Hilton HHonors - Award controls laughter

So, I find myself trying to get an award stay in New Orleans for the FT event in Jan. 2002. The only downtown/FQ area Hilton properties that are not sold out are the Hampton Downtown and the Hilton Garden Inn.

I call the Hampton, who tells me to call central reservations to book an award stay. I call the HGI and ask for the reservation manager, and am transferred to the 800 number. I call back and ask for the manager, and am transferred to room service.

I call central reservations. They tell me that while there is award availability at the Hampton on Friday, and the HGI on Saturday, that there are no two night stays available at either. However, they are happy to sell me almost any room type available at either property at a bevy of rates.

I have e-mailed flyertalk@hilton.com. I really hope they can help a mere Gold out. This is the second time this year that I've had a completely rediculous encounter with the Hilton capacity control on award stays. If I cannot find some resolution (or at least some feasible explanation), I'm booking a room at the W and shifting to Starwood, as I cannot seem to use my Hhonors points even when I try.

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Saving the world, one clue at a time.

ClueX4- I had the exact same problems trying to redeem points in Lake Tahoe, NYC, Amsterdam and in San Francisco this year as a Gold VIP. No luck. It makes it easy to see why they just give 50k away.

However, there is light at the end of the tunnel. As a Diamond VIP, these capacity contolled awards mysteriously diappear, which I learned trying to book a two night stay at the Paris Hilton.

IMHO, This may be the result of Hilton giving anyone and everyone who had four stays this year within the two promotion periods Gold status and 50K points each, it makes for easy point accumulation for anyone, however point redemption becomes more difficult with all the bonus points given out. As for your Gold status, it is not quite what it used to be when it had to be earned rather than given away so it's value has declined as well. All that said and done, I took my 100K in points but now have to find a way to use them at places that I want to use them.

Cheers to flyertalk@hilton.com.

Denise from the diamond desk called me this morning, and helped me book a room at the Hampton French Quarter.

I appreciate the response immensly. The underlying problem, tho, still exists. I would much rather have Hilton giving me the "any room, anywhere" availability as a mid-teir elite (a la starwood) rather than anything else--including breakfast and the double dip. I can't (largely due to company travel restritctions) make top teir with anybody.

There are two ways of looking at this--I see it as Hilton doing me a large favor with regards to customer service--which will keep me with Hilton for now. However, if I was diamond, I'd see this as a dilution of status/perks. Either way, I'm thinking that a few fundamental changes in the program might solve the problem.

Kudos to Adam and Denise.

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Saving the world, one clue at a time.

Earlier this year, a survey was given to select members of HHonors. Most of the questions revolved around points vs. miles...."would you prefer 12 points per dollar and 500 miles per stay OR 10 points per dollar and 1000 miles per stay", etc. A number of the questions also dealt with capacity controls on award rooms...."would you accept only 7 points per dollar if your award choices were available 75% of the time".

I wouldn't be surprised if we see some revisions to HHonors next year in order to provide fewer capacity controls. Unfortunately, it may come at the expense of points/miles earning potential.

Perhaps a HHonors lurker or Adam Burke can comment.

You guys had me scared.. Needed to make an awards reservation in Portland, OR January 3rd to the 7th... Not only was the Portland Hilton available but so was the Embassy suites which I heard is quite nice. The topper of it all was that it was a point streacher thingy, so I only had to use half the points I was planning on using.. So I guess it is all about location location location.

I called about a month ago and was able to reserve a GLON award for the Lake Tahoe Embassy Suites during the last week in Feb. Guess I got Lucky