Changed Pre-Point Devaluation Award Stay With No Increased Points Required
The possibility of rebooking an award stay made under the "old" category/point structure to different dates without paying at todays rates may already have been reported elsewhere, but I wanted to share my positive experience that may be of help to others.
I made a 7-night booking at the Los Cabos Hilton on the last day that it was classified as a category 6 hotel using a GLONP07 award for 205,000 points. The reservation dates of the booking were 12/25/10 through 1/1/11. At the time of the booking, award flights were not yet available on AA, but I figured traveling on Christmas and New Year's day would provide the best opportunity for obtaining lowest cost award travel when my kids are out of school during the Christmas break.
Flights on AA during late December have been slowly becoming available, but tickets from RDU to SJD on 12/25 and returning on 1/1 have yet to be made available. I could, however, get tickets that had us arriving in Los Cabos on 12/21 and departing on 12/28.
The new classification and point structure for a 7 night VIP award at the Los Cabos Hilton costs 262,500 points. I called Hilton to find out the possibility of switching my award dates to arriving/departing 4 days earlier, fully expecting that I would have to cough up an additional 57,500 points. Much to my surprise, they were able to make the change with no increased cost in points to me. It seems this was only possible because my new dates overlapped with my original booking.
Keep this in mind if you have an award stay booked at the old rates that you would like to change without requiring expenditure of additional HH points.