Both Hilton and Marriott are out with their promotions for next month through the end of the year. Hilton is offering a chain-wide double and triple points depending on the day of the week, and Marriott is offering “MegaBonus” bonus points with different targeted offers for different members.
Hilton Double and Triple Points
From September 1 through December 31 Hilton HHonors is offering triple points on weekends and double points during the week. (Registration required.)
- Double points are Monday through Thursday nights
- Triple Points are Friday, Saturday & Sunday nights
I feel like the ‘double points woman’ is underdressed for the middle of the week. Is it just me?
It’s your base points that are doubled or triples, not extra points you earn based on your (‘points and points’) earning style and not extra points based on elite status bonuses.
Really they’re just dusting off a promotion they’ve run before, this isn’t something new — as of this writing the FAQ for this promotion still says 2014.
But as I wrote back in May, the biggest problem with HHonors promotions has historically been the large number of hotels that ‘opt out’ of providing bonus points. And just like with the summer promotion, they’ve overcome that. All Hilton hotels are participating in this.
And of course while it’s not a barn burner, double and triple points are better than single points so it’s worth taking 10-15 seconds to register before you forget and wind up with an unexpected Hilton stay that doesn’t get bonused.
Marriott MegaBonus is Back
Marriott’s perennial promotion “MegaBonus” returns for stays between September 15 and January 15. You need to log into your account and register under ‘promotions’ by November 15 to qualify.
As usual they’re offering different things to different members. Some of the options:
- Earn 2,000 points every stay starting with your second say, up to 20,000 points total
- Earn 15,000 points after 15 paid nights plus 2,000 points for each additional night, up to 35,000 points total
- Earn 25,000 points after 20 nights plus 2,000 for each additional night, up to 45,000 points total
What’s yours?
You’re registered. Now, we have a SURPRISE in store for you.
In addition to earning Double Points Monday-Thursday nights and Triple Points Friday, Saturday & Sunday nights*, you’re eligible to receive 4,000 Bonus Points on your 4th stay during the Triple Your Trip Promotion.
I was just wondering about upcoming promotions
I already have 5 weekend Hilton stays booked during the promo period so that works for me!
In addition to earning Double Points Monday-Thursday nights and Triple Points Friday, Saturday & Sunday nights*, as a new Hilton HHonors member you’re eligible to receive 2,000 additional Bonus Points on your 1st stay during the Triple Your Trip promotion.
Strange since I’ve been a HHonors member for at least a decade…….
I have a stay from Thursday to Tuesday with Hilton, 5 nights. Do I need to break up the reservation into multiple reservations to earn double or triple points?
Jay, I got the exact same message, although I have been an HHonors member for about six years.
@Gary sez: “But as I wrote back in May, the biggest problem with HHonors promotions has historically been the large number of hotels that ‘opt out’ of providing bonus points. And just like with the summer promotion, they’ve overcome that. All Hilton hotels are participating in this.”
I had stated, after the last promo in which no property was allowed to opt out, that this was going to be the new thing because Hilton is doing so well financially and with their internal data showing that returning loyalty customers were driving much of the profit, they decided to flex their muscle and threaten franchisees who opt out of promos with expulsion. You vehemently disagreed, but it appears that I was right. Only the return of bad times would reverse this trend within HHonors, which is currently the most exciting and vibrant loyalty program on the planet 😉
How so? You left out a key aspect of this promo that makes it truly lucrative and real bononza because in addition to the advertized “global” offer for double/triple bonus points, there is a targeted offer within after one registers! Yup, after you register for the “global” promo, a graphic shows up that tells you that they have a surprise in store for you and reveals your targeted offer. Mine was that in addition to the bonus points from the “global” promo, I would get 5000 HH points extra after I complete 5 stays during the promo perid, which I had already booked! Here are the T&C for my targeted offer. Note again that no property is allowed to opt out:
†This offer is valid for select Hilton HHonors members who receive this offer after registering for the (“Triple Your Trip”) promotion. It cannot be combined with other offers and is not transferable. The offer is valid for eligible stays completed between 1 September and 31 December, 2015 (“Promotion Period”) at any hotel in the Hilton Worldwide portfolio. Select HHonors members will receive 5,000 Bonus Points after the completion of their fifth stay within the Promotion Period. Bonus Points earned on Base Points do not count toward tier qualification. Please allow six to eight weeks from completion of your stay for points to appear in your HHonors account.
LOL
@Gary sez: “And of course while it’s not a barn burner, double and triple points are better than single points so it’s worth taking 10-15 seconds to register before you forget and wind up with an unexpected Hilton stay that doesn’t get bonused.”
There is no way to spin this one into another negative or Hilton Honors bashing, Gary. No, siree. Not this year! We’ve heard the constant gushing on this blog and in the blogosohere echo chamber about how Hyatt (or SPG) is the most generous loyalty program in the business, but even before this year, that was always a dubious claim. But for this year so far, HHonors’ offers have eclipsed anything that any other program has had to offer…by far!
Hilton Worldwide is not only the fastest growing hospitality company in the world, its loyalty program, HHonors, is currently the most vibrant out there. Period. And, BTW, you have seen nothin’ yet 😉
This is not a negative. I tell people to sign up for the promo. But the best laugher of all is “its loyalty program, HHonors, is currently the most vibrant out there” 😀
And as far as you declaring the end of excluded properties, as I wrote back in May HHonors’ VP shared precisely that they had worked to incorporate all hotels in these promos.
@alex no need to break up your reservation, bonus should still post correctly
@DCS — Talk about someone ‘tootin their own horn.
Gary may not always be correct — I vehemently disagree with him with respect to SPG and the AMEX MR products, but you seem to be even worse.
You want a medal to your slavishness to a loyalty program that ridiculously devalued its points system not so long ago?
And for what, a grand total of 5,000 HHonors Zimbabwe dollars — or whatever — after you make 5 stays with them — a 1, 000 point additional bonus per stay?
Wow, you sure are easy to please!
@Gary — I could dig up the exchanges but I will take the less feisty you as a capitulation. There is really not much to say when the evidence all around you speaks for itself.
If this were a Hyatt or SPG promo, there would be a shortage of superlatives in the blogosphere because you would have used them all in praise.
You do practice brand advocacy blogging, and that is fine with me as long as that is clear but it is not to some…
“Nuff said.
@HORACE — I can debate @Gary. For writing stuff like “5,000 HHonors Zimbabwe dollars — or whatever — after you make 5 stays with them”, I do not think you have the brain power to go toe-to-toe.
G’day.
@HORACE – actually, yes, I think that DCS is a nice foil to all of the Hilton-hating that is prevalent in this blog and others. He loads his statements with gushing praise, but if you strip that away, most of his facts are on point.
Meanwhile, the tired party line about “Hilton’s ridiculous devaluation” – two years ago – has long gotten old. Every analysis I or others have done shows Hilton’s program to be on par with or exceed competitors in terms of redemption value per dollar spent. Whenever someone mentions “Hilton’s devaluation”, that is an immediate red flag to just stop reading.
And, oh look, Hyatt is actually cooking the availability on their end so their program isn’t all that it’s hyped up to be, but it’s OK, they fixed a couple properties when a blogger called them out, so they must be perfect.
The answer, as always, is somewhere in the middle of the extremes.
@CW — It’s very refreshing whenever someone comments and it is clear that while he or she enjoys @Gary’s blog, s/he has not drunk too much of his kool-aid 😉
Cheers, mate!
The Hilton link works but the sign up process works about as well as Hilton. I had to sign through it like 5 times to get it to take. Weird. I also wonder if the “I’m not a Robot” is very smart is it included Crepes as Pancakes (I guess they sorta are) and Quiche at a Pie which I guess is sort of close.
@DCS pull up most promos from Hyatt and Starwood and I haven’t been excited either, only a handful of promos the past couple of years from any chain have been jump up and down worthy because hotels are full and promos aren’t needed to put heads in beds. as far as the alleged superiority of hilton, you’re delusional. it’s not a program that’s fundamentally worse than average, but it’s certainly nothing to get excited over.
@DCS — You may not believe it, but I kind of agree with you about not having your brain power.
I think most people consider a Hilton points to equal 4/10 of the US cent — just trying to be clear here.
Now math was never my strong suit, but I think that an extra 1,000 HH points would translate into at most .40 (US) cents, and that after a grand total of 5 Hilton family stays, in connection with this you would have the wonderful extra BONUS that loyal HHonors members seem to have received, that one would have a grand total of about $2.00 US dollars worth of value of having shifted their stays to 5 Hilton family stays.
You are right, I don’t have your brain power — nor would I wish that upon my worst enemy.
G’day to you, too!
@CW — I am neither a HHonors hater nor one who gushes praise of them, or for any of the hotel programs, they each have their strong points and weak points.
I am in the middle of where most people fall, I believe in this game, perhaps on the conservative side as I don’t think that I MUST redeem for First Class cabins, or higher — in fact I look for Coach class redemption, actually, and the same goes for using hotel points — I am not captivated by the “aspirational” properties of HHonors or of any other chain, such as those that are located in the Maldives or Mauritius or Tahiti, etc.
First, I am not a beach goer — therefore, those resort locations don’t have much pull with me, and second, I can’t afford to take of that much time to simply spend an entire whole day in transit to/from those destinations.
Again, I do not look to redeem my points at so called “aspirational” properties.
With respect to your argument about the devaluation, I do not buy into it as I had many HHonors points prior to devaluation and saw their value plummet — again, I am not speaking to the so called “aspirational” properties — I am talking about the ridiculous number of points that HHonors wants for Hampton Inn properties, and the like.
The only thing worse that I have recently seen, is the “category creep” that Marriott has instituted, that essentially mirrors HHonors but they are doing it sub silentio.
In fact, I recently have obtained the HHonors Reserve card as the sign up bonus of an additional $100 credit for your first Hilton family stay, in addition to the 2 free weekend nights, was sufficient for me to start considering Hilton again for my travel plans — and I am glad that I did.
Not only was I able to parlay that $100 credit into a free night, I was able to get a BRG from Hilton for that free night, so the non-negotiable $95 annual fee was decreased by the $50 AMEX gift crd that I received from Hilton for having satisfied their BRG terms.
In that stay, I also snagged the 5,000 point bonus that Hilton was then offering via the public promotion, so I did very well, even with the HHonors points I received for that 1 night stay.
So, too, will I make out fine with this new promotion, as I have a $71/night weekend stay at the D/T Silver Spring — thanks to the Hilton MVP rate — that is much lower than the competition for a weekend in DC.
Add to the above, the fact that stay will be used to pay down the $2,500 threshold bonus to obtain the 2 free nights that I am to receive once completed, as well as the triple points and the 2,000 point bonus for your first stay (although I, too, am a HHonors member for over 20 years — we’ll see if I actually receive it), and I am a happy camper.
But, HHonors is but a shell of what it formerly was pre-devaluation (even for those who never attempted to strive for the African Safaris, and the like) and it never will have pride of place in my hotel earnings regime.
I understand that DCS is to HHonors as Gary is to SPG and I take both of them with a grain of salt when they are extolling the virtues of the program — but their pitches fall on deaf ears mostly, as I am simply not interested in the redemption opportunities they extoll.
One final thing.
From DCS’s sign off, he may be Australian.
If so, I think he has been out in sun too long — a common issue for those fair skinned non-native Australians, as they typically have some of the highest skin cancer rates in the world.
In the above instance, however, I fear more for his intellectual capabilities because it appears the sun has addled his brain.
Now, I understand that he may think that $4.00 US Dollar is something of value but I fail to see this so-called bonanza from qualifying after 5 stays.
Is it that his brain power has been diminished — if he ever had much heft to begin with, that is — by his solar exposure, or simply that with the diminution in value of the Australian currency due to the collapse of commodities prices that has gotten him to thinking so?
The above was a rhetorical question, for as he has made clear, I don’t have the intellectual heft to go toe to toe with him.
Correction to the above, it is not $4.00 US dollars, but the far smaller amount of $2.00 US Dollars.
Thus, my fears for DCS sanity are doubled!
Sorry for he confusion!
Well, it seems my math was off.
1,000 HHonors points may translate to about $4.00 – $5.00, nothing more in my book.
That in and of itself, is not too bad shaving off the cost of the room, BUT to get that return, you have to have another 4 stays booked and completed.
Not worth it in my book, to obligate yourself to 4 HHonors family hotel stays to realize an additional $25.00, at most — and only if you were pre-selected for this promotion!
I’ll stick to the nuts and bolts of the basic promotion and seek to maximize where it makes sense for me — that is triple point weekends, and probably nothing else.
Gary, I have just cancelled my Business SPG card and would like to apply for another one for my second business. Would that work? (get the card AND the bonus, of course).
Sorry, posted in the wrong place I suppose …
Hilton programme is basically a lie, 50k does not get a room at a top hotel, more like 95k. Compare to Marriott (40k) and Intercon (50k) both of which earn at the same rate. SPG and Hyatt take fewer points respectively but of course also earn at a lower rate. However this also means that SPG and Hyatt credit card points are worth more than Hilton or Marriott.
The only guy I know who frequents Hilton for business travel does so because Hilton is the only (or best) option in the hick rural towns that are on his sales route. These are not properties where SPG & Hyatt elite benefits would be useful…
One long post deserves another, so here we go…
@Boraxo sez: “Hilton programme is basically a lie, 50k does not get a room at a top hotel, more like 95k. Compare to Marriott (40k) and Intercon (50k) both of which earn at the same rate.”
You should stop posting about things that you are clearly not qualified to post about. The above is supposedly referring to the 2003 Hilton “devaluation” that was predicted to “kill” that program, which must have done quite a Lazarus act because HHonors is now quite alive and even more vibrant than ever. So let me give you something to think about so that you would stop making a fool of yourself.
First. I will defer to a blogger who actually gets it to explain why you cannot directly compare award costs as you did and concluded that Hilton awards cost more because 95K points are more than the award costs for any other programs. RAW points from different programs should not and cannot be compared because:
“A mile is not a mile, and a point is not a point, if different programs award more or less of them for the same size transaction. As a result, one can’t easily compare the award charts of two different programs and say that one is “more expensive” than another. Perhaps the program that requires twice as many points for a free night also hands out four times as many to begin with.”
Second, the purported massive Hilton “devaluation” of 2013 was indeed massive, but the net result was to bring their award costs in line with those of their competitors. In other words, Hilton’s awards got so ridiculously cheap that they were no longer competitive and could not be sustained. To “devalue” was the correct decision for them at the time, and the current vibrancy of Hilton, the fastest growing hospitality company in the world, and of HHonors, their new and improved loyalty program, proves that their decision to “devalue” was correct. I write “devaluation” in quotation marks because after the purported “devaluation”, Hilton award costs rose to almost exactly match those of Marriott and Hyatt, while SPG’s were and remain, by far, the highest-priced in the business. Here’s a simple proof:
The highest standard award cost for a cat 7 (highest) Hyatt hotel is 30K GP points. The highest standard award cost for a cat 10 (highest) Hilton property is 95K HH points. Remember, however, that HHonors awards 3 times (actually 3.2x) more HH points than GP awards GP points, which means that 95K HH points are equivalent to 95K/3 = 32K GP points, which is virtually the same as the published award cost of 30K for a top Hyatt property. See? No Hilton “devaluation”. If the preceding proof made no sense to you, it might if you can answer this simple question: What is the colder temperature between 0 degree Celsius and 32 degrees Fahrenheit? [Hint: It’s a trick question for which I will provide a long answer if you get it wrong 😉 ]
Third, if you are referring to the exorbitant costs of Hilton “premium” reward rooms, that’s actually more honest than what other programs do. Hyatt, e.g., simply converts standard rooms into premium rooms to make them unavailable for booking. Hilton, on the other hand, achieves the same thing by slapping a ridiculously high cost on standard room rewards and calling them premium room rewards, but at least if one has loads of points, one can still book such awards! All the bad rap that Hilton gets is due to failure to understand the shenanigans that various programs pull. Hilton is transparent about their changes and gets hammered for it! Did you know that Hyatt’s devaluation of their points was more severe than Hilton’s? Well, they got away with it because they were the last to devalue, after Hilton who “devalued” first got the flak and numbed everyone.
Lastly, how about my apparent pathological “passion” for Hilton? It is not that at all. I am more like the Devil’s Advocate in the travel blogosphere where every blogger gushes about Hyatt or SPG for no apparent reason at all and I need to counter-balance. But personally, I go wherever I can get the best “value” for my points. I got just through booking my annual year-end, multi-city Asian escapade during which I will redeem:
a) HHonors points for stays at Hilton Shanghai; at the brand new Waldorf Astoria Beijing; and the highly aspirational Conrad Koh Samui; (I will be adding Conrad Hong Kong too, I think)
b) Hyatt GP points for stays at Grand Hyatt Erawan in BKK (near the shrine that was recently bombed); and at Grand Hyatt Singapore.
c) Marriott Rewards points for a one-night stopover at JW Marriott Bangkok.
Oh, in just a week, I will be redeeming starpoints for a one-night cash+points award stay at Sheraton Brussels Airport Hotel on a stopover…
See, I am not as blindly “loyal” to Hilton and HHonors as it might seem, which gives me a unique perspective to discuss the relative values of the various programs in which I have: Gold status in SPG through my AMEX Biz Plat; Gold status in Marriott Rewards through the Marriott-UA JV and my United 1K status; and Hyatt GP Platinum (the worst second-tier “elite” status in the business) through the Chase Hyatt visa.
I am an equal opportunity opportunist 😉
Like I said, you have no clue what you are talking about so please stop digging!
G’day!
@DCS — Is it only I who notice that you gush over HHonors properties in Asia, but outside of that region you stay at Starwood hotels!!
Gee, Gary must be happy about that!! LOL!!
Boraxo is right on the $$ about you and the program and now you seek to cast yourself as more of a “devil’s advocate” than a fanatic who can see no wrong in HHonors’ program.
Unfortunately, your death bed conversion doesn’t wash with discerning individuals such as Boraxo.
Had you been more circumspect in your criticism of those you don’t know — such as myself who are more honest brokers — and middle of the road in their sentiments — your scribbling might carry more weight — but they do not.
@Boraxo — Could to see that I again share your overall sentiments, hope the wife and kids are doing fine.
Horace
@HORACE — What gibberish? Gary knows my travel pattern and will be the first tell you that your characterization could not be farther from the truth.
I am staying at Sheraton Brussels AIRPORT for a one-night stopover because I will be flying out on SN (BRUSSELS Airways) for FIH, on my way from MILAN, where I would have stayed for 4 nights at HILTON MILAN, which was in EUROPE and not in Asia, the last time checked.
If you do not feel silly already for getting it so wrong, then please check out my 2014 ANNUAL Year-end Asian Escapade(TM) (first Escapade was back in 2011) to learn something real about me, and then return here to comment (hopefully to tell everyone that you were wrong):
https://milepoint.com/forums/threads/2014-year-end-asian-escapade-or-the-anatomy-of-a-big-time-redemption.109108/
Enjoy and G’day!
I’m not interested in your escapades, Asian, or otherwise, and could care less if your “plan” was to stay at the Hilton Milan — a very lackluster hotel — in a mediocre city when it comes to touristic sites, other than seeing the Last Supper or listening to opera at La Scala, something that I am sure is way beyond your appreciation, anyway.
Your posts have sufficiently advised me of your pretensions and that the only gibberish I see within the confines of this blog comes from you.
As I said above, you should stay out of the sun.
G’day to you, too!
@HORACE, HORACE, HORSE! — Do you known what the world EXPO is and where it has been going on since May and will continue until October? That’s right, Milan won the rights to host the world’s biggest show, beating all of your favorite cities that may have bid for it. So, your characterization of Milan as a “mediocre city” is just as inane as anything that you have said on this board. BTW, I was in Milan just a couple of years ago and I did stayed at Hilton Milan where I was upgraded to a junior suite. Have you ever stayed there to be able to characterize it as “a very lackluster hotel”?
Lastly, you are completely wrong about being SURE that listening to opera at La Scala would be beyond my appreciation. Not only I have been to La Scala, I have had a season ticket for Carnegie Hall for years; I have heard Domingo, Pavarotti, Fleming, and sat through Richard Wagner’s complete “Ring” tetralogy at the Met; and last but not least, I formally trained in playing and do play the classical guitar, which I am sure you know as the “Spanish guitar.”
You are already in a deep hole and, as I like to advise clearly ignorant folks like you, you should seriously consider to stop digging!
@DCS — This is beginning to be a bit of fun.
World Expo is not so interesting.
Moreover, if you truly were an aficionado of classical and other music, you surely would not spend all your time in Milan, but would instead go to the fair city of Verona to see the summer opera festival there.
Finally, I hate to burst your bubble but the Park Hyatt is an infinitely better hotel than the one in Milan and you ain’t seen nothing until you have stayed at a Junior Suite there.
Nope if you were the world traveler and connoisseur you claim to be, you would know that Milan is but a way station to more infinitely entertaining diversions such as the alpine lakes to the North such as Como and Borromeo and the fascinating Liberty Style (that’s the Italian version of “Art Nouveau,” for you obvious edification) architecture of so many villas and hotels in the area, to the hill town of Brescia and the aforementioned Verona — as in Two Gentlemen fame, as well as the bard’s more famous Romeo et Juliette.
No sirree! You got some ‘larnin to do!
Oh, and yes, I have stayed at the Milan Hilton. The only things going for it is its proximity to mass transit connections, IMHO. It is in a sterile portion of town that closes up after sundown.
@HORACE — I am wasting my time with you — really. One of the busiest discos in Milan is just 5-min walk from Hilton Milan and it does not close at sundown; in fact, it does not at all.
Please stay here and knock yourself out. As for me, I need to get ready to fly out on Monday to do, over the next couple of weeks, LGA-ORD-BRU-MXP-BRU-FIH-JNB-JFK, which should help maintain my credentials as “the world traveler and connoisseur” that I claim to be.
G’day.
@DCS — Ha Ha!
Just by mentioning the word “dsco” you have dated yourself and shown all what you really are.
Culture coming from a “disco??”
Ha Ha, that’s a laugh!
Well, maybe for someone who like to truck with Euro-trash.
Giggling…..