FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - 2013 Changes to HH Reward Stays, new cat., more pts needed
Old Feb 19, 2013, 4:56 pm
  #154  
crimsonAA
 
Join Date: Apr 2009
Posts: 543
Here's the math I just did, and it's going to influence how I use my credit cards going forward. I'd imagine AmEx is a big source of income for Hilton, but I don't think they'll be getting my business any more.

Conrad Tokyo is now 95,000 points I believe? Best available rate including taxes is about 43,000 JPY and prepaid rate is 36,500 JPY (I picked a random date in June). Let's take an average exchange rate of 90 to the dollar. That's $475 for the best available rate and about $405 for the prepaid rate.

95,000 points. That equals about $32,000 in unbonuses credit card spend, or $19,000 in bonused spend. Not that it ever made sense, but I'm not longer even considering my HH AmEx for unbonused spend. I could get $640 back for that $32,000. And even for bonused spend at 5 pts/$ under the new earning structure coming up in May, I'm trading off $380 in cold hard cash at 2% back for a room worth anywhere from $405 to $475, depending on how flexible I am. There's still value to be had from the HH credit card, I suppose, but it's mighty weak.

I've had my Hilton AmEx since '05, so it's staying active to keep my average account age up, but I'm just no longer excited about the program.
crimsonAA is offline