not seeing things, in this instance, it would seem they’ve cleverly come up with different ways of achieving the same devaluation.

Can you pull some strings with your contacts and let them know about the outrage? I don’t think Amex or Citi is going to enjoy the drop in business after paying all these signup bonuses.

unfortunately now I have to decide whose to burn first, marriott or hilton. marriott as least is giving me more time

I totally agree with above, with all such devaluation, there would be no point for hotel loyalty – a case for either FHR/LHR or Priceline.

just did a search and this is actually a good news for me since I only stay at low-level hotels from Hilton. now the first 3 categories require much fewer points! yay! the Maldives thing is really an abuse and they should have got rid of that a long time ago IMO. what would those people that pay full fee think? I am glad they fixed the low-level awards.

Check the link to the post on them- discounts for
Elite members

Moron

Hilton.com is not loaded with the new rates (the points search tool is separate and just for letting people figure out what the future rate will be)

Maybe the inflated rates you’re seeing are the premium room awards?

The DoubleTree Beijing is awful….have fun with that. No wifi in rooms, lousy executive lounge, and takes 45-60 minutes to get to Wangfujing.

Good luck!!

I agree, Club Carlson with the free night award for Visa card holders is the way to go! I still have lots of PC from previous promos and SPG from the Amex but the rest of the programs are pretty well gutted. I actually enjoy indie hotels like pousadas and eco-lodges much more anyway!

we are only in the second month of 2013 and everything is going down the hill. whats next ???? the game is getting harder and harder to play

I was very alarmed at first BUT then I got REALLY alarmed looking at the new points required….Athens Garden Inn Athens Georgia 60, 000 points…in athens, georgia ????? you have got to be f*&^%ng crazy. I have been a big hilton supporter but this is outrageous

I just posted my thought on the HiltonHonors facebook paged and it was promptly deleted in about 1 minute. So I posted it again and of course it was deleted again. So the “comment” police are out on this and deleting any negative remarks. Unbelievable !!!!

Couple this announcement with the recent announcement from the Hilton Amex card that the bonus points earnings are changing in several months (no longer including cable and wireless telephone as bonuses), Hilton has taken a serious loyalty dive with me. After the great treatment I received from Hyatts in Coral Gables and Key West recently, Hyatt is my top hotel search choice.

CRAZY!!!

I made an advance purchase on 3 hotel stays under the pretense that at the time it was a better decision to pay cash, earn and bank points. Had I known then the change that was pulled out in the points I would have used the rewards I had earned to pay for it. I called the Diamond Help Desk and they connected me to the Advance Purchase Office. I stated my case that Hilton should refund my money and allow me to book those stays using the points under the point structure today. The lady was very inflexible and not that compassionate. Her position is they will stick to the letter of the law. I expected more out of Hilton. I plan to move all my future credit purchases and hotel stays away from Hilton and am going to encourage everyone else to do the same.

Let’s just call this what it is: Horse crap. 70,000 points for a Hampton Inn, are you high? See ya Hilton!

Bye bye Hilton. It was nice knowing you. I will burn my HHorrors points in next few days and cancel my Citi Hiton credit cards. Your loyal Hilton Gold member is pissed off!

Anyone know of an analysis of the approximate stays/nights/spend required for earning a free night at a top tier hotel for the various hotel programs? I ask because I’m likely going to switch from Hilton because of this news (I’m currently a Diamond).

This devaluation affects all of us. The same room you wanted in Bora Bora will now cost 95k per night instead of 50k per night! 90% increase in price!

If you can’t come up with the points needed by March 28th, I would instead focus on Hyatt for your bora bora trip…

Man, I am WAY late to the party here. As a proud Hilton HHonors member, I am incredibly disappointed to see these changes and will be sending a bunch of my business to Hyatt. I would agree with TPG that GLON will (in all likelihood) be going away, and I can’t see how they would keep AXON around either.

Just for fun, I looked at my last redemptions with Hilton to see what they would cost under the new “scheme” and not surprisingly, all are are higher, some by almost 100%.

It will be very interesting to see how this impacts the free night certificates you earn with the Citi Hilton Reserve card. Given how much these changes gut the program, my guess is that they will soon be restricted to Category 7/8 and lower.

Wow…just…wow.

I am just about to complete the Hyatt Diamond Challenge and was planning on maintaning it by spitting my business with Hilton. It’s nice to have status at two chains for options, but after getting the email last night, I have to say that Hilton will be losing my business…and so will Citi because I don’t need that card anymore! I was just approved for the Hyatt Visa, and will be researching a SPG card now too. For those of us that travel, these points are a perk for being away from home and the wonderful vacations it allows us to have with our families make up for that a bit. Now that it will be nearly impossible to stay in the nicer hotels in the Hilton portfolio, I see no reason to maintain status with them. There are some areas where I travel where they are my only option, a Hampton Inn or a HGI, so I guess the measly points I accrue from those stays will just sit there until I can transfer to my Delta Skymiles account, at their horrible 10:1 rate. No incentive at all to give them my business. I should have seen this coming with the tier changes and how their promotions in the past year have not been as generous. Really disappointing.

A bit of insight http://boardingarea.com/blogs/thewanderingaramean/2013/02/numbers-hilton-honors-devaluation-marriott-worse/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Misinformed rep.. Try to book online if possjble

Hilton and CITI have pulled this one off brilliantly. You are now forced to obtain a Reserve card, pay the annual fee, meet the spending requirement and then maybe, just maybe, you might get to spend a night in one of their better properties ON THE WEEKEND ONLY. Amex Surpass points get you a Hampton.

Hello Chase, Hello Hyatt!

Thank you:)

I personally feel the bonuses Hilton was giving was too amazing to last very long. We have another month to get our points together and redeem the current amazing award chart. There was a similar devaluation in 2009 for Hilton, but after three years, the value went back to great. Let’s book our 2013 vacations, lay low for a while and wait for the next sweet spot!

Exactly – like Beau, I went for Hilton Diamond and Starwood Gold, but that’s about to reverse itself. Literally just changed plans for 8 nights stay in the upcoming 2 months. Will also be aiming some of my spend at Hyatt directly now.

I opened a Hilton AMEX for my wedding just to rack up the points. Almost 2yrs, Gold status, and 250k pts. later, it all goes down the tubes!

Is it the general consensus that Hyatt vs SPG is now the way to go??

Been Diamond for a couple of years now (left Marriott). Got hooked on the Hilton brand. I stay enough to max out the highest level in a couple of hotel programs. With the changes, I am moving on to a new brand.

Chase Sapphire is basically a 2% Cash-Back card. Depending on which Hilton hotel you are targeting for your reward stay, the Hilton Reserve Visa card can get hotel-stay Cash-Back equivalence exceeding 28%(with Conrad Maldives in peak season), or typically exceeding 5% at lessor high end resorts. I calculated these number using the new de-valuated points structure.
It is disheartening that the points structure is being de-valuated, but maybe they (the entire industry) is correcting for over-promised rewards.
The Hilton Reserve card when used for hotel stays is typically at least a 5% cash-back card and often higher…which is very not-bad (the rest is 2.5% cash-back for Airlines/Car Rental, and 1% cash-back for everything else).
Again, this method of valuation depends on which hotels you’re seeking for your reward stays, and also when you’re planning your stay.

Is there a way to redeem Hilton Honors points for just gift cards? If so, what is the redeeption values?

Ok – I stay in hotels every single week. In the last year I have spent around $28,000 on hilton hotels – in return I have had 14 nights in top hilton hotels, this would have worked out at $7,000 had I paid for it myself.

My company pays for my hotels initially – so 25% back on hotels I could NEVER afford to pay for myself sounds good. It appears like the top hotels are effected and not the lower tiers.

ClubCarlson have me as a gold – their hotels aren’t good compared to hilton, I never get upgrades and they dont treat me any better than a regular guest. As a hilton Diamond I often get treated like a king, massive suites and so on. As an example I was in London recently on business, and i got upgraded to a $1500 a night suite for three nights… ClubCarlson would NEVER do that.

So yes they have degraded… but you still get greatvalue as a diamond

Just tried to book Hilton Barbados – 186,000 points a night for a standard room – 9 months ahead of dates. Hilton have lost this 10 year diamond member.

wow, this is horrible. this is not a good way for them to keep loyal customers. they know it is a fine line, but i think they have crossed it

Problem with Hyatt is that they seem to have far fewer properties and cover much fewer cities worldwide than Hilton or Starwood.

Depends on the property and the dates. Premium rooms can be a little more, a lot more, or in some cases, even lower than a standard room reward.