Initial thoughts from a 14-year Diamond Member, 4 years as LTD. I earned LTD on years, nights, and spend.

- Work requires me to book Hamptons, HGIs, and Homewood Suites. I've never broken $18,000 in base spending. $18k over 80 nights is $225 in base spending per night. That's tough for road warriors with restrictions on brand stays. Now, I completely understand activity above 80 nights contributes, but still, that's steep.

- There are too many Diamonds already. You can get Diamond status with a CC. Will the CC Diamond benefit go away?

- Will there been enhanced earning rates for the higher loyalty tiers? Likely not.

- Since Hilton lets franchises do whatever they want with respect to policies and procedures (breakfast, upgrades, etc.), what's the long term benefit to any of this for those of us most loyal customers?

- "Confirmable Upgrade" benefit? Big deal. You still have to book standard room awards to get anything close to decent value, and most desirable properties have a million room tiers. I can't wait to burn my "confirmable upgrade" for 120k points a night to move from a "1Q low floor parking lot view" to a "1Q high floor parking lot view".

But... this is all wild speculation based off one travel blog's post. Who knows. All I know is... room rates are up, reward earnings are down, reward prices are up, and distinguishing benefits for those of us that are loyal and lucrative customers are virtually non-existent.