Priority Club Throwdown, At Least 1000 Free Priority Club Points

by Gary Leff

I really love this. Priority Cluib throws down the gauntlet on the Hilton HHonors devaluation (see also here).

Priority Club is running the Luckiest Loser competition.

Sign up and you’ll automatically receive 1000 points. If you’re one of the top 20,000 Hilton HHonors losers (you had one of the 20,000 highest Hilton HHonors points balances) you’ll receive 20% of your Hilton balance in Priority Club points, up to 20,000 Priority Club points. And the person who registers with the highest Hilton balance will receive 2 million Priority Club points and be dubbed “the Luckiest Loser.”

Of course, I burned most of the Hilton points because of the devaluation. So my balance is pretty paltry, I won’t be in the top 20,000. They want current HHonors balance, not balance prior to the devaluation. They say that they may require verification, my guess is they certainly will require a statement for the Luckiest Loser but probably not for the top 20,000. Just speculation on my part, I was honest with my current balance.

I love both the free points and the throwdown!

What happened to your HHonors points?

On January 15, Hilton® increased the cost of most of their hotel rewards, effectively devaluing HHonors points “by about 20%.” (USAToday.com*). That could mean losing an entire free night from that big vacation you were planning to take with your HHonors points.

To see how these changes could impact your next vacation, check out how many free nights you could be losing with HHonors at these popular destinations:

Your HHonors Point Balance Redeemed at this Hotel Your Free Reward Nights
Before After
40,000 points Doubletree Hotel Denver 2 nights 1 night  
50,000 points Hilton Garden Inn Chicago 2 nights 1 night  
100,000 points Hampton Inn & Suites Orlando 5 nights 4 nights
140,000 points Doubletree Suites Charleston 4 nights 2 nights
175,000 points Las Vegas Hilton 5 nights 4 nights
200,000 points Hilton Times Square NYC 5 nights 4 nights
210,000 points Courthouse Doubletree London 6 nights 4 nights
280,000 points Hilton Hawaiian Village 7 nights 5 nights

For complete details on the examples above, please view our Frequently Asked Questions.

Learn more about the HHonors changes:

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. I find it hypocritical that Priority Club is slamming Hilton for their devaluation. Gee, what about that 25% IC devaluation a couple years ago, when Priority Club increased the cost of an IC redemption from 30,000 points to 40,000 points?

  2. Thanks Gary for the heads up. As stated in the FAQ on the enrollment page, you can also register for the 1000 PC points even if you are not a Hilton Honors member.

  3. Just registered for this and was immediately asked to submit verification (my HH balance is still around the 100,000 mark). They make it easy, though, by letting you upload a PDF (and offering fax and mail as alternatives for the technically challenged).

  5. I suspect they are more interested in offering status or at least identifying HH Gold and Platinum members. Wish Starwood would do this.

  6. Sweet promo. Both my wife and I each still have more than 100,000 Hilton points, so this will sweeten the blow of the devaluation. I certainly hope Priority Club checks the balances, because I’m pretty sure they won’t have 20,000 LEGITIMATE claimants with over 100,000 Hilton points.

    Of course, the problem with Priority Club is that, other than the 5000 point promo hotels, their awards levels generally suck, too. IMHO, nobody is currently competitive with Starwood, especially with their cash & points opportunities.

  9. My HHonors balance is piddly, so I know I don’t stand a chance at being one of the top entrants — but you’ve gotta love 1,000 instant PC points!

  10. muchos my man… I owe you lunch on Friday! (For this and those cleverly worded e-mails for my other missing PC points)

  11. Thanks Gary, I have over 200k HHonors points. Easy to upload a screen shot of my account summary. I was impressed with how quick the points posted. Makes you wonder why all programs take so long to post activity,

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