Hilton HHonors - 100,000 POINT DIAMOND ONLY REWARDS.........

It seems to me that HHonors could protect themselves from point inflation while keeping their best customers happy by revising the impending policy with GLON awards.

For example, the new policy stipulates that GLON awards will be available for 150,000 points (both Diamonds & Golds qualify). It doesn't seem right that a Gold should be entitled to the same level of reward redemption value as a Diamond, particularly when you can qualify for Gold with only 4 stays. In 2001, I spent over 125 nights with the brand worldwide, and now I am going to be lumped into the same category as someone who only did four stays? Thats not going to work.

Instead of getting angry and complaining, I think I may have a suggestion that would benefit everyone. Here goes........what if they kept GLON awards for Diamond at 100,000 points and just increased the points required to 150,000 for Golds? Doesn't this make more sense? That way, they are keeping their best customers happy AND they are giving Golds the BEST incentive to qualify for Diamond.

Quite frankly, as a four-year Diamond member, the only reason I am focused like a laser-beam on requalifying for Diamond every year is so that I can take two weeks in Europe at a really nice Hilton property. Last year I was in London and Zurich. If they start charging 150,000 points - my motivation and interest in the brand will not nearly be as strong as it once was.

Adam Burke, are you listening?



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"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been,and there you will forever long to return." Leonardo da Vinci

200 nights/200 legs a year

Where has it been stated that GLONs are going up to 150k?

The only communication that we have from Hilton so far only states that GLONPs are going from 150k to 175k. No mention was made of GLONs. Some took that to mean that GLONs were gone.

Yes it is, as stated in Adam Burkes e-mail to Eugene go back find the thread saying " awards not going away but some changes..."
mike

Compared to the implosion within SPG, this increase looks like chump change. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

i think it is a great idea to have different redemptions for diamond...i also feel cheated...the only thing we diamonds get are more points..which are kinda useless...i dont see any reason to be so loyal to hilton anymore...(and believe me , we have been)...that plan would make me loyal to hilton again

I would rather have a simplified redemption structure than having a different one for each status level.

I would like a lowered point award level for diamonds, but I can see that one award structure would be much easier to manage.

Perhaps something like a points voucher for diamonds as an annual gift, similar to how the airlines give upgrade certificates. When you qualify for diamond you would receive 2 to 4 25,000 HHonors point coupons valid for current year award stays. Actually, make it even easier and award a 50,000 or 100,000 point bonus for making diamond status by year's end. That would be an incentive for HHonors loyalty.

If this worked the airlines would do it. None have that I can think of.

Hilton do however give you MORE points per stay, so doesn't that mean ANY award comes quicker than any other Elite level staying same number nights, same $$$ on folio? You really can't have it BOTH ways!

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~ Glen ~

The unofficial, unauthorised, un-necessay, unpaid and unqualified temporary trainee Moderator for the busy and vibrant Ansett Airlines Australia Forum (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum132/HTML/000100.html)

Diamonds do receive more points than Gold members. For every $1,000 a Diamond spends the account increases by 2,500 points vs. the earnings of Gold stays. Once you spend $60,000 with Hilton you have come out on top of a Gold HHonors member by one 6 night GLON award as a benefit of the extra patronage and status.

The greatest benefit of Diamond is the ability to redeem awards and that is truly a benefit. The airlines do reward their top tier flyers with tangible extras beyond miles accumulation. A United 1P gets the same mile bonus as a United 1K. The big differences are the upgrade certificates given to the top tier flyers which make the incentive for flying 100,000 miles/year enticing.

Comparably Hilton properties are pretty good about giving Diamonds upgraded rooms which I would compare to airline upgrades, but that isn't any kind of reservable or guaranteed benefit.

100,000 points a year would be a tangible benefit equivalent to 4 nights when redeeming a 6 night 150,000 point GLON award and an incentive for staying with Hilton to reach top-tier status.

Or they could bring back the Award Rebate certificates they used to offer to Silver and Gold years ago, only this time limit the certs to Diamonds only.

hotlancer, i think that idea is great! that is what loyalty is all about, and if I knew I was going to save 50,000 points by reaching diamond v gold, that would certainly be something worth getting to. As it stands now, Gold gets essentially similar privileges to Diamond, bar

1. Guaranteed room availability/award availability (but not that great for me in my experience i've been able to get pretty much what i've wanted as a legitimate gold)

2. Amnenity (Diamond tend to get better amnenity if the hotel is cluey enough)

3. Extra points for revenue

4. Better upgrades

But something that would set things apart is lowering the cost of awards for diamonds. Sure, HH may be losing on the redemption stakes - yes diamonds are probably the ones with the most points to spend, then again the amount of revenue Hilton would earn from people striving to get up to that status would far outweigh the 50,000 they would be forgoing.

I guess it's just a simple (maybe not so simple) matter of playing with the numbers and getting it right in the loyalty game... i think this is a great idea though....

[This message has been edited by kawoh (edited 01-11-2003).]

This Hilton change is bad, they should grandfathered us. I had 38 awards at 100,000 to use in Hawaii. At 175,000 I now have 23 Awards. So, I loose 16 awards by giving them additional business. At $1500 per stay,I have lost $1500 x 15 awards about $23,000 in value. I did nothing, but get about 20 new members for Hilton and hold numerous functions there. My motto is use them now regardless of price because my 25 year inventory is now 13 years and will probably drop again in a few more years. I looked at a 1991 award chart and there were 3 categories now we have six categories and the points are double the amount.

Looks like you got hit hard....oh well..I guess that'll teach you to harbor so many points in your account. Did you really think that the award redemption levels would NEVER go up?

[This message has been edited by IMStill4Travel (edited 01-11-2003).]

How should I have burned the 600,000 a year I was getting? My word shouldn't we be able to accumulate points with plans to use in retirement

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

Where has it been stated that GLONs are going up to 150k?

The only communication that we have from Hilton so far only states that GLONPs are going from 150k to 175k. No mention was made of GLONs. Some took that to mean that GLONs were gone. </font>


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

Scroll down to Adam Burke's post of a letter from Jeffrey A. Diskin
President and Chief Operating Officer
Hilton HHonors Worldwide


The VIP rewards are not going away, but will be increasing in points required effective June 1, 2003. Reward certificates requested prior to June 1 will be at current point prices and the certificate will be valid for one year from date of issue. Reward certificates requested from June 1 forward will be at the new prices.
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.

NEVER plan to use those points in retirement..they could be de-valued (as you are experiencing) or even terminated. You should be using those 600k/year, or at least most of them, each year...take a few vacations...and use the points for the VIP packages with airfare...easy to use 600K.

About 5 years ago HHonors used to give out a certificate for a 10.000 deduction for silver and 20.000 for diamonds for awards. they had no expiry and were fabulous as you could apply them to any award over 50.000.
I think they should send these out to members as an incentive to redeem!!!!!

[This message has been edited by tinkybelle (edited 01-11-2003).]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by hotlancer:
It seems to me that HHonors could protect themselves from point inflation while keeping their best customers happy by revising the impending policy with GLON awards.

For example, the new policy stipulates that GLON awards will be available for 150,000 points (both Diamonds & Golds qualify). It doesn't seem right that a Gold should be entitled to the same level of reward redemption value as a Diamond, particularly when you can qualify for Gold with only 4 stays. In 2001, I spent over 125 nights with the brand worldwide, and now I am going to be lumped into the same category as someone who only did four stays? Thats not going to work.

Instead of getting angry and complaining, I think I may have a suggestion that would benefit everyone. Here goes........what if they kept GLON awards for Diamond at 100,000 points and just increased the points required to 150,000 for Golds? Doesn't this make more sense? That way, they are keeping their best customers happy AND they are giving Golds the BEST incentive to qualify for Diamond.

Quite frankly, as a four-year Diamond member, the only reason I am focused like a laser-beam on requalifying for Diamond every year is so that I can take two weeks in Europe at a really nice Hilton property. Last year I was in London and Zurich. If they start charging 150,000 points - my motivation and interest in the brand will not nearly be as strong as it once was.

Adam Burke, are you listening?

</font>

How would one qualify for gold with four stays?

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by tinkybelle:
About 5 years ago HHonors used to give out a certificate for a 10.000 deduction for silver and 20.000 for diamonds for awards. they had no expiry and were fabulous as you could apply them to any award over 50.000.
I think they should send these out to members as an incentive to redeem!!!!!

[This message has been edited by tinkybelle (edited 01-11-2003).]</font>

Yup got a few of these years and years ago. Found one right after booking an ALON for last September. They went ahead and took the 100,000 out of my account but told me to mail the cert in. Sure enough, about two weeks later, I got credited with the 20,000 points. Still got one left.

CS


[This message has been edited by ChinaShark (edited 01-11-2003).]

Howdy,

It very rarely makes sense to hold points/miles. Better to spend them (I know consultants who use their own points/miles on business travel - turn around and charge their client the current rate for the ticket/room).

Point is, your cash will always be a stronger value to the hotel/airline than the mile/point will.

Spend your miles points now. If you were thinking to bank them for retirement - bank the cash instead.

Just my sorry humble opionon.

YMMV

Keep the faith,

Pakse

not all of us can bank the cash that we would save on spending 600,000 points..that's why we bank 'em..duh????

A lot of my points came also from the LatinPass promotion. In addition I was traveling extensively to South American and was gone a lot then we had another child, so it just wasn't the best time for us to travel. I would have expected some changes but not to go from four years ago, seeing the HWV always on the point strecher for 60,000 then not being on it, anymore to the ALON at 100,000 and now the ALON at 175,000. Bascically they have tripled the points there. I doubt we will see the 2500 booking bonus again, and the threshold are now gone, the 20,000 certificates are gone, the 250 airline is gone, the quadruple United conversion from 1996 is gone, the Diners Club double conversion is gone etc etc. I won't ever accumulated what I was in those numbers so I will now spend them. I actually pulled an award for a Hampton at $49, it felt dump, but I said I have no idea what these points will be worth in ten-fifteen years.

Seems to me that with waived blackout and availability restrictions often exercised through the Diamond Desk it would be unreasonable to expect to get the awards cheaper too ...

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Beckles:
Seems to me that with waived blackout and availability restrictions often exercised through the Diamond Desk it would be unreasonable to expect to get the awards cheaper too ...</font>Seems like what Air Canada do for their top tiers. No blackouts, no capacity control and discounted awards (at particular time throughout the year). http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

Hilton could consider having 'award sale' for Diamond only. That would make it an exclusive benefit.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Beckles:
Seems to me that with waived blackout and availability restrictions often exercised through the Diamond Desk it would be unreasonable to expect to get the awards cheaper too ...</font>

I notice that you are a Gold member at SPG, Loews and Hilton - the only hotel status that I hold is HHonors Diamond. As such, I believe we should be entitled to benefits that fair-weather friends (i.e. those with mid-level status at virtually every other brand) of HHonors may not necessary be entitled to.

At the same time, if HHonors is going to marginalize the value of Diamond in comparison to Gold, I could certainly see the virtue and benefit of adopting your broader strategy.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by hotlancer:
I notice that you are a Gold member at SPG, Loews and Hilton - the only hotel status that I hold is HHonors Diamond. As such, I believe we should be entitled to benefits that fair-weather friends (i.e. those with mid-level status at virtually every other brand) of HHonors may not necessary be entitled to.

At the same time, if HHonors is going to marginalize the value of Diamond in comparison to Gold, I could certainly see the virtue and benefit of adopting your broader strategy.</font>

You do have benefits ... you can get an award virtually anytime regardless of availability and blackout dates (I'm quite familiar with how it works, having been given Diamond by Hilton for a period of time last year and using it a good bit during that time) ... I don't see how it's reasonable to expect Hilton should continue to waive availability and blackout restrictions and give Diamonds the awards cheaper than other members ... that just doesn't make sense ... your huge benefit is you can use the awards when I (as a Gold member) usually can't.

I know it seems easy for me as a non-Diamond to say that you're asking for too much, but fact of the matter is if we as a group, frequent travelers, start making unreasonable demands just because of status, the travel providers are going to stop listening and we'll be marginalized. Inflation is a fact of life ... unfortunately the hotel providers are in somewhat of a bad situation in that I don't think anyone would like it if they raised redemption levels 3% every year to cover inflation (and unlike airline programs that award based on miles flown, hotel programs awards points based on revenues, so it is somewhat reasonable to expect that award levels would be impacted by inflation). 50% and up inflation certainly is high ... probably but Hilton felt the awards needed to be adjusted, and they're still pretty good values even at the higher levels.

I know it seems easy for me as a non-Diamond to say that you're asking for too much, but fact of the matter is if we as a group, frequent travelers, start making unreasonable demands just because of status, the travel providers are going to stop listening and we'll be marginalized.


FYI: Diamond VIP's represent only 2% of the entire population of HHonors members - an elite group (although not nearly as elite as it used to be) unlike the huge proportion of Gold's. I suggest that if you were to qualify for Diamond with 60 nights or 28 stays - you might have a much different attitude toward the diminishing rewards of Diamond VIP membership.



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"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been,and there you will forever long to return." Leonardo da Vinci

200 nights/200 legs a year