GUWonder

When the caps are removed, blame points toward Hilton Corp more than anyone else for that further devaluation. The complaining parties might be different when all the Hilton hotels start getting paid under a different fixed formula for award stays than the one that has been in place from even before this latest devaluation. Until then, Hilton Corp is to blame for this devaluation.

craz

Totally agree, its simply Hilton corp from beginning to end and why is simply a money matter. Not sure if we even have a full year to take advantage, as Im sure once they see how they messed up and left us a nice perk they will slam it down, and Im sure they know it already but must bide some time in order not to cause a rush to teh exits

iahphx

Yeah, I wouldn't bet on this cap lasting 12 months.

I also don't thing Hampton Inns should be charging $500 either, though! I guess Hilton has no cap on what its hotels can charge for special events. So they'll lose money on me and make a mint off all the other guests.

FlyerTom111

It's all over the place. @ Cheap Hotels, I usually just book them for $100 with some decent bonus points. The more expensive hotels I book with points, and I just looked @ Hawaii, and there are some decent hotel options for 40k points per night with 5th night free. Now keep in mind, there are also some outrageous asks, but as someone who has a lot of points, I just think you need to be somewhat flexible. It's certainly a devaluation, but if a recession comes, they will be begging you for your business.

yoyo

Well, it is a big de-valuation for me.

I stayed in Hilton double tree in Hangzhou, China for 10K a night (category 1) last year and still have two nights' booking for 20K in Dec (booked in Jan) and how I checked the standard room rate is 32-36K a night. That's a huge huge loss for me. Standard cash rate was 700-800 RMB (about $100USD) which did not change. Granted it was an exceptional redemption for me at over 1 cent per point (with 5th night free). Edit noticed it is now category 2 which explains the big jump.

earlyriser

Finding some incredible value out there on the app only in the last few days for points redemption's.

iahphx

Care to give some more info? When you say "app," is that a phone app and is the award pricing different than if you just you their regular website? That would be weird!

Cat. 1's are obviously VERY rare though. The more I play around with this, the more I LIKE the new system. That's because under the old system, there were a few good deals, but 90% of the time, it made no sense to use your points to stay at Hiltons. Now, it can make sense a lot of the time. Like I think I'm finding 3x as many hotels under 30,000 points than before.

And if you have a relatively easy way to gin up Honors points -- like with the AMEX Surpass card -- it pays to gin up more points because they're so much easier to use. My local supermarkets have several promos during the year that essentially allow you to buy gift cards for zero dollars. I often passed because I didn't really need more Honors points. This year, I think I'm going to need more Honors points because I'm going to stay in more Hiltons.

craz

Since the Surpass pays 6x @ supermkts and the reg HH Amex pays 5x, I'll stick with the reg fee free for now. I know Surpass comes with Gold and $40k in spend Diamond. 2/3 to Dia already so will get to 30 w/o any problems.

If you get the gas pts getting GCs then that will take care of the fees for the GCs and you get the HH pts on top of that

Problem Im starting to find is many Hotels are now in the 30k cap level, so the rate will have to be north of $150 to get the .005 value which Im not finding in many cases = paying ca$h works out better or simply staying with another chain where the rate is apx $100 is even better

For a 1 nighter Im more akin to stay at a HI for 20k then a Hilton (FS) for 30k, since 60k can get me 3 nights instead of just 2. Its just almost impossible to find the 20k's where I end going, heck 30k isnt easy either

eponymous_coward

Granted, I've stayed at some of the P+M places that were real values under the old system (Conrad Macao, Reichshof in Hamburg) and I'll miss that, but I have to agree that just knowing you can get ~.5 cpp all the time, consistently, everywhere, for a base level room at (insert location here) expands the utility of Hilton points.

Now, I don't plan on bulking up TOO much because of their history of devaluations, but it's nice to feel good about earning+burning them at the moment.

earlyriser

Yes. It was app only as I was simultaneously looking on the website for dates in June/July. I was looking for 5+night stays, mostly in the Asia Pacific area. Selfishly, I won't say what I ended up booking but it was a hotel that is usually 50-60K per night, and I booked 5 nights for 120K total. I could have had 5 nights for 105K but those dates did not suit me. Hint, its sister hotel could be had for much lower. This was two days ago so things may have changed.

I almost booked Fiji instead. I was able to find the Hilton for as low as 31K/night and the DoubleTree for under 25K/night.

I have seen on another forum that some found Sydney for as low as 27K/night.

ozztraveller

I was able to book 1 night at Sydney for 25K and used the slider for points & pay so ended up 10k & $111AUD. Plus earned 4.5k points back into my account and being a regular still received a very generous upgrade.

Happy

I have seen Hilton Helsinki Varies A Lot for the same day I am looking at, out of curiosity only as I would rather stay at Radisson Blu for a much more convenient location.

It goes between as low as 39K to as high as 52K on same day at the varies time I check it out.

Also Hilton Gdanske going up and down although with a smaller range, on same day. Though the Hampton Inn GDN at 10K remains the best value and more convenient for us due to the train station is right at the airport and only 200 meters from the HI.

This means one needs to keep checking on one's bookings as the rates could have gone down.

iahphx

When I was checking some hotels the other day, I noticed it would sometimes display one award price but then, when you clicked, it would have a different points price.

When booking a multiple night stay, the system also seems to sometimes only show you the points price for the first night, and you have to get to the confirmation page to see the additional night pricing.

None of this is good, of course.

earlyriser

Hasn't bothered me yet.

My recent booking showed 22K points and upon booking only the first three nights were 22K, with the final two being 26K. Pretty spectacular considering at the same time last year I stayed for 60K per night and the hotel has been 50-60K for as long as I can remember.

nk15

It's called bait and switch, read about it. It's the whole concept loyalty programs are based on.