AmEx Hilton HHonors card update

[accidentalpancake]

Anyone want to venture a guess as to how long it's going to take for Hilton and AmEx to update the branding on their co-card, given the change in name/branding of the HHonors program to just Honors?

http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2017/01/31/hilton-honors-program-changes/

[elim]

Been saving my points and probably nerfed. yayyyyyyyy

[Anonymous]

I was thinking the same thing as I used my card today. It's probably not a priority for them but I'm sure they'll get it done. I don't think the program is nerfed though.

[fedxboy]

I guess coming in July 2017, you'll be able to use your Hilton Points at Amazon.com. 

http://hiltonhonors3.hilton.com/rs/more/?WT.mc_id=zINDA0WW1XX2OLA3DA4Aff5Aff6MULTIBR7_67254168_11219...

[accidentalpancake]

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@elim wrote:

Been saving my points and probably nerfed. yayyyyyyyy

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That's always a concern, obviously, but I think the value will remain decent. We'll see. My wife is the primary Hilton traveler in the family, and I'm always in Marriott for work, so we've got our exposure spread around a bit. Nice to have a backup.

[iced]

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@accidentalpancake wrote:

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@elim wrote:

Been saving my points and probably nerfed. yayyyyyyyy

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That's always a concern, obviously, but I think the value will remain decent. We'll see. My wife is the primary Hilton traveler in the family, and I'm always in Marriott for work, so we've got our exposure spread around a bit. Nice to have a backup.

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The value for Hilton points today is already not decent IMO, so hopefully it won't get worse.

Every time I look into using points for a stay, Hilton's point redemption loses out to Marriott despite my ability to earn points at both with near equal ease. Case in point, I'm looking at doing a 3 day stayover in Barcelona in June and Hilton wants between 109k and 155k points per night while Marriott asks 60k points per night. Both are similar hotels (the Marriott is actually a Ritz Carlton), both on the beach, and yet Hilton thinks their property is 270k points more valuable.

The pooling feature makes some sense at least. If I struggle to find a use for my 500k points, I can imagine a lot of people with a lot less would need to pool points to even be able to use them.

[Anonymous]

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@iced wrote:

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@accidentalpancake wrote:

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@elim wrote:

Been saving my points and probably nerfed. yayyyyyyyy

---

That's always a concern, obviously, but I think the value will remain decent. We'll see. My wife is the primary Hilton traveler in the family, and I'm always in Marriott for work, so we've got our exposure spread around a bit. Nice to have a backup.

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The value for Hilton points today is already not decent IMO, so hopefully it won't get worse.

Every time I look into using points for a stay, Hilton's point redemption loses out to Marriott despite my ability to earn points at both with near equal ease. Case in point, I'm looking at doing a 3 day stayover in Barcelona in June and Hilton wants between 109k and 155k points per night while Marriott asks 60k points per night. Both are similar hotels (the Marriott is actually a Ritz Carlton), both on the beach, and yet Hilton thinks their property is 270k points more valuable.

The pooling feature makes some sense at least. If I struggle to find a use for my 500k points, I can imagine a lot of people with a lot less would need to pool points to even be able to use them.

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I'm sure you know this, but you also ern Hilton points at a quicker rate too. Such as on credit card spend. But yes I agree that their point value isn't the greatest.

[iced]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I'm sure you know this, but you also ern Hilton points at a quicker rate too. Such as on credit card spend. But yes I agree that their point value isn't the greatest.

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 My experience has been that I earn at about the same rate for both places. Both give 10 points per dollar for stays, both earn a 50% bonus at platinum/diamond, and both somewhat similar bonuses for stays at certain properties and/or not taking food and beverage credits. Both also run promotions throughout the year to earn double/triple points and/or earn bonus points for so many nights/stays in a time frame.

The only difference between the two is that Hilton does permit you to double dip by getting extra points for staying instead of points towards airline programs and such. For each $10,000 in spend at Hilton vs. Marriott, this would work out to 50,000 Hilton points. I would argue this can make Hilton points about 20-30% easier to accumulate than Marriott (provided you're enrolled in this option), which is still nowhere near making up for the observation that 1 Marriott point is worth 2-3 Hilton points on average.

To be fair, I do not earn points for either chain via CC spend - all of my hotel points come from stays. Maybe Hilton has a CC that gives enough bonus points for having the card that Marriott doesn't, in which case the current value of the points would make a lot of sense.

It could also be my travel profile as I use points almost exclusively at international properties. Hilton tends to be poorly priced internationally compared to Marriott, so maybe I'm just seeing a similar disparity in point redemption between the two as well.

[Anonymous]

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@iced wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

I'm sure you know this, but you also ern Hilton points at a quicker rate too. Such as on credit card spend. But yes I agree that their point value isn't the greatest.

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 My experience has been that I earn at about the same rate for both places. Both give 10 points per dollar for stays, both earn a 50% bonus at platinum/diamond, and both somewhat similar bonuses for stays at certain properties and/or not taking food and beverage credits. Both also run promotions throughout the year to earn double/triple points and/or earn bonus points for so many nights/stays in a time frame.

The only difference between the two is that Hilton does permit you to double dip by getting extra points for staying instead of points towards airline programs and such. For each $10,000 in spend at Hilton vs. Marriott, this would work out to 50,000 Hilton points. I would argue this can make Hilton points about 20-30% easier to accumulate than Marriott (provided you're enrolled in this option), which is still nowhere near making up for the observation that 1 Marriott point is worth 2-3 Hilton points on average.

To be fair, I do not earn points for either chain via CC spend - all of my hotel points come from stays. Maybe Hilton has a CC that gives enough bonus points for having the card that Marriott doesn't, in which case the current value of the points would make a lot of sense.

It could also be my travel profile as I use points almost exclusively at international properties. Hilton tends to be poorly priced internationally compared to Marriott, so maybe I'm just seeing a similar disparity in point redemption between the two as well.

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Good summary. Sounds like you know what kind of value you are getting. I travel a lot but rarely stay in hotels, so slow accumulation works for me. I haven't even used my Hilton card sign up bonus yet.

[Anonymous]

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@accidentalpancake wrote:

Anyone want to venture a guess as to how long it's going to take for Hilton and AmEx to update the branding on their co-card, given the change in name/branding of the HHonors program to just Honors?

http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2017/01/31/hilton-honors-program-changes/

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Very good question. I have both Hilton Amex cards.... didn't even think of this.