My thoughts when I first found out about the Hilton HHonors points devaluation were of thorough disappointment, no doubt. But it’s just worse than I originally thought. Surely they would throw a bone after a month or something… but no. For the last little bit I’ve been trying to write a post on the New Best Use of Hilton HHonors Points, and let’s just say it’s thinner on content compared to the other “best of” posts.
Even running a promotion and earning 1,000 points… I’m 1/95th of the way to a free night at most Conrads, which is absurd.
Hilton has no concern about building a loyalty program. Steve Belkin argues that none of them are and that the only concern is profit. He says that while us nerds care, no one else does. The average person has no clue about the devaluation and is just happy to be greeted with a superfluous and meaningless upgrade and being recognized as a “Gold Member”. And that once the other hotel chains see that there is basically no push back, they will do the same thing.
I’m not so pessimistic, yet. In fact, I feel like Marriott and Club Carlson have made a few positive changes since the Hilton Devaluation. Grant it, they probably already had these changes in the works by that point but same same. But in paranoia that he may be right, I’m going to do my best to bring awareness to.. the cause.
First of all, I want Hilton to know that we know. Secondly, I don’t want people to miss out on great opportunities that other programs offer. People using Hilton earn enough points for nothing and then complain that all rewards programs are a sham. I don’t want that for them nor do I want that for the community rep. I don’t even want people to think that it’s some kind of crazy mathematical feet to earn a free night. You don’t have to be PuddingGuy and buy 6,000 cups of puddings to earn points. Sometimes you just have to enroll in a promotion.
A simple example is that Marriott gives a free night certificate for two stays along with points earned anyways. Stay twice and get a free night + points. Instead of stay 95 times.
So don’t use Hilton.
It will get you nowhere fast if your goal is free nights… and mine is.
Ok ok…perhaps I should title this “why I’m mostly boycotting Hilton” because, I do look for BRGs in cheaper cities. I’ll pay $10 for a Hilton if I need it. I’ll also pay a little bit more if it’s an experience I’d like. If I could score a real cheap night at the Conrad Hong Kong, I would. But I will not pay full price for a Hilton.
Boycott? Really?
Hilton remains my top “overall” hotel program (Hyatt is my favorite program thanks to easy to obtain redemptions with Ink 5x transfers and excellent top tier properties – only problem is relatively small number of properties to choose from).
While the HH devaluation was substantial, (even worse when combined with Amex’s changes in bonus categories from 6x drug to 5x/6x grocery/gas), Hilton still offers best overall program for churners. Why? Because cost to earn award nights is close second for low (Carlson) and top tier (Hyatt) properties, and is competitive with mid tier. And it’s substantially better across the board vs SPG (but so is every other program). Add in large property list to choose from, and it’s hard to dismiss (let alone boycott).
With Surpass with 6x grocery churning, you get an award night for ~$185 for top tier peak season rooms (like Conrad Koh Samui). If combined with 5th night free award, cost is ~$148/night. That is very competitive with Hyatt if you are churning 5x with an Ink and transferring URs to Hyatt.
On low end, you can get a Cat 1 award night for $11.90 if churning 6x at grocery. A mid tier 40K property (like a Hampton Inn) will cost you ~$78 night (vs $118 lowest advertised rate). While not astonishing value, it’s still a worthwhile redemption. You can book the Waldorf in NYC for 80K (~$156) even on New Years/Xmas vs paid rate of ~$600+.
Now, what does it cost to get 22K points for Grand Hyatt NYC? $148 if churning 5x with Inks vs paid rate of ~$400. If price vs quality is a decent indicator, you’d do better to use HHpesos than Hyatt GP…
Reality is Hilton remains competitive. It’s just not the outstanding value it was before the devaluation. And when you look at their large portfolio, I find it laughable to read someone is advocating boycotting Hilton.
I agree that paid stays in Hiltons to earn points don’t make no sense. But that’s not relevant to a lot of us because we mostly earn points via CCs. From the CC perspective, Hilton makes sense. So does club carlson or Hyatt. One chain that doesn’t make sense is SPG. SPG CC is useful only for the miles transfer. Otherwise you can get better bang for your manufactured spend with others. Marriott and priority club are also pretty useless. I pay for stays only when there is a mega promotion or thru priceline.
Not all of our stays have to be in conrads. Average hilton hotels with points+money offer incredible value.
I agree with paul that Hilton went from one of teh best programs to average. So I’ve not written off hilton yet.
I’m sorry, I should have been more clear in regards to my boycott. I will not be paying Hilton directly for my nights. Free nights other ways… Or cheap nights via points on credit cards… I’m okay with that. I have my $10 DoubleTree stay tomorrow actually. So clearly it’s me saying don’t straight up pay for hilton! Find another loyalty program. And I believe that you’ll be rewarded more elsewhere.