Originally Posted by ElmhurstNick
I use my points for Opportunities and Ones near airports, and Fives/Sixes in expensive major cities. The big shift of US Domestic Hiltons with a lot of 2->3 and 3->4 doesn't really affect me, as I don't think those are the good values anyway. A lot of Opportunity level Hamptons went to Cat One, especially in Arizona which makes those breakeven instead of a good value. And there's no level 7.
I had already planned to burn off 275k of my 425k during the first half of this at a series of 1-4 night Cat 5 and Cat 6 stays (Dublin, Hong Kong, Tokyo). The last devaluation, I lowered my value of HHonors points from 0.009 to 0.00667, even though I often got more than a penny on the Opportunity stays. Now, I'll probably lower them to 0.006, but not much lower than that.
Similar point use for me. Most of my redemptions have been at Opportunity, Level 1, Level 5, and Level 6 properties. From what I've seen, Opportunity and Level 1 are almost always good for point use. Occasionally, I find a Level 2 - 4 where using points makes sense due to high room rates, but these are few and far between.
Before the change, I valued HHonors points at .0055. Haven't completed an analysis, but intend to lower my valuation to .0051 (at least for the moment). Incidentally, as a Diamond member, this valuation equates to a 10%+ return on spend, which I consider excellent.