I am now at the point of no longer pursuing status with HH. Somewhat easier for me to say now that I've secured gold through april 2017 via velocity. Its not that I don't like Hiltons, its simply a value judgement by me on status chasing with them. Used to be almost 100% Hilton, to the extent that I'd plan vacations around where Hiltons were located in order to rack up those all important status points/nights/spend.
I've whinged about about the declination in value before, did the numbers and decided (with your input as I recall) that it was still worthwhile - but was borderline...and a big piece of the remaining perceived value at the time was the possibility of a decent breakfast. With breakfast fast disappearing from the AU properties, coffee costing, upgrades more and more becoming preferred rooms rather than decent exec or suite upgrades ... well, in my view, if HH AU wants to descend back into the mass of their competition they are going the right way about it.
For me, thats about the long and the short of it. I still like the AU properties and I'll leave them in the mix when deciding where to stay, but other brands will now factor in a way that they previously didn't. The decision becomes more and more one of 'best price of the day' as status has very little real world value. I still value gold, but really only in Asia.
