Hilton HHonors - Anybody noticed? New (higher) HHonors Award-levels from 6/1/2003!

Just checked the award-categories for next year's holiday, and came across this nformation:

---cut here!

The following hotel reward chart will go into effect for point-stretcher rewards redeemed starting June 1, 2003:

Hotel Category Reward Code Points for One Free Night

1 PC101 6000
2 PC201 12,000
3 PC301 15,000
4 PC401 18,000
5 PC501 21,000
6 PC601 24,000

The following hotel reward chart will go into effect for standard rewards redeemed starting June 1, 2003:

Hotel Category Points for One Free Night
Reward Code

1 C101 10,000
2 C201 20,000
3 C301 25,000
4 C401 30,000
5 C501 35,000
6 C601 40,000

---cut here!

Seems we now have six categories instead of only five, and that the discounts for multiple nights are history then, too. Changes are to take effect "for awards redeemed on June 1st 2003 or after"...does that mean they honor the old certs until they expire??? This information can be found on the Hilton website after you login, and then go to redeem standard/point stretcher rewards, btw. Above is basically cut and past from the website with a very minor modification (to clarify the type of award, marked in italics).

Guess I have to pull my reward-certs for the summer 2003 (need a TEEN) NOW...;-(!

Greetings - Dirk

Thanks for giving us a heads up on this. Did you notice if the ALON or Global award leves were increasing. This puts a new spin on everything.
Aloha

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Please let us know where you see the information re: point increase? I just looked at hilton.com and don't see the new point structure.

However, to be on the safe side, I went ahead and redeemed my points for next June today.

The HIlton agent did acknowledge that points were going up and said that current redemptions would be "grandfathered."

To verify this information, go to http://www.hiltonhhonors.com , log into your account, click on "Rewards" in the Activity view of your account, click on "Standard, Point Stretcher and Value Point rewards". Then click on the "CLICK HERE" under either Standard or Pointstretcher, and you'll see the new point-structure below the old table...

As to ALON/GLON or any other "specialty" award: I did not see any information about that but assume that these will increase also. The problem is that you cannot book these Online as far as I know, and the onlin-booking is the only place that shows the "new" structure...

Greetings - Dirk

Thanks for the head-up. It looks like HHonors is only revamping the hotel category structure next year. The point redemption level is still the same. The new "Cat-6" hotel may be only applied to very exclusive hotels.

Starwood program's Cat-6 only includes the very special hotels in Italy and New York. I hope HHonors will limit the expansion to a few selected ones as well. Well, at last, we can compare the hotel redemption level between these 2 major chains directly.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by FT wannabe:
Thanks for the head-up. It looks like HHonors is only revamping the hotel category structure next year. The point redemption level is still the same. The new "Cat-6" hotel may be only applied to very exclusive hotels.</font>

Sorry to contradict, but it's NOT the same point level. It seems to me that all the discounts for multi-night stays will be gone (or are added later, but then why post this info re: new point-levels now already). This means a thee-night standard-award in a Classic hotel (assuming that Classic will transform into category 4) will cost you 90000 points vs. 85000 points now, and a six night point-saver at a Premium are going up to 126000 from 117000. That's a 6%-7.5% increase in needed points.

And that's all based upon the same asumption that the hotels will not "just" move up one category to make room for a new low-end chain, which would make the increase much more noticable...

The worst thing in my view about this, however, is that Hilton sends out tons of eMails every month when you opt for their "eMail-comunication", but things of this importance are not covered there. Instead one has to notice this accidentially...

Greetings - Dirk

djohannw, you are indeed correct. I was not looking at the multi-night-stay point discount (as I have never use a standard nor a point stretcher award).

Let's hope that the "VIP only" award will stay at the same point redemption level.

Once upon a time, there were only Classic hotels (plus the Waldorf Astoria).
Then Classic were split between Classic and Premium.
My guess is that Classic will be split between C4 and C5 and Premium is to be split between C5 and C6...
What did you say? Rip off ?

I am hoping that discounts for multiple night stays will be added later. Perhaps the powers that be are still deciding precisely how many points to charge for multiple night stays. There is definitely room for tweaking. For example, a six night stay at the Opportunity level presently costs more points than does two-three night stays, and the points required at Executive and Select are the same either way.

I agree. I hope they keep the VIP awards at 100K for 6 nights with the exception of the premium levels for 150K.

Hope they are not raising the point levels because of all the transfers from UA http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

you guys are talking over my head ...as we just became diamond and have not paid too much attention to the awards...i had looked at the safari however...i think it was 250,000.did that change??

am i to understand that they added a category thereby enabling themselves to sneakily raise the points necessary for virtually everything...we have about 310,00 points...by the time we get to use it, we will likely need 400,000...i guess that is exactly how they plan to keep is in the hilton family

wonder if there will be any new promotions where we can pick up a lot of points

thanks for everything

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by teacher5:
wonder if there will be any new promotions where we can pick up a lot of points</font>

Hilton has been doing bonus point promotion frequently (e.g. CNTU). Besides, even the HHonors AmEx card has been doing 2x points promotion almost constantly... (2x pts in Aug/Sep/Oct this year; 2x pts in Jan next year with qualifying charge.)

Besides, we can burn orphan miles by doing transfers. There are tons of ways to earn HHonors points.

I think they pulled the new points information. I went out to the hilton hhonors website and could not locate it the information under the sections identified above.

Can who ever located the original material about the increase in points please confirm if it has been pulled from the honors site.

NO they did not I was able access the NEW reward requirements as I did went posted yesterday. Time 817 PM EST

Mike

"Can who ever located the original material about the increase in points please confirm if it has been pulled from the honors site."

It is still there. Go to https://www.hiltonhhonors.com//rewards/standardhotel.asp? and then look at the bottom of the screen after you have logged in

Dave

If this is *the* new reward chart with no multiple night awards .... then my allegience to Hilton may be over.

I'll bet the marketing spin on this is that "our customers wanted a simpler plan".

One thing I notice is that the old chart didn't include 1 or 2 weeknight stays. Us FT'ers knew that those were possible, but the average HH member may not have. For them, this change to not distinguish between weeknights and weekends may seem like a big positive.

The change from names to numbers for the levels IS a plus.

If hotels stay at the same level except for a few moving from 5-&gt;6 then this isn't too bad. Worst case is an extra 10K per 3 nights. If lots of hotels jump levels, than, yeah, this will suck.

I compared the three night stays versus the six night stays and the difference in additional points is very small. For all the extra points they give us like CNTU, there 5 to 1 AMEX makes this still the #1 program. Some day the double dip will die as this cost them millions. They have already started expirementing with this by giving double points and no miles to some selected members.

djohannw -- Good catch, and thanks for the heads up.

Personally, while I agree with others that it's indeed a devaluation of HH currency, it's not that major of an issue for me, especially with promotions like double points on AmEx charges, and EWRDC and CNTU, in the recent past.

The key question for me is what's going to happen with VIP-only rewards (GLON, ALON, TEEN, etc.), as those are the ones having the best value overall, IMO. I guess we'll find out soon.

I was looking in a different spot. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

FWIW,

I booked a GLONP for the Paris Hilton for mid July 2003. Got my non-smoking room confirmed by the Diamond desk, 150,000 points was redeemed, and they faxed me my cert. Hope they don't come asking for more.

CS

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by ChinaShark:
FWIW,

I booked a GLONP for the Paris Hilton for mid July 2003. Got my non-smoking room confirmed by the Diamond desk, 150,000 points was redeemed, and they faxed me my cert. Hope they don't come asking for more.

CS</font>
Hey! Lucky you are a Diamond and got your dates without any trouble... as a lowly gold, all I could get was 4 days... and then they wanted me to pay 450 euro each, for the other 2 days...but I can book the other days for 200 euro on the web site... scam scam scam...

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by thezipper:
but I can book the other days for 200 euro on the web site... scam scam scam...</font>

Chances are that 200 Euro rate is an internet-only special which can only be booked through the web site. If that's not the case, have you asked for that 200 rate over the phone and were denied for some reason? Unfortunately, it's a common practice at all hotels (definitely not just Hiltons) to first quote you a higher rate. If you know of a lower rate though and request it, you're given one without much hassle.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by swag:
I'll bet the marketing spin on this is that "our customers wanted a simpler plan".

One thing I notice is that the old chart didn't include 1 or 2 weeknight stays. Us FT'ers knew that those were possible, but the average HH member may not have. For them, this change to not distinguish between weeknights and weekends may seem like a big positive.

The change from names to numbers for the levels IS a plus.

If hotels stay at the same level except for a few moving from 5-&gt;6 then this isn't too bad. Worst case is an extra 10K per 3 nights. If lots of hotels jump levels, than, yeah, this will suck.</font>

Right on, Swag! All the way!
Simplicity--YES.
A night is a night, even for PS--YES!
Numbers instead of names--YES! Who the heck made up that hierarchy of names?

Only one thing--I think they need a 15K level because 20K is too much for an ordinary Hampton Inn! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/redface.gif

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[b]Play the travel game 3 vacations into the future!

well, the one nice thing is that it looks like you can now get PointStretechers on 1- and 2-weeknight awards. A cat4 pointstretcher is 18k/night, so you only need 36k for two weeknights. Before, you'd have to get a 3-night pointstretcher (51k) and waste a night.

I'm surprised that not a lot of people have a problem with the devaluation. If most HHonors members are okay with the change, then there really isn't any incentive for HHonors to introduce any additional awards, e.g., discounted awards for multiple night stays similar to Starwood's program.

Do I understand correctly: if you make the reservations prior to 12/31/02 and your certificate is also issue by that date, the new higher rates do not affect you? That is HH honors the old rate?

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by best:
Do I understand correctly: if you make the reservations prior to 12/31/02 and your certificate is also issue by that date, the new higher rates do not affect you? That is HH honors the old rate?</font>

According to what I read it's based on the date the award is issued - but the deadline is 5/31/03 not 12/31/02.

Probably the award category will change on 6/1 also, so this means you'll have to have a reservation by 5/31 as well (as oppopsed to issuing the certificate and then taking your chances about where you'll be able to use it). The redeeming instructions tell you to make the reservation first anyway.

We'll have to remind ourselves in May that there is a deadline for issuing the old certs for reward stays...

Bringing this up again:

I just noticed that many hotels already show their "new" rating online as of today. E.g. the Hilton Zurich airport is now a Classic hotel and will be in Category 3 from May 1st, which results in a points decrease. The Pointe Hilton Tapatio Cliffs, right now a Premium hotel, is going to be a Category 5 hotel (so no change on the points for single nights, but a increase for multi-nights.

Greetings - Dirk

Hilton didn't have any premium hotels in Japan under the old system, but now they have 2 level 6's - both in Tokyo. A bunch in London are now level 6, Hilton Paris, Rome, ...

I just transferred a bunch of airline points to Hilton. I'm going to use them up for May 31st and then switch to Starwood.

Bye Bye Hilton

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Chances are that 200 Euro rate is an internet-only special which can only be booked through the web site. If that's not the case, have you asked for that 200 rate over the phone and were denied for some reason? Unfortunately, it's a common practice at all hotels (definitely not just Hiltons) to first quote you a higher rate.</font>

The same thing happened to me in Cabo last week. I booked a 6 night GLON and an additional day. They told me the best rate available was $175.00. While I was there I bookes a friend for the last three nights at $149.00. After I showed it to the front desk staff they said...oops.. and changed my rate.


[This message has been edited by TAVGlobal (edited 12-07-2002).]

bump

Is it true that the ALON award has shot up from 100K to 175k? How can they justify a 75% increase?

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by glenngpr:
Is it true that the ALON award has shot up from 100K to 175k? How can they justify a 75% increase? </font>

Look here: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum57/HTML/006136.html


The details you seek are:

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">
The VIP Only reward point levels required effective June 1 are as follows:

Aloha Spirit (ALON) - 175,000 points
Golf Getaway (TEEN) - 175,000 points
Going Global (GLON) - 150,000 points
Going Global ("premium"--GLONP) - 175,000 points

Additionally, we are discontinuing VIP Only rewards that have an airline component, effective January 1, 2003.
</font>

I just received my HHonors statement in the mail and found the insert for new award level. The insert doesn't mention changes in VIP award at all. And to date, the changes in VIP awards are still not reflected on the website.

HHonors is going to have a hectic time answering all the phone calls from the majority public who seldom checks the website... I owe all the savvy flyertalkers for sharing the latest news here steps ahead of the crowd.

I got an email from HH this morning with all the details FT'ers already know about, including the increase in ALON and GLONP. I am sure you will get yours shortly.