A Diamond VIPs' view of New 2010 redemption levels and Diminishing Elite benefits at Hilton Family Hotels

Hilton family Reward categories have been updated along with point redemption rates, These changes go into effect January 15, 2010.

After some weeks of confusing marketing Hilton updated the chart below and publicly admitted that every hotel will move up 1 category. So current Cat 6 hotels at 40,000 points a night will not be a Cat 7 at a whopping 50,000 points per night.

You can make reservations at the current levels if booked by January 14, 2010. If you need to make a change to your reservation after January 14, 2010 the new redemption rates will apply.

           In my opinion there are very few hotels in the Hilton family that are worth 50,000 points and night and most of them are Waldorf’s who have their own out of this world point category.

            My time with Hilton has had its ups and downs, but this by far is a very dark moment. I have gone out of my way to stay at Hilton Family hotels, because I was loyal, I have been saving my points, treating the points like a valuable currency. Now with these changes each point has been massively devalued.

            I can understand the need to make changes to the program, but I just cannot fathom why Hilton will do this with a very bad economy, and the need to keep their loyal guest happy. This year I have noticed a sharp drop in my Diamond VIP benefits, hotels are making cuts and most of them cut what a Diamond member will get at the hotel, like shutting down executive lounges. I have had to fight for Breakfast at 2 hotels this year, my upgrade rate was at an all time low, and service has been cut at many locations. This year the promotions Hilton ran were a joke compared to all the competition. Starwood and Intercontinental were giving away free weekend nights like candy. Then you have Marriott un-doing their poor timed redemption hike of last year, Starwood also LOWERING points required for a free night system-wide.  All the others had lower point redemption promotions.  What did Hilton do? Not too much, unless you count stopping the point-stretcher program, very weak promotions, doing away with the rolling tier calendar and cutting Diamond VIP benefits at the Waldorf’s to almost nothing.

            When the rolling tier calendar was stopped this was very bad for guest like me who have a travel pattern that matched that system very well. This year I qualified for Diamond twice, but on Jan 1 I go to ZERO nights/stays/etc… I only get a year of Diamond like people who just barely qualified or even worse got some match challenge or fast track.  How is this fair?  I can tell you it is not, or is it a program improvement! So mid year I had Starwood match me to their top tier and I was very impressed with their program, upgrades to suites every time, the free weekend night promotion and just better VIP treatment. The reason I moved to Starwood mid year was because I re-qualified for Diamond in June, knowing that any stays over the requirement would just vanish on Jan 1 2010. I had every intention to move back to Hilton in 2010 and hit Diamond again. 

            Now this latest move is very hard to swallow. I personally feel like I’m not important to Hilton with the cuts, and now making my points worth far less, not to mention the far less valuable Diamond level.  It is going to be much harder to go out of my way to stay in a Hilton Family hotel. I have a lot invested in this program, but with all the downgrades for Diamonds and really all the members over this past year, it might just be time to revaluate what program works best for me. 

            I really get the feeling that Hilton is making a bad move and is really sticking it to the most loyal members. This change hurts us the most, as do many of the changes made over this year. I would ask them to re-look at the new chart and really look at the Cat 7 at 50,000.. I think most will find 45,000 a bit more acceptable. Also take a look at the Rolling Tier, could they implement roll-over yearly qualifying stays and night to the next year for Diamond as a benefit. For example my situation, I currently have 47 Stays, 68 nights and 95,961 points completed this year. Instead of putting diamonds at zero on Jan 1, roll over the extra stay/nights/points to start the year with. You need 28 stays, 60 nights or 100K points. So with this proposal I would start 2010 with 19 stays, 8 nights and 0 points. I think this is a fair compromise and alsowould encourage loyalty after re-qualification. The reason for the change from the rolling tier was "it was confusing to guest" well a new diamond perk like this should not be a big deal to implement.

         I also have a big problem with the marketing of this change, in the emails and also on the web pages I believe there is an out right lie on the new Hilton FAQ page...Re: 2010 Standard Hotel Rewards
http://hhonors1.hilton.com/en_US/hh/landing/RewardFAQ/index.do#increase

Q: When was the last point redemption increase?
A: The last time we updated our point levels was June 2003.

This is misleading..
When was the Waldorf Cat added?.... After 2003!

Was that not an update to point levels?
Did the point level not increase for the Waldorf in NYC or the only Hilton in downtown Rome?

Hilton needs to really look long and hard at these changes. The timing is very poor, and I believe they are clueless on how many VIPs are going to jump ship.