[QUOTE=iahphx;15754947But I booked a Cat. 7 in Hawaii (the Embassy Suites Waikiki) for 4 nights using the AXON (AMEX card award) for 145K. Of all the awards, an AXON Cat. 7 is generally "the best deal" in the program these days, right?
BTW, the agent said there's no AXON above 4 nights. So that would leave the VIP awards as the next best deal, right? But not as good as a 4 night AXON, correct?[/QUOTE]
Yes, if you are planning to stay four nights only in a category 7 property, the AXON is the best deal.
AXON and VIP awards can only be compared directly for stays that are four (or increments of four days), and for four day stays it differs (by category) in terms of which is a better value. This is the points for a four night stay (from my notes based on a post on FT and information on the Amex site), but I don't have a link:
Cat 5 – 125K (AXON) v
119K (VIP)
Cat 6 -
125K (AXON) v 136K (VIP)
Cat 7 -
145K (AXON) v 170K (VIP)
The bold value is the better option.
Eight night VIP stays are 210K, 240K and 300K for categories 5 - 7 respectively, so overall it looks like the following is best for an eight night stay:
Cat 5: VIP (save 40K)
Cat 6: VIP (save 10K)
Cat 7: AXON (save 10K)
I don't think there are AXON awards except for Categories 5 -7. There are VIP awards for categories 3 and 4; see this link if you are interested in the whole chart:
http://www.hilton.com/en/hi/hotels/s...howLinks=false
I hope this helps.