If you are flexible on where to stay on your award you can get great value on PC through point breaks (Like last time they had available IC DUS, Geneva and Cleveland). However if you want to go to Paris and it's not on the list (it's published like once in 3 month and some hotels might be off the list the same day they become available) then you need to spent too much points, IMO.
On the earning side, you can follow this thread http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/inter...ad-2009-a.html to earn sometimes for the whole week of point breaks on one stay

Reg. Hilton, it seems that their program is more dull then PC - no way to earn 20k points on 1 night stay, as you can sometimes with PC.