Hilton HHonors - HHonors vs. SPG

I needed to book a stay from 5/25 till 5/31. I didn't really find out about this need until yesterday (5/19). I wanted to use points, so.....

I called the HHonors Diamond desk and explained my situation -- I also told them I was willing to stay at ANY HHonors property in eastern Massachusetts and was willing to split my stay across multiple hotels. Fuhgeddabout it. No luck. Best part was when they were willing to let me have a room at the Doubletree Waltham for the bargain price of $329/night for Saturday.

I called SPG. I had my choice of hotels. I booked the stay at a category 2 hotel, maximizing my points.

Lately, I wonder how I'm going to spend my HHonors points since I can never get a hotel when I need one.

WMH

An example of two adverse effects of HHonor's many "rush-to-gold" promotions: (1) no place to use the points; and (2) defections to other hotel programs.

Hilton and CO go together, both give out points and miles like there going out of style, b/c they both know you can't use them

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by WeeMileHoar:
I needed to book a stay from 5/25 till 5/31. I didn't really find out about this need until yesterday (5/19). I wanted to use points, so.....

I called the HHonors Diamond desk and explained my situation -- I also told them I was willing to stay at ANY HHonors property in eastern Massachusetts and was willing to split my stay across multiple hotels. Fuhgeddabout it. No luck. Best part was when they were willing to let me have a room at the Doubletree Waltham for the bargain price of $329/night for Saturday.</font>

WeeMileHoar -- Your post differs so much from my experience, so I decided to call HH Diamond desk myself and ask what they have available for points in Boston area. They offered me Hilton Logan Airport for the dates you wanted. They also offered to send a request to the Diamond Award desk (separate unit) to see if they would be able to find availability at the Boston Back Bay property, or any other HH property of my choice.

What am I missing here? How come our results are so different???

As Eugene has already stated, presuming the hotel had rooms for sale, you should certainly have been able to book an award stay as a diamond.

According to the HiltonHhonors Membership Levels (http://www.hilton.com/en/hhonors/benefits/levels.jhtml) page:

Enjoy HHonors Hotel Rewards without Blackout Dates:
Diamond VIP members may redeem points for HHonors hotel rewards nearly any time, with the only exception being during specified Extraordinary Demand Dates at certain hotels. To make reservations for your reward stays, please contact the Diamond VIP desk at 1-888-HHONORS.

I suppose the reference to "nearly" leaves HiltonHhonors with a loophole but, in practice, it should be relatively rare. The process certainly isn't as smooth as it should be but it does work.

For example, my parents, who are HiltonHhonors gold, needed to book an award room for one night at a property that had plenty of availability but were turned down.

I called the diamond desk to use my points for the stay and they put in a "request" to the hotel. A couple of days later, the diamond desk left a voice mail with the confirmation number. I would have preferred to receive an immediate confirmation, as would have been the case with Starwood, but that is not the case with Hilton.


[This message has been edited by LarryU (edited 05-20-2002).]

I don't know. To be honest, I don't.

I called and talked to someone who couldn't find me a room for an award stay. You talked to someone who could.

I believe you 100% and I hope you believe me. I have faith that you were trying to help me out http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

I earned my Diamond status and my SPG status (76 nights at HHonors properties last year). I have had good service from both, and bad service from both (mostly good from BOTH). But I shouldn't have to call back and find a representative that knows his/her job in order to get a room. Heck, I *did* call the Diamond desk and I did spell out my request clearly.

I appreciate your effort and I would definitely try again, but I already got a room at the Sheraton Needham for 23,000 Starpoints for 6 nights. A good deal in my mind.


WMH

WeeMileHoar -- Don't take me wrong, I have no reason whatsoever not to believe what you wrote. I was just wondering what made your experience and mine so different.

One possible explanation might be that you've called outside of regular Diamond desk working hours (then phones seem to be answered by regular CSRs).

Also, on several occasions, I had to remind a Diamond Desk CSR (after hearing "no availability") that I'm a Diamond member, then suddenly plenty of availability showed up (I know, that's bad practice - hope you're reading this, Hilton folks!).

Yet another thing to take into consideration that Diamond Award desk and Diamond revenue booking desk are separate. The phone on the back of your Diamond card is for revenue booking. They can do certain things for award booking, but they apparently have no power to negotiate with the hotel on accepting an award instead of cash. Diamond award desk can do such negotiations and in most cases they are successful in getting an award room.

Keep all this in mind, and by all means, try again (even if on another occasion, since your needs for this upcoming stay have been met by Starwood).

All I can add to this conversation is the few times I've attempted to use HH points it has been an exercise in futility where even calling the hotel directly for help hasn't been of any, and any time I have tried to redeem anything with SPG, I have never had a problem.

Perhaps in addition to reiterating his elite status Eugene also reminds the Diamond Desk of his 3024 posts! One thousand posts a year ought to be worth something.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by lisadiamond:
Perhaps in addition to reiterating his elite status Eugene also reminds the Diamond Desk of his 3024 posts! One thousand posts a year ought to be worth something.</font>

Every one of those 3024 infinitely more informative and a positive contribution to this board than any one of your 16.
Mike

He's from Beverly Hills. He can't help it. (Ok now I run ducking.......) Hey there were tornadoes here in northern Cal today - so I'm entitled to this post!