lkar

It was funny, I noticed in my account and called back and got the very same diamond desk agent. I didn't recognize it, but she did -- she credited it right away while mumbling something that I couldn't understand about why it happened.

As it turns out, she deducted 170,000, not 140,000 -- in other words, she booked the AXON and took the 140k, and then took 170k, which is the equivalent of a VIP, I think, for a cat 7. It was weird. I logged out and logged in, and they were back in the account right after the call.

You have to watch your Hilton account like a hawk. It's very hard to keep track online because they don't have a very good page that shows transactions.

Happy

The reservation shows 170K but the actual deduction is 145K. It always happens this way to me.

I actually resort to Excel spreadsheet to keep track of the In and Out of the account because HHonor does not show the deduction, only the addition - this makes it very hard to see award booking / cancellation activities to reconcile the account.

IHG despite the many shortcomings of its low-value Priority Club program, it shows every movement of the account. Now with improvement, it even shows exactly what reservation it was related to, date and property, as well as the date you did it.

Club Carlson also has a comprehensive account activity details.

One HHonor rep told me at one point they had it, but then it was shown in a crazy manner - points first deducted from member account and sent to HHonor program, then deducted from your HHonor program "escrow" account and sent to the hotel - she said it was confusing and they received a lot of calls from customers complaining about the points being deducted twice... but what it did was just going thru a temporary holding place - to avoid constant calls coming in about this, the IT took the function off. But then may be there is some codes not fully cleaned out, therefore occasionally we experience such double deduction? Who knows? All we know is, HHonor's IT is very bad, and no real improvement in sight.

lkar

Actually, in these case they really took 170. (But I mistyped about 140 -- you're right it's 145.)

So, what happened is that I booked the award, they took 145k, my cert says 170 like it always does, and then when I checked my account they had taken a total of 315k. They fixed it by putting 170k back in.

michael_v

Good news being reported by thepointsguy on his blog, although we don't know the whole deal yet (the question still remains about which hotel categories will be covered):

http://thepointsguy.com/2013/03/amex...fter-march-28/

lkar

Great news. I had a feeling that would be the case in some form or fashion -- I just didn't believe Amex would cede the relationship entirely to citi. Now, of course, if AXON8 turns out to be 250,000 points, then this really isn't much of a benefit, but I do assume the points will go up.

rajin

If that's true, it could really take some of the teeth out of the devaluation if the AXON prices are fixed, and not seasonal. If Category 9 Axons are based around the 50k base points and not the 80k seasonal points, that's a huge improvement.

Ritz

Completely baseless speculation, but what else is new in this thread.

lkar

I don't understand -- the pointsguy confirmed directly with Amex and Hilton reps that AXON will continue. Is the point this isn't news until we know what the terms will be? I think it's noteworthy that AXON will continue in some fashion.

Happy

My bet is, AXON will stay but because of the pt levels are up so much, whatever discount the AXON still offers, become literally no value when the total points required for the current 7 future 9 or 10 level, would still almost doubled than what it is now.

In other words, even if it stays, it does not make much of a difference in the upcoming devaluation.

lkar

Well, at the risk of annoying Ritz with more speculation, I'd be ok if the same general reduction levels apply to AXON awards.

Right now, a category 7 for 4 nights is 200k for a standard award, 170k for a VIP award, and 145k for an AXON award. So, AXON is basically 85 percent of VIP rates and 72.5 percent of standard.

If they keep these rough percentages, I'd be happy -- at least happy enough. New category 8, with seasonal fluctuations, will be 40k to 70k. Let's call it an average of 60k. A standard award would thus be 240k for 4 nights. For a VIP award, a 5-night stay would also be 240k, or an average of 48k per night -- so let's say it averages out to 192k for 4 nights. If AXON8 kept the same rough percentages, it would be around 170k. AXON9 would be 200k. AXON10 would be 245k. To be sure, this would be massive devaluation over what AXON used to be, but will still pull the sting a bit.

So, anyway, I'm going to go on record with my guesses. I think that there will not be an AXON for all categories -- just 8, 9 and 10. And my guess is that it will be 170k, 210k, and 250k. Maybe they will keep AXON7 and even keep it at 145k, as though they are giving us something great.

kenban

The problem is why introduce seasonal variations then suddenly not use them. I think an AXON replacement is going to need to take into account the seasonal variations. The only way to do that is to offer some type of deal other then a set point level. For example a 4th night free deal, or a 10% back offer.

My money is on a 4th night free deal. It is small enough that it seems likely at being a 25% discount vs. 20% with the 5th night free. Plus it should be easy to implement.

terpfan101

Them doing AXON same % as currently but applying it to seasonal prices would really help take the sting out of this devaluation. For example now for four nights at category 7 (AXON) its 145K which is 72.5% of the normal 200K it would require. So for a new category 10 property at 95K a night, the new AXON rate could be 72.5% x 95,000 x 4 nights = 275,500 points. If they were ever so nice to round down it could be 275,000 for the AXON award. Still a sting from the previous AXON level but would make the 380K at regular rate much less pronounced. If I were Hilton I'd be doing that.

stifle

...and if you are based in the USA and have good credit. Over 95% of the world's population isn't or doesn't.

tropicalmn

When I booked a reservation with Axon received the conformation email for hotel & point redemption in regular email account.Received the Axon award
E cert in junk/spam account.

PETERPNYC

Thanks Its not there but I have a confirm so should be good to go