We missed it when Hilton Honors first adjusted the prices in 2026, but yet again awards are going up in price and we’re incredulous.

When no one was looking, Hilton Honors sneakily devalues… again

In the first half of 2026, Hilton sneakily devalued its Hilton Honors loyalty program yet again. Yes, not long after we called it by their CEO’s announcement they did members a favor with the program absorbing costs for members. Hilton has raised hotel award prices more than any other hotel program over the past 24 months, but here they are wanting a pat on the back because they could have been even worse than that. Bravo, Hilton.

What we’re seeing as general pricing is the award pricing reversal that happened at the end of 2025 (you know, after their third devaluation in a year) has now been reversed. In other words, it was just a temporary reprieve on those high prices. Makes you wonder why even bother reversing it if it’s going back in months later.

Of course, since Hilton dynamically prices hotels, it will be hard to actually determine when the program raises the price. Award prices correlate with cash prices–up to an extent. Each Hilton hotel has an artificial limit to its award price for standard night awards. It’s only possible to know what that cap is by looking at pricing over the course of the year and estimating what the cap is once filtering out any “premium” awards for anything other than a base room.

Quite honestly, why does anyone bother collecting Hilton points?

I mean this from the bottom of my heart: why would anyone actively go out and seek more Hilton points? This thought is coming from three sources:

1. Hilton awards continue to devalue. We already know that it’s wrong to think that points will accrue in value over the long run. There may be some short-term opportunity (like a massive inflation in cash price but no adjustment on the point cap for awards) but by and large these opportunities aren’t something to bank on. They’re certainly not a reason you want to hoard Hilton points.
   
2. Hilton doesn’t care about anyone using awards. You hold their points and the program does you dirty by charging you a higher price than before. Moving the goalposts so frequently is dishonest and a disrespect. Why should Hilton care? You’ve already given the company your money, so giving a “free” stay doesn’t earn the company much extra revenue. Incremental revenue, perhaps, but why only earn incremental revenue when you can also earn the room rate too? Programs forget that they’re in the business of convincing travelers to give them your business travel with the hope of using those rewards at leisure properties. They just want more money now.
   
3. Free night certificates are the only way to go. Paying 250,000 Hilton Honors points for a single night in a regular room is bonkers. Does having elite status to unlock the fifth night free benefit make it any easier to fork over 1 million points to stay 5 nights? No, but it feels significantly better to just spend 5 free night certificates instead. With free night certificates worth up to 250,000 points each, stop collecting points. You should only care about free night certificates from now on. The most consistent way to get these are via their credit cards.

What cards get you free night certificates?

It’s worth a reminder on what credit cards get you free night certificates because this is now the only way to play the loyalty game with Hilton.

There are two main ways to earn a free night certificate with Hilton:

• Having the right credit card(s)
• Surviving a customer service fiasco that results in the hotel issuing a certificate as compensation

We’d argue earning them from customer service issues isn’t a reliable way to accrue free nights. After all, if you complain too much, Hilton can choose just not to do business with you anymore. Their terms allow them to delete your account for any reason, so don’t depend on it helping you in this way.

Instead, the best way to earn these certificates are via credit cards such as (these links earn me no commissions):

• Hilton Aspire credit card ($550 annual fee)
  • One free night certificate for just having the card
  • Another free night certificate for spending $60,000 in a year
• Hilton Surpass credit card ($150 annual fee)
  • One free night certificate for spending $15,000 in a year

There is no formal limit on how many of the same card you can hold. Sometimes you might want two of the same card to separate expenses, right?

If you had both the Aspire and Surpass cards, you’d potentially earn three free nights per year. Doing this will cost you $700 in annual fees and a total of $75,000 in credit card spend per year. Make your spouse do the same and you could earn six nights between the two of you for double the cost. Yes, there are credits that can make the cards feel less painful, but that’s a lot to still commit in the Hilton Honors program.

Why do this? What if you wanted to stay at the Waldorf Astoria Maldives, where the average room rate is over $2,000/night? Suddenly, paying $700 in fees and spending $75,000 on the cards might not sound too painful to avoid over $6,000 for three nights. I’m not saying it’s worth it, but it’s a better avenue to staying there than using 750,000 Hilton points.

How much more can Hilton ruin its program before people leave?

Every loyalty program as two aspects to it: earning points/credit towards free nights and recognition of elite status.

Hilton already has a miserable program when it comes to elite status. Sure, it’s great if you just want to have a credit card and earn status from paying an annual fee. But you don’t get much for that in the United States–just a daily food and beverage credit that has catches with redeeming it (not all restaurants apply, sometimes can’t use on the day of departure, use it or lose it daily, etc.).

For those who want to commit nights in Hilton hotels, they just created the Diamond Reserve status, but that’s only helpful if you’re planning on giving them $18,000 in spend annually. There otherwise isn’t that much value loyalists can get from the program in comparison to other chains.

With elite status in the dumps, you’d think the program would focus more on the value of their points. But there, again, they don’t have a compelling reason for members to be engaged. They used to have this but now it’s gone. Go back before all these devaluations to the end of 2024. Elite status was roughly the same as it is now but the points had real value that you could get from them. After two years, that value is all gone. They forgot what made them special in the first place.

When a program doesn’t have either arm to support itself, what exactly is it selling to consumers? I suppose just credit cards with certificates that let you bypass just how terrible the program is, right? Ironically, this is just an extended credit card loyalty program. Get your elite status from the cards and the free nights, but otherwise the program just isn’t compelling.

Be careful out there and engage with Hilton judiciously. We don’t trust them to not devalue again in the near future.