satori

Points & Money Rewards essentially reduce the cost to buy points to $3.50/1,000 points or less for category 3 to category 7 rewards. This is quite a savings on $10/1,000 points to buy points through normal HHonors channels.

Points & Money (cost to buy points)

Category 2 = 6,250 points + $30 = $4.80/1,000 points
Category 3 = 12,500 points + $40 = $3.20/1,000 points
Category 4 = 15,000 points + $50 = $3.33/1,000 points
Category 5 = 17,500 points + $60 = $3.43/1,000 points
Category 6 = 20,000 points + $70 = $3.50/1,000 points
Category 7 = 25,000 points + $85 = $3.40/1,000 points

I used 12,500 points for Category 3 since that is the 50% off pattern, but the FAQ shows 12,250 points for Points & Miles reward ($3.14/1,000 points).

Waldorf Astoria is confusing since it shows 30,000 points + $100, but does not indicate if this is valid for both peak (60,000) and non-peak (50,000)seasons. Value between $3.33 per 1,000 points on peak season or $5.00 per 1,000 points in non-peak season.

I think these awards will likely not be available for WAC 80,000 point peak-season properties in Park City and Hawaii.

satori

Premium Room Rewards and Room Upgrade Rewards should reduce inventory of rooms for complimentary room upgrades as Gold and Diamond at some properties. Plenty more competition at hotels allowing these types of room upgrade with points.

boilers

This is outstanding news. As stated by zachary, these will be great for short stays. I welcome this as a to use points on weekend getaways, etc.

Thunderroad

As others have pointed out, we'll see how this all plays out. On it's face, it looks like a series of very positive changes, with one potentially significant downside in terms of fewer complimentary upgrades available at least some of the time for some properties.

This has been my experience also, though the formatting is a bit glitchy. (I use Firefox.)

In a key respect, the HH changes seem to surpass SPG. AFAIK, SPG is more restrictive about suite and upgrade availability using points--sometimes you can do it, often you can't. If I understand the new policy correctly, HH seems to be opening up both of these options as long as the relevant rooms are available for revenue bookings. From the linked page explaining the new system:

# What are Premium Room Rewards?

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.


# What are Room Upgrade Rewards?

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.

Yeah, this is the likely downside.

sk3

This is what continues to surprise me about Hilton and was a reason I started the http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hilto...sentative.html thread.

It's understandable that HHonors didn't figure that the new program would be posted in its (apparently) beta stage - which we have man-of-the-hour mosher2k to thank for!

But how they reasoned that independently we wouldn't access their site and SEE for ourselves these changes (as I saw the Points & Money offer on the Hilton Waikiki page) - is just plain bizarre!

I really get the feeling that a large swath of HH decision makers are stuck in a pre-internet/pre-social media mindset that assumed they could unroll all this gradually and with no heads up announcement to anyone since nobody would really notice. Because we all make our reservations though the phone...

Guava

Well, if only if we get decent service via the phone, I can live with the lack of an active interaction via social media. Dealing with both SPG Platinum line on the phone vs. HH Diamond Desk is like night & day, I cringe almost every time I have to dial the Diamond Desk, it's unbelievably bad...and that is probably an understatement.

Guava

That's an interesting way of looking at these data, it provides a replacement cost based perspective. Thanks for doing the legwork. I think there are other ways of slicing and dicing this thing but am not willing to spend the time to do so without knowing the constraints which will undoubtedly be revealed soon.

In SPG Cash & Points awards, it makes no difference between peak and non-peak season since these awards are capacity controlled. I believe Hilton will do the same because the peak period of Hilton hotels are much longer and generic. Whereas SPG hotels give specific peak period dates usually measured in weeks, sometimes only one week in a given month; peak periods at Hilton is counted in entire months. Grand Wailea for example goes from entire June till September 1st. If they exclude peak periods, a lot of properties like Rome Cavalieri will have like a handful of winter months available only for such awards whereas a good 2/3 of the year would be unavailable so it doesn't make sense.

That's what I tried to find out this morning but unfortunately I got an intelligence challenged DD agent who had even trouble speaking clearly and not because of her accent - after being put on hold for 15 minutes, I was given a non-sensical answer that Grand Wailea hasn't rolled over yet. And the only way to check is do a property by property check.

b1513

I'm answering my own question. I called the DD and was told that I can do this. The system has a glitch now and they were not able to do it currently. She said the system should be up and running on Monday.

Bobette

jasonvr

Please report back with the kind of rates you are being quoted for the confirmed upgrade.

Football Fan

All of this does not take status into account at all so far. E.g. as a Diamond, you should receive certain upgrades anyway. I think that this will further devalue the top status. On the other hand, it does give a bit more flexibility. But they should really think about how to design this so that Diamond members e.g. pay less points for an upgrade to a suite because the difference between what they should be getting anyway and what they get by paying with points is smaller than for a Blue member.

b1513

Will do.

Guava

I don't mean to be cynical but this is the 3rd date given to a member on the phone today. I was given April 1st, someone else was given April 7th and now, you, next Monday, i.e. April 4th. I can't help but , not at you but going back to my earlier point re: the well known HH customer service on the phone. They can't be all right. Either they really plan to roll it out on April 7th or they aren't. And if so, the next Monday thing you are given just sounds like another typical excuse from someone who has little clue what's going on, therefore just ask the customer to call back later and throw the problem to someone else because chances are, you won't land on the same agent.

Until this thing is officially released, I think any answer we are given over the phone should be taken with a grain of salt. The only thing we know for certain is that there are three types of new awards coming and the approximate cost for the new Point & Money award for each hotel category.

mnredfox

Well, as long as I am still eligible like before, I am ok with this. If they pay for it, no worries on my end.

blueline7

When trying to book the Hong Kong Conrad on a reward, there is no reward availability. Period. Ever. I am hoping that this is a glitch that will be fixed very shortly. Anybody else notice this or something similar?

jasonvr

I have seen several hotels that showed no availability all the way to the end of the schedule. Grand Wailea is the one I remember specifically. More than likely a glitch.