The industry is quietly rewriting the rules
The biggest names in hotel loyalty are abandoning the one thing that made points plannable: the award chart. Hilton dropped its chart in 2017. Marriott followed in 2022. What replaced it is dynamic pricing — award costs that move with demand, with no ceiling and no notice. You can save toward a specific trip, hit your number, and find the price moved while you weren't looking.
Here's what they're counting on: that once your points are locked in their program, you're locked in with them. That a devaluation is just a loss you absorb.
It isn't — not if someone can see the rest of what you hold. The same stay, delivered by another program in your portfolio. The balance that's better spent now than saved. The move you didn't know you had. That's the one thing your loyalty apps can't do: each of them sees only its own corner. A navigator sees the whole board.
What you've been missing is a navigator who sees your whole portfolio, knows every move on the board, and tells you which one is yours…