For the VS miles, good luck finding flights where you're not paying $$$$ for fuel surcharges/taxes/fees. Outside of VX flights, it's hard to find that.

As for me, I decided to convert my 20K VS miles to Hilton, added to the 40K balance I accumulated in 2012, and burned for 2 nights in Montreal in May (net cost of room all-in would be $380, the hotel goes to a Cat 6 after March. Not incredibly aspirational, but it does end up being about a 30% return on what I spent on Hilton in 2012).

Strategy going forward will be to not particularly go for Hilton unless the promo/deal makes sense (there are some times where an MVP rate is comparable to what I'd get from Priceline+cashback), and accumulate Avios through IB if I do. A lot of my stays are short stays, so 750 Avios a pop plus some random Hilton points I don't much care about isn't so bad.

yes, im burning my 100k stack of hhonors points. staying at the conrad tokyo. if they didn't announce this devaluation, probably would have kept them for something else. will no longer actively collect hhnonors points and will be switching to PC or hyatt.

try Marriott and Hyatt PC is worse

Good to see so many people using points, I hope that all the chains feel the burn this year as their rooms are occupied by non-paying guests :cool: If economy follows the usual cycle we will see another crash in 2014 and they'll be begging for business.

I collect them because they are free at checkout - doh! It isn't as if Hilton gives me a cash-back option. I already have a ton of airline miles on many carriers that are rarely usable for trips I want, so I don't really need more.

+1 - for example I used hotel points to get a 4* room in Sydney on NYE because I can't afford to pay $600/nt. I used points to get 5* rooms in London and Rome, again saving $300-600/nt.

My mileage varies. 3 trips to HKG in 2 years, I've stayed in Central 3 times, never paid more than $110 a night for a room. Including this place and this place (the Ibis was $60 a night, pretty good for Central, and a stone's throw from a very authentic Cantonese dim sum place).

That being said, I don't require fancy. Especially if it's going to run me $300-500 a night... :)

I don't have each program's T&Cs handy. But I have plenty, so it's not an issue.

just went through the hilton properties in the caribbean and mexico for spring break 2014. Most I looked at, award redemption stayed the same. 2 went up and 2 went down. was a bit surprised.

I definitely am burning. With the price going up by 2x in New York time square doubletree (if I am reading the charts correctly) this is the last time I will want to use points there

I fully agree with this assessment.

Miles are nice perks to afford very comfortable travel than otherwise.

Hotel points truly save out of pocket cash as well as provide you much nicer products than equivalent cash could buy. There are locations in the world that priceline would not be an option, or not save you much and still put you in a dump.

It really depends on where your travel normally takes you, to determine whether hotel points make sense or not. Those who only see one side of the coin fail to realize not everyone travels the way you do.

HHonor pts are extremely useful at expensive cities and at many European airport locations. I couldn't care less about the "aspirational" properties the bloggers harp about but I do care about the expensive hotel costs at cities like Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, London and such, as well as airport hotels at CDG, FCO, HEL, etc. Those are what the HHonor pts for in our travels. Luckily after this massive devaluation, the airport hotels while going up, only in certain months of the year they become a bit expensive and those months are not the months we would be in the area. CDG does go up from a steal of 30K to now 40K but how can one beat a hotel next to the terminal for a 10am flight back to US when you need to be at security 2 hours prior? And with HHonor gold you are guaranteed a brekkie... So in this case, HHonor pts are still valuable as the earning sources are the best among all programs.

That said, we did redeem an AA F to Asia instead of an AS F to South Africa, at the end of this year, so we can still use the AXON at Conrad HK and the GLON at Conrad Bali with the old rates.

We already have 2 European trips long booked before this devaluation, and we have had the airport hotels plus the hotels on the trip booked before the announcement. All told we have burned 415K HHonor pts and 150K Marriott pts, 7 free night certs, plus 17 PC nights booked before the devaluation and some SPG nights as well - the devaluations are well anticipated so once our plans were firmed up I started to book away, several weeks before the announcements.

But we still have about 50% left in the accounts.

You may have missed the point.

If the cost to acquire the necessary points to redeem a Conrad Hong Kong is below $50, I dont see why one would need to settle for an Ibis.

The AXON 4 nights at Conrad Hong Kong literally costs us about $38 a night. I take this over the Ibis everyday. :)

Marriott allows you to book reward nights without necessary balance but of course you need to order the cert before your stay.

I just put a 5th night free Cat 7 at HKG for our Jan 2014 stay. I need to combine husband's account bal and mine to get enough pts to pay for this but in theory I only need to do it before the stay, and in practice I need to do it a couple weeks before the May 16 in order to get the old rate and allow some time for SNAFU Marriott may have in the account balance transfer process. You would need to call them, get a form sent to you and then fax it back to request the point transfer.

You reminded me of when I did the same with Marriott. That was, however five years ago and am surprised this is still being allowed.

I'm sure you would.

I do not have the luxury of having access to an AMEX credit line that would generate a bucketload of HH points via spend, due to personal circumstances that are irrelevant to the topic at hand. In fact, I don't have the ability to generate any miles or any hotel points via credit card churning/spend, either (due to those same personal circumstances). Thus if I wish to travel, I do it without those tools. So I don't think I've missed your point at all; it's simply irrelevant to me.

That being said, I still have been in Hong Kong three times in the past two years, without needing to spend a single hotel point, or get even close to $200/night, or sleep in Chungking/Mirador Mansions (though I did burn a lot of miles to get there). :)

That is the pertinent information you have left out. Since this thread seems to relate to folks who have amassed hotel points for future travel needs via all available vehicles, credit card is one of such, hence it is almost a "Given" to me, that it is a simple cost / benefit analysis to the majority of us - how much cost involved to get the hotel rooms we need? That determines whether collecting hotel points is worthwhile. Hence when US Fan voiced his thought about not worthwhile, several of us do not agree.

It does not need to have a large CL with AMEX. Though it does need to have the ability to open a card with AMEX. Two very different things with the latter being the utmost important and essential as you already are aware but not mentioned before.

If my cost (and most others') for a Conrad Hong Kong, is roughly the same, or even LESS than an IBIS, naturally the Conrad Hong Kong would be the choice for most. I dont see how I would choose an IBIS as you say?

If you have mentioned the limitation of your own personal circumstances which probably does not apply to most posters on this thread, then such misunderstanding would not have occurred.

On top of that, personal standard is also quite individual. I am sure Conrad Hong Kong or IC Hong Kong or JW can sell their $400 rooms without competing with IBIS's $100 room. They cater to different markets. Our goal is to get the Upmarket product with the Downmarket price.

Whether the hotel points are worthwhile to a person, it largely boils down to a Cost Analysis. Get the most with the least cost within one's means. It is that simple. It does not mean hotel points would determine where one could afford to visit. It does mean that having the hotel points can afford one to visit expensive places without compromising on budgets which also are quite individual. There is a fundamental difference between the 2 concepts which you seem to mix them up in your comments. ;)

We must have different travel patterns. I have reservations for Xmas ski trips this winter - rates range from $600-$1300/night, and I'm staying 5 nights, so $4-6K of rooms. Flights are $340.

Plus lifetime status.

All from stays. 12 straight years PLT at two chains.