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New Hilton HHonors Points bonus
As you may know, all the previous Hilton points promotions ended on 31 January. The latest one, although not as generous as some previously, is a nice simple promotion. For every night you stay, you earn 2,000 Points when you sign up and complete your stay from 1 February until 30 April 2017. You can sign up and find more information here.
Hilton HHonors program changes
Yesterday, Hilton introduced a new corporate identity and logo for Hilton and Hilton Honors. As you will notice, this includes dropping one of the ‘H’ from HHonors. This has been accompanied by major changes to the HHonors program, mainly for the positive. A lot of these seem to echo what has already been introduced in the airline industry loyalty schemes. The official page is here.
Points & money
In a move that Hilton Honors claims is the “only guest loyalty program” where members can do this, points and money options for all rooms will be introduced. This is strange as it seems almost identical to the system operated by Melia Rewards. I find this useful as I only stay with them occasionally so it allows me to get some use from my points.
From late February you will be able to use your Points for a stay using a flexible combination of Points and money. Members will be able to use the new Hilton Honors Points & Money slider to select how many Points they want to redeem toward a room. You will have to spend a minimum number of points (5000) but then can combine the points with cash in various combinations in 1000 point increments. This is positive for those with smaller points balances as it means that you can use your points towards any stay whether you have enough points or not.
Upgrade Rewards have been merged into Points & Money Rewards. With the Points & Money Rewards slider, you can still use Points to book upgraded room types.
Points pooling
Beginning in April, Hilton Honors members will be able to combine or “pool” – their Points with up to 10 friends or family members for free. You must have a least 1000 points to start pooling and be an active member of Hilton Honors. One member needs to start the pool and then they can then use the points anyway they want.
Each individual member can transfer a minimum of 1,000 Points and a maximum of 500,000 Points into a pool in a calendar year. A Member can receive up to 2 million Points in a calendar year.
You will be able to pool points online instantly via HiltonHonors.com, although they may take up to 24 hours to show on your account. This is better than now as you currently need to call to transfer.
New benefit for diamond members – membership extension
From March 2017 onwards, eligible Diamond members may receive a one-time, one-year extension of their status – for any reason. However, the qualification criteria is tough! This feature is available for members that have been Diamond members more than three years and accumulated 250 nights or 500,000 base points since joining the program. The Diamond status years do not need to be consecutive.
Off peak pricing introduced and points categories being scrapped
This change has benefits and drawbacks depending on how and when you need to redeem your points. Hotels are currently grouped into points categories to determine how many points you need to stay at a particular hotel. These categories will be disappearing. It means that long term some popular hotels could well increase if they are able to set their points individually. Initially the maximum points needed for a room will stay the same. The good news is that off-peak (which we don’t know exactly what that means) points prices are likely to fall significantly.
Here are some examples:
Hilton Digital key rollout to reach 2500 hotels
Finally this is not a change but a continuation of the current roll out of Digital key. Digital check-in is becoming widespread in the hotel industry. Hilton were one of the first hotel groups to launch this. You can use the app to choose your exact room.
I really like this feature as I can choose the exact floor and location, making sure I get a nice quiet room. If you are an Honors member and hoping for an upgrade you will often find it is not shown on the app. If that is the case I recommend waiting until the day of the stay to try again. Of course you could just wait until you get to the hotel but then you will just get given a room rather than choosing a specific upgraded room. Hilton guests can now access their rooms through the Hilton Honors app via Digital Key. This is currently available in nearly 800 hotels, and with 2,500 hotels around the world expected to offer the service by the end of 2017.
You can find the FAQ page here for all the new features.
