Great, just became a Hilton diamond last year and now my points have been severely devalued. I thought Marriott was bad, but this is ridiculous. I'm glad I got an axon for the Conrad Hong Kong last year. Hopefully I can burn the rest ASAP. I am so disappointed that I went for diamond and through base points. What a waste and I feel cheated since some hotels are now 100% more expensive!

Agree.

Among the 3 devaluations, IHG's actually seem mild after we see the details of Marriott's and now HHonor's devaluation as IHG indeed has a good number of properties in secondary cities going down.

any information about that?

Have we seen the new AXON chart yet?

Just reserved award nights to bring my HHonors point balance down to insignificant. Now to break the news to my wife we are going on Holiday. Lots of holidays! ;)

Just cxld upcoming weekend Hilton reservations and changed to Marriott. ^

just got the Surpass Card spent 40k got Diamond and now this? #$%% u Hilton

Thanks for reminding me to cxl my no fee Hilton Amex card. Of no use anymore.

AXON is a perk for being an Hilton Amex Cardholder and is seperate from HH

I am assuming AMEX compensates Hilton somehow for the ( in my case ) 55K points less I have to use to book an AXON 7 award (145K/4 nights)


I could see Amex moving the AXON benefit to the Surpass Card so it has an annual fee it can collect. I imagine Amex will do something like that and/or up the points for AXON rewards. We'll have to wait and see

The Hotel I stay at in Florida upped it's points from 40K to 60K but only for March and April

I got the email, too.

Just hung up with Amex. after cancelling my HHonors card.

Took me (literally) 120 seconds.

Hilton, you're making what should be difficult choices easy, and not in your favor.

What a garbage program this has become. I'll miss a few properties where I got to know the staff over some extended stays last year, but this is really too much. No way I can burn all of these points before March and likely targets are increasing 60-90%+ in cost. If Hyatt and/or SPG are smart, they will delay their inevitable moves in the same direction and draw many disgruntled Hilton members.

Congrats Hilton for making the biggest leap backwards in hotel loyalty I have ever seen. :td:

Milton Friedman once said that inflation occurs when too much money chase too few goods. With all the credit card sign-up bonuses, 6x manufactured spend, Discover America, etc. no wonder inflation occurs. Too bad for the people who earned the points the old fashioned way. This is a classic example of the tragedy of the commons.

This exact argument resonates with me as a very frequent flier...many folks have status on airlines and millions of miles to redeem without ever setting foot on an airplane. And then fliers can't get award availability.

Hotels and airlines have all forgotten the core business they are in. No folks paying for rooms, no credit card signups a some point. It is that simple.

Why burn it before march.. book for vacs later on in the year..

It sure as hell would have been nice to have known about this before dropping a crapload of 2013 spend onto my Surpass card. Thanks, HH.

Yeah, well, that's a great theory. Until Green Dot screws you, which they will at some point.

Hilton lets you book one year out so if you make your reservations on March 27 , 2013 ( to be safe) you can book rooms at the old rates until March 27, 2014.


Just an FYI

It's not really a tragedy. Think of all the money you'll save by becoming a Priceline or Kayak shopper for hotels. If you are staying 60+ nights a year you will save more than enough money to just pay for a nice holiday out of your own pocket. Sure, you'll miss out on being told "you're a valued customer" when you check in and you wont get upgraded to a big suite, but who cares? Hotels are for sleeping and working anyway. I did this 5 years ago and have never concerned myself with what hotel chain I should stay at since, it is very liberating. The only way hotels will increase, rather than decrease, benefits in the future is if more people start to behave as pure price shoppers. Once they realize this is happening they will quickly increase benefits to regain some loyalty.

I sent a complain to this guy - [email protected]

Booked lot of awards for the year and will no longer give Hilton any paid stays.

This is not happening. This is not happening. This is not happening....

I burned 800k back in 2009 when they devalued the points then and it looks like I'll be doing the same now. But thankfully I learned not to keep a big pot for ANY FF or hotel programme. It's a pipe dream but I'd like to see in Europe more regulation regarding this type of thing, the devaluations, the notice periods etc because points are too much like money and we'd literally burn down the banks if they decided to devalue our accounts by these amounts.

no, from march 28, it will all use new chart even you booked before.

Does anyone know whether the high season point rates are pre-determined (the way Starwood does it) or are made up as the year goes along?

It would have been nice if they would have given more notice. My Hilton Citi card is the primary card I used for most purchases and will probably switch to another card with this huge devaluation.

I had a similar situation with Southwest a few years ago. I put a LOT of money on my Southwest visa when they had RR 1.0. With my Southwest Visa credit card spending and credits from Hilton stays, I was getting over 15 free flights a year and even got companion pass status a few years by only flying less than $1,000 a year in evenue flights. And then they changed their program completely. So I can see HH credit card users being upset.

unfortunely, it is not.

That is NOT TRUE ! Reservations you book before or already have booked are not going to change. I booked over thew phone and CONFIRMED this with an agent

Daily getaways
 

If they sell HH points this year they will need to drastically drop the price and/or increase the number of points in the deal

Well since I just booked Feb 2014 I can tell you it is. READ THE LAST SENTENCE.

The new changes will become effective as of 12:01AM CST on Mar 28, 2013. Until this time, you can redeem Points for rewards stays at the current prices. You can book online, call +1-800-HHONORS (+1-800-446-6677, toll-free in the United States) or contact your local Hilton Reservations and Customer Care center. After this date, you can continue to make modifications; however, all standard room redemptions will follow the new standard room chart. Therefore, if the number of points changes from what was originally booked, up or down, the new point values will apply.

how hilton canceled my old reward reservation because of the devaluation?
 

Is this legal? I have already made the reservation and booked air tickets. Now they said I have no enough points.

it's time to stop doing business with Hilton
https://www.facebook.com/HiltonHHonors

Changes to HH Reward Stays, new cat., more pts needed
 

Noticed that members are also voicing their displeasure about the changes on the Hilton Facebook page. Since you don't have to "like" them to post I would think this would be an additional way for all of us to make ourselves heard about the negative changes.

Your existing reservation at the old point value is fine as long as you don't change them after 3/28/2013. It's like an airline ticket that goes up in price as you get closer to the day of travel. Your reservation is already booked at the original price. Relax.

I just posted on twitter. Too bad it probably won't lead to anything :(

OK, thanks! I just found it.

When do the new changes become effective? What happens if I want to book a reward stay before they are effective? Can I make modifications to existing reservations after they become effective?

The new changes will become effective as of 12:01AM CST on Mar 28, 2013. Until this time, you can redeem Points for rewards stays at the current prices. You can book online, call +1-800-HHONORS (+1-800-446-6677, toll-free in the United States) or contact your local Hilton Reservations and Customer Care center. After this date, you can continue to make modifications; however, all standard room redemptions will follow the new standard room chart. Therefore, if the number of points changes from what was originally booked, up or down, the new point values will apply.
* Free night calculated based on the average nightly value of the stay.

This does not apply to me and I would guess many here.

1) I have to use my corporate travel site (Concur) to book.
2) I must use "preferred" hotels and airlines.
3) I do not pay...it is expensed / paid by employer.

The points/miles I earn are seen as a "perk" for my time spent on the road. I spent 180 nights I hotels last year (80 with Hilton). I can choose any brand as long as it is a company preferred hotel. I base my choice on several things....the absolute #1 being: how many nights do I need to sleep in XYZ hotel to earn enough points for a free night (at a top level hotel in each program). This adjustment on the part of Hilton just made the math work in the favor of SPG and Hyatt.

I emailed the A$$clowns at hilton- The CEO and head of HHonors. Let them know directly how bad they botched this!!

I am getting nervous about the AXON. I see nothing on my AE credit card account site. No mention when getting info about signing up for a new card. Maybe someone else knows where it is located.

Unlike most of you, I wasn't primarily interested in hhonors for the top level properties. This change actually pushing me in the direction of Club Carlson. I've only stayed a few properties so far, but I find the Country Inn to be pretty comparable to Hampton Inn, while the points are far easier to gain. I'm sure eventually CC will come out with their own devaluation in time, but for a family with 3 young kids we weren't likely to stay in many Conrads or WAs anyhow.

Not sure, Happy, pure speculation on my part as it is tied to the credit card promotion and not purely a HHonors thing like the GLONs.

I hope that AXON remains but we will have to see what they do from this point forward. All I can say is that I was able to redeem an AXON a couple of days ago before this devaluation.

2009 was a killer as well. I remember all the screams like it was yesterday.

Basically Hilton has whacked their points by 75% in 4 years.

Might as well just transfer all the points to airlines.