If HH brought back PS and made it real (not just 1 tiny hotel on 1 day of the year) I'd seriously consider keeping more business at HH. But with PC PB, you can't beat that.

HHonors Point Stretchers were NOT just "1 tiny hotel on 1 day of the year." At least, not until the program started to dwindle (probably an intentional phaseout).

Priority Club Point Breaks are an excellent value (5,000 points as compared to 15K, 25K, and up for normal reward bookings) IF you can manage to snag one you actually want on dates you want. But since there are no restrictions on booking them, the really good offerings tend to get booked up quickly, leaving slim pickings in terms of location and desirability. (FlyerTalkers are among the people who make lots of speculative Point Breaks bookings that they don't end up using. And those cancellations don't necessarily go back into Point Breaks inventory.)

By the way, the current HHonors promo (ending Dec. 31, 2009) is only FOUR (not five) stays for 25,000 points, AND you can earn up to 75,000 points with it. (That is, if you picked this promo rather than "double base points.")

As for the main subject of this thread, a "boycott" (:rolleyes:), I can only say this: I certainly am NOT happy about ANY points/miles devaluation by ANY loyalty program (even ones I don't participate in, as these devaluations can spread like an epidemic), and I agree that this one seems ill-timed w/r/t the economy. Nevertheless it does have to be pointed out that every program sooner or later devalues, and if you "take your business elsewhere" every time a devaluation occurs, you will eventually run out of chains to patronize. :eek: The best defense, as always, is not to put all your eggs in one basket, i.e., if possible, earn points in two or three or more different programs (as a lot of us already do).

Also, these big chains have millions of customers, so I don't think that a few dozen (or even a few hundred or a few thousand) self-important members deciding to "boycott" will necessarily make much of an impact. I suspect Hilton is gonna do what they want to do when they want to do it.

I think that Hilton pushed just a little bit too fast, and went just a little bit too far.

And by that I mean poor timing, and no mitigating good news.

I think another factor that the geniuses at Hilton (and probably none of the major chain's executives) have not seriously considered is just how far can they devalue until customers say it's just not worth it anymore?

With this devaluation, Hilton is so close to the threshold where I say it's just not worth it. And I suspect many others do as well.

Since there are now other chains with significantly better value propositions and respect for loyal customers, it's time to move on.

That's your opinion. I stay at various chains -- HHonors, PC, SPG and occasionally others -- and HHonors still offers what I want. Everyone is different.

As for "respect for loyal customers," I don't expect that from a large corporation. My bit about "I love large faceless corporations and they cherish me in return -- sometimes ;)" is a JOKE -- I'm lampooning people who have unrealistic expectations of large, impersonal entities. :p

ok....before this gets out of hand, let me put in my two cents worth....i feel hilton is raising their redemption & property categories at a very bad time....i have been diamond for 3 years & have had a lot of good stays at hilton....i love the free breakfast & lounge access....i even managed to get a reward stay for new year's eve at times square, when the property was completely sold out....

having said that, here are my reasons for moving away from hilton:

1. there are no hilton hotels in my country currently (india)....one is supposed to open in delhi later this year but that doesn't help me since i live in delhi)....

2. i have noticed a steady decline in the service i used to receive as a diamond earlier....

3. raising redemption levels in this economy makes no sense to me (i have never been able to figure out why the hyde park hilton in london is a category 6....i have stayed at that property for as little as £69 a night & with the increase in redemption levels i will need 50k points to redeem a night there)....

4. i was not offered the free night & the reason i was given was complete nonsense....

this does not mean that i will completely stop staying at hilton hotels....the hilton singapore & the london hilton metropole are 2 of my favourite hilton properties & i will continue to stay there whenever i am in those cities....but i will not push for diamond status anymore (i will requalify for diamond next year but it will be my last)....

i travel over 150 nights a year & have top status with spg, hilton & taj....i recently got a status match to priority club (hyatt & marriott won't work for me as they don't have enough properties in the places i'm usually traveling to)....i will now start to move most of my hilton stays to either spg or pc....

i guess i agree with kathy, 'everyone is different'....but the reasons i gave above are the cause why hilton will lose out on 60-70 nights a year from me (not that it will make too much of a difference to them)....

While I to am dissappointed with Hilton for making this change, I will continue to stay with them. The reasons are simple, availability and quality. I much prefer Hampton, HGI, and Homewood over some of the competitors offerings in these same markets, and this is where I usually end up. There are simply no Hyatt or SPG properties where I am working, without requiring a long daily commute on toll roads. I like IHG and have Platinum there, but there are no good options for them either except for one Holiday Inn in the area. There are some Marriott properties as well, which I do use in order to keep my Platinum with them and for the bonuses when they come up. I will be giving Hilton lots of business next year as usual. I would love to try the other brands, but they simply do not have penetration into the areas where I usually work, which is normally in technical/industrial parks or close to Universities.

I didn't think this thread was about people boycotting Hilton out of spite, but a thread for people explaining that the current devaluation has put the overall benefits of staying with Hilton lower than staying with another chain, or just going with Priceline.

I am in that case. I was adequately compensated by the free night, which roughly (a lucky break) corresponds to the pointwise devaluation of my account. And I will have the opportunity to use it where I would have made a real stay instead.

I will therefore not leave Hilton with a fit of rage.

On the other hand, when I see the current pricing for SPG hotels in Japan when I'll have to be there next year, I feel attracted toward SPG. Until the current devaluation, I would have stayed at Hilton, because the benefits (points, status) I get from them outweigh the additionnal cost (in that case, telling my company we'll go the same hotel we went the other time, and not telling about lower fares at other chains : the additionnal price to pay for being loyal is low in my case). With the current devaluation, the points linked to the Japan stays won't push me enough toward Hilton. The status could, but status match exists.

I am still undecided (as I get status on points at Hilton, and I am not sure I could do enough hotel nights to retain both highest level in SPG and Hyatt), but if I do the switch, it will be solely because of the devaluation.

As you said, I don't expect to get love from a large faceless corporation. I am only looking at my best interest, and being loyal to Hilton lasts only as long as the hassle of staying with them (slightly less convenient locations, slightly higher prices, adn so on) when I get the choice are compensated by upgraded personnal treatment.

I am sure Hilton determined it was better for them to lose customers like me than risking have too much people redeeming points to stay in their (currently empty due to the current economic crisis) hotels, and I am not a Hilton shareholder to worry about that.

Nonetheless, a thread about discussing people taking their business elsewhere can be useful, especially if it evolve in a discussion into which kind of travel pattern will suffer more from Hilton move and which chain would constitute a better alternativ.

I cut up My Hilton AMEX and will go back to SPG.

I hope you write a note to AMEX And tell them why.

I realized I do have one Hilton reservation left- a Hampton Inn in Council Bluffs, IA, across the river from Omaha, the weekend of the Berkshire-Hathaway meeting. Definitely not cancelling that one out of spite- it would be hard to replace!

Not sure AMEX will care as long as you switch the spending to the SPG AMEX:D

Amex is not the company it was. I have had an Amex card since 1977. Amex lowered the amount I could charge on the card 11 months ago, even though my financials actually improved! Go figure. At the same time Virgin gave me an Amex card( BofA )with a 40K plus limit.
It seems like Hilton and Amex are both getting penny wise and pound foolish.
But I really do not think either of these companies really know that customer service means more customers.

No I did not write Amex, I really do not think they give a ...... They have no loyalty to long time customers. ( Like Singapore Air, that is another story)

I wish I could move. The only reason I'm staying is because it's so easy to transfer AA miles to HHonors at a good rate. I have a superabundance of AA miles and the 1 mile -to- 2 point transfer ratio is very useful, especially for frequent visits to NYC where you can frequently get value of 1.3c per point.

($450 for a night at the Hampton Inn in Hell's Kitchen??? 17.5k miles = 35k points = woot)

Agree fully. (bolding mine), I'd even give another plug for *W for the 5K bonuse when 20k is transfer to airline miles.

I'm sitting on 400k+ HHonors points that I really have no desire to use, I'll end up giving them to freinds or family at some point. I was a longtime (9 years) Hilton Diamond and used to love the HHonors program (still have fond memories of treatments with Gold HHonors status before being Diamond), I left years ago and have NEVER looked back once wondering if I made the wrong move.

Although it turns out that the proposed devaluation of HH points don’t effect my future booking method that much (maybe we jumped to a conclusion that turns out that the effects are not that significant because the list of hotels changing categories looks different as a simple one category up move), I utilized this thread to an opportunity to evaluate the value of my memberships in various FGPs at year end.

Thanks to this controversial discussion in this 200+ post, I got not only a much broader knowledge but also it confirms my opinion, that the personal situation is the main driver for arguing in either side.

Let me sum up, what I discovered:

• In particular the pass to team up with AmEx and VISA in issuing co-branded Credit Cards shifted HHonors focus from (costly) marketing efforts to encourage customer to book their hotel stay at Hilton.com to show profit at Hilton's balance sheet by aggressively selling HHonors points. While I don’t support CC issuers business model to gain their profit mainly from 15.24% APR and up, members who pay their debt on time benefit as long as its last.
• Members who get their stays paid by government/corporation/small business and have the discretion to decide where to stay and how to pay earn incentives for free. Critics call this a modern form of kick back.
• Members who are traveling for personal reasons and on their own dime are limited in their ability to take advantage of a price differential between cash and points. IMO for this group it’s essential to have a deeper look into the benefits of HHonors otherwise they get overcharged.

For the latter, here are same arguments to consider:

• If nobody else pays for my stay, funds come either out of my pocket or out of my FGP account. Therefore I would compare prices and offers from multiple merchants and extend my shopping channels to sites that include opaque travel inventory sold at PL and HW (there is reason why BGR does not apply!).
• If have banked more than 200K HH points in your account, have a look where you like to go, shop for rates and search for (recent) successful (non-refundable) bids at PL (until recently FT member coolwulf offered bidding assistance here for free and for a small fee at his/her website, but decided to temporarily close to avoid any possible violation of PLs T&C). Than do your math’s and if you decide to redeem points and still like to calculate the value of your HH points, don’t forget that you surrender your earning potentials!

Sorry, but i'll keep staying at Hilton Garden Inn or Homewood Suites
 

My company lets me stay wherever I like but the max they will reimburse me is equal to the maximum government lodging rate for the area where I'm working. Thus, I have to get as many amenities in the room rate as possible. I get more benefits or incentives automatically with Hilton than anybody else (of the places where I've stayed so far). Note that I haven't had an opportunity to try hotels in the Hyatt, Wyndam, or Starwood group yet because they haven't had hotels in the areas where I've been working so far. I'm going to try some of them out with weekend stays where being close to the office where I'm working is not important.

Getting high speed internet and breakfast included in the room rate or as a benefit of the hotel rewards program is the primary determinant of where I stay. I can't get what I want via online reservations with the top tier hotels (the full service Holiday Inns, Marriotts and Hiltons). I have to negotiate with the hotel sales office to see if I can get internet and free breakfast included in the room rate. I get what I want at the suites type hotels (and the low service hotels with suites like Holiday Inn Express, Hampton Inn, Fairfield Inn) , but I'm SO TIRED of the standard buffet breakfasts served at these hotels that these hotels have become my last resort (having the extra room is nice, but it's becoming less of a factor in my hotel decision making process). Only Homewood Suites has an evening meal worth eating (usually 2 out of 4 nights). And while 1 out of the 3 evening meals at Staybridge Suites is usually edible and the washer/dryers are free, I just can't stand the same old, same old breakfast buffet that you get there.

At Hilton Garden Inn (HGI) I get a cook to order breakfast for free because there's a full service restaurant in the hotel and free high speed internet without having to call hotel sales office and negotiate for it. I tried a Marriott Courtyard this weekend and got a room rate including breakfast, but found the same breakfast buffet as I can get at the low service hotels. HDTV is becoming the third most important factor for me and so far I find that the newer hotels (HGI and SpringHill Suites) and can be counted on to have high definition TV. The 4th. factor for me is getting a walk-in shower, which I've only seen at HGI, StayBridge and SpringHill Suites. Points or rewards is the 5th. factor for me because I earn so many points and work so much that I don't know if I'll ever cash all of them in anyway.

I think Embassy Suites (ES) would rank high for me, but I have not yet been able to get a room rate there within my company's limitation of staying at or below the maximum government per diem lodging rate.

Conclusion: My personal comfort and enjoyment of the room/hotel is more important than the points. Two Hilton properties (HGI and ES) are still a cut above the low service suite room alternatives for me. Full service (FS) hotels haven't worked for me so far, but the FS Hilton comes closest to giving me most of what I want.