Originally Posted by
iahphx
Well, I was never "loyal" to Hilton. My chain hotel strategy has always been to get the highest status I could get for no real money or effort (mostly credit card sign-ups) and then exploit "loopholes" in their award charts. I try to have status and points in all the programs, and I use sites like Hotel Hustle to see if my destination has an attractive hotel redemption option. If it doesn't, I look to see if there's a good deal paying cash at a chain or non-chain property (I usally start at Kayak). If "cash" looks like the best option, I try to reduce the cash needed by using travel website promo codes, other discounts, and cashback.
The current "maximum point" guarantee is probably nearly worthless to me because I would think in 90% of circumstances, I'm going to find a better hotel deal than paying Hilton's maximum point rate. Remember, I'm looking for loopholes, not ordinary "fair market" redemptions.
In this case, it would seem like Honors is now basically a revenue-based award program. Those are useless to gamers like me, unless the currency is valuable. Like I sometimes transfer Chase UR points to Southwest because I have a companion pass and, even without it, Southwest points are worth about 1.7 cents in value. At .5 cents value, I don't see any real point in acquiring Honors points (unless there's a new, lucrative credit card sign up bonus I'm eligible for). For example, I now my supermarket purchases on my Honors Surpass card for 6x spending. My real grocery expenses are modest, but I do sometimes buy gift cards at grocery stores during special promotions (GCs below cost, free gas, etc). It would seem that now, however, the best I can do is receive a 3% return on these purchases with Surpass -- and I have to take that money in Hilton IOUs. That's almost never going to be the best rebate, right? It would only be the best deal if a Hilton stay was the best value IN CASH at my destination for that date. How often does that happen? Five or ten percent of the time?
Am I missing anything? Or should I find another credit card to use at supermarkets? If so, which one?
Of course the Honors has gone revenue-based. Why would you still have doubt?
About Hotel Hustle - be ware its search result - when I tried it for the locations I was looking at, it returned false results as if no award being available (create Alert) yet there were awards. Sorry, Wandering Armean, the Hotel Hustle software has much left to desire.
What I tend to do these days is to go to TripAvisor and search hotels of a particular location, by review ranking. i can then see what chains have properties present and what are the general reviews. Much quicker to narrow down the possibilities as TripAdvisor these days display cash rates fairly closely match what you would find at Kayak. I would even venture to say, this is a quicker filtering process than your 2-step dance.