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Best way to get Honors points OUT

Best way to get Honors points OUT

Old Mar 25, 2002, 10:56 am
  #1  
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Best way to get Honors points OUT

I've attained HHonors Gold and SPG Platinum and will no longer be staying at any Hilton properties. I tried to make a reservation using HHonors points at a Hampton inn in a po-dunk town I would be traveling to for a medical emergency and was informed their capacity controls had kicked in and they had no rooms available for award stays (at any point level). Given that this sort of practice HUGELY devalues my points, I'm going to stick with Starwood (where they have NO blackouts and NO capacity controls -- if you can buy a room, you can get the award period).

I'm looking for the best way to get the points out of HHonors and into something else. I've got FF accounts with CO, NW, AA, US and Delta, but tend to fly CO/NW most. Is there anything better than a straight swap for FF miles (at 10:1 ratio, which sucks)?
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Old Mar 25, 2002, 11:02 am
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<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by holland:
Is there anything better than a straight swap for FF miles (at 10:1 ratio, which sucks)?</font>
holland -- The ratio (while not terribly attractive) is not 10:1, but rather 5:1 (50,000 HH points --&gt; 10,000 airline miles on CO or DL), and even a bit better for AA (50,000 HH points --&gt; 12,000 AA miles). NW and US do not participate in the HHonors Reward Exchange.

For more information, see http://www.hilton.com/en/hhonors/rew...change_2.jhtml .
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Old Mar 25, 2002, 11:25 am
  #3  
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Just out of curiosity, how many HH points are you trying to burn?
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Old Mar 25, 2002, 11:38 am
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5:1 is much better than 10:1, my mistake.

I've got just over 125K in my account and about 10K in my wife's.
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Old Mar 25, 2002, 11:49 am
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<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by holland:
I've got just over 125K in my account</font>
As an option, 125K HH points can buy you a free ticket to Hawaii, Alaska, Mexico, or Caribbean. If you redeem it on AA, you will also earn AAdvantage miles on that flight (not sure about the rest of airlines).

http://www.hilton.com/en/hhonors/rewards/airline.jhtml
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Old Mar 25, 2002, 11:53 am
  #6  
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As usual, Eugene beat me to the punch!
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Old Mar 25, 2002, 12:17 pm
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<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by holland:
5:1 is much better than 10:1, my mistake.

I've got just over 125K in my account and about 10K in my wife's.
</font>
Just an observation. While I'm sure it was annoying to have saved hhonors points only to be told "no award rooms available" on the day when you really needed to use them, wouldn't it be in you're best interest to keep the hhonors points and use for a VIP award rather than exchange them and getting only the equivalent of one free airline award ticket? If rooms at the HHV or similar hilton resort run $200 plus a night, a 5 or 6 day VIP award can be worth more than $1,200. Hard to imagine a domestic airline ticket costing that much unless you buy with no advance notice or actually pay to ride FC. Maybe the best way to get the last laugh is to make use of your Gold status and get the most value for your hhonors points.


Just remember, Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.

Good luck.
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Old Mar 25, 2002, 12:19 pm
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Eugene,

Would you mind explaining how these awards work? Are the tickets issued as regular revenue tickets or are the points passed through the airline ff program, which then issues an award ticket?

If they are rev fares, in what class are they issued?

Do the awards work the same for all airlines, including partner airlines? For example, does the AP14 award on South Africa Airlines earn ff points on Delta?

I'm slowly transferring some of my million LP miles into HHonors and am looking for creative ways to use them. I don't know how I missed this award. It sounds quite promising. While I'm asking a million questions--how is availability or award seats, are there blackout dates, etc.?

I'll call Hhonors to find out how to redeem these awards but would appreciate any tips and tricks you can give from your own experience.

Thanks.
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Old Mar 25, 2002, 12:34 pm
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stephlac -- Let me try to answer some of your questions based on my (somewhat limited) personal experience. I'm sure that others will jump in and cover the gaps in my explanation.

First, when you redeem HH points for an airline award (or a VIP award that includes tickets), you receive a voucher to present to the airline. You don't receive airline miles in your account (the way Marriott does the transfer). Then you have to exchange those vouchers for actual tickets. Depending on the airline, some of those vouchers are for an award ticket (e.g., UA, in V class), some are for a "revenue" ticket (e.g., AA, in N class). Not completely sure if technically you can truly call it a revenue ticket, but AA tickets issued on a HH award earn mileage.
One thing to remember, that inventory for tickets issued on, let's say, award ticket on UA paid for with HH points, is different from UA Mileage Plus award inventory (typically, availability is much better with HH awards). And yes, there are blackout dates, but it has been reported ( http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum57/HTML/003845.html ) that sometimes those blackout dates while stated by HH, are not enforced by UA. An important thing to keep in mind that those tickets (at least on UA) are not upgradeable.
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Old Mar 25, 2002, 12:37 pm
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<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by stephlac:


While I'm asking a million questions--how is availability or award seats, are there blackout dates, etc.?


Thanks.
</font>
[[This message has been edited by milesmilesmiles (edited 03-25-2002).]

[This message has been edited by milesmilesmiles (edited 03-25-2002).]
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Old Mar 25, 2002, 12:56 pm
  #11  
 
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milesmilesmiles -- Would you please edit the link you've provided (so it would not mess up the screen) by cutting off everything beyond "...vip.jhtml". It will still connect to the same place on the HHonors web site.

Thanks!
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Old Mar 25, 2002, 1:00 pm
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<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by milesmilesmiles:
Here's a link to get you started...

http://www.hilton.com/en/hhonors/rewards/vip.jhtml

</font>
Hopefully this is better....


[This message has been edited by milesmilesmiles (edited 03-25-2002).]
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Old Mar 25, 2002, 1:06 pm
  #13  
 
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Wow. Thanks for the quick responses.

If these tickets are issued as N fares on AA then that is very good news. These fares are upgradable and they qualify for mileage bonuses such as the USAJP multiple RT bonus. Can I get an award to any place that AA flies or just to cities with Hilton properties (should be an huge overlap, in any case).

Does anyone have any experience with the South Africa Airlines awards? Do these earn Delta Skymiles?

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Old Mar 25, 2002, 1:35 pm
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You may want to check if those fares on AA are upgradeable, and by which means (miles vs. VIPOW vs. stickers for domestic segments). Also, see this thread: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum57/HTML/003195.html .

No experience with the South Africa Airlines awards, sorry.
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Old Mar 26, 2002, 12:23 am
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AA fares are of the I kind, they're not published, and I've been told by the special promotion desk that they can only be upgraded domestically with 500-mile stickers. VIPOW's can't be used to upgrade these fares.
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