rdchen

W=A NY is showing P+M availability

travelinfoo

This new points payment has a lot of good and bad points. I like that I can guarantee an upgrade with points and use Cash & Points (one of the best things about SPG). I also like that the new award schemes still count towards elite status (as of now).

But on the other hand, I think the number of good complementary upgrade for Diamonds and Golds will decrease dramatically. If a good room can be booked for a small # points, why not. Thus decreasing the inventory available for complementary upgrades.
Except for the Diamond Force, I'm seeing less and less benefit from being a Diamond. I have loads of points so not a prb to upgrade to ER or higher. That said, it's pretty easy to get/maintain Diamond anyway.

azepine00

It's not like Diamonds get complementary upgrades left and right now. I am not even talking about Golds.
Perhaps overseas the situation is better but definitely not in US...

This recent post correlates well with my (limited) experience over the last few years.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hilto...k-diamond.html

travelinfoo

I almost never got an upgrade in the US and EL are non-existent or paltry. In fact, I now set the MyWay in the US for points.
Overseas, it's a different matter. I find they are quite strict on the MyWays. But if you do have "upgrade" as you MyWay, I have gotten at least ER upgrades (ex UK for past yr). I gotten very large deluxe rooms (no EL), rooms w/fantastic views, and occ a Jr suite when no ER were available.

I think the upgrade situation overseas is going to start to look like the US situation with the addition of the points-guaranteed upgrade.

wendySFO

Looks like the C&P for A=A NY for July 10th disappeared.

I was looking around for this hotel the night before as well and saw both low season and high season point rates showed up at the same time for the same date. The low season was 30,000 points and high season was 50,000 points. It was very strange, I forgot which date and can no longer find it any more. I guess it still has a lot of bugs to sort out for the new booking interface.

wendySFO

Agree with the common terminology, but I took it from the Hilton booking page when posting the new findings (just I didn't know how to do the "tm"). Looks like Hilton will use this terminology and they put it as trademark, funny to me.

travelexpert

It's not yet (fully) operational.

Apparently not even officially announced yet.

azepine00

i hope it's not the case (aside from perhaps a few most popular spots) as market is not flooded with points there they way we have in US

LivninSC

Should have probably asked this here but am I missing something?

The article states “Basically the Points & Money reward option costs 50% HHonors points of a standard reward and a cash supplement.” yet when I check a category 6 hotel it’s 22,000 miles to redeem for a night yet the chart says 20,000 Pts + US$70. Take a category 2 at 8,000 pts and the chart has 6,250 Pts + US$30.

How is that 1/2 the cost? Take SPG for example. It’s 10,000 for a free night or 4,000 + $60 USD a night (at a particular level). That’s more like half whereas the Hilton offer seems to not be close to half at all or am I missing something?

Was considering getting that Discover America Daily Getaways 69,000 reward if I could turn that in to 6 nights at a category 6 + some cash (22,000 / 2 = 11,000 a night) but it doesn't seem like it's worth it.

travelinfoo

With the advent of CC Diamonds and NOR-1 upgrades, IME, the number and quality of complementary upgrades have already noticeably decreased overseas. Adding another, easier means of getting an upgrade, guaranteed-no less, is going to decrease the inventory for complementary upgrades even further. Though if ppl redeem points for upgrades you can't get, e.g., suites, that shouldn't affect the ER pool. However, if lower status or no status ppl use points for ER upgrades, that does decrease the available pool for complementary Diamond upgrades.

zaf

Category 6 = 40,000 points per night, or 20,000 + 70 dollars.
Category 2 = 12,500 points per night, OR 6,250 + 40 dollars.

I dont know from where did u get your point chart.

Quips

Has anyone had luck in seeing the point redemption options as quoted in Post #1 for Points & Money? I realize the fully functional site may not be launched until April 7th, but all I'm seeing is a redemption rate of 1% of the remaining points required for a reservation... Dummy example: Cat. 6, 3-night stay = 120,000. Current points = 100,000. Must pay $200.

Edit: Or am I reading the chart incorrectly... Does this mean I can book a Cat. 6, 3-night stay for 60,000 points + $210 total?

sk3

What appears to be happening based on LivninSC's findings, and based on the other FTers who have reported (on the various current threads regarding HH's overhaul) that they're seeing increased points requirements - is that not only is Hilton adding new reward redemption options, but that the points requirement for existing rewards is also getting adjusted.

Or perhaps it's just indicative of Hilton's stellar website programmers and these reported increases in points needed for existing awards are a temporary glitch....

Oh, and welcome to FT LivninSC! If you're new to Hilton's website and reward program you should know that right now it's undergoing an extreme makeover which hasn't even been officially announced - so none of us can know for certain what's what until the dust settles...

ranskis

I am not sure premium room through points will be that successful. Hilton Seychelles, 50000 points for a normal villa, and 251089 points for an ocean front villa!

jasonvr

Wow! I see that too. Of course I also see the same room for 437,850 pts. Are they absolutely insane?? Who would pay that many points for one room for one night??