Hilton Honors quietly raised free award night redemption prices on the last Friday before the holidays. Since they stopped publishing award charts, they did not tell anyone that they did this, but your Honors points are now worth less than they were on Thursday.
The elimination of award charts doesn’t have to mean debasement of the loyalty program’s currency – it just always does, at least after an initial period.
- Sometimes the program waits to do it, so lull members into complacency over the change
- Other times the intention might not even be devaluation up front, but the temptation becomes too great once transparency is gone
When you no longer have to announce a devaluation by updating your award charts, and little tweaks here and there can improve your P&L while hopefully few members notice, the CFO always wins.
Hilton Honors members report:
- Waldorf Astoria Las Vegas (Las Vegas, NV): Increased from 85,000 to 95,000.
- Waldorf Astoria Pedregal/Cabo (Los Cabos, Mexico): Increased from 120,000 to 140,000.
- Hotel del Coronado (San Diego, CA): Increased from 95,000 to 110,000.
- Conrad Tokyo (Tokyo, Japan): Increased from 95,000 to 100,000.
- Conrad Osaka (Osaka, Japan): Increased from 95,000 to 100,000.
- Waldorf Astoria Grand Wailea (Maui, HI): Previously capped at 110,000, now 110,000 or 120,000 depending on the day.
- Crockfords Las Vegas (Las Vegas, NV): Was 100,0000. New tiered pricing: 90,000/100,000/110,000 depending on the date.
- Hilton London Bankside (London, UK): Increased from 70,000 to 75,000 per night.
- Hilton Molino Stucky (Venice, Italy): Increased from 70,000 to 75,000 per night.
Crockfords Lobby
In general it seems that many of the most appealing Hilton Honors properties have increased 5,000 to 10,000 points per night. Loyalty Lobby notes that Conrad Bora Bora Nui now runs up to 130,000 points per night, when it previously topped out at 120,000.
Conrad Bora Bora Nui Main Pool
Hilton moved to price ranges in 2013, which was bad enough. Accompanying that change was redemption price increases up to 90%. Here’s what their last award chart looked like in 2017.
When Hilton formally dropped even this award chart they promised that they weren’t raising prices. I wrote at the time after speaking to program leadership that Hilton said they weren’t increasing the maximum price of any hotel, and did not intend to do so. That lasted for a few months.
The elimination of award charts serves only one purpose, to keep information out of the hands of members. Hilton stopped publishing charts, but still priced hotels based on their charts. So I wrote that “I suspect that price increases in their ‘hidden award chart’ will eventually happen” but that “the question is whether or not they’re transparent with members about they changes they’re making — sharing clearly and prominently what they’re doing to the currency in advance.” And we all know the answer.
Hilton said their top redemption price would stay 95,000 points but before the pandemic bumped this to 120,000 points – promising it applied only to one special hotel. Now the top price is 150,000 points. When will it go higher still?
If only the regulators actually protected consumers from such scams. Oh well, they’re about to lose their jobs and their mandate, which sucks for most of us. Alas, Milton Friedman’s bastardized ‘free market’ with ‘profit over people’ as its sole motive, without any guardrails of ethics or greater obligations to the society, is about to force whatever the greediest, most selfish among us can get away with. Such corruption will come for all of us, not just the ‘blue team’ — which is bitter sweet for those of us who warned you against such spiteful garbage. I await your name-calling, typical foes. Blame others, fix nothing.
Not surprised. Hilton sucks. Move your business to Hyatt!
Hilton truly sucks. The no notice part is the worst, displays a disdain for the customer.
I thought dynamic points-pricing had been used for a while. This doesn’t seem like news.
Only one who is naive beyond belief would actually believe that any loyalty program can possibly keep the promise never devalue. The top rate did stay at 95K for years, and the notion that it was bumped up 120K before the pandemic bumped is simply clueless because WA Maldives (and WA Cabos sporadically) had rates that went as high as 150K per night — rates that applied only at the two special hotels, just as the program has stated.
It’s been 7 years since Hilton dropped their award chart and went “dynamic”, and during this time, despite predictions of doom by this site, the program has remained highly rewarding, and will remain so even with these inevitable increases as long as it (a) keeps running rewarding global promos, (b) keeps selling points at 0.5cpp with 100% bonuses, and (c) keeps the 5th award night free perk as is — all things that World of Hyatt isn’t offering or doing, which explains why WoH, by contrast, is on the race to the bottom.
they just called me this week to ask me as a Diamond member for twenty years why I only stayed 45 nights this year instead of my normal 100-150, despite the price increases, pool hotel service and dirty rooms, I moved to 225 with Marriott which was not much better. they have cut AAA discounts and other limited promotion in 2024 no value to stay.
This is another example of why loyalty DOES NOT pay. Hilton is too far out of touch with its customers to make them a worthwhile loyalty program.
I recall fondly the early days when 100k got you 7 nights in any Hilton worldwide PLUS a rental car for a week.
I basically just use Hilton to redeem the free night with the Aspire card each year for Standard Award stays, and the Diamond status that comes with it. It’s become a bit of a coupon book with the $50/quarter United TravelBank credit and $200/semi-annual resort credits. Otherwise, I do not bother with them Hilty Shilty points. Same with IHG for that matter; when your points are worth around 0.5 cents a piece at breakeven, it’s not a great currency to rely on. Yes, Hilton and Delta’s SkyPesos have dynamic pricing and devaluations in common, and it is increasingly frustrating. But truly there are few exceptions these days. Hyatt feels like one of the few at 2-3 cents per point. United and American can have decent value, but you have to be flexible with dates and routes. Air Canada used to have some sweet spots too, but it’s all been water down over the years. If Hyatt goes the way of these other guys, I’m gonna just simply travel less, and maybe that’s for the best. These status programs are mostly overrated. The ‘good ole days’ are over.
With inflation across virtually all segments of the economy, including increased hotel prices post Covid as owners attempt to make up for lost revenue during the pandemic, it’s unrealistic to expect that there would be no award program devaluations.
I may not like it, but…
It sounds as if the RNG(random number generator) has invaded the C suite.
Perhaps the next step is only allowing points to be used for sweepstakes that award varying prices for rooms.
I wouldn’t call it a devaluation. Sure it costs more points but if the prices have gone up the points are still worth the same. You reasonably can’t expect a room that used to sell for $200 and be available for 35,000 points to still only cost 35,000 points when the price is now $250.
Sorry but inflation impacts everything and resetting award prices to match $ cost isn’t devaluation any more than DL or SW setting award pricing based on ticket cost isn’t devaluation any devaluation- just dynamic pricing