Someone has to pay for those bagel toppers at the Hampton breakfast!

In all seriousness, I really hope Hilton gets the message that their customers are going to return a big fat middle finger in response to this. I and many others have absolutely no reason at all not to book through Priceline anymore. Getting 50% off the BAR for 'x' number of nights adds up a lot quicker than earning the HHonors points from paid stays.

HH gold member, have 3 HH credit cards, and am opted-in to receive all communications and didn't receive the email.

... hilton, are you trying to make this even more of a surprise?

Thought #1:
If I were Hilton I would immediately start an additional bonus system for stayed nights (on top of the double points promo). With the massive devaluation of points, hilton can now offer much higher bonuses for paid stays to keep their frequent guests.

They could effectively shrink the value of points from credit cards and maintain the value of points for actual stays. wishful thinking I'm sure...

Thought #2
On a side note: What is the status match deal with Hyatt? I'm under the impression that SPG will not let you status match to their highest level, will Hyatt?

Thought #3
Thank goodness I burned a ton of points last spring and this winter (took the wife on a one month trip through the UK and Europe... all on points... hit it right on the 30% premium discount!!!). Just came back from two weeks in Hawaii (points again, thank you AXON and GLON).... unfortunately I still have a bunch of points... Looks like I'm going to need to lock down two weeks in southern Europe for next spring or book some Caribbean trips...

I take what you say with a grain of salt....

You and others who happen to travel a great deal on business think that you are somehow exalted over the itinerant business traveler, leisure traveler or pure credit cardholder and I just don't kowtow to the likes of you.

I do get endless benefits for a $40,000 spend and if you don't like it there are other chains out there that you might be more happy at but Hilton ain't one of them. :p

Don't feel bad, I'm a multi year running Diamond and didn't get any emails.

The most sensible post in the whole thread. This isn't a tragedy by any definition of the word. These programs are subject to change at any time and we all knew that the only constant in these programs was change. Yes there are changes and it's not like the old times but nothing is in the hospitality or other industries is. We consider ourselves fortunate to have been able to stay at many great properties over the years and will need to adjust to these changes too. These points were meant for burning and they were never going to increase in value over time.

That would really stink if they capped them at Category 7!!!

I feel liberated
 

I have been contemplating jumping the gun to either Hyatt or SPG but I think this does it for me. I think I am going to go for the Platinum status match and move to SPG. As much as I don't like the fact that they have very few properties, I have no choice. This devaluation is a major :td: for me. Are others moving business to SPG?

It's been proven that you are much more likely to read a physical letter than an email.

You not only had to read the email you had click a link to enter the property(s) you stay at and see what the increase ( if any) was.


If they mail a letter it would say your 3 points is now 2..................

These companies don't do anything without a reason

edit, did you see the people on this forum saying they never got an email ?

7 category one properties in the US. What an Effing joke.

We haven't seen a Category 1 at 5,000 points for quite some time. I remember there were some Hamptons at 6,500 for awhile but then it changed. There are quite a number of Cat 2 properties in the US and that is only 10,000 points.

This is why I say the devaluation is not as bad as Marriott's. They hardly had any properties decline in category/points.

I think you are reading several things into my posts that are non-existent...

1) I am not a Hilton Honors member these days anymore. I was a Diamond for a long time, but in 2006 or 2007 that ended, so I have no dog in this particular fight. My point was that similarly to the hotels, the airlines have lost track of the core business they are in and are distributing benefits incorrectly (IMO).

2) I don't think that I am exalted (to use your term) over anyone. But if you are spending $40,000 on a credit card and Hilton gets 1 cent per mile from Amex, then Hilton makes $400 per year off you in pure profits. If you spend al of it in drugstores, then it would be $2400, right? I don't know what Hilton's profit margins are, but it should be pretty easy to calculate an equivalent hotel spend that generates $400/$2400 in profits. The big difference between your spend and the spend from a paid traveler (bysiness or leisure) is that your profit doesn't pay employees in the process. If all Hilton did was sell miles to Amex and then rent rooms on awards only, the entire business would collapse. Again...my point is you need paying chstomers so that you can have some who can get freebies.

3) What is it you take with a grain of salt? Nothing I said was even remotely untrue. You may not like it, but that is a different matter.

4) Enjoy Hilton Honors. You can have the program all to yourself. I am not really a chain kind of person. I generally prefer smaller, independently run hotels over chains. The only chain I like are Intercontinentals, and even then, I won't adjust travel plans to visit a certain IC property...if it works, great, if it doesn't, I stay somewhere else.

How far ahead can one make HH reservations (typically)? As far ahead as Easter 2014?

Thanks!

1 year. (Covered upthread)

You and I are actually more in agreement than you think. I am a member of many chains as I do like chains, but I weigh the benefits and detriments of each hotel as against price, elite regocnition and physical plant of the hotel. I am not wedded to Hilton family properties, quite the opposite, as Mariott is usually my first choice and all the others are generally co-equal in the secondary status. Then of course, it the decision to earn or burn as the calculus determines.

OT - Canceled an reward night but points dont come back?
 

I cannot find related thread(s) after searching about reward cancellation.

So help me understand what happened here.

In light of the new reality and what we would do to book any stays we could ahead of the change, I tried to juggle some existing reward bookings between my account and husband's account.

I remember just a couple weeks ago when I canceled a reward night the points immediately returned to the account. I have done several of cancellation for the upcoming trips shuffling the bookings between the HHonor and IHG programs. The points always returned right back to my account immediately.

However tonight I canceled the lone reward night in husband's account, the 40K pts do not return to his account despite the cancellation email is received.

A call to HHonor a female rep told me anytime I canceled reward booking online it would take 7 to 10 days before the points to come back?! That the rep could not manually add the points back despite she saw the cancellation and agreed 40,000 pts are not returned. She also said I should always call to cancel instead?

That surely has not been the case on my past 3 cancellations of reward nights just 2 weeks ago.

A 2nd call to HHonor a male rep immediately open a case and gave me the case ID. He said the points should come back in 10 days now with a case being opened and someone would investigate it. So the female rep on the first call was wrong about points would automatically come back.

The male rep also said when you canceled a reward reservation you only cancel the reservation but not the reward which was good for a year to use. You must call to cancel the reward also. Huh? I thought only the AXON type reward requires such procedure but cancellation of standard reward nights does not need to call, as evidenced by my own experiences just a couple weeks ago.

In fact my recollection is the points always promptly returned back to the account after cancellation of standard rewards.

Am I missing some new procedure on cancellation?

Now it is an added nuisance to have to follow up the missing 40,000 pts. :(

One year.

Quoted for truth. Bravo, sir.

And planes are for flying. ;)

Hmmm.

It may be related to the current brou-ha-ha and their IT systems are getting confused (although the CSR's shouldn't be).

I cancelled an award res recently and the points popped back in my account. AFAIK, it's always been this way.

<sigh>

Just another nail in the coffin, I suppose.

Not really. They still get you the same room for the same number of nights. Plus they are only good for Cat 1-7, and there will be 10 categories later on. What happens to the certs now?

This was my immediate thought, although it does state that the certs are only good for Cat 1-7. Of course this was when 7 was the highest (non-WA) level. We'll see if they raise the Reserve Card category or make it more like Hyatt's (certs good cats 1-4 only).

By dumb luck I'm glad my last churn worked out. Plan A was to do a bunch of HH cards (including Virgin, Hawaii, etc). Instead I went with Plan B, which was the Reserve Card, two from Chase, and and Club Carlson.

i hope AXON awards stay the same or i will be burning a helluvalottapoints purty soon

I am a former multi-year Diamond who defocused HHonors about a decade ago after one of those major devaluations (2003?). Still have a few stays at Hilton properties each year and last year many of them were nice experiences. And I just stayed at the Conrad Pezula in South Africa which is an amazing addition to the Hilton family.

Was thinking of applying for one of the HH credit cards, getting some type of status, and trying Hilton out this year for some of my 80 hotel nights. But just doing the math on what I would earn for my stays vs. redemption costs (i.e. the 100,000 points I spent for Pezula will be 140,000 points going forward), guess I can cross applying for the Hilton Amex off my list. Very glad I burned most of my 250k points on this last stay and in Italy last year.

It is interesting reading an article from the 2009 devaluation. A devaluation like this would be one thing as a stand-alone event. But in the context of the overall devaluation of points over the past decade it must mean all their hotels are full and that HH Honors earning from paid nights stayed has very little effect on why people choose to stay in their hotels!

I will be interested to see what effect this has on rates and priceline availability later in the year? There are just so many hotel options and programs out there I cannot believe that business travelers won't flee.

Where does it say 1-7 only? I'd think they need to honor any Hilton, any weekend somehow!

Kimpton is a great program and they will match your Hilton Diamond status to Kimpton Inner Circle.

Jump from 50k to 95k really hurts. Good bye to aspirational properties. Hello to dumpy middle of nowhere hotels. Hopefully I don't get killed.

Please crap them out on twitter #hiltonhonorssucks , copy @HiltonHHonors, @HiltonHotels, @HiltonSuggests
This is beyond unacceptable.

I guess this answers my question about whether I will get Diamond again or maybe a soft landing to Gold - if they won't tell me this then I must be back to basic :)

Couldn't agree more. Think we need a Maker's-Mark style response. This is my Twitter contribution. Please copy/edit/retweet!

@HiltonHHonors @AmericanExpress @Citibank Years of business undermined by #HHonors devaluation. HHGold turns #disloyal, joins #boycott

Hilton: imagine the warm fuzzies this gives me as I look at my 690,000 points I've saved up in the last six months.

I'll be spending more at Intercontinental in 2013, I guess.

This is the second devaluation I've had a half-mil+ in the "bank" turn into mush.

I've been incredibly loyal, but you're not being loyal back to me.


I guess it's time to book a lot of reward travel ASAP. Well, I'd always wanted to check out the Thailand properties... Alas.

I've been hoping for years for a Canadian HHonors card - not so bothered any more :).

My guess is that some of this comes from {US?} business credit card users. It's not that tough with a small-medium business to charge $1 million+ per year. For those people they care less. Maybe they'll change to a different hotel card, but maybe not.

[edit - sorry - it was already covered many times earlier :))]

Well, this is beyond disappointing. Aspirational properties out of reach. I have been touting the value of Hilton to my friends but I won't anymore.

Now trying to figure out where to jump.

I quit when Hilton went away with the Diamond force and introduced Premium Awards. Started burning through the 1M points. After Marriott announced the devaluation, I was thinking of going back to Hilton because it was easier to earn and still provided good value when you found standard availability. This makes the decision easier.

I will stick with SPG and look for another program to substitute Marriott/Hilton as my secondary.

I already left HHonors a few years back for Starwood, but this is a total slap in the face. You can travel to Honolulu in August and opt for the decadence of a standard room at the HHV for 60k points per night, or choose a standard room at the Sheraton for 64k for 5 nights.

After a recent and most unsavory experience at the Hilton San Francisco I can honestly say I will happily and heartily book elsewhere in the future. This organization does not deserve my business until they demonstrate that they value it. I have a stay booked at the Conrad HK on an award that burned through all of my last HHonors points and so happy I booked when I did. It would literally cost almost 1.75x more now with the seasonal surcharge.

They deserve whatever damage this causes their business.

Massive devaluation on the top end, otherwise it's fairly palatable. Thankfully the properties I'm hoping to patronize in Italy will still be fairly reasonable.

Where are you guys seeing that certain hotels will be 70,000 or 80,000 or 95,000 points on certain dates? When I check those same hotels that you guys listed for later in the year or early next year, they still say 50,000 points on the same dates you guys see 70'000 or 80,000 points

Two unrelated items for me. My planned vacation is now a Cat 7, going to Cat 8, but still available for 37,500 per night. I will reserve before 3/28.

I read through about 150 posts before I stopped, but there is this, possibly intended, circumstance. A lot of us will book by the deadline getting many millions of points off the books. Hilton will end up paying excess redemptions to the hotels this year by forcing us to use the points. After that, their positive cash flow increases greatly. There will be many fewer points stays to cover at prime locations.

I really feel that my use of Hyatt Place instead of Hampton and HGI will now pay off a bit better. I was beginning to worry about making Diamond. Not so much now. Oh, I will still make it as I like the current, so far, on property benefits. But, it will be October or November instead of July as usual.

So.... You are saying the the OP, who broke the story on limited information, is SO unwilling to make an update that she agreed to update it as soon as she received further information? She fixed the thing that you asked her to fix?

Believe it or not, some of us do not check this forum more than 8 times a day (like I do).

Shock and horror!