beltway

This. I called Amex, and after several minutes the CSR came back & confidently advised me that the Axium [sic] award was something I'd have to ask Hilton about. Supervisor was every bit as clueless.

Yes, and I explained this patiently to the Amex supervisor, who remained impervious to reason.

FYI, Hilton Diamond Desk says AXON will continue -- but had no details on rate structure. (Someone else should call & ask as well. Eventually we might get an answer.)

MikeMpls

I've stuck with Hilton because we've been doing most of our stays & recent awards at the low end and it's worked out well, but this really turns it into a marginal situation.

About half the low-end redemptions we've made recently (Rapid City in August & Appleton, WI, during the Oshkosh air show are doubling in price.

Can still stay in Green Bay for the air show at reasonable points, just a little more driving, and Nebraska in the middle of the summer is repeatable, but who cares?

This is making Costco's AMEX w/ the 1% kickback very attractive. I think Hilton would still work out for us (at least until the next devaluation), but any advantage now is clearly gone.

I had tried to upgrade to the HH Gold AMEX but their web site burped and wouldn't complete the transaction, and I didn't have time to call. That is now off my "to do" list.

NJUPINTHEAIR

That's good to know.

Did they have any comment on the GLONs, however??

flyer4512

If it's not an AMEX perk ( where AMEX pays Hilton to offer it ) then why do you have to have an HILTON AMEX to use the AXON awards ? THAT BEING SAID of course Hilton decides how much they are going to charge AMEX to offer the AXON awards or they charge AMEX each time it's used. It's the same concept as how you earn miles, AMEX buys the miles from Hilton and gives them to you as a perk for using their card

DaveInLA

I freaked out when I read the OP! I have 5 nights in Bora Bora booked in June-July for 195k points and if the new chart applied to that, I'd have to cancel my honeymoon.

Anyway, like others, I think I'm done using my Amex Honors card. I can get a few thousand HH pts by buying reloads at CVS but I'm not so sure, say, 18k HH is worth more than 3000 SPG pts, especially since drug stores will no longer get 6x after May.

NJUPINTHEAIR

I have asked both the OP and the moderators to alter that post but so far they have ignored my requests.

Your post and the like is the reason I had asked them to take quick action so as not to further scare the readership.

Unfortunately, my requests have fallen on deaf ears.

flyer4512

It's obviously a HH benefit that has nothing to do with AMEX other than you have be Hilton Amex Cardholder

vandesa

I have a tahiti / bora bora trip booked this year, but was not going to use Hhonors points as I got a really great deal on TA rates.

But now I am rethink it, as the unused points will be so devalued. Perhaps I should just use them. I canceled my Moorea already but still have my Bora Bora.

So much for saving up for the Maldives trip some time in the future. I guess my future will have to be before March 2014.

redslert

Right now I have 270K in the HH bank.
Having great difficulty finding use for it because can't plan holidays too far into the future

I already decided not to continue with Hilton at the end of last year even though I made diamond with ease.

AAExPlat

Frankly, you have no idea what you are talking about when it comes to my travel patterns. None.

While I do fly a ton for business, I ALSO spend plenty on my own dime. And I consider myself a "cheap" EXP with an annual spend of $15k+, which doesn't even take into account the flights I purchase for my wife and kids to travel with me. My business mandates cheapest economy fares at all times, so often, I spend more on my personal tix than my business flights.

If you are spending $3k to attain EXP, you are using every last loophole, fuel dump, and mistake fare to get you to EXP. To be fair, AA has been running so many promos that one can hardly blame the fliers for the obvious outcome. But to somehow play the victim card and act like you are owed something just because you pay for it and not your employer, that's just rich. To the airline or hotel, your money is as good as my employer's.

As far as hotels go, I stay in a hotel every week where I don't earn points at all, and I spend more on my hotel stays on my annual vacations than I do in the course of a year of work travel.

Just because you pay for stuff yourself doesn't entitle you to endless benefits with minimal input...

Happy

I am afraid once we see the rate structure, it would be just as shockingly bad as we see the current changes on the regular standard room rate.

I hope Diamonds please call so to convey the message that we want to know where the AXON stands and they would come out with the new rate structure sooner. They cannot dither on this until close to the Mar 28th deadline.

iqbalt80

I can use some

moobearus

Something tells me that the clever kid who recommended the massive change in HiltonHHonors points program is feeling very good when reading our posts.... and you can be damn sure that someone if not a whole team of people are reading these posts - no question about it.

Perhaps this is Hilton's answer to Vanilla Reloads and others.

All that said, I am very thankful for my upcoming First Class flight to stay at the Dubrovnik Hilton.

But the question remains, what credit card program do we move forward with.

It seems the answer is, we need to find out all the ins and outs of the Hilton deal. For me, if they have good deals for 5-10 night stays, I'll stay with them.

OHijAAzi73

And the devaluation season continues ...whats wrong with these people? whats their twitter feed ?

flyer4512

Currently if you book an AXON7 for 145K points it still says you paid 170,000 points on your reservation so AMEX is flipping the bill for 25K points as cardholder perk.

I am guessing AMEX has a special rate that is being used to arrive at the 170K point figure as if I book it myself it's 200K for 4 nights.

If Hilton isn't raising the points needed (170K) for Amex the AXON7 award should remain the same. If HH is raising the special AMEX rate AMEX could cover the extra points or could raise the points you have to use to redeem an AXON7 award.

Are AXON awards used that much that HH feels the need to alter what it charges AMEX ?

Your Thoughts ?