Hilton HHonors - Has anyone been credited for a stay you did not make?

Please forgive me if this has been addressed before. I am apparently the all-time worst searcher in the history of FT.

That aside, per this topic’s heading, has anyone here been credited for a stay they did not make? Let's say a credit posts that is accepted as your 4th CNTU stay and the 20,000 points post to your account. If you could overcome the guilt and accept the points, would you consider them safe to use for an award or do you think it would be likely that the mistake would be rectified later and you would have the points yanked back?

This is all theoretical, of course, and is not based on any recent events associated with any accounts I might personally have. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

Highly unlikely the points would be reversed out of your account. I recently had an award stay where I was inadvertently charged for my room. I waited for HHonors points to post before contacting Diamond desk. My credit card was quickly credited, and the points are still mine two months later. I doubt the HHonors points system has very sophisticated auditing functionality.

Any chance this was a retroactive credit? ie. a credit for a stay made prior to your registration date.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Biblioman:
Please forgive me if this has been addressed before. I am apparently the all-time worst searcher in the history of FT.

That aside, per this topic’s heading, has anyone here been credited for a stay they did not make? Let's say a credit posts that is accepted as your 4th CNTU stay and the 20,000 points post to your account. If you could overcome the guilt and accept the points, would you consider them safe to use for an award or do you think it would be likely that the mistake would be rectified later and you would have the points yanked back?

This is all theoretical, of course, and is not based on any recent events associated with any accounts I might personally have. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif</font>

TrojanHorse:

No, not a retroactive credit. The stay was at a location the account holder had never visited. And the dates are recent.

Thxs

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by PaydAAy:
Highly unlikely the points would be reversed out of your account... I doubt the HHonors points system has very sophisticated auditing functionality.</font>

But it happens. I was "walked" from a Hilton property some months ago. I asked Hilton corporate if I could have points/stay credit for the property where I'd booked and an exec said he'd take care of it personally; sure enough, they posted on my next statement. But about three months later I got an auto-generated letter from HHonors saying those points were being taken off my account because they "could not verify" the stay at the property in question.

I figured it was too few points and too complicated a story to argue, so I gave up. But audits DO happen.

Two years ago I received credit for 2 nights after only staying/paying for 1. (Original reservation was for only 1 night.)

Well, 24 hours later the points are still there. The unnamed individual is very close to reserving a weekend at the Waldorf-Astoria. Any last comments or admonishments before they roll the dice?

Biblioman, was this a stay that your "friend" paid for and was not able to show up?

I misunderstood a reservation and missed it. They charged me and credited me with the stay even though I never stayed at the location.

Biblioman, I thought the question was uhm... theoretical?

Biblioman,

Actually, the same thing did happen to my husbands HHonors account in late July of this year. He was credited with a stay at the Hampton Inn Marathon in the Florida Keys.

Fortunately, I was relatively certain that, during the dates Hilton shows him in the Keys, he was actually in Paris (at a non-Hilton hotel). Still, I couldn't resist questioning him as to why he left Paris for Florida. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

The details of the stay also identify my husbands Delta FF # as having been recorded for that stay. I am pretty certain that this must have resulted from an error in transposing of the HHonors account numbers (or something similar) for someone else's stay.

The amount of points given was really not that significant. I have been waiting for HHonors to remove the stay on their own, but they haven't so far, so I will probably call them and try to straighten it out. We've already met our promo nights so no bonuses came as a result of this error.

arturo wundir wher hes marython point wint.



------------------
Loving, Caring, Honest, Intelligent, Empathetic, Creative, and Giving©.

Well, I've confused my audience with a split narrative. I began by suggesting that this was "theoretical", and then I suddenly segued into addressing this as a real situation involving a "friend" Sorry about that. I’ll clarify.

The points are real but the “friend” will remain nameless to protect the not-so-innocent.

This is definitely not a case of a misunderstood reservation or a paid no-show. The situation is very much like the one Flyerwife describes. Points were posted for a stay that could not have been made because the party was at another location entirely. What made it significant is that the stay was counted as #4 in the CNTU promo and earned 20,000 points. I guess I was hoping to hear that this kind of thing occurs all the time and that we all just keep the points. Or, that it kind of makes up for all the “points never posted” stories we read here - so my friend should go ahead and enjoy the perk.

Since this looks like an unusual occurrence, however, I believe my friend will come back from the dark side on this and let Hilton know about the mistake. He still has time for a fourth stay to earn the 20,000 points before the 90 days elapse.

Thanks for the input!

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/eek.gif Well... it just gets stranger and stranger.

My "friend" just logged onto Hilton to check once more that the points were still there before calling in the mistake. A week or two ago, he sent in a Delta award transfer of 5,000 air miles to HHONORS points and he sees that they have posted. ... and posted...and posted.

He was credited with the 5,000 miles to 10,000 points. But then got credited for a 10,000 miles to 20,000 points conversion, And then got credited with a 20,000 miles to 40,000 points conversion!

My right hand to God, on my hhonor.

Now we're up to 80,000 unearned points credited! Is this a sign that my "friend" should count his blessings and keep his big mouth shut? This is starting to feel like hitting a slot machine at Vegas.

Maybe a week at the Waldorf-Astoria... http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

Although it was a stay I did make, I received over 32,000 points last month on one $0 award stay. I feel some guilt as if I'm gaming the system. Since Hilton is being so generous with me, I am continuing my loyalty with over 40 stays and counting so far this year.

7 more doubling and your friend will have 10 million points, 17 more will be 10 BILLION.

I think everyone on this board could stay at the Waldorf and throw a nice Flyer Talk party http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

I had a missing stay from the first week of September. 3 weeks went by and it did not post. I used the 'missing credit' link. A week went by and I didn't hear so much as a 'we received your request...." email. So, I called the Diamond Desk. Spoke to a nice woman who allowed me to email her the info. The credit was posted within a day or two.

By comparison, I ALWAYS get a response within 4 hours from Starwood on requests I send through their web site. A resolution is usually not far behind.

I am also noticing the online bonus not appearing on my last 4 Hilton stays, yet I'm certain they were made on hilton.com.

Outoftown:

Thanks. I think you've given us a handle on this. My friend will keep the points, but will commit to throwing his loyalty to Hilton. (He usually stays at Starwood properties). He can probably convince some co-workers to stay at their properties as well. (They're often asking for recommendations).

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif