I’ve never been a fan of Hilton points. The currency is not nearly as lucrative as other hotel brands like Hyatt (which can also be accumulated via the Chase Ultimate Rewards program) or Starwood. With 22,000 Chase or Hyatt points you can stay in any Hyatt worldwide, even in Park Hyatts in places like Paris, Sydney, and the Maldives with $1,000+ nightly room rates. With Starpoints you can transfer points into dozens of airline mileage currencies at very favorable ratios in addition to some great hotel bargains.
However there have been some good values in the Hilton program. For example the Hilton Bora Bora Nui is 50,000 points per night and Hilton elites and credit card holders save 15% on 4 night stays, 20% on 5 night stays, and 25% on 6+ night stays, so it can be had for as little as 37,500 points per night.
Now that will only get you a base room, expect to pay an extra $100-$250 per night to confirm an overwater bungalow based on how good of a negotiator you are. But still it’s a great value.
Hilton Bora Bora Nui
How bad will this devaluation be?
This page has the new award chart and this page breaks down the new categories of each hotel. You can also use this tool to search for award pricing.
The Hilton Bora Bora Nui will now cost a whopping 95,000 points per night. The 5th night will be free, but the 15%-25% discount for Hilton elite and cardholders on 4+ night stays will be history though apparently Hilton AMEX cardholders will continue to get some sort of discount.
For a 7 night stay in Bora Bora for someone with a Citi Hilton Visa or Citi Hilton Reserve Visa:
Booked on or before 03/27: 262,500 points
Booked after 03/27: 570,000 points.
That’s an increase of a whopping 117%. It’s murdering the aspirational value of the Hilton program. It’s insane. Just downright insane. If you have the points and aren’t totally set on using them at the Waldorf Astoria Jerusalem (which catastrophically can’t yet be booked with points and will almost surely cost 95,000 points per night under the new award chart) you may well want to make speculative reservations if you may be able to use them in the future.
If you’re short on points you can transfer points from American Express Membership Rewards into Hilton at a 1,000:1,500 ratio. You can also borrow points from American Express and pay them back over the next 12 months through opening new cards or future spending (though point borrowing will be going away effective June 30th)
Luckily the 2 free signup nights from the Citi Hilton Reserve (which comes with Gold elite status that can be matched to top-tier Hyatt Diamond status) will be extended from working in category 1-7 hotels to all category 1-10 hotels that are being created with this change, so you should be able to use your 2 free nights at the Waldorf Astoria Jerusalem when it opens this August.
Other hotels in the same exact situation include the Hilton Maldives and Conrad Maldives. Currently as low as 37,500 points per night, soon to be as much as 95,000 points per night. Ditto for the acclaimed Conrad Ko Samui Thailand where 37,500 points per night can currently get you a villa with a private pool.
Not that I ever trusted you until now, but shame on you Hilton for bringing on the worst hotel points devaluation that I can ever recall.
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18 Comments On "4 Days Left Until Massive Hilton Devaluation"
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Should have been easy to do but I don;t see it on DD so here it is:
Cat old new
1 7500 5000
2 12500 10000
3 25000 20000
4 30000 20-30000
5 35000 30-40000
6 40000 30-50000
7 50000 30-60000
8 NA (see Waldorf) 40-70000
9 NA (see Waldorf) 50-80000
10 NA (see Waldorf) 70-95000
On the surface it doesn’t look so bad but they are also recategorizing some hotels so even if categories 1-7 are not that different, some hotels are now a hgher category and thus require more points. Add to that Dan’s observations about these new cats 8-10 and associated implications and devaluation is compounded.
Is it likely that these devaluations will be matched with increasingly higher sign-up bonuses for their credit cards? If so, the devaluations won’t be as bad as thought.
@donor:
I didn’t see a point in making a comparison like that as with the recategorization hotels that were a 7 can now be a 10 so I gave some examples of that and links to the new award chart.
The loss of the 15%-25% discount definitely stings.
@yuneeq:
Doubtful. Hilton signup bonuses were never that generous to begin with as Hilton points were only worth maybe 0.6 cents compared to 2.2 cents each for Starpoints.
With this Hilton points are worth far less than 0.6 each.
we canceled all 4 citi hilton cards recently cos it has become a worthless card and we wanted to save space for future citi card application.
my 120,000 hilton point is barely enough for ONLY 2 NIGHTS at the Hampton Inn. Hampton inn is treated as the 2 star hilton hotel. talk about worthless hilton points program.
CREDIT CARDS COMPANY MUST SPEAK OUT & NOT DO BUSINESS WITH THESE HOTELS THAT MAKES THE PROGRAM WORTHLESS.
file lawsuit
Because of the most recent extreme devaluation. 10 Hilton point is worth 1 cent.
so using 1% cash back cards are far better than using any hilton credit cards.
Can you transfer Hilton points anywhere where they are more valuable?
@Nikki: 215,000 gets you a ticket to Disney… how’s that?
Well said Dan!
SHAME ON HILTON!!!! GET RID OF ALL YOUR HILTON CARDS, DUMP YOU POINTS AND CHANGE YOUR LOYALTY TO SPG, HYATT OR EVEN CLUB CARLSON!!!!!
I arrange the travel for my company and I will do everything im my power to avoid the Hilton brand!! Hope others do the same!
can i use my 2 free night signup for the Hilton Bora Bora Nui
@JEFF:
Indeed.
@ask:
Yes.
Thanks for the reminder. I just booked Hilton Antwerp at 35k, saw this new chart and it looks like it will be 50k from now on.
While it won’t be worth doing anymore, if you want to transfer MR to Hilton, send to hawaiin air first then to hilton to make it 1:2.
Hiltonpesos weren’t the best to accumulate, but at 6x at CVS, were one of the best to grab since Ink 5x UR became much less attractive.
I grabbed 300K HH and booked 8 days in Koh Samui. Base rate is ~$800 night and my net cost was $395 for the entire stay (ie, 100 VR loads = $50,000 x 6x = 300,000). Sadly, CVS bonus category is going away in May, so don’t have much chance to get a lot more points.
Could someone help me with the before and after for Hilton Waikoloa Village. I can get the before, but no matter how hard I look on the website or how many reps I call, no help for figuring out what it will add up to after. We have been saving for 2 years and I have a feeling we will be out of luck! Can someone please Help. We are traveling August 2014.
@THEsocalledfan:
Right, but that won’t post by 03/27
@Paul:
Not all that sad as after the devaluation it wouldn’t be worth it even at 6x.
@bnalexander:
It will still be 50K per night in August (60K in December), but with the 5th night free instead of 15-25% off.
@bnalexander
I’ve spent far to long trying to figure out the same thing for myself.
This is one location that is not changing category and only has Dec with seasonal pricing as Dan says. I was also trying to figure out with the loss of GLON awards should I book now or can I wait until I have more points so I can book a suite. I want to stay 6 nights which would have been 25% discount with GLON. Going forward it will be just under 20% (5th night free) at the same points amount.
Based on this for my use case HH is not as badly devalued as I was worried about.
Thank you so much Dan! Just checked Hilton Tel Aviv and it is going up from 50K to 70K per night. Paid $40 for the points I needed to have 50K and booked a room my son’s wedding night. Almost missed it, thanks again!!!!!