Originally Posted by
cmjaffe
OK experts.... can you get AXON awards without getting an actual ressie (is it a certificate type of thing that you have one year to book), cause if that's the case we've got 300K in points just sitting around but don't know when/where we can go (got limited vacation time). Was thinking about doing Europe with the kids and might want to use FF points instead of revenue depend on dates. Will definitely want to burn through the HH points like what we did w/Marriott.
I made some "potential" ressies but couldn't trim the dates down and keep the point redemption (week long stays for MR) so in the long-run the ressies had to be cancelled. I still have a MR island hopper that would still give us some value but can't get our dates even with their "no blackout dates policy", which is bogus in Kauai.
Wonder what else HH (and other hotel chains for that matter) have up their sleeves for next year. So glad we've changed our stay patterns and took advantage of Hyatt's comp to Diamond. Hyatt really know's how to treat their "loyal" patrons and for that we stay their more frequently -- even having some impulse trips.
So glad we held off getting Surpass card. Will only get it when we've got an award booked AND know we'll be using it to get comped up to Gold. No way we're going to spend the $$ to get up to useless Diamond.
JMHO though.
Carolyn
According to the new rules, if you change your res in anyway AFTER you get the certificate and after the points change, the new points will apply. Don't know about AXON since they are under Amex's rules not HHonors.
Freakzoid in post #87 posted a quote from the new rules. But in the link, all language about the upcoming change now appears to have been deleted. But it did say any changes in res would result in an increase in # points. So without a firm res, don't know what it would mean if you book into a new Cat 7 hotel since these are not included in AXONs (since they did not exist before). I wonder if an AXON6 would also cover new Cat 7 since the AXONs rules are made by Amex.
But you did realize that the new 4-night awards for Cat 5 & 6 hotels are actually going to be LESS than the AXONS. Currently AXON for Cat 5 is 125K, new HHonors for Cat 5 4-night would be 119K. AXON for Cat 6 is 145K, new Hhonors Cat 6 4-night award would be 136K. AXON can't be used for W-A hotels.