Apparently the first Hilton Honors devaluation wasn’t good enough so they wanted to punish members yet again.

The max cap is now 200,000 Hilton points

Back in December 2024, Hilton quietly raised the price of many of its top-end hotels without any advanced notice. Hotels like the Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos Pedregal went up in price from a max of 120,000 Hilton points to a max of 140,000. Many other luxury hotels suffered the same fate. It wasn’t comforting that the changes were made without notice, but to be fair the max was never stated within the terms.

Flash forward five months later to May 2025, and a second Hilton Honors devaluation has surfaced. The Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos Pedregal pricing has now moved up to a cap of 190,000 Hilton points per night. That’s an increase of nearly 60% in less than a year. That’s absurd. Now–granted–not every hotel is going up to that level, but it speaks of recklessness for those managing the program.

What are some other new award rates at Hilton hotels? Here is a handful of examples:

• The Grand Wailea (was 110,000 Hilton points, now 150,000)
• Waldorf Astoria Maldives (was 150,000, now 200,000)
• Conrad Tokyo (was 100,000, now 150,000)
• Roku Kyoto (was 120,000, now 150,000)
• Waldorf Astoria Seychelles Platte Island (was 130,000, now 150,000)
• Nanuku Resort, Fiji (was 100,000, now 105,000)
• Canaves Oia Suites, Santorini (was 150,000, now 200,000)
• Eichardt’s Private Hotel (was 130,000, now 170,000)

Generally speaking, hotels that were at a 150,000 max previously are now at 200,000, but it impacts hotels at various levels.

It takes ridiculously long to earn a free night now

Let’s look at this Hilton Honors devaluation from the perspective of a regular member earning Hilton points and a Diamond member.

First, every member will earn 10 points per dollar spent at most Hilton hotels. How much will it require you to earn enough points to stay at their top-tier hotels? Why a simple $20,000 is all you need. Insanity. Talk about tarnishing the value of loyalty. (I’m of course ignoring the taxes and fees you would pay along the way that might not earn you Hilton points.)

What if you’re a Diamond member with Hilton? The good news is that you’ll get a 100% point bonus for being a top-tier member. The bad news is that you’ll still need to fork over $10,000 to get a free night at a top-tier hotel.

What about the fifth-night free benefit for Hilton elite members? A Diamond member would then only need to spend $8,000 for a free night (or $40,000 for five nights).

It might be worth it to take a look at each hotel program’s points earning rates against hotel costs as I suspect Hilton’s is now fairly weak.

This absolutely changes my view of Hilton points

As I explained in my post detailing my value of Hilton points, Hilton points had a pretty consistent value when used towards your typical mid-tier hotel. However, the real value of these points were unlocked at the upper end precisely because of these point caps at each property. These point caps represent your virtually only method of getting outsized value. I honestly thought I was in the clear when setting that valuation, having done so after the December 2024 Hilton Honors devaluation.

My prior valuation of Hilton Honors points was 0.6 cents per point. My valuation was higher than most others in large part because I only used my Hilton points towards expensive hotels with caps. I’m anticipating that my valuation will take a nose dive after this. I’ll save the redo of my analysis for another day in the near future.

And since earning extra Hilton points are awarded for earning Hilton status, this might also impact the value of elite status. However, I don’t think the overall value is too impacted since most value comes from the daily food and beverage credit.

Hilton free night certificates become more valuable

There is just one silver lining from this Hilton Honors devaluation. If you hold the right Hilton credit cards, you can earn free night certificates, good towards any night with a standard room available.

Credit cards earning free night certificates include (these links earn me no commissions):

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

If you and your ‘P2’ each have these cards, you could be earning as many as six free nights per year. I’d much rather spend a free night certificate than use 200,000 in points to stay at a top-tier hotel. That was also true at the previous 150,000 cap but it holds even more true now.

Of course, it makes me wonder if Hilton will unveil a new free night certificate that has a points cap to prevent people from getting outsized value there…

When will the next devaluation hit?

That’s the million-point question, as what we all want to know is when Hilton will stop messing around with its program.

The reality is that inflation causes a leveraging effect with these max points caps on hotels. If you earn a fixed 10 points per dollar when staying at Hilton, and the cash price of the Hilton hotel goes up, you’ll earn more points per stay. However, those points become more valuable over time if that points cap doesn’t change. So the program adjusts its point caps to reflect that member balances are increasing. At least, that’s the theory of it.

Where the argument falls apart is when the devaluations are so severe. I think a reasonable expectation is that the cap would go up with inflation experienced in the prior year. Say, a 5% cash rate inflation leading to a 5% increase in max points price. What’s unreasonable is when the program increases caps 25%. Cash prices most certainly didn’t inflate that much over the last half a year.

I’d like to think that Hilton won’t devalue quite as massively for a while. But I don’t have any faith in Hilton stopping themselves from further eroding their own goodwill. If they’re not already at the point where the program has no value, they’re very close. And it’s a real shame to see the absolute collapse of this once-useful program.

What are your thoughts about the latest Hilton Honors devaluation?

Suggested reading:

• Case in Point: The Way I Value a Hilton Point
• The Value of a Hilton Elite Night
• Everything You Need to Know About Hilton Lifetime Elite Status