ssung

Maybe this isn't news to all you HHonors Guru out there, but I was sad to find out today that the AXON awards are no longer available. I was told by the Diamond Desk that the program ended on 12/31/2016. I'm kicking myself for not planning this redemption last week

beltway

Another user has reported that AXON awards were discontinued on Dec. 31. I called the Diamond Desk just now and, after a long hold, was told the same thing. If this is indeed true, it marks another chapter in the years-long devaluation of HHonors.

ssung

I attempted to make a AXON reservation this morning and was informed by the Diamond Desk that the AXON program ended on 12/31/2016.

Hilton Honors Ambassador

Hi all,

Thank you for your questions and feedback about the AXON redemption code. We have discontinued the AXON phone redemption offer as of 12/31/16, but encourage our Hilton HHonors members to continue to take advantage of our rich offers when they stay with Hilton properties such as our 5th night free for a standard room offer which can be redeemed online or via phone.

Thank you,
Lauren

sannmann

Lauren: Very unfortunate. This decision really eliminates any reason to keep either of the HHonors Amex cards.

GUWonder

Is it Amex or Hilton that is on a cost-cutting exercise that led to the death of AXON and a posthumous and delayed announcement of AXON's elimination?

lewinr

Really bad form not to have given people advance notice of the change to the program and the card benefits.

beltway

"Rich offers" is, well, rich. They eliminated Point Stretchers (with no notice). They've eliminated AXON. They replaced the versatile VIP GLON discount with the totally inflexible fifth-night-free option.

What's left is a pale shadow of the program that existed five years ago.

Abidjan

Lauren, no way to window-dress this. No advanced notice, but hey the 20%-off emails to random places keep pouring in. Bad form, all around.

birdiedouble

Disappointed to see this benefit taken away. I just opened the Surpass card last Spring and was puzzled by the lack of promotion of AXON and didn't even know about it other than reading it about it here. I have my first 5th night free stay coming up next month, but I tend to have more 3-4 night stays so AXON would have been a nice benefit to have longer.

beltway

As hinted at above, members have taken a double hit on this front since 2013. Before then, you could use either the VIP/GLON award or AXON for a 4-night stay. (For a summary of the historical benefits, see the info on VIP/GLON, AXON, and the chart that showed which was better in different circumstances.)

birdiedouble

I would guess that relative to the volume of business at Hilton as a whole, the amount of AXON rewards is pretty miniscule. I was shocked about the lack of promotion of it with the Surpass card. Even if I didn't take advantage of it on an annual basis, it would be a reason for me to keep the card and pay the annual fee. Now it just comes down to some bonus points and free breakfast at HGI's, where I frequently stay.

beltway

Two comments on this:

First, it has indeed been a largely hidden benefit. The last time I can recall Amex or HH giving it any real publicity was when the AXON prices were increased circa 2013. (My Amex statement had an extra page describing the timing & nature of the changes.)

Second, I have to think you're right that relatively few people were redeeming AXONs, both because it was so obscure and because the new pricing often made it more expensive than a standard award. This makes it that much more bizarre and inexplicable that Hilton would get rid of it: it cost them very little in redemption volume, but had concrete appeal to people in the know.

The theoretical upside of ditching AXON is that it does simplify the task of figuring out the cost of a given stay. That's largely illusory, however, because a) most people were probably unaware of AXON to start with (see above) and b) if you read FT, then you likely knew about the spreadsheet I built that autocalculated the optimal redemption option (AXON, 5th Night Free, or some combo of the two). So the real consequence is simply to eliminate an option that was sometimes less expensive--in other words, a silent increase in the cost of certain awards.

In short, bad for members and done badly (because silently until members squawked, and then only after the deed was done).

stifle

Well, at least it means us non-Americans no longer get a worse deal...

MD/DC Flyer

I have no illusions that Hilton thinking on how to make my life simpler.

I used AXON award consistently over the years, and the lack of advance notice is pretty bad. After all if they did it for our benefit, I would presume they would shout from the top of the roof how better life is [/Sarcasm Off].