Originally Posted by
Beckles
At the risk of sounding like a Hilton apologist, I don't see a program with measurably more rewards out there.
My most recent HHonors redemption was at the Hilton Paris ADT and before that the Hilton Barbados, both excellent hotels as discussed here on FT. Let's take Paris, after these changes a five-night stay will be 200,000 HHonors points. Let's compare that to similar properties from the other major chains.
HHonors = 200,000 points
Marriott = 160,000 points
SPG = 80,000 points
Hyatt = 80,000 points
IC = 200,000 points
(Note I picked five nights because that is most beneficial to Marriott and SPG with their 4 nights - 5th free on awards).
Now, how about earning, let's assume top tier with each and you are using their top co-branded credit card, the points/dollar come out to:
HHonors = 10 base + 5 Diamond bonus + 9 Surpass = 24 points/dollar
Marriott = 10 base + 5 Plat + 5 Premier card = 20 points/dollar
SPG = 2 base + 2 Plat + 2 SPG = 6 points/dollar
Hyatt = 5 base + 3 Diamond bonus = 8 points/dollar
IC = 10 base + 5 Plat (RA?) bonus + 3 credit card = 18 points/dollar
So, how much spend for each:
HHonors = $8,333
Marriott = $8,000
SPG = $13,333
Hyatt = $10,000
IC = $11,111
Of course, there are wrinkles to each program that makes this not exactly what we want. HHonors we can double dip, it may be more appropriate to do this on a points + points comparison, which would lower the cost to $6,897. SPG and Hyatt you would get their "welcome" amenity which you can opt for more poitns, 500 points/stay, so that would effectively lower their cost a bit. They all have promos from time to time, I'm sure some would say IC's are the most generous.
Quite frankly, Hyatt is my favorite of the bunch anyway because of their annual Nights after Nights (now Next Big Thing), but Hyatt and SPG have a huge problem in that they don't have as many properties combined as any of the other three.
I think Hilton's lounge access policy for Diamonds is a big plus, others will say SPG's suuite upgrade for Plats is where it's at. IC has good benefits for Royal Ambassadors, but my limited understanding is that's a tricky status to get (based only on stays at IC brand hotels, not the cheaper hotels).
As I mentioned prevoiusly I gave an advantage to Marriott and SPG by using a five-night stay, you get the most benefit from them in exactly five-night increments, Hilton VIP awards you can do 4-14 days and still receive some benefit.
Note that if your goal is earning hotel stays through credit card spend, the Surpass card blows away the competition, especially since you can earn top tier elite on spend alone.
In the end, while I'm not arguing this is not a devaluation, I always thought HHonors was ahead of everyone before, which is why I favored them, and it seems like now they're roughly even, not behind. Now that Hilton has done a big devaluation I would guess it will be someone else who devalues their program next, but that is just a guess.
Your numbers seem a bit off to me. Isn't the platinum (and gold) elite bonus for SPG 50 %? For Hyatt, the diamond bonus is 30 % or 1.5 points per dollar. Starwood and Marriott give 500 point platinum bonus welcome gifts at FS properties. Marriott gives 200 points for limited service properties, except for CYs outside of the USA where they give 250. Hyatt gives 1000 for diamond members only in North American FS properties, 500 for limited service properties.
I could be wrong, but I think the 2 Hyatt properties in Paris (not including the one at CDG) require 18,000 points per night. So your comparison would require 90,000 points for a 5 night stay.
Promotions occur at uneven frequencies depending on the chains. Until recently, I have not seen many Hilton systemwide promos, whereas Marriott has had at least 2 MegaBonus promos a year for the past 5 years at least. Starwood and Hyatt run more property based promos that seem easier to get than at Marriott and Hilton. I think this will push down the cost of awards for both Starwood and Hyatt. The top tier welcome gifts also count more at these two chains because you do not earn as many points through the room rate itself.
Starwood and Marriott have packages that let you redeem points for rooms and airline miles at attractive rates. I still think the Marriott travel packages are one of the best deals around if you earn enough points (since you can transfer one Marriott point to one mile in 50-120k increments for US and a few foreign carriers).
Hilton is good if you want top status by charging $40k/yr to an Amex card, but it is not so good for those who earn most of their points by staying at Hilton properties. I prefer a combo of Marriott and Hyatt since they offer better customer service and have unlisted benefits for top tier customers. I think some of the intangibles (soft landing at Marriott for elite status if you are platinum, extra flexibility for bending rules from both chains, and lifetime status) are worth something. Also, Hyatt and Marriott do not have points expiration.
This is a case where YMMV. For North American travelers, Hyatt is a good fit to earn lots of points on cheap weekend stays if you travel to cities where they have a lot of properties. Hyatt does not give diamond members welcome points as a gift for travel outside of North America, unlike Marriott and Starwood.
Otherwise, I would rank the three main ones as: Marriott, Hilton, and IC based mainly on quality and award redemption. I am not a big fan of IC limiting points earning at top properties and the lack of consistent quality in their lower end properties, but it is real easy to earn their platinum status and a lot of points with few stays.