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UPDATE: Hilton's AXON awards have now ended permanently and Hilton has finished its move to a dynamic award pricing system without an award chart.
At the end of 2016, Hilton quietly did away with rewards for co-branded American Express cardholders. These discounted 4-night redemptions had been around for more than a decade, referred to as AXON awards. Booking these awards required making a phone call as they were unavailable online.
AXON Awards Discontinued
It was confirmed by Hilton Honors that they have discontinued the AXON offers effective December 31, 2016. What is interesting though is that Hilton did not make any announcements about the termination of AXON awards — still nothing is posted. Although these offers were not always the best option, they did have some value in certain situations, so it is sad to see them disappear without any fanfare.
When Hilton changed their price banding in 2013, they took some significant value out of the AXON Awards, since quite often it was cheaper to book the hotel awards without the AXON discount—the four-night awards had a fixed price, but depending on your hotel choice could be either cheaper or more expensive.
Take a category six hotel as an example, at 160K points for four nights. However, without the discounts, a typical award would cost between 120k and 200k. After the change in 2013, it became more cost-effective for Elite members to use the 5-night free perk, rather than an AXON award.
Overall
It is sad to see this discount and benefit for American Express Hilton co-branded cardmembers go away since it did offer some value. What has caused some discontent is the lack of any formal notification by Hilton about the change and the fact it feels like they just tried to get rid of it by stealth.
Source: View from the Wing/Gary Leff
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I’ve been considering using these awards but unfortunately didn’t get an opportunity. Too bad, as it was a unique point of differentiation for the Amex Hilton cards.
Ah, I remember the good old days (early 2013) when I was able to book a 4 night AXON award at the Conrad Maldives for 145,000 Hilton Points (I think that was the rate). Booked a year in advance, and the stay in Feb 2014 was incredible. Still pretty pricey for a ‘free’ stay with all the food and excursions I had to pay for.
I’ve never used this perk because I rarely stay 4 or more consecutive nights in a single hotel, but still sad to see it disappear.
I hate to see some good things disappeared especially without advance notice. Have just saved 160k for this summer 🙁
This is pretty outrageous to make a change without warning, although the value of AXON did drop with the last devaluation (and my access to the award was through the no-fee card).
Is there any point in complaining?
I’ve thought about it, but given how poor the communication on this issue was, I don’t think they’d be willing to backtrack on it. Especially as it is a niche award.
Is that typical for rewards to just go away without any announcement?!!! If so, it sure makes it a gamble to stock pile points for a big redemption.
I wouldn’t say it is typical but it does happen. Loyalty programs run a fine line of keeping their customers informed and trying to quietly make things disappear, hoping no one notices.
Race to the bottom continues! Hilton has seriously downgraded the atractiveness of their programm once again and with no prior notice!
I feel like I’m only finding out about this now, just in time for it to be gone!
after the devaluation, i never even considered the AXON awards anymore.
they didn’t even give notice to diamond members about this
I always just use 5th night free. Always made more sense for me
Another devaluation, even if only useful in certain situations. Oh for the days of 6 night 100K points GLON awards, or even just return of Point Stretchers (which also went away quietly in the dead of night).
Good thing I do not collect Hilton points.
As an American Express credit card holder I would have liked an advance notice from Hilton.
You’re not the only one. I’m steaming. We’ve solely used this award with Hilton for our redemptions.
Seriously this kind of crap is not cool.
Little by little also the hotels are devaluating their programs.
Are they having more occupation of their rooms?
Otherwise, the devaluation is against their interests.
Considering you get fifth night free even as a lowly Silver (4 stays), this really should never have been a driving motivator to taking out the credit card. Not surprised to see it go.
Never had a chance to use an AXON award but I am sad to see a redemption option disappear. Even though it seems like these cc, hotel and airline companies are trying to make it harder and harder on us to use our points/miles, it’s up to us to stay up to date, and constantly searching for new ways to garner value out of the travel world.
I, for one, am sorry to see the elimination of AXON awards. Over the years I enjoyed several redemptions using this program.
Wow I didn’t even know this existed.
Did Hilton’s website used to mention AXON awards anywhere?
Sad to see this option go since I’ve used the AXON discount several times. It was really nice to have the ability to book discounted stays with lengths other than in multiples of 5. It’s also one less reason to hold the AmEx vs Citi HH card.
Consider linking to your source.
Sorry about that. Source is View from the Wing/Gary Leff (viewfromthewing.boardingarea.com/2017/01/13/hilton-eliminated-discounted-axon-awards-american-express-cardholders-two-weeks-ago-without-notice/)
That was my fault in editing as it was truncated when moving the content; attribution added to the post. Thanks again for pushing with Hilton on this — even if it means we’ve lost the award.