Hilton HHonors - Question regarding award stays

I'm sure this has already been covered, but was unable to find it using search (keywords award flexibility). I was one of the lucky ones to get the AZ tickets from YYZ-LCA. We are planning to go in November. I'd like to use my points to stay at the Hilton in Nicosia that currently goes for 10,000 points a night.

The awards category for that hotel is going to jump on June 1, so would like to book it before June 1. However, I may try to make a few changes in the ticket (my hope is to add a day in Rome and stay in Cyprus from Tues-Fri, instead of our currently scheduled Mon-Sat.) Given all the craziness with AZ's ticketing/change process right now, it's likely that won't get resolved until after June 1.

So, my question is this: what type of flexibility do I have with the award stay if I book before June 1 (to get the lower award rate)? Is it even possible to make changes and, if so, what are the costs in terms of $/points. Also, what is the best strategy? I'm assuming I should book for the maximum number of nights and then try to reduce the number or nights later. Is this possible or would that invalidate everything? Or is the better option to go with the smaller number of nights so those are certain, knowing that I may have to pay dearly for the rest?

Thanks for any information you can provide.

Book each possible night you will stay in Nicosia as a separate one night stay. You can then cancel all the nights you don't use at any time prior to departure. This locks in the 10K/night value for you.

Heres is what i would do: I would go ahead and make INDIVIDUAL one night award reservations for the each night you could possibly want to stay in the property in question ( assuming you do have enough points to cover all the possiblities ) and when your plans firm up cancel the ones you dont need.

In any event I unless using a discounted award like a AXON I always make single night reservations which allow me some flexibility if I want/need to modiify my trip.

In the past HH has allowed stays to be done providing the cert is valid ( and they will be for one year after redemption) and you could use them at any propertywhich had gone up in catagory.

HOWEVER I believe at the last point increase they stated that BOTH the reservation and the cert redemption must be done before the change date ie June 2st.

Unused certs can always be resdeposited.

mike

Ditto to the first two responses in this post.

The question that was not answered was in regard to what would happen if changes are made after June 1. If an award would be modified (by adding or subtracting days), it would likely be repriced at the higher point rate. This is why booking one-night awards in a row would work best - cancellation only means that the points are redeposited.

Mike

HOWEVER I believe at the last point increase they stated that BOTH the reservation and the cert redemption must be done before the change date ie June 2st.Is this in general or just for the properties under discussion?

I re-scheduled my Europe trip, and I had gotten the old BUDRP award at 70K. It's happening now in September, and I believe the award price has gone up to 100K. However, they are still honoring it at the old rate. Likewise, I bought an additional night at the Cat 3 rate of 25K.

Also, I seem to recall Hilton mentioning that any reservations made before the increases would be honored -- thus, as long as the res is made before the increase, they will honor it.

As always, I'm willing to be contradicted with proof. :)