Confused by something regarding TUG opinions on HGVC Pts Vs HH Pts

Hello All,

I am somewhat confused by the comments I seem to see alot of here on the forum about how it should be the last resort to convert HGVC points into HH points. Am I missing something, because when I bought into HGVC, I thought this was one of the biggest perks!

Here is my thinking:

1. My 10,000 HGVC points = 250,000 HH points.

2. Using various promotions such as Going Global etc, this is enough points to stay at almost any Hilton Hotel for at least 6 nights.

3. As an example, I was able to book Maldives Rangali Island using HH points I think it was 240,000 pts for 6 nights. If you look up the cost of the hotel per night as a cash customer, its sometimes over $1000 per night. So thats almost $6,000 in hotel savings right there.

4. I like the HGVC clubs, but they are not worth $300 a night let alone $1,000 unless you are talking about maybe the ultra fancy new ones.

Finally, with the whole Open Season option, it seems like the best thing to do is try to make reservations for HGVC using open season, and then use the Points to stay at any number of fantastic Hilton Hotels around the world, IE: Conrad brand, Waldorf Astoria, etc.

I recently stayed at Kings Land on an open Season for a week and payed less than $1,000. If i used points, I would have used something like 8,000+....

Am I missing something crucial here, or is my information wrong?

Thanks TUG Community!

I think it boils down to quantity vs quality...you mention yourself, you're getting 6 nights at a top tier Hilton for your points.

HGVC owners (when using their poings for HGVC stays) sacrifice some of the uber luxury and quality of the Group 7 Hiltons for longer stays in great facilities that have family friendly facilities like kitchens, real bedrooms...etc.

Timesharing is very different than luxury hoteling. For 10000 points, thats probably 3 solid weeks in platinum time at an HGVC studio (hotel room equivalent)...more if you do RCI. Your 240000 HHonors are only getting you 6 nights otherwise.

Quantity for a bit of quality sacrificie.

I would also add that Open Season is great for last-minute vacations and long weekends, but you can never rely on there being availability when you need it. So if you have a vacation where you have your flights, etc. all set up, using points for a HGVC property is the only way you are going to guarantee you have the room that you need.

Kurt

I do agree that there are times when HHotels are a better way to go, particularly for booking major cities. In a few weeks, I'll be downtown Washington D.C., for 6N on a Going Global award. I would not have been able to do w/o converting some HGVC points, but the HH-points came mostly from what I already had.

Say you convert only 2,000 points. Typically, 50K HH points gets you one night at one of their better hotels, yet you can book a 3N-weekend stay in a HGVC 1BR suite for about that much. IMHO, the HGVC booking is the better deal.

We have been with HGVC since 2001. We have never converted HGVC points to HHonors points because we have never needed to use that option. If you get a HHonors AmEx, you will find that the points accumulate quite rapidly and HHonors remains one of the best customer loyalty programs despite the recent devaluation. If you want to go to some super expensive European hotel and don't have the immediate cash or HHonors points on hand, then a conversion from HGVC points to HHonors points may be to your advantage.

We like to cruise as well as stay in hotels and timeshares. Using HGVC points to cruise is definitely not among the best economic ways to use the points but we have done that three times in the past because we have already paid for the points and it diffrayed the cost of our cruise vacations. On the other other hand, HHonors points accumulate so fast that we have used the going global option for trips to San Diego, Lake Tahoe, and Puerto Rico. We have also used HHonors points for stays in Barcelona, Budapest, Amsterdam, and New Orleans.

My personal opinion is that you should do what fits best into your life style. You should become familiar with the HGVC website and the HHonors website. However, from a strictly economic standpoint, I think the best use of HGVC points is to use them for timesharing. We will be spending 1 week at The Residences at The Crane in late October and early November this year and it only cost 4800 HGVC points for a two bedroom unit.

pianodinosaur said:

... On the other other hand, HHonors points accumulate so fast that we have used the going global option for trips to San Diego, Lake Tahoe, and Puerto Rico. We have also used HHonors points for stays in Barcelona, Budapest, Amsterdam, and New Orleans.

Click to expand...

can you explain the "going global" option with HH?

Not all Hilton hotel rooms are over $1000 per night

I've used my HGVC points occassionally for international hotel stays. It's still a good value for hotels with very high nightly rates.

It's just not a good long term strategy. See these two posts for more details
http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/showpost.php?p=908387&postcount=7
http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/showpost.php?p=781994&postcount=5

letsgosteelers said:

can you explain the "going global" option with HH?

Click to expand...

The going global options are the VIP awards - http://hhonors1.hilton.com/en_US/hh/landing/VIPOnly/index.do

Reward chart - http://www.hilton.co.uk/ts/en_GB/hhonors/content/media/images/detail/PDFS/2010RewardChart.pdf

These responses make sense. I certainly understand the quantity versus quality argument. I guess for me, the idea of staying in Orlando or LV for more than a week doesn't sound that appealing. Having said that, Kingsland was quite nice, but unfortunately some of the other islands have a lot more to offer.

I guess you have to be a golfer to appreciate KL and the BI. I could golf every morning and hang out at the beach every day and be quite happy.

ah, yep no golf for me.

I do not golf but I enjoy the peace and quiet of The Big Island.