wendySFO

Checking Hilton website for upcoming stays and see there are changes to the website for reward booking. The calendar view for flexible reward availability is gone, instead it shows two weeks day by day availability, can toggle among "standard rates", "HHonors Points" and "Points and Money Rewards". Not sure how to see "Point Stretch" and "Advance Purchase" information as before the calendar view offers. The "Points and Money Rewards" is new to me, sounds Hilton is catching up with other programs for this option.

cblaisd

Checking a venue where I knew there were Point Stretchers, if you simply toggle to HHonors Points, you see the amount of points needed. It's not identified as Points Stretcher, just shows the total points per night. You'd have to know that 18,500 points is not a standard award.

wendySFO

Thanks for the tips.

So far I have not able to find any hotels have availability for "Points & Money Rewards". Not sure how attractive this option will be.

I like the "Cash & Points" option for SPG hotels though the availability is hard to find for some hotels.

Guava

This is from a link shared by mosher2k from a different thread. Several people have now independently verified its veracity and the link is here: http://hhonors1-iwv.hilton.com/en_US...s/freenight.do

Points & Money Rewards™ - New!

With new Points & Money Rewards, you can redeem points more quickly than with our Standard Room Rewards. This is because if you don't have enough Hilton HHonors™ points to book a room using Standard Room Rewards, or simply if you prefer to use fewer points, then you can combine points with money to book a standard room. Availability of Points & Money Rewards varies by participating hotels and stay dates at time of booking.


Points & Money Rewards Redemption Table
Hotel Category Points & Money Rewards
1 Unavailable
2 6,250 Pts + US$30
3 12,250 Pts + US$40
4 15,000 Pts + US$50
5 17,500 Pts + US$60
6 20,000 Pts + US$70
7 25,000 Pts + US$85
Waldorf Astoria® Hotels & Resorts 30,000 Pts + US$100


Premium Room Rewards - New!

For the first time, you can use HHonors points to book premium rooms and suites for stays all year round at our hotels worldwide. You can reserve our best rooms and confirm them at the time of booking, with no blackout dates. As long as a premium room or suite is available at the time of booking, it is yours to book using points. The number of points required to redeem Premium Room Rewards varies by room, hotel, and booking date.

Room Upgrade Rewards - New!

You can use HHonors points to upgrade your confirmed room reservation to a premium room or suite for stays all year round at our hotels worldwide with Room Upgrade Rewards. If there is a premium room or suite available when booking an upgrade, you can use your points to guarantee your upgrade to the premium room or suite with no blackout dates. The number of points required to redeem Room Upgrade Rewards varies by room, hotel, and booking date.


I just confirmed with the Diamond Desk that these new awards have started since yesterday, April 1st, 2011. Though, due to system glitch, you may not be able to book them online just yet.

Please discuss and share what you think of these new rewards options.

satori

The link you provided locked up my browser. I had to force shut down of Explorer.

Clicking "Cancel" on the sign-in pop-up repeatedly seems to clear the pop-up block. Apparently this is not an issue with Firefox browser.

Jeeves

Looks like they have taken the Points & Money concept straight out of the SPG playbook. More options are better as long as the don't further dilute the current award levels.

rdchen

As I've mentioned in other thread, if you keep clicking the cancel button quickly, you'll be able to bypass the login screen.

zachary

Given my typical valuation of HH points as being worth half of a cent, the cash and points awards are not bad. For short award stays (not eligible for VIP or AXON), I'll probably use this.

rdchen

depends on which version of cash & points hh is adopting, IHG or SPG, it might be possible to score a cat 7 room for no more than $170.

Guava

IMO, one of the biggest weakness of HHonors hotel rewards are their relatively poor value for one night or short stays less than 4 days. In addition, redemption for lower hotel categories, Cat. 5 and below also tend to be poor as well. The Points & Money option attacks and addresses both of the above weakness and therefore, is a much welcome change. Still trying to get the Diamond Desk to confirm whether Grand Wailea can be used using this award option or not but so far, they are saying it hasn't "rolled over yet". Not sure what this means so I think we need to wait a while to find out of if all properties are participating and other fine details such as blackout and capacity control and whether Diamond Force applies or not, and etc. Still many details are missing so I reserve my final judgment for now.

b1513

I can't access this link. Does anyone know if you can upgrade to a club level with club lounge access? I have two award rooms currently reserved at the Evian Hilton. I know I will get club access but I'd like to ensure that my son would too and it would be great if I could upgrade him ahead of time.

Bobette

dealswelike

These benefits are great for the HHonors system. They are now more comparable with SPG's benefits, which is great! I always use Cash & Miles for SPG which stretches my SPG points, it is also such a better value then using an all point award too.

I just got off the phone with Hilton Honors and inquired about these benefits. The women was surprised that I had heard of these award opportunities since they have not been published yet, but went ahead to give me more detail anyways. She said they are having some system issues, but likely they will be available April 7th.

I wrote more about the benefits and enhancements on my travel blog site:
http://dealswelike.com/2011/04/02/hi...d-award-stays/

dealswelike

Also, will be interesting to see if Hilton will give points for the $ amount spent for the Points & Money rewards option. Hilton already give stay/night credit for award stays, so I'd assume this is the same for Points & Money award. I asked the representative, but she was not sure.

Starwood does not give SPG points for the $ spent on the Cash & Points awards.

Guava

The answer is NO, someone already uncovered it in the re-written HH T&C:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/16147235-post29.html

bsdstone

being able to book suites with points is HUGE for me! ^