I stopped my Hilton stays last year, and dropped to blue. But, not cutting off my nose to spite my face, I did this year's summer promo, earning 3 free nights. This then satisfied the fast track back to diamond. I'll use the certs for aspirational stays, likely in first half of 2011. I'll also be opportunistic on future promos. However, emotionally, I am gone from Hilton.

3 in Q1, 1 in Q2 (Q2 were "unlimited", however I only had the opportunity for 4 stays).

I would say so manuy were disappointed but they did come back with some great promos this year, im sure they felt a bit of a hit. I know personally I cut back my spending a bit on HH Amex and switching over for miles most likely.

Im just waiting for the next devaluation for another big chain to see everyone running back about how bad it is.

I'm assuming the first couple promos after the deval were calculated to really give pause to those that might jump ship -- and I certainly stayed a lot and rocked that free night promo -- I probably did better with that Q1 than I would have with other chains.

No, I wasn't happy about the devaluation, but after a little grumbling, I am sticking with HHONORS. For the most part, it's just hard to argue with the wide choices and hotel types in the U.S., and the good value when you cash those points and certs in on the international/resort stays. I understand Starwood is good, but I didn't see much opportunity to stay in Starwood properties this year for business, so I did cheat on Hilton and booked some Hyatts as backup if Hilton didn't come through.

I guess to put Hilton on notice not to screw us too much more and to keep the promos coming, I *did* push enough stays this year to get to some middle level of Gold Passportness... I'm still learning the ropes of their program. I still made hard Diamond on stays, but booked at least a few trips at Hyatts (in cities there were HHonors properties I actually like) that I would have never done prior to the devaluation.



TDM

I gave 8 mostly 1-night stays in 2010 to IC and obtained a ridiculous number of points. As a result, I will only make Gold this year, after 8 straight years of Diamond. In 2009 I did three MRs to make Diamond as I was so close, so that was 25 "real" stays. So giving 8 stays to IC was very efficient, and they've rewarded me by offering me 80k bonus points if I stay at 8 different properties between now and 5/2011.

At 10k-15k redemption rates in small cities compared to 20-25k for Hampton Inns, all the IC bonus points make up for the 5 points/$ which I will lose from Hilton in 2010.

I will miss the Diamond force, but I have enough points to speculatively make a few 4-night stay award reservations for the second half of 2011 before I lose Diamond status.

I don't think HH is that bad in comparasion with other programs. later this week all diamonds and golds will have free internet which is a nice addition to the program and they quarterly promos have been pretty good.

As far as I know HH is the only large hotel chain to offer BOTH points and airline miles or to give you a nice bonus for points if you don't double dip.

I have Southwest as my double dip partner and with the double dip promo the one credit per stay is really nice when you do one or two night stays, especially seeing you get 15 hilton poitns per $ spent.

Now if you want a program to complain about look at best westerns. As a diamond at BW you don't get the diamond desk diamond force, no extra benefits like free breakfast if it isn't included in the rate, and the upgrades as a diamond aren't any better than if you have no BW status if you are a regular at the property and you get 13 points per $ charged as a diamond without any miles.

+1. I was also quite unhappy with the flood of "cheap" Diamonds, i.e., new Diamonds via fast tracks, which has resulted in diminished hotel benefits. Room upgrades are scarcer, ELs are overcrowded and the offerings are noticeably scantier. Restockings are also less frequent.
A loyalty program is supposed to reward those loyal to a business.

I have taken the majority of my business to SPG and am quite happy with my treatment thus far.

I will still make Diamond into 2013 since SPG does not have much of a presence in the smaller towns and with awards use then Gold after that. I can't make Diamond via the Surpass spend so my Amex use has petered down to the min.

Hilton still does have advantages, e.g., Force, awards counting twds status, points+miles, free Amex. But the disadvantages, to me, outweigh them.

it wasn't just the devaluation but a bunch of other reasons that have made me switch most of my hilton stays to spg....i burned through my 2 million points this year & an now left with a little over 100k (which will also go by the end of the year)....

i will still end up making diamond every year due to the fact that there are 2 hilton properties i always stay at in london & singapore & i will continue to do so in the future....it has nothing to do with hilton....i am just treated very well there due to the fact that i am a regular guest....but besides these 2 properties i have shifted all my stays to either spg, pc or taj....

Like some other posters Hilton continues to best the best/most logical option for my require travel footprint. As well the free nights and double points promos this year have been nice.

I gave up requalification for Diamond but then the benefit got added to the Amex Centurian package so I guess I will stay Diamond after all.

[QUOTE=saad;14570050]it wasn't just the devaluation but a bunch of other reasons that have made me switch most of my hilton stays to spg....i burned through my 2 million points this year & an now left with a little over 100k (which will also go by the end of the year)....QUOTE]

Same for me only I switched to MR. I've been a "real" Diamond for many years and the devaluation along with the diminishing value of lounge access at HH properties in the US ultimately drove me away. This year I switched to MR and now they get all of my approximately $10,000 annual hotel spend. Meanwhile I've got about 500,000 HH points to burn through and I've got the Surpass card to keep status while I use them, but HH isn't seeing any room revenue from me. Once the HH points are gone I'll drop the Amex and move on.

The lion's share of my 27 nights have been award stays (about 8 nights pre-devaluation) and I have discovered Holiday Inns and worked in a couple of Marriott stays. Yet, I still maintain diamond via Amex (and *wood gold via Amex). Bluff and bluster aside, for the rest of the year most of my hotel stays are Hilton's, but maybe not as many as would have been pre-devalue.

When the devaluation was announced, I thought that I wouldn't bother with Hilton in 2010 - I would burn my points (of which I had about 500,000), and let that be that. Maybe I would continue to earn Hilton Diamond status via the Surpass Card.

However, then the first quarter promotion was announced and I sat down and did some math. For 12 stays, I could have a three night stay at the Cavalieri (I property that I had always wanted to visit) on top of the points earned from those stays - a much better deal than SPG or Marriott were offering at the time. So I went for it and by the end of March had 12 stays.

The stay at the Cavalieri was truly exceptional and was probably my best hotel experience ever. Thus when Hilton re-did the same promotion for the summer, I went at it again and earned another 3 free night certificates. It was a close call to compare the Hilton promotion against the Starwood promotion, but since the Hilton certs were valid 7 days of the week for an entire year, I decided to pursue Hilton (and earned plenty of Starwood free weekend nights on the side, anyway).

Between those stays and award stays, I earned Diamond for 2011. I have no plans to set foot in another Hilton property through the end of the year, and for next year I'm not committed to remaining Diamond - we will have to see what they roll out by way of promotions. Although the devaluation hurt, the promotions have (in some cases) helped HHonors to remain a very strong program for redemption value.

I dropped down to Gold for 2010. Then they offered me the fast track back to Diamond concurrent with the Q1/Q2 promo, so I ended up as Diamond again along with 3 Q3FN. I'm now sitting on 25 stays YTD, so will end the year over 28 stays, even though I'm already Diamond through 3/2012. I just have to make sure that I requal SPG Plat with 5 more stays before year end.

I've spent more nights with Marriott this year whilst retaining Diamond (just) whilst in the past I've done about 100 in each.

I've also got IC Plat, which I don't really value due to the lack of breakfast / lounge access.

I suspect I'll continue maxing out on MR stays and keeping Diamond at the lowest level possible.