Hilton HHonors - double dip to wife?

Can I put my wife's FF account in as a preferred partner to receive the miles? She is close to an award and I'd like to top off her account. Does the FF account have to have my name on it?
Thanks!

My apology if this has been addressed - I'm new to this and was unable to find anything doing a search.

My Wife an I have a joint account with HHonors. In our profile both of our FF #'s and set one as the preferred. We have switched #'s as need to "top off"

Deleted. Wrong info.

[This message has been edited by Jet2K (edited 10-05-2002).]

Since your spouse can stay free, her name can be included in the reservation - so using her FF# should work as she is listed on the reservation. You could call hhonors to verify this. I gather you want the stay credit.

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Ms.DtG

The official HHonors policy is that either member of the mutual fund can earn the FF double dip any time, period. This has been confirmed by every CSR I've ever asked. There are problems with the implementation, though, and I've detailed my experience below.

Two caveats:
1) I don't have inside info and am doing some educated guessing regarding the internal procedures of the airlines import processes.
2) My wife and have two different last names, so this could be a source of some of our double dip difficulties.

When you call HH, the more knowledgeable reps can tell you when the miles have been "extracted" (that's the term to use, and to know that the rep really understands). From what I can tell, "extraction" is a process of dumping the double dip miles into a computer file and getting it to the FF program. They can't tell you before it happens, only after, and it seems the dates are different for all the airlines and not necessarily regular (i.e., it doesn't seem there's a pattern, such as Delta on the 15th of every month). If all goes well, your points will show up within a few weeks after the extraction, sometimes just a few days.

Having some IT project management experience, I'm extrapolating that here is where the problems occur. Each airline (12 of them) has an import procedure, and in theory should use the same validation rules, which Hilton should dictate. But think about it -- how can Hilton know exactly what each airline is doing? And there are many permutations of how the airlines can process the data.

Presumably, Hilton is providing them at minimum with a name, ff#, and amount of miles. The airline wants to prevent fraud, such as me putting in my cousin's FF# as a birthday present, so they will validate the names and probably other info, like addresses, etc, comparing their info with Hilton's info. They also don't want the miles going to the wrong account by some mistake.

So here begin the permutations. Which name do they use, the name on the HHonors account or the portfolio? And which name from the portfolio if there is more than one? And which name on the HH account if it is a mutual fund? And what if the airline makes the erroneous assumption that which name doesn't matter, because if it is a mutual fund, well everyone should have the same last name? If you bring addresses or other info into the mix it just gets more complicated.

Clearly mutual funds open up a can of worms for the airlines. And remember, the joint account is anathema to the airlines and will seem very foreign to the actual persons designing and writing the import procedures.

Suffice to say, I've had varying success trying to top off my wife's accounts. American is always a problem (remember, her name is different). Others, like Aero California for example, I've had no problem.

It can usually get resolved but often takes multiple phone calls. The time and hassle can be disproportionate to the value of the few miles -- but, if you are just a few hundred miles short of what you need, it can be worth it. Also, I'm never shy about asking for some consolation points for my trouble, and have gotten up to 5,000 points which can certainly brighten my day. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

So good luck, and please report your experience. Perhaps this thread can become a good reference for people seeking information on which airlines work well and which ones don't. And who knows, maybe the Hilton lurkers can report the non-compliant airlines -- like American -- and get them to comply with Hilton policies, like any good business partner should do.


[This message has been edited by Rut Dog (edited 10-06-2002).]

Thanks for your insight RutDog! I did call Hilton for some clarification and the CSR told me that the name on the HH reservation had to match the name on the FF account. So for this stay I did just use my own. I don't particularly want to combine my wife's HH account with mine at this time.
As I need one more stay for my CNTU to finish I will probably just use her FF account and see what happens.

Thanks,
Papa3

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by papa3:
Thanks for your insight RutDog! I did call Hilton for some clarification and the CSR told me that the name on the HH reservation had to match the name on the FF account</font>Glad I could help, Papa3. FYI, I've been told differently by other CSR's, but to be safe, I try to make sure my name is always on the reservation, even if it is just my wife staying.

I was just reviewing my accounts, and noticed that a stay at an ES, without my wife, and without her name on the reservation, posted miles on UA to help top off her account.

So clearly, it is not (always!) the name on the reservation or folio.