Yes, plus we can book up to Jan 10th advance stay, so we can burn excess points and prevent them to be degraded. Those who will feel the sting the most are those whose point balance after Jan 10th exceed 200 kpoints, since the free night won't compensate their past effort to stay loyal to hilton.

I for one praise Hilton for trying not to screw a part of their customers over this. I criticize them for their appalling communication about the free night, and for the ones with millions of points in their account, but I can't complain, since I am not in this situation.

However, adequate compensation regarding points accrued in the past will do nothing with regard to my purchasing behaviour in the future: I will reassess the new version of the program (price of awards I seek in my currency, number of points needed, number of points I can accrue with my spending pattern) and compare them with other programs. I don't know if they will come on top, but I must confess than without the free night, I'd probably have switched out of dissatisfaction. The free night didn't succeed in keeping me as a customer, it succeeded in making me not actively avoiding Hilton. Let's see what SPG has to offer now...