nimenime

Very true.

nldogbert

Right on the target, screwed to infinity and beyond! It was already difficult for us to get the points with limited possibilities, and now this.
Sadly, I think they are doing this because they know they can, since most of the other programs have this year "enhanced" their programs too.
For me, I would like to leave to another chain, but when you do the calculations it is just not worth it since they become more or less the same. For me HH as my secondary program is still the best option, all the others don't game for both my personal and business travel pattern.

Cheers!
ps: Will still shoot an email to HH to let them know, but don't expect any actions.

beltway

At $169/night, you're only getting $0.0042/point. If the rate is $169+tax, you're doing marginally better; call it 0.44 cents/point.

Unless you're staying at Hiltons a lot & paying with a Surpass card for the super-bonus, the cost of acquiring low-value HH points -- that is, the foregone ability (lost opportunity cost) to earn more valuable points in other programs -- is considerable.

Of course, if there are no other major hotel chains in Deadwood & that's where you travel the most, there's an argument HH is still a good fit. For your special case.

Dovster

Last year, I put $40,000 spend on my Surpass Card. Roughly half of that was in in dollars (purchases while visiting the US, on line shopping, air fare denominated in U.S. $, etc). Very little of it was in Hilton properties or places where I get extra points (drug stores and gas stations outside of the U.S. do not get the bonus points).

The remaining $20,000 was spent outside of the U.S. Amex has a forex fee of (I think) 2.7%. That means that on my foreign spend, I paid $540 in forex fees. I also paid $85 (?) for my Surpass annual fee. Total: $625 to Amex.

My BoA Travel Rewards card has no annual fee and no forex charges. In addition, I get points equal to 1.5% of my spend. On $20,000 that comes to $300. Together with what I paid Amex, I am $925 ahead by using the BoA card.

My $20,000 earned me 60,000 Hilton points. Even under the old pricing, staying at inexpensive hotels, this gave me about 1.70 nights. With my Diamond status (for having spent $40,000 total), it also gave me free breakfasts and internet connections.

I would not have spent the $20,000 overseas if the Travel Rewards card was available last year. Less than 2 nights in inexpensive hotels, even with breakfast and wireless, is definitely not worth $925.

Under the new system, my Surpass card becomes even less valuable. I am reducing it to the freebie Amex, and will not use that for anything except US $ purchases and Hilton stays. If my spend is the same this year as last, I will hit $20,000 and Gold this way. If it is not, I will still be a Silver.

Once this new system is up and running, I will have to decide whether I am better off putting any spend at all on the Amex or if it should all go on my Travel Rewards card.

Dovster

Funnily enough, after making the above post I went to check my snail mail and found that Hilton has extended my Diamond status through March 2015.

I have had no stays at all yet in 2013 and my Amex spend for this year has been quite low.

I wonder if Hilton and/or Amex is trying to alleviate some members concerns about the new program by basically giving them a year of being Diamond as a gift.

underpressure

They were both pretty much already there in season. @:-)

skimple

^

Last time that I stayed there (2011), it was $108 per night!

How in the world is that hotel a Cat 9?

jamesteroh

Even though your card says 3/2015 that doesn't mean that is the correct date. There have been some other posts about the date being wrong.

My card says March 2015 and I qualified four ways last year (two of the three traditional ways and I had well over $40K in spend on both my Surpass and Reserve credit cards) and when I called the diamond desk on an unrelated matter, I asked what date they were showing and they said March 31, 2014.

amanuensis

The only other chain in Deadwood itself is Best Western. And then there is this place that displays the Marriott SpringHill Suites logo, but IS NOT part of that chain. It also displays the Choice Hotels logo.

Anyhow, what it comes down to is that, yes, I am sure I could get a better value for my points elsewhere, but Deadwood is where my wife wants to be, and, more importantly, she would think I was crazy to pay ~$160 a night in cash. She'd insist that we instead stay at her sister's house -- and I would be willing to put up with a lot worse redemption than .4cents per point to avoid that.

beltway

Clicking the link produces this info:
Too bad Marriott's program is no great shakes these days.

I hear you. Of course, it also helps if one is point-rich; people who have more points than they can reasonably use should use them unreasonably.

hreamer

This is the last straw for me. Good bye Hilton.

movedsouth

If I already made my reservation for the Rome Cavaleri for June and the points were taken from my account in November 2012, does this mean I will need to cough up more points in order to stay there this June?

ffnick

Sorry if re-post

What will happen with Points+Cash?

elkhornne

No, per Hilton HHonors email to me and others. Anything booked by the deadline of the new changes will be honored at the current rate. Here is my reply from the Diamond Desk:

"Thank you for your inquiry regarding Hilton HHonors rewards. We appreciate you taking the time to contact us.

Members can redeem the AXON offer through the grace period, until the effective date of the changes. At this time, this benefit will be replaced. Any rewards that you currently have through March 27 would be honored."

And this email:

Thank you for your inquiry. We appreciate you taking the time to contact us.

"Your points that were deducted for your reservation before
March 28, 2013 will be honored at the reward points that were used for your reservation."

fogedabouddit

Good perspective. Whether these are perks for corporate stays or not, you have to evaluate all the benefits of a loyalty program as long as you are free to choose your hotel and receive the personal rewards. To each his/her own .. the on-property benefits mentioned can just as easily be had with another program, such as SPG, Hyatt or other. It's all about customer sentiment and treating your loyal members feel wanted. HH has just shot itself in the foot, but was expecting some defection from other programs that devalued earlier (e.g. Marriott), but this one does take the cake and I'm sure there will be fallout.

The program has not only shafted loyal HH honors members that are going to defect, but indirectly this has also hosed the Franchises/Hotel Owners across the brand group (including Embassy, Garden Inn, etc). Those lower end chains are going to see a drop in bookings from members of the loyalty programs. Would be curious to know what the average % of bookings are from high value HH members (including myself).

If this has become the new normal (given the 2009 dilution when they didn't retract that devaluation), I don't expect HH to change their ways. I'm sure they couldn't have been this ignorant to change the rewards. And it seems most of the hotels impacted are the aspirational rewards, e.g. Rangali, Koh Samui, etc, which they obviously want to make more exclusive and have less non-paying traffic. Though the devalues on NYC hotels are a big surprise, I must say.