But, worryingly, maybe Hilton/Blackstone isn’t so disappointed to lose our “let’s maximize earnings/insist on perks/jump on bonuses/minimize spending FT aficionado attitude” and just is happy to hold onto Joe “Yeah, I think I earn points with Hilton, but I don’t pay too close attention to it.”

I find it hard to believe that these kinds of devaluation decisions aren’t made without some modeling; the question is, “will this devaluation have a greater impact on income than Hilton bean counters predict?”