fligster

Hilton Suites, Ocean City MD is on the beach and ridiculously priced at $529 per night during the summer. I use AXON over July 4 the last couple of years.

Vic43uLau

I have ever heard about it!

Greysword

Yikes! While the old AXON being good for Cat 5-7 was ok (since the highest was Cat 7), now being good only from Cat 1 - Cat 6 means it leaves out a LOT of hotels, and likely includes those hotels where it is best to simply use the nightly rate while also gaining the fifth night free.

For instance, at the Hilton Clearwater Beach, most nights will now cost only 40,000 instead of 50,000 per night, but it is staying a Cat 7 so not eligible, but for sake of argument.
- Five night stay at 160k (40k*4 nights)=32k per night (or simply 15k for an additional night)
- Four night stay at 145k (AXON?)= 36,250 per night

Hope they look at this.

Autolycus

@AskAmex responded with my question about AXON post-3/28 with: "Regrets, but we have no details on if there will be a change. Be sure to check statements for any updates."

HHonors' customer service email responded to a similar question with, When I asked what the replacement would be, a different rep said they had not been informed of any replacement reward.

So... it's likely to go away. Perhaps they'll replace it with a higher discount than the normal VIP, or perhaps a different sort of free night program from the 5th night one. Those might be decent replacements.

mnredfox

That's my question. While you can't book just to get certs, you can book an AXON and get a cert for that category hotel. It's then tied to a reservation at a property.

I know changes are supposed to incur the difference post 3/28, but does that include dates?

No, when you cancel a reservation that does not NECESSARILY cancel the cert. If no points are returned only the reservation is cancelled. I just had this happen 1 month ago.

lkar

The cert I was referring to was an AXON6 redemption, so no reason for alarm. If I had redeemed for an AXON7, it would have said cat 1-7.

Kidrah

I was eyeing Conrad Maldives to use my AXON certificate. However, i now see that the dates i wish to travel don't have award availability at 50k points per night. Instead, they are at 462k per night.

Am i SOL?

travelinfoo

Yes. AXON awards are only good for standard rooms. If no standard room is available for all 4 consecutive nights, then no AXON.

You can keep checking back to see if anything opens up.

Deemus7

I am in the same boat; was looking at the Conrad Koh Samui and currently only one of the four nights I need is available at the standard rate. However, I have noticed a ton of fluctuations with the availability over the last couple of weeks, so I am paying VERY close attention so I can lock in my first (and last!) AXON award before the 28th. What a mess...

lkar

I got a real chatty diamond desk person earlier in the week, so I took the opportunity to ask about AXON post 3/28. Take this for what it's worth, which may be zero, but there's some potential nuggets of info in there.

Anyway, I found myself I need of an AXON7 booking yesterday. Given the discussion we've been having about whether one can cancel an AXON reservation and apply an AXON cert to a new reservation, I decided to give it a try. First, I took a reservation that I made a couple of months ago, for which I received via e-mail an AXON cert when I made the booking. Let's say that was at Hotel 1. I checked to see if standard rooms were still available at Hotel 1 for my nights and they were. So I called, and said I needed to cancel my AXON stay at Hotel 1, but needed a new 4-night AXON booking at Hotel 2 -- sometimes when I cancel AXONs the points get tied up for a few days, could they please just cancel my Hotel 1 booking and apply my AXON cert to the Hotel 2 stay.

No problem, she says -- so long as the AXON cert doesn't expire before the stay at Hotel 2. She converts it over, easy as pie. So, I ask, "will we be able to use these AXON certs for new reservations after 3/28 even if AXON goes away?" We at that point had a discussion whether AXON will go away, which I'll relate below, but eventually we talked about this question and she said that yes, her understanding is that old AXON certs will continue to be honored so long as they are not expired and so long as the hotel to which the cert is applied after 3/28 is in the same category as the cert. So, for example, if you make an AXON booking prior to 3/28 at a category 7 that turns into a category 9, you're ok. But if, after 3/28, you try to apply the cert to a category 9 or change anything, it will be a no go. But if you want it moved over to a new hotel after 3/28 and it is not going to expire, and the new hotel's post-3/28 category is 7 or lower, it could be applied. I asked whether one needs the actual cert number to do this, and she said they can see it in the system, so just make sure you tell them when cancelling the reservation to not cancel the cert. (Though it sounds like some of them just do it automatically.) She said, though, this wasn't official, and she was only making her best guess.

With respect to whether there will be an AXON after 3/28, she said they haven't been told yet, but they are assuming the answer is yes. She said her understanding was that there would be AXON6, AXON7, and AXON8, or just AXON7 and AXON8, and the point requirements would be going up. She said this was not official, just an assumption, and could change at any time, and also actually mentioned flyertalk and said they knew "there is a lot of panic over there about AXON."

So, anyway, that's my story. After moving my cert over to Hotel 2, I called back and re-booked at Hotel1 with 140k more points. (Which they deducted twice, but that's another story.)

Happy

Huh! This happened to my booking a week ago. They attached 2 certs to one 4 nights AXON.
I dont understand how this could happen but it did happen, and to you too.

[QUOTE=lkar;20432579
But if you want it moved over to a new hotel after 3/28 and it is not going to expire, and the new hotel's post-3/28 category is 7 or lower, it could be applied. I asked whether one needs the actual cert number to do this, and she said they can see it in the system, so just make sure you tell them when cancelling the reservation to not cancel the cert. (Though it sounds like some of them just do it automatically.) She said, though, this wasn't official, and she was only making her best guess.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for posting the interesting conversation. It does seem to have some valuable nuggets in it though not official and only best guess. I have found this tidbit particularly interesting. Worth to look into.

PETERPNYC

Sorry for my confusion . I did a Axon at a Cat 6 last December . Booked it via phone but don't remember getting any E cert .

Just got an Email confirm showing the reduced amount of points . Does every Axon award get an E cert ? I have the HILTON AMEX no fee Card if that makes any difference

lkar

Some get an e-mail with a cert, some don't. Whether or not a cert is still generated somewhere in the company is unclear.

You don't need the cert to check in. But if you have the cert, you may be able to apply it to another reservation, which up to now has never really mattered. (You could just cancel the cert and rebook.) The issue I was raising relates solely to whether certs issued prior to 3/28 might be useable to book 4 night stays after 3/28, even if AXON goes away.

PETERPNYC

Thanks

mnredfox

Right now yes. And if you were a diamond a year ago you could still get a hotel stay, but in came prem room scam and loss of DSA.