Hilton announced some changes to the HHonors program this afternoon, adding a number of new award types to the portfolio. These changes will allow the booking of "any room, anytime, anywhere" with points according to the release. In addition to the ability to redeem for suites and other premium rooms the changes will allow for upgrade bookings (cash for a regular rom plus points to get a suite) and a cash plus points option for redemptions, copying the tremendously popular offer from the Starwood Preferred Guest program.
That’s the good news. There is some bad news, too. For starters, there really aren’t any details. There is plenty of fine print, however.
As long as a premium room or suite is available at the time of booking, it is yours to book using points. The number of points required to redeem Premium Room Rewards varies by room, hotel, and booking date.
If there is a premium room or suite available when booking an upgrade, you can use your points to guarantee your upgrade to the premium room or suite with no blackout dates. The number of points required to redeem Room Upgrade Rewards varies by room, hotel, and booking date.
Availability of Points & Money Rewards and points required varies by participating hotels and stay dates at time of booking.
And in case you didn’t notice in that fine print, the number of points required for all these new bookings is unspecified at this time. So this could be one of those things where it is a great benefit or it could completely suck. Time will tell.
Never miss another post: Sign up for email alerts and get only the content you want direct to your inbox.
I eagerly await “SkyPesos: The Hotel Edition.”
It already completely sucks. Just try booking a room in tahiti or Paris for any dates in the next year. All are way over 50k points. They may as well jut eliminate the category levels since they don’t apply anymore. What a terrible devaluation for Hilton.
As EJ said, upgrades can triple or quadruple the point requirements…….and this is just for a “deluxe” room – not a suite.
Another thing that is unsaid is that Hilton now appears to be allowing resorts to eliminate all standard rooms. Look at Moorea or Bora Bora and the minimum redemption is over 100K per night. Also remember that by “upgrading” it appears you no longer qualify for a VIP or AXON reduction.
take a look at Hilton Times Square…
Standard Room = $399
Points = 50,000 points
1 king pure = $429
Points = 128,571
so 78,571 points = $30
—-
Hilton Moorea
King Garden Bungalow – 41,000 FR
Points = 109,160
this *seems* to be the ‘standard’ room based on their $ rates and website but shows up at the ‘enhanced’ level.
Overall, one hell of a disincentive to stay with Hilton.