Regarding Hilton Honors, MileKing, you correctly pointed out two of the bigger point inflation problems: Higher points now needed to redeem a airline award, and the additional premium catagory for Hilton awards.

The additional catagory now makes most all Hilton properties that one would like to utilize as vacation spots "cost" 30k to 35k points per night.

Some of the other "changes" include:

1) no more 20k point certificates each year to Gold VIPs

2) erosion of upgrades at time of check-in. While this may not be official policy, it has been my experience that more and more Hilton properties are finding reasons why they will not upgrade Gold VIPs at check-in.

As to Starwood -- I am not familar with a single Starwood Hotel, so I do not know how that can be compared with Marriott.