Before everybody bails, I think one should wait for the list. I myself have been crushed by these devaluations. I have collected over 5 million and am at 3 million. I saw the ALON go from 100,000 to 175,000 and now it may move again. Starwood moved there Maui properties from 40,000 to 48,000 which is a 20 percent increase. All programs can do this. As a Diamond the points have increased for me. I get the 10 points, plus 5 bonus, I refuse the airline points, so I get another 5, I do the myway for an extra 1000 a stay(mine are usually one night) so that's 8 points, I have the Surpass card so that's 9, the Amex booking online which is 5 and then the promotions. So what is that 45 points per dollar? I am also Platinum for Life with Marriott great program especially on the lower hotels for redemptions. I was Platinum with Starwood. I like Starwood, but they have a minimal supply of hotels unless you stay in large Metro areas. At one time, they had no hotels in the state of Arkansas. In Texas none in Lubbock/Amarillo, El Paso, Corpus, Laredo, the Valley very sparcely located.

As much as I am very sad about the devaluation of the program, I have to wait for the hotel classification changes. I have no doubt that hotels will probably move up a category, ie, from 4 to 5, 5 to 6, 6 to 7. Anyways, the premium hotels already require 50K and 60K, not so long ago, they were 40K.

With the new surpass, everyone is gold and can be diamond and you can get many points.

I personally will not re-qualify for diamond, and will venture out to SPG. Thanks HH, but it is time to move on.

I really don't understand the move, check out what other chains have done this year

SPG :

eliminated high season award for cat 5,6
many hotels level moved down
opened C+P as rate plan for all properties
brought back C+P for US properties
many generous promotions including night after night, free nights...
Not to mention the elite benefit they already had

Hyatt:

Confirmed diamond upgrade
free internet for PLAT and DIA
FFN+double stay.
many other generous promotions

PC:
introduced C+P
also contiune to have Points break
many generous promotions including Free nights, double or triple points


Hilton
no generous promotions, consider the points to redeem at hotel hilton are relatively high, last quarter promotion is just 10K bonus points after 5 STAYS. with Q2 triple miles, they made 30+ rate plan ineligible.Not to mention no more point stretcher

now devalue the points

I hope the management can wake up!

There has been a steady devaluation of the Hilton program ever since the takeover by Blackstone.

For example we stayed at the Hilton Waikoloa for the past five years but stayed at the Grand Hyatt Kauai this February instead because of the decline in service and the lounge closure.

We were happy with Hyatt and made the decision to maintain status with them and only stay with Hilton if there was no Hyatt available.

I am not surprised with the devaluation; the handwriting was on the wall.

It is amazing how many points can be earned through IHG/PC and I think they generally spend better. In my experience, Hilton properties have always been a more consistent stay but I have to admit, it appears to me that IHG has made real progress with renovations/new Holiday Inns and HIX's.

I already started throwing more stays at IHG because of the promotions and will fall short of Diamond next year. I will be gold so no big difference. I have a 7 night stay for Nov in HNL at the Embassy Suites and converted 310,000 points (that hurt) to SW RR so I could get a companion pass. That leaves me with 3,000 HH pts left. I don't plan to stop staying at HH in protest. I like the fact that Hamptons and HGI's are everywhere and dependable. That being said, if IHG continues to revamp their product and keeps the point’s candy coming when HH promos are a joke, how can I not stay with them?

Well, I think the argument for Priceline is more a function of the economy. PL is a great way for hotels to "secretly" "dump" excess room inventory. Obviously now there is a lot of that excess room inventory with occupancies where they are. So there are a lot of GREAT deals on Priceline. Wasn't the case 2 years ago and probably won't be the case 2 years from now.

I've used it several times this year, and it just doesn't make sense to pay 2x the price just to earn some points (of dubious value, apparently), particularly when I can narrow it down to 1 or 2 hotels I'm likely to get.

For me there has been mostly bad moves by Hhonors lately:
- giving up on Scandic hotels and thus making it impossible for me to make diamond
- end of rolling tier
- Nor1 taking away from the upgrade "quota" of elites and trying to get us to pay for upgrades (bad move especially for people constantly on business trips)
- making me realize that many non-exec rooms at Hiltons are pretty mediocre
- stealing 25% of my points value

I'm giving up on Hhonors but not going to Starwood or any other international hotel chain either. The last straw was Nor1.

It's quite disappointing about cat. 7. Do we have a list of which hotels are going to be category 7 as of Jan 15?

Upgrades?
 

I will be more than happy to give you all my Diamond upgrades (???:cool:), because starting next year I will not be an Hilton customer. Unfortunately for you my Hilton upgrades rate is about 15%.

I'm going to wait and see what happens with the category shift. If all hotels do become a higher category, I'm done. My upgrade rate is very slim, there are pitiful promotions and now devalued points. Sure, the Surpass card is nice, but I'm supposed to use my company card for all work trips (I can sneak the surpass once or twice, but not often). Unfortunately, I often go to customer sites which are factories, so *Wood doesn't do a lot for me since it's not in large areas. I currently poke around PC properties or the infrequent Marriott property. If the category happens to most hotels, I'll have to see if PC, Marriott or what is best for me.

I am in a 4 stay ,6 nights at Hilton properties.Will be adding more to that over the months.
Will stay the course as a Diamond.

Look at a list of the current Cat 6 hotels. Most, if not all, of them will be Cat 7. Official list will be out late Dec. or early Jan.

Hyatt doesn't have nearly as many hotels as Hilton, but Hyatt made considerable enhancements this year:

1. Free internet at all properties for elites.

2. No blackouts, no capacity controls on point awards.

3. Current faster free night promotion (which shows up fairly regularly) is very generous.

Given the addition of lower end properties (Hyatt Place, etc), you might find it attractive.

This is exactly where I stand. I book rooms through Hilton.com and pay a premium over PL to get HHonors points. Now the accumulated value of my points doesn't justify that price premium. With this change it becomes cheaper and easier to forget about HHonors altogether and just PL all the time.

Angela at HHonors, write this down:

Say I have ten hotel stays coming up at an average cost of $500 each on Hilton.com, or $400 each via Priceline. I pay the cumulative $1000 (10 X $100) premium to book via Hilton.com, in order to earn 50,000 HH points. These points are good for one room-night that would normally cost a maximum of $400. I have spent $1,000 for a prize worth $400.

Or -- I book those stays via Priceline, pay $400 / stay, and use the $1,000 I saved to buy four or five additional room-nights anywhere I want.

I am not as big an idiot as HHonors perhaps thinks I am. ;)

Hilton isn't counting on all its customers being like a frog slowly being boiled alive; Hilton is counting on enough of its customers behaving like a brainless frog being boiled alive.

For those who know how to really use it, Priceline is a great tool and/or supplement to avoid being treated like a brainless frog that's to be boiled alive. [And Hyatt and even Marriott provide elite status benefits while at the hotels even for Priceline bookings.]