This announcement is the final straw for me for what used to be the best hotels and rewards program. Since they switched to Karma it has been increasingly difficult to book rewards. Used to be if you had a free night you could call and if the hotel had availability, you could use it. Now it's almost always blacked out and since there is no way to check online, you have to call to find out that you can't use it. Hilton can at least tell you online that your rewards are worthless. Good luck with becoming another Holiday Inn brand.