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Biggest shock to come?: When maximum peak Honors price ends

Biggest shock to come?: When maximum peak Honors price ends

Old Nov 25, 2017, 8:56 pm
  #16  
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Still waiting for a reply on this from our resident Ambassador.
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Old Nov 26, 2017, 5:01 am
  #17  
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“Yes, I’d like you to disclose some future planning for your publicly traded company. Preferably decisions that are made way above your level and might be covered under a non-disclosure agreement until such time as they would be publicly released to everyone as part of a overall corporate communications plan. Because as someone who posts on a social media outlet and is a customer, I deserve to know this information before stockholders or the general public, even if this could put your job at risk. Thanks!”

I can’t imagine why any employee charged with social media engagement could refuse such an attractive offer.
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Old Nov 26, 2017, 5:30 pm
  #18  
 
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Not really sure if this is germane to this thread, but what the heck...I noticed recently that at least one upside, if you will, of all the fooling around with hhonors points valuations is that at least some point redemption prices have come down in low seasons. Was poking around D.C. redemptions for early December (absolute dead zone for paid stays) and was pleased to see a lot of reasonable points rates (Capital Hilton at 29k, etc.). Gotta look for the silver lining, I suppose.
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Old Nov 26, 2017, 6:21 pm
  #19  
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Originally Posted by eponymous_coward
Yes, Id like you to disclose some future planning for your publicly traded company. Preferably decisions that are made way above your level and might be covered under a non-disclosure agreement until such time as they would be publicly released to everyone as part of a overall corporate communications plan. Because as someone who posts on a social media outlet and is a customer, I deserve to know this information before stockholders or the general public, even if this could put your job at risk. Thanks!

I cant imagine why any employee charged with social media engagement could refuse such an attractive offer.
Stop the hyperbole. I can't see the point in the time you typed that. Thanks for the giggle.

Under the old rules, the hotel category chances were announced in advance, what changed? Your bizarre comment would fit that situation too, or did they need an EGM for that? The FAQ suggested there would not be stealth changes, because the old system would remain unchanged for the foreseeable future unless notified otherwise.

I'm still waiting for a resolution to call the Diamond Desk with a non-US post code? Is that a corporate secret also? haha

Is the new programme that really, overnight, a hotel can have a virtual category change? And that's a significant change, for we premium members. Well, I can only speak for myself .

Last edited by hugolover; Nov 26, 2017 at 6:29 pm
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Old Nov 26, 2017, 6:30 pm
  #20  
 
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Originally Posted by arlflyer
Not really sure if this is germane to this thread, but what the heck...I noticed recently that at least one upside, if you will, of all the fooling around with hhonors points valuations is that at least some point redemption prices have come down in low seasons. Was poking around D.C. redemptions for early December (absolute dead zone for paid stays) and was pleased to see a lot of reasonable points rates (Capital Hilton at 29k, etc.). Gotta look for the silver lining, I suppose.
This is exactly what I am finding as well. Also some great redemptions at airport hotels (20K points for DoubleTree Newark Airport, 20K HGI near IAH). Those are both well over a penny a point when you add the steep taxes that you don't have to pay on top of premium airport area rates. Some properties have gone up, some are deals. Points are easy to get.
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Old Nov 27, 2017, 1:02 am
  #21  
 
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Originally Posted by hugolover
Still waiting for a reply on this from our resident Ambassador.
To be fair to Lauren she said back in June in the long running thread that was used to announce the changes at the start of the year that there would be no announcements when hotels points requirements change in the future.

Im not sure what else she can add and given that shes already clarified the situation in the most relevant thread on the matter.
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Old Nov 27, 2017, 7:48 am
  #22  
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I don't expect HH to announce every possible hotel points cap change, although I'm pretty sure Flyertalk could probably figure it out fast and track it in a sticky if we chose. We've quickly have the maximum identified at any aspirational property that people around here regularly redeem. Enough FTers would find and post the max for their own cities or own redemptions and we'd have much of the system covered pretty fast.

But I *would* expect HH to announce if the underlying structure - the existence of a cap, akin to a former category, disappears completely. That makes this a much different program than it is even right now, and the members do have a right to know about that. If Hilton makes that change without notice, I would consider that a hugely douchey move.
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Old Nov 27, 2017, 9:49 am
  #23  
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OT: Happy to still be able to make it to D with 30 stays a year. It seems the only clever way to spend HHonors accrual is to reduce the cost of stays. Along with all the plastic-platinums nowadays, Hilton loyalty seems not worth of the effort (at least in Europe Accor et al are more competitive, not to mention Melia apart from far-East stuff). In London where I frequently travel, the biggest perk has been lately "welcome back". LTD, really???

Last edited by TTL; Nov 27, 2017 at 9:54 am
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Old Nov 27, 2017, 10:35 am
  #24  
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Originally Posted by arlflyer
I noticed recently that at least one upside, if you will, of all the fooling around with hhonors points valuations is that at least some point redemption prices have come down in low seasons. Was poking around D.C. redemptions for early December (absolute dead zone for paid stays) and was pleased to see a lot of reasonable points rates (Capital Hilton at 29k, etc.). Gotta look for the silver lining, I suppose.
Originally Posted by bitterproffit
This is exactly what I am finding as well. Also some great redemptions at airport hotels (20K points for DoubleTree Newark Airport, 20K HGI near IAH). Those are both well over a penny a point when you add the steep taxes that you don't have to pay on top of premium airport area rates.
This last point is crucial. Paying 29K for a room is no bargain if you can have the same room for $99 a/i.
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Old Nov 27, 2017, 10:55 am
  #25  
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Originally Posted by beltway
This last point is crucial. Paying 29K for a room is no bargain if you can have the same room for $99 a/i.
Weeknights at airports can be a solid points play in many cases. Kind of depends on the airport...but in some places those can be $200+ without an easy workaround such as an easy/cheap Priceline bid that doesn't dump you in a well-worn Ramada Inn. Whether 29k HH or what's usually a mid/low category in another program, value can be had there.

Obviously if there are $99 rooms you just book the $99 room...

I use almost all of my Marriott Megabonus and annual credit card certs at airport hotels. Category 5 gets you something clean and tolerable. Usually.
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Old Nov 27, 2017, 1:28 pm
  #26  
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Originally Posted by hugolover
I can't see the point in the time you typed that.
See below.

Originally Posted by pinniped
But I *would* expect HH to announce if the underlying structure - the existence of a cap, akin to a former category, disappears completely. That makes this a much different program than it is even right now, and the members do have a right to know about that. If Hilton makes that change without notice, I would consider that a hugely douchey move.
I'm saying there's ZERO chance that Hilton is going to let their social media representatives get out ahead of the curve and provide advanced announcements on policy changes of that sort. If they're going to announce a change, it will get announced everywhere as part of an overall social media plan. FT is nothing special as far as Hilton is concerned; it's merely another social media outlet. An expectation that a company rep is going to do us favors that fall outside of their job description is just not realistic.
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Old Nov 30, 2017, 11:02 am
  #27  
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I don't really care whether they announce it on "social" media, via email, their website, or whatever. I'm saying that if the points caps are ever to go away, I would find it incredibly offensive to me as a regular customer if that happened with zero advance notice.

This year, they changed the nomenclature from categories to "points cap". If that was done as cover to later remove the cap, that's BAD and would cause me to rethink my future stay plans in a big way. Would I boycott HH? Probably not, but I'd be recalibrating how many points per dollar I'd need to earn in order to continue booking paid stays. (Just like I do now with IHG - I hardly ever stay there unless the promotions are very, very good.) Translation: I'd only be booking during things like the 3x promo, meaning it simply takes a bunch of points inflation to keep me around.
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Old Nov 30, 2017, 12:14 pm
  #28  
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Originally Posted by pinniped
Would I boycott HH? Probably not, but I'd be recalibrating how many points per dollar I'd need to earn in order to continue booking paid stays. (Just like I do now with IHG - I hardly ever stay there unless the promotions are very, very good.) Translation: I'd only be booking during things like the 3x promo, meaning it simply takes a bunch of points inflation to keep me around.
That's pretty much where I am at now; Hilton points are a rebate, I'm burning them pretty regularly at .5 cpp. I don't view Hilton Honors as a way to get some kind of massive value for aspirational travel where I get $600 rooms for pennies on the dollar, now that C&P is effectively dead as a technique to get luxury properties for cheap prices, and we're looking at 95k for the most expensive rooms. Nuking the cap wouldn't change that much (it would hurt the most when we have properties where rates spike, the classic Hampton Inn during Super Bowl/major event when ALL the rooms are expensive).

I actually prefer Hilton to Club Carlson (which is also a "shovel points at you program" like Hilton and IHG) because it's easier to get good deals on Hilton with points. 28k CC points a night for a Park Plaza in Bangkok that's going for $80 all in? GTFO. Hilton indexing point pricing here is actually helpful (that hotel would be under 20k HH).

But my Hilton travel has a LOT of Hampton Inns/HGI/Homewood Suites in it, and the Hilton full service properties I stay at are almost always "well, this is actually a low season/good deal" kind of buy. So looking at it as a rebate isn't terrible for me. Then again I collect WN points knowing I won't ever drink Krug or eat caviar on a WN plane, but I can make it into a relatively good deal for a rebate on travel.

Last edited by eponymous_coward; Nov 30, 2017 at 12:21 pm
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Old Dec 1, 2017, 7:42 am
  #29  
 
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Originally Posted by beltway
This last point is crucial. Paying 29K for a room is no bargain if you can have the same room for $99 a/i.
Well, the 29K room is probably closer to a $145 room with the value being $0.005 per HH point. I actually did a quick flex search for DC in early December. I don't see 29K for Capital Hilton, but I saw bunch of 25K. For the same night with 25K, the room is at $109 for Adv Purchase or $116 HH member. And there are 21K room on Dec 15 and after. The rate for Dec 15 is $91 for Adv Purchase or $97 for HH member.

Using the HH member rate (because AP rate is non-refundable), the value of HH points just about every hotel I checked is exactly $0.0046 when the cap is not in play. And if you add in the hotel tax, it will be around $0.0050 to $0.0054 depending on the tax rate. It is better if you stay at a resort.. because of no resort fee with award stay. So the value of points will go up to $0.006. But that's is really it at the max value once the caps are removed.
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Old Dec 1, 2017, 7:56 am
  #30  
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Originally Posted by Need
And if you add in the hotel tax, it will be around $0.0050 to $0.0054 depending on the tax rate. It is better if you stay at a resort.. because of no resort fee with award stay. So the value of points will go up to $0.006. But that's is really it at the max value once the caps are removed.
There will be this weird incentive to use points at really cheap hotels that have bogus fees added on. Vegas or beach locations in off-peak periods... In theory, a small number of points could still be very valuable, but if the "best" redemption in the whole system is an abject dump like the Tropicana, that's a bad look for your program as a whole.

(For reference, checking in tonight, the Trop is $55 base plus $33 resort fee plus taxes. Maybe $100 total. It's 21,000 points for an award. So there seems to be a points floor as well, which somewhat kills my idea if it's true everywhere. )
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