When will companies learn that being upfront and open about bad news is better than saying nothing and trying to get away with it?

There should be an axe to grind given what Hilton has been doing to its customers with substantial Hilton point balances -- namely, ripping customers off by devaluing the points in such a way as to perhaps make even con-artists envious.

Not until their bottom line really hurts, and they start respecting those who pay their bills. When more and more people loose their interest in this very unfair game behind our backs.
"Better" yet, official Hilton reps refuse to comment on this "Silent Devaluation 2018" while misleading about improvements of Hilton Honors.

It is irrelevant what you copied from 2017. And it is amusing how you are trying to cover this very unfortunate to most of us disgraceful move of Hilton loyalty program. If the rep was working that hard as you say, then she/he would give us heads up about this sneaky devaluation. I see them being busy promoting "new great benefits in 2018" - how much sarcasm one can have?

I contacted HH, and they replied what did I mean by "devaluation" and that they had announced new benefits for 2018. They are not admitting they devalued many hotels this year. When I asked to speak to a manager, a rep said (literally) that she/he was "very educated" and she/he was a supervisor. Clearly, they thought nobody would noticed this and continue devaluing more and more soon to be very useless points.

Maybe Lauren, the H Rep, is trying to seek clarification from Corporate prior to making a statement. Nobody knows however to put her down is not "cricket" old chap.

I understand that a social media representative is in a no-win situation when it comes to angry members asking "why haven't you stopped beating your wife" style loaded questions because they don't like policy changes. Social media representatives don't make corporate policies, and it's fairly obvious the only thing that's going to make you happy is Hilton doing something they've said they're not going to do by policy (announce category changes and not devalue low-end Hilton properties). So what exactly is the point of engaging with you? The only answer that isn't going to produce more angry rants is the one they have no power to give. Might as well let you go on about your business.

(Note that I am not at all saying you shouldn't drop Hilton as a chain for your business... you do you. Though good luck with Marriott and IHG not devaluing their currencies.)

Policy changes come with an announcement, otherwise it is a scam.

Thanks for wishing good luck with Marriott and IHG - Marriott still has plenty of sweet spots and plenty of interesting properties worldwide, and IHG does not appeal to me except from a few properties I can easily substitute with other hotels, so I am staying only 5-10 night yearly with IHG - not a big loss, although I agree - IHG is the second worst with devaluations after Hilton.
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I liked Hilton until a few days ago when they caused me at least $1.2K loss, and I was quite loyal customer (Diamond by stays - both paid and reward, co-branded cards, etc), but now I am seriously reconsidering my loyalty to the company which does not even bother to apologize and keeps denying the obvious facts.

Whilst I appreciate the general awareness being raised about devaluation I don't expect Lauren to be compiling a list for us of recently changed properties, and I wouldn't expect that she'll be given one. Equally I'm not sure she denied the facts, rather than pass on the corporate message prepared by others. That she did that is enough to tip us of that we should inspect the "enhancements" to understand the outcome. Do we really expect more ?

It would be nice if Hilton published a one-month notice when making changes to the caps. That would be transparent on their part and allow us opportunity to book if we really wanted something at any of those locations.

I recently dumped a lot a lot of my points balance into reservations for 20 free nights at a couple properties where I suspect the redemption rate will go up. May as well lock in the value while I can. If my plans ultimately change I can always get the points refunded.

They just raised points prices on over a thousand hotels. That's one-seventh of their portfolio. I don't think the SPG properties will be immune to that as the merger progresses. OK, they gave four weeks notice. It's still a big devaluation.

Ditto Hilton for me- better price points in places where I like to stay, and when I just account for points as .5 cpp and don't expect to get $400-600 hotel rooms for $100 worth of points except in unusual circumstances (essentially Hilton is removing arbitrage in their system by eliminating fixed C&P and raising prices for properties at the bottom where points become screaming good deals- where just flat out buying points is smarter than paying cash for the hotel, it's arbitrage). It works out OK since the point acquisition rate is pretty good. I can get a 15-20% net rebate rate on my stays when it's all said and done. That's competitive with tricks like hotels.com + card portals (at times better, at times worse). It's similar to IHG except IHG doesn't work as well for me for reasons. I will say hotels.com + gift card portals is starting to make more sense as Hilton gets closer to just being a percentage rebate off stays and away from being an aspirational program or places where clever FTers can milk arbitrage points.

But again, you do you. I'd probably walk if I were in your position and the program didn't make sense for me any more. I don't see that ranting at the social media reps helps much with that though.

Exactly my point! That is the common practice of Marriott and IHG. Nobody expects stopping devaluation (although Hyatt manages do it in applaudable manner with minimal, if any, devaluation), but devaluing so frequent and so sneaky is definitely a very bad sign for those who hope to redeem their earned points and bring their business to Hilton.

They gave us heads up (and I booked a hotel where I would be most likely staying soon - I had plenty of time to evaluate the increase and make my decision to book one or more hotels in advance), so despite I am not happy about that, I am not angry about that, as I am with Hilton now.

I just cleaned up a lot of what can be considered personal attacks in this discussion — and if that continues, disciplinary action will result to anyone who continues to violate the rules which govern FlyerTalk. This can include the suspension of posting privileges on FlyerTalk.

Please feel free to continue to debate the issue with factual information; but do so without getting personal with other members of FlyerTalk.

Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

Regards,

Canarsie
Co-Moderator, Hilton Hilton Honors forum

Never, because it's not true. Hilton wouldn't be able to get away with it. They devalue all the time, that would be too much bad news. Silent devaluation, on the other hand, lets them easily get away with it, because vast majority wouldn't even know. One can never lose betting on ignorance.