It is not looking good....

sdcarver

How long ago was it that they lost the W=A branding? If it's just a few weeks they probably haven't updated the category yet. Otherwise, we may indeed be in for some surprises. Any other non W=A Cat. 8 finds?

UTA

The Bentley Hotel in London quite ordinarily has room rates in the $350 or less range and so I see no good reason why this property should be priced in the highest (or some new high) category/pricing.

At 50,000 points (or more) per night? No thanks.

350USD? I regularly see it at around 150GBP ai (London prices displayed exclude taxes) so definitely not a good use of points.

UTA

isn't hilton about do for another deval? its been two years or will be soon

AGAIN a devaluation? He Hilton, what's that?!

The odd thing is that most of the HH website doesn't really mention "Category 8". It only goes up to cat 7 (50k pts/nt) and then talks about W=A properties starting at 50k to 60k. Other parts still list the Bentley as W=A .

http://hhonors1.hilton.com/en_US/hh/...s/freenight.do

I was just thinking the same thing the other day.

In December I'll be making a reservation that will burn off the last of my HH points. Lately all my earnings are from CC spend so I'd hate to have to find a way to quickly earn another 30k points (the likely amount of an increase for the number of nights I'll be doing).

So given my usual luck you can pretty much call it a lock that they'll bump up redemption levels before December .

i believe it was in the first quarter last year....they would be stupid to do another one now....but then again, hilton has been doing some really stupid things as of late....

When did they change the Bently from a W=A?

I stayed there about 2 months ago and it was still a W=A.
I really like staying there and will probably continue to stay there, the rooms are massive, staff is great.

Also are we sure that they are going to do a deval and that its not just a Typo on the Bentley site? I mean i dont see Cat 8 anywhere else!

Ridiculous. Hilton and Delta should team up.

original post #95, http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...l#post16849327

Or Hilton and AA:

A beginning it is not; AA miles have been devaluing constantly at a rate of at least 3-4% annually, without factoring in the huge devaluation from the introduction of the YQ on certain awards.

When I joined AA in 1984, I was promised that for 20,000 accumulated miles and no cash I would:
fly roundrip on any US/CA flight as long as a single economy-class seat was available for absolutely free (they picked up all taxes/fees);
sleep one night for free at a Marriott or similar;
and drive a midsize car for free for 2 weekend days (IIRC).

In 2010:
flying roundrip on any US/CA flight as long as a single economy-class seat is available costs 50,000 miles plus those taxes/fees that they no longer pay for;
sleeping one hotel night at a Holiday Inn costs 31,250 miles and doesn't include "resort" charges;
driving a midsize car rental for 2 days is 16,000 miles (extra charges unknown);
for a total of 97,205 miles plus cash to pay for taxes/fees and "resort" charges.

In other words, 1000 AA miles of 1984 are now worth less than 389 miles (less because I am not counting in the value of the cash co-pays).

That's an annual devaluation of the accrued miles of 3.58%

It's a safe bet to predict that our miles will continue to lose a similar, if not higher, amount per year in the future. As such, I would not be surprised in the least that AA's decision to invest its very scarce IT resources to develop the "dynamic air awards" system is to support this trend.

I can guarantee that Hilton points will be devalued in the future; I can't say when or, or how much, but that doesn't matter in these threads does it?

Indeed. DL's been devaluing points at a far steeper rate than AA, CO, UA and US in as long as anyone's been a member of FT.

Hilton and Delta "loyalty" program management fame/infamy have a lot of things in common, and it's anything but all good.

Too late.

while I wasn't playing this game in 1984, something strikes me as wrong with this

In 1984, did you have the Avis First program or the ability to earn free weekend rentals or the Hertz program to get points in their program? I don't think so.

Was there a Priority Club in 1984, especially a priority club that gives away 31,000 points with ease like they do today?

while your 20000 aa miles may not get you what you could 27 years ago, you have a gazillion more means of earning points for ways that you never had in 1984 so really AA has shifted some of that burden from Aadvantage to the other vendors themselves.

Well, in 1984 one could also book Concorde with AAdvantage miles.

IMO, the thread title is specious - it appears to announce an upcoming devaluation, but the thread is speculative in extreme. 3Cforme says they will be devalued in the future, but can;t say when - that's about as close as any of us are going to get, I think.

The Bentley Hotel London, ex-W=A, shows a non-existent Cat 8, and shows inconsistently as a W=A elsewhere on Hilton's websites - notorious for poor informational value, such as the many USA Hilton Garden Inns that have been non-smoking for years but still show smoking rooms on offer.

Though there may be a devaluation sometime in our future - and adding a category, which has a precedent, is certainly a devaluation - but for the moment, the past and undoubtedly the future, we can say Hilton has a website that goes for long periods of time without updating, is occasionally incorrect and is not terribly user friendly.