Hilton HHonors - How far in advance can I book an award reservation?

I am trying to book three rooms at the Conrad in Hong Kong next March. They have rooms to sell but the agent says that they haven't allocated any rooms for award usage yet. Does anybody have any idea how far in advance they usually load award inventory (or if they will) for this property?

Thanks,
Doug

Sorry for bringing this to the top but was really hoping that someone might comment before it gets buried again. BTW, I am Diamond if that matters for award availability.

Thanks,
Doug

I bet an e-mail to Adam would get you an answer. He's been a great asset to the board.

adam_burke@hilton.com

I booked an award stay one year in advance for the Hilton Waikoloa. They had availability online loaded, and when I called HHonors, was able to book an ALON. This is for Easter Week next year, so I figured the award rooms would go fast!!
Can't wait!!
(because I am always using points or mile awards, I seem to always be booking my trips a year or 10 months in advance-we have to go during childrens school vacations, so those are tough to get!)

PDX1K,

I didn't reply to your post at first because I didn't have info specific to HKG, but maybe this will help in some way. I did successfully reserve two 6-night GLON awards at Osaka Hilton for the first week in March. I noticed the window for making regular reservations is about 18 or so months on the Hilton website. But checking with customer service, I was told the award window is 12 months out.

Just a random thought, but I have had experience with award capacity controls with a cutoff of two airline seats/hotel rooms for a particular flight/day. You might try for two out of three? Good luck.

T2

I think it varies by property. I have booked award rooms close to a year in advance at some properties, but others have not had inventory loaded until 9 months out.

Called the infamous HHonors desk this afternoon to inquire about availability of GLON awards for Hong Kong and Singapore next April. Wanted to dovetail those in with the great UA fares from the west coast. Was told that the properties haven't yet "put in" their Honors Points to the system yet. Told to check back in December.

Is this typical?

I was able to book a 3/02 award stay at HHV in early June.

Maybe the intl policies are different (?)

I am also going to Hong Kong and Singapore next spring. I was able to get three rooms for two nights in Hong Kong at the Conrad for end of March. I have been unsuccessful in getting anything in Singapore(either property). They keep saying that the inventory is not loaded yet and to call back in mid September. I am calling about every other day just to make sure.

Doug

I too have been trying to book some award stays in Singapore (Feb '02 & May '02), but not been able to do so. The rep. I spoke with was not sure if there really was no inventory available or whether it might not have been allocated yet.

PDX1K have you made any progress?

Good news. Back in mid-August I tried the new Flyertalk e-mail address to the HHonors center. I was contacted by Denise at the Diamond desk within 24 hours. I'm only a Gold, but Denise set out to help me. After a couple of days she was able to confirm a GLON stay in Tokyo Bay for next April, but was having trouble confirming Singapore. She assured me that she'd get it through and sure enough today I got the message that I've been confirmed at the Conrad in Singapore for the other GLON stay. In both cases I got my first choice of dates http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Kudos to Denise for her follow through; the whole reservation process took her almost three weeks to complete. But she kept me informed as to what was going on via e-mails and always responded to my queries on a timely basis.

Needless to say, I'm impressed!

Just wondering how far in advance you can book award stays. Would like to do Aloha award in May 2004.

Thanks

If I remember correctly, it is one year in advance of your check-out date. Call Hilton to confirm.

In December I tried to book a 4 night award for 29 Dec - 3 Jan at the Sydney Hilton and was told I would have to wait until early January. I called again on the 5th January and the Diamond Desk sorted it for me. So as edg1 says it is one year from your check-out date.

Yep, one year...

Is it 330 days like most other programs?

I asked Hilton this question via email and they said 'We don't know. Call our Universal Service Desk'.

I really didn't think this was such a difficult question so I hope my colleagues here can let me know if Hilton is 330 days, like the airlines, etc, etc.

I assume you can only book 1 yr in advance and not any more (1 yr 2 months)?

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by welookgood.com:
I assume you can only book 1 yr in advance and not any more (1 yr 2 months)?</font>


It is actually a few days less than one year.

Do u think if i email gm in general he could hold a spot?

We are hoping to do the SAF8 (Hilton "safari") package either Thanksgiving of 2005 or Labor Day of 2005. We plan to spend an additional week before or after in South Africa. In addition, we plan to spend a night in London on the way there, preferably also on Hilton points. We've never redeemed Hilton points before.

My questions:
How far in advance do you typically need to book awards at regular hotels?
How far in advance do you need to book special awards like SAF8?
We won't have the points for SAF8 until probably next fall, but I'm wondering if it's even doable to book only 1 year or less in advance. I'm also wondering with award availability is usually like.

Thanks for any advice!
Oh--and I did do a search on SAF8 and how far ahead to book. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

There is no hard and fast rule on how far in advance. Generally, sooner than later is better, but sometimes last minute works, too.

You can certainly reserve (and cancel) before you have the points required. Many people use this as a standard strategy.

And for specific information on the safari reward, try a search on "Kenya".

I took the Hilton safari to Kenya last summer. I booked a year in advance and did not have all the points at that time. I wanted to do it as early as possible because I needed to make reservations for airline award tickets and wanted everything lined up. Based upon my experience and reports of other FT people, indications are that only a limited number of people are taking the safari, so one would think that award availability would be good. I would do it as early as possible to cover all bases, since you may cancel without any penalty.

Do share with us the details for your other week in South Africa. Others would be interested, since some people want to do additional sightseeing before and after like you. I would like to do the Hilton safari tour again, and would have to decide whether to visit South Africa or Tanzania

Thank you for the replies. Once we have the South Africa part figured out, I'll post what we come up with.
Thanks again!

Just to offer a data point, had no trouble booking the SAF8 for September 2004 at the end of March 2004. Don't know whether status counts...

Depending on what you want out of "South Eff", one place I recommend is the 5,000 hectare (12,500 acres) Tshukudu Game Lodge (www.tshukudulodge.co.za), established for 20+ years by Ala and Lolly Sussens as a game preserve, refuge, orhpanage and breeding programme.

It is near Phalaborwa and Hoedspruit airports, and Kruger Game Reserve. Accomodations for up to 28 in en-suite rondavels, not deluxe but well cared for and pleasant. Walks and drives, lots of game, some very much up close and personal - like a walk on the wild side with a couple of elephants as companions.

Home-cooked meals in the boma, and you become part of the Sussens family group. A week is definitely not too long, if you enjoy lots of interactivity and learning about Africa's spectacular game (including the "Big Five".)


Thank you for the replies. Once we have the South Africa part figured out, I'll post what we come up with.
Thanks again!

I just did the Safari Award package in February. I reserved it back in September. No problems. During my stay one wing was not used at all. I was one of the VERY few that actually stayed for more than 1 or 2 nights. Most of the visitors came from Mombasa in the early afternoon on day 1 and left after morning game drive on day 2. There were mostly Europeans doing a 1 night safari packages. As busy as it did get on one night, they still did not have to open the other wing.

That said, I would still reserve it as soon as possible. It's like a regular reservation. All they need is a CC to guarantee the res. You don't need the cert till you check-in, so basically you will have over a year to build up the points.

BTW, the ride should be smooth by the time you're there. Right now it's a ride from hell from Nairobi to the lodge. It's a 6 hours adventure. They are building a new highway, and unless something goes wrong, you will never experience the "fun" part of the trip. :D

This month’s InsideFlyer has a great trip report by Randy. I'd recommend reading it if you’re going to do the trip.

I'm planning the same trip, Kenya and South Africa. :)

I'm very curious to know if Randy opted to stay at the Salt Lick Safari Lodge (http://www.saltlicklodge.com/) for all for nights or if he didn't get the opportunity to move over to the Hilton Taita Hills Safari lodge as listed in the Member Rewards book (dated 11/1) for two of the nights. Yes the HH website (http://www.hilton.com/en/hhonors/rewards/africa.jhtml#kenya:_kenya_safari) says 4 nights at the Salt Lick but it seemed by Randy's report that 4 nights was a bit much in one place. I wonder if the option to stay at the other lodge is open.

It might be an option; Swimming facilities for our guests are available at our sister property Taita Hills Safari Lodge...Can anyone confirm?

Yes, there is a nice pool by the other lodge. There are not enough tourists right now for them to allow you to stay at the other lodge. Beside, it's not like it's a different experience or anything. The other lodge is about 5 miles down the road, located at the entrence to the park. I also thought that 4 nights is a bit much, but unless you could arrange something different, moving over to the other lodge will not change your experience very much. The pool is available, all you need is your driver to take you there and pick you up to bring you back to Salt Lick. That should not be a problem.
Although I will say that during the last evening, I did get kind of sad that I was leaving the beautiful sanctuary. I was getting use to the slow, quet life. So maybe it wasn't that the 4 nights was too much, maybe it took some time to learn how to enjoy your stay without TV, phones, newspapers, etc...