Hilton raised award rates at mid-tier hotels this year with no announcement, another in a run of quiet devaluations. Your points now buy less.
This is the part that bothers me more than the increase itself. A program that prints its prices owns those prices in public. A program that hides them behind an algorithm can devalue your balance on a Tuesday and never have to admit it happened. That is not a loophole in the system. For Hilton and many others like it, it is the system.
The takeaway is not that Hilton points are worthless but rather they are tangibly worth less especially in the middle section of the redemption list where they are less likely to draw a headline. They are easy to earn at scale via its American Express credit card lineup. The takeaway is that they are a currency you should think of as perishable, because the issuer has shown it will reprice your balance without warning and without apology.
A great solo travel tip spotted this week on Live and Let's Fly.
