Consequence of HHONORS Devaluation: Commitments to Take our Business Elsewhere

[u600213]

I am HH Gold Priority Club Plat and Marriott Silver. I have to get US govt. rate or better otherwise I have to eat the difference. Most of my travel is CONUS. I am fat though no seat belt extender so I like the complimentary breakfast at Hilton. When I diet on of my strategies is to go Starwood but there are not enough of them. I would be Diamond if I could get govt. rate often enough. I care about treatment at the property more than the points earned which I understand may be heretical here. I am usually treated well at Hilton branded properties , Hampton Inn http://www.hamptoninn.com/en/hp/hote...tyhocn=WASWBHX Woodbridge VA excepted.

I deplore the devaluation of my points earned but business is business.

[jabez]

I've experienced worse devaluations and have tried them all.HH bugs me at times, but I still think they are the best choice. I've earned LOTS of miles and Delta MQM's as well. I wish they had a higher level, but I'm staying. (Doesn't mean I won't whine at times)

[chix]

Diamond here.... I am in the process of canceling my remaining Hilton stays this year and booking with SPG.

I will also burn my 1 million points ASAP.

[COpltASgldPHX]

CO Platinum and HH Diamond here. Just received the e-mail ~3 hours ago. As CO transitions to *A so will I transition to *wood! Bye bye Hilton. It's been nice knowing you. I'll either burn my remaining 360K points or just use them to keep my DL account active every 18 months!

[milesrus]

Before everybody bails, I think one should wait for the list. I myself have been crushed by these devaluations. I have collected over 5 million and am at 3 million. I saw the ALON go from 100,000 to 175,000 and now it may move again. Starwood moved there Maui properties from 40,000 to 48,000 which is a 20 percent increase. All programs can do this. As a Diamond the points have increased for me. I get the 10 points, plus 5 bonus, I refuse the airline points, so I get another 5, I do the myway for an extra 1000 a stay(mine are usually one night) so that's 8 points, I have the Surpass card so that's 9, the Amex booking online which is 5 and then the promotions. So what is that 45 points per dollar? I am also Platinum for Life with Marriott great program especially on the lower hotels for redemptions. I was Platinum with Starwood. I like Starwood, but they have a minimal supply of hotels unless you stay in large Metro areas. At one time, they had no hotels in the state of Arkansas. In Texas none in Lubbock/Amarillo, El Paso, Corpus, Laredo, the Valley very sparcely located.

[ORD-TGU]

As much as I am very sad about the devaluation of the program, I have to wait for the hotel classification changes. I have no doubt that hotels will probably move up a category, ie, from 4 to 5, 5 to 6, 6 to 7. Anyways, the premium hotels already require 50K and 60K, not so long ago, they were 40K.

With the new surpass, everyone is gold and can be diamond and you can get many points.

I personally will not re-qualify for diamond, and will venture out to SPG. Thanks HH, but it is time to move on.

[yyliu88]

I really don't understand the move, check out what other chains have done this year

SPG :

eliminated high season award for cat 5,6
many hotels level moved down
opened C+P as rate plan for all properties
brought back C+P for US properties
many generous promotions including night after night, free nights...
Not to mention the elite benefit they already had

Hyatt:

Confirmed diamond upgrade
free internet for PLAT and DIA
FFN+double stay.
many other generous promotions

PC:
introduced C+P
also contiune to have Points break
many generous promotions including Free nights, double or triple points


Hilton
no generous promotions, consider the points to redeem at hotel hilton are relatively high, last quarter promotion is just 10K bonus points after 5 STAYS. with Q2 triple miles, they made 30+ rate plan ineligible.Not to mention no more point stretcher

now devalue the points

I hope the management can wake up!

[endodoc79]

There has been a steady devaluation of the Hilton program ever since the takeover by Blackstone.

For example we stayed at the Hilton Waikoloa for the past five years but stayed at the Grand Hyatt Kauai this February instead because of the decline in service and the lounge closure.

We were happy with Hyatt and made the decision to maintain status with them and only stay with Hilton if there was no Hyatt available.

I am not surprised with the devaluation; the handwriting was on the wall.

[Iluvsafeflights]

Originally Posted by pmaddock

ALL - I don't really think so. The lower end is actually improving a bit. IHG has been giving away points like candy (if you follow the famous thread in thier forum) for some time now. They have actually been improving their program a bit by offering points and cash style reward nights and a somewhat miserly points for flights option. My upgrade success rate at HIEX and Staybridge as a Plat is better than what I've been getting as a diamond this year. (Just be careful about staying in a regular HI.)

It is amazing how many points can be earned through IHG/PC and I think they generally spend better. In my experience, Hilton properties have always been a more consistent stay but I have to admit, it appears to me that IHG has made real progress with renovations/new Holiday Inns and HIX's.

I already started throwing more stays at IHG because of the promotions and will fall short of Diamond next year. I will be gold so no big difference. I have a 7 night stay for Nov in HNL at the Embassy Suites and converted 310,000 points (that hurt) to SW RR so I could get a companion pass. That leaves me with 3,000 HH pts left. I don't plan to stop staying at HH in protest. I like the fact that Hamptons and HGI's are everywhere and dependable. That being said, if IHG continues to revamp their product and keeps the point’s candy coming when HH promos are a joke, how can I not stay with them?

[ijgordon]

Originally Posted by wharvey

What this does for me is just guarantees that I will use Priceline for more and more stays.

Well, I think the argument for Priceline is more a function of the economy. PL is a great way for hotels to "secretly" "dump" excess room inventory. Obviously now there is a lot of that excess room inventory with occupancies where they are. So there are a lot of GREAT deals on Priceline. Wasn't the case 2 years ago and probably won't be the case 2 years from now.

I've used it several times this year, and it just doesn't make sense to pay 2x the price just to earn some points (of dubious value, apparently), particularly when I can narrow it down to 1 or 2 hotels I'm likely to get.

[tsastor]

For me there has been mostly bad moves by Hhonors lately:
- giving up on Scandic hotels and thus making it impossible for me to make diamond
- end of rolling tier
- Nor1 taking away from the upgrade "quota" of elites and trying to get us to pay for upgrades (bad move especially for people constantly on business trips)
- making me realize that many non-exec rooms at Hiltons are pretty mediocre
- stealing 25% of my points value

I'm giving up on Hhonors but not going to Starwood or any other international hotel chain either. The last straw was Nor1.

[kats]

It's quite disappointing about cat. 7. Do we have a list of which hotels are going to be category 7 as of Jan 15?

[Aldebaran]

Originally Posted by smmrfld

As with other gripes about this program and that...just read the forums for other hotel programs - same .....ing and moaning at various times. Devaluation...bonuses...blah blah blah. The grass isn't greener elsewhere and whining here isn't going to do anything to change a devaluation that's already announced. Hey, if anyone actually follows through and reduces or eliminates their HH stays, there will be more upgrade opportunities for the rest of us - even with NOR1.

I will be more than happy to give you all my Diamond upgrades (???), because starting next year I will not be an Hilton customer. Unfortunately for you my Hilton upgrades rate is about 15%.

[IAHtraveler]

I'm going to wait and see what happens with the category shift. If all hotels do become a higher category, I'm done. My upgrade rate is very slim, there are pitiful promotions and now devalued points. Sure, the Surpass card is nice, but I'm supposed to use my company card for all work trips (I can sneak the surpass once or twice, but not often). Unfortunately, I often go to customer sites which are factories, so *Wood doesn't do a lot for me since it's not in large areas. I currently poke around PC properties or the infrequent Marriott property. If the category happens to most hotels, I'll have to see if PC, Marriott or what is best for me.

[acysb87]

I am in a 4 stay ,6 nights at Hilton properties.Will be adding more to that over the months.
Will stay the course as a Diamond.