Hilton Honors Summer 2019 Promo: Double Points & More

Comments

1. This is good news. Thanks for the notification and the link to register.

   I have several paid stays this summer at Hilton properties, so this will help accumulate points quickly.

2. Always look forward to these promotions. I typically don’t change hotels while on the same business trip but this promotion may make it worthwhile. Rookie question, but is a stay defined as 2-nights or more as the language mentions consecutive nights at a single hotel.

3. This is the first time that Hilton moves to promotions only kicking in with the second stay, copying Marriott. You should call them out for this devaluation/slippery slope.

4. do points stays count for this promo?

   I have a points stay in HAN then travel to DAD and will have a cash stay…I’d be nice if I can get the extra points for my DAD stay.

5. AT2, award stays count per the bullet points in the article.

   I often purchase something from the snack shop when I am on a point stay if I am trying to make sure I get stay credit for some Hilton promo. But it probably isn’t necessary.

6. Wondering if existing hotel registrations (booked with Hilton directly & with aspire) would be counted towards this promotion after actually spending the nights? I have few reservations already made – hoping I wont have to cancel/rebook just to leverage this offer! Any thoughts much appreciated!

7. None of the big chains are perfect. But after the Marriott circle jerk the last couple of years, I have had it with them. I have been putting my efforts in Hilton and they are doing good so far. They have nice mid range hotels in most of the places I want to go. My last trip to Sarasota Florida I used the Embassy Suites and it was very pleasant.

8. I have a 10 day stay starting May 10th in London in a nice suite. Would it be worthwhile to complete a one night stay May 6-8 to make that second stay more valuable? My London stay is booked at a non-refundable/changeable rate (total about $6000)… just wondering..

9. The mark of great travel bloggers is the willingness to revisit their assumptions and make adjustments when those assumptions are no longer consistent with the facts or with reality. That is why one should give @Lucky credit for giving credit when and where credit is due: “Of all of the major hotel chains, Hilton Honors is by far the most consistent and generous with the promotions they offer. They constantly run promotions (typically without even a day gap between them), so that’s great for members.”

   That is in contrast to so-called “thought leader in travel”, who saw in Hilton Honors’ upcoming promo another opportunity to disparage program, oblivious to the fact that that obtuseness quite likely accounts for why hardly anybody reads his blogposts anymore. They are utterly mind-numbing in repeating bogus claims that have been debunked ad nauseam, like this one that one does not need to be a rocket scientist to know is totally bogus:

   “The base earning for Hilton Honors is less rewarding than at other major chains [what???!!!] which is why it’s promotions that are required to make Honors a competitive earn and burn program. They need to run more lucrative promotions than competitors or else the program simply gives less value to members (even aside from limitations of their elite program, no promises of suite upgrades or late check-out).”

   Buried in the claim is the real reason for the stupid comment: “They need to run more lucrative promotions than competitors or else the program simply gives less value to members.” See it right there? He acknowledged that Hilton has been offering more lucrative promos than the competition, but then, due to intellectual dishonesty, he must twist the positive into a negative to try to take away from a program that he hates with a passion. The gymnastics are, of course, quite silly because all they manage to achieve is to further expose how thoughtless and ideas-less he is!

   G’day!

10. LOL DCS Is banned from Gary’s VFTW blog, so his last recourse is to rant and rave on OMAAT.

    Base earning is less for HH as anyone knows due to the low absolute value of a HH point. And the HH point is the most inflationary currency out of all the hotels (with the highest variable rewards, and difficulty in getting outside value). Thus constant promos to earn more Hilton Zimbabwe points.

11. @UA-NYC sez: “LOL DCS Is banned from Gary’s VFTW blog…”

    Didn’t Leff himself debunked that claim when you made it on his blog? Here’s the exchange, a cut and paste from his site, which you can easily find:
    __________________
    UA-NYC says: January 26, 2019 at 6:02 am
    @THF – sadly DCS is coughbannedcough from this site, so we won’t get any comment from him

    Gary Leff says: January 26, 2019 at 6:42 am
    @UA-NYC DCS is not banned from this site. DCS has chosen not to comment here any longer. That is entirely his decision, and he could reverse it at any time.
    __________________

    That being the case, don’t you realize just how stupid that makes you to keep peddling it?

    With respect to “base earning”, you are not only clueless, but also dishonest. I did the easy math here and elsewhere very recently, proving conclusively just how wrong the claim that “the base earning for Hilton Honors is less rewarding than at other major chains…” Leff’s whole claim rests on his subjective “value” of points currencies and on excluding co-branded credit card earning, which is mindless. By contrast, my proof depends on no assumptions. Neither of you has a clue, so stop peddling the canard!!!

    Bottom line: put up numbers that make sense or shut up once and for all.

    G’day

12. It actually took longer than I thought it would for DCS to forget that there is a moderation policy that applies to him, too. Color me surprised.

13. Takes a big man DCS to self-censor on a site and then go slander the (quite good and reasoned) blogger on another site…par for the course with you

14. @DCS

    Please stop telling the world how good Hhonors (oops Honors) program continues to be. One day some of them might discover the truth and then our award availability will suffer.

    @UA-NYC

    You are totally correct. Every other program in the world is so much better than Honors. Please keep up the good work and please please stay elsewhere.

15. @Azamaraal – will do, have zero desire to patronize any of the Hilton properties out there or the program as a whole…it’s just like Marriott, but even fewer aspirational properties, a more inflationary currency, and even weaker top tier elite benefits (free w/a CC!) Other than that, I’m sure it’s amazing.

16. A shame SPG was so good it belly-up, right?

    @Azamaraal — Not to worry. They would not know a good thing if it hit them in the face [you just addressed Exhibit A]. We are safe, despite the recent influx of disgruntled Marwood, and even WoH, loyalists 😉

17. DCS and I agree that Hilton has been very consistent in running promotions.

    For some reason he wants to disagree with my (completely accurate) claim about the value of Hilton’s base earning (general members earn 10 points per dollar) by saying it fails to account for credit card earning which is a total non-sequitur.

    Hilton offers general members 10 points per dollar. I value Hilton points at $0.004 apiece. That equates to a 4% rebate for non-elite members.

    Lucky values Hilton points at $0.005 apiece. That equates to a 5% rebate for non-elite members. I believe Lucky is overvaluing Hilton points, but let’s take the more generous estimate to be as fair to DCS as possible.

    Marriott’s base earn is also 10 points per dollar. BUT A SINGLE MARRIOTT POINT IS WORTH MORE THAN A SINGLE HILTON POINT. I value Marriott points at $0.007 apiece, equating to a 7% rebate. 7% > 5%. That’s why the base earn in Marriott’s program is stronger.

    I run through similar calculations for other programs, and for top elite member earning here: https://viewfromthewing.boardingarea.com/2018/05/10/updated-simple-model-ranks-best-hotel-programs/

    DCS is completely right that an Amex premium Hilton card offers better return spending at Hilton than Marriott cards get you for spending at Marriott. But you wouldn’t use a Marriott card at Marriott. Use a Chase Sapphire Reserve, Citi Prestige, etc.

    Anyway, if DCS wants about the content of my blog post he is welcome to do so in the comments of my blog. I just don’t want him and UA-NYC trolling each other, I don’t want email complaints from either of them about the other, I want peaceful dialogue — that is welcome to disagree with me using both sound and unsound arguments.

18. …it went belly-up…

19. @Gary – no worries man, keep up with your good and reasoned analysis.

    Just calling out the cowards who don’t have the stones for a direct discussion! And saying “no one reads his blogposts anymore” sounds like a like someone saying “no one reads the failing New York Times anymore” even as it continues its surge 🙂

20. @Gary Leff — The problem with your appropriately named “simple model” is that (a) it relies on your subjective valuations of points currencies (something that a number of your readers pointed out to you), and (b) it ignores the earnings from co-branded credit cards, which is a huge source of ‘base’ points for folks who play the game with a “full deck”.

    The way to estimate ‘base earnings’ is not by using subjective REDEMPTION values of points currencies, which vary widely! Moreover, Hilton “base” earning varies by elite level. Why use 10x, when a Diamond earns 20x as ‘base’, as it is built into the earning structure? Th only reason to cherry pick what is included in a model is to arrive at a pre-ordained conclusion that would be necessarily limited because it would apply only narrowly to a set of assumptions.

    Anyway, I was not yet ready to launch my part-time travel blog, but this provides an opportunity for me to launch it. It will just provide simple math that I did recently here at OMAAT to demonstrate how one OBJECTIVELY (i.e., without any assumptions) estimates the “rebate” toward future award stays that one gets from spending REAL money on revenue stays. I was planning on launching the site with the ‘Anatomy of my 2018 Year-end Asian Escapade’, but that will have to be next. The first thing on my site, called “TravelRealityCheck” (Quantitative Travel Blogging) (LOL), will be how to objectively estimate what should be referred to as a ‘rebate’. Promos increase the size of one’s “rebate”, which is why Hilton’s non-stop promos make the program highly rewarding (and not because they wish to make up for its poor base earning!).

    Okay, here is the inaugural launch of my part-time blog, on which I will just post vary sparingly. I have no idea how it will work. Will it have a comments section? I have no idea. It looks like there is the option leave a message. I will clean it up as I go along; for now here’s the link to:

    “No, The Base Earning for Hilton Honors Is Not Less Rewarding Than At Other Major Chains”

    http://bit.ly/2IKuNjf

21. I’m sad to say that the Hilton promotions have gone downhill. I miss the triple points promotions in 2015, 2016, and 2017. With point+point and 50% diamond bonus I was earning 4x total. I then spent. 2x162k points for 6 nights at Hilton Tokyo Odaiba in 2017. Now for the same dates they would charge 360k/room. 2x points excluding first stay is a very weak promotion. Hilton does have much better technology and stronger mid range properties but their promotions these days are weak compare to Marriott, which has more IT problems and lousy Courtyards….No program is perfect…

22. The 2019 Q2 double promotion is less valuable than the Q1 for me.
    Hotels i stay daily, usually between 150-170 plus tax @night. Im usually moving ib after a night.
    That gives me 1500-1700 extra points per stay. That is less than the 2000 extra points per stay i got in Q1.
    People staying longer than a night, Q2 is better.