Hilton HHonors - Is this front desk agent clueless about HHonors points?

We just stayed at one of the Hilton properties in Chicago and I put the reservation under my spouse's name since he has the HHonors card. However, I put my credit card down for the payment. The front desk agent mentioned that the credit card must match the name on the reservation to earn points. Does that sound right? :confused: I can see that being an issue if a company is paying for a room under a direct bill or master account...but that didn't sound reasonable...

Never been an issue for me! Have used my wife's credit card plenty of times.

We just stayed at one of the Hilton properties in Chicago and I put the reservation under my spouse's name since he has the HHonors card. However, I put my credit card down for the payment. The front desk agent mentioned that the credit card must match the name on the reservation to earn points. Does that sound right? :confused: I can see that being an issue if a company is paying for a room under a direct bill or master account...but that didn't sound reasonable...

In general, yes, the member staying must pay for the room too to get credit for the stay. However, exceptions should be allowed for spouses since their funds are commonly co-mingled.

Are you travelling together? If not, he shoud not get credit for the stay and you are not entitled to his benefits. If you are together and need the charges on your card for some reason, you can go ahead and give them his card and go down before you check out to put all but the last $1 on your card and then check out with his card being charged for the $1. This should pass their system checks.

Personally, I think it's a good catch by the FDC and not a common event.

It sounds like the desk agent gave a very literal interpretation of the 'must stay and pay' requirement.

http://hhonors1.hilton.com/en_US/hh/terms.do#accrual_of_points

I put my credit card down for the payment. The front desk agent mentioned that the credit card must match the name on the reservation to earn points. Does that sound right?

I am going to go with clueless on this one. While it is likely the majority of stays have the cc name match the reservation name, I have had numerous stays where i pay for multiple reservations with my cc, with some reservations in my name, some in my wife's name, some in one or more family member's names, and some in the name of unrelated people travelling with me. Never been a problem in probably over 100 stays. Usually those people are standing right next to me at the desk at check-in.

In general, yes, the member staying must pay for the room too to get credit for the stay. However, exceptions should be allowed for spouses since their funds are commonly co-mingled.

Are you travelling together? If not, he shoud not get credit for the stay and you are not entitled to his benefits. If you are together and need the charges on your card for some reason, you can go ahead and give them his card and go down before you check out to put all but the last $1 on your card and then check out with his card being charged for the $1. This should pass their system checks.

Personally, I think it's a good catch by the FDC and not a common event.

Thank you for your response. Yes, we were traveling together, but I do not have his last name. Does anyone think that this rule is unreasonable? It sounds like Hilton doesn't want to give anyone points, so I would imagine it is equally difficult to use points for stays. Sounds like a lot of work to fool their system, when they should be a bit more accommodating to their guests. I get frequent flyer miles even if I don't pay for the airline ticket...

If your spouse was there it should not have been an issue. If they thought the spouse was not going to be there, that would be an issue.

If you were paying cash for the room they would not care whose pocket it came out of, so they should not care whose credit card is used. I agree with 3Cforme and think the clerk was being a bit too literal in the reading of the terms.

Thank you for your response. Yes, we were traveling together, but I do not have his last name. Does anyone think that this rule is unreasonable? It sounds like Hilton doesn't want to give anyone points, so I would imagine it is equally difficult to use points for stays. Sounds like a lot of work to fool their system, when they should be a bit more accommodating to their guests. I get frequent flyer miles even if I don't pay for the airline ticket...

Unfortunately it's the folks that are trying to game the system that cause a problem for the rest of us. Yes, I do believe there needs to be exceptions to the rule for spouses/partners. Many properties may not catch this situation and everything will be fine, but when/if the trap snaps, then how do you blame the system for doing what it's designed to do. I would hope having the member with you will be enough. There are way too many postings here asking if I book the room do I need to show up for them to get my benefits?
... or for me to get credit.

The easiest way for a property to know the member was present is for their CC to be swiped/charged. Not foolproof, but pretty safe and easy implementation within existing system.

The easiest way for a property to know the member was present is for their CC to be swiped/charged. Not foolproof, but pretty safe and easy implementation within existing system.

What if you book a prepaid rate then when you get to the hotel, you discover you have forgotten to bring your CC ? :D

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The easiest way for a property to know the member was present is for their CC to be swiped/charged. Not foolproof, but pretty safe and easy implementation within existing system.

What if you book a prepaid rate then when you get to the hotel, you discover you have forgotten to bring your CC ? :D

I can think of hundreds of corner cases, and there are many ways to mitigate. Most obvious is go ahead and deal with HH after the fact. They do have the ability to override just about anything in the system if you give them a good reason to do it.

Unfortunately it's the folks that are trying to game the system that cause a problem for the rest of us. Yes, I do believe there needs to be exceptions to the rule for spouses/partners. Many properties may not catch this situation and everything will be fine, but when/if the trap snaps, then how do you blame the system for doing what it's designed to do. I would hope having the member with you will be enough. There are way too many postings here asking if I book the room do I need to show up for them to get my benefits?
... or for me to get credit.

The easiest way for a property to know the member was present is for their CC to be swiped/charged. Not foolproof, but pretty safe and easy implementation within existing system.

Well, I don't understand how they just can't verify that the person checking in matches the HH Number...no different than the airlines. Who pays is irrelevant in my mind. They made us both show our ID's at check-in. They looked up the Honors number which matched the address in the system. I am just as annoyed by the postings asking if you can get points by just booking a reservation or from someone else's stay. Found quite a few before I gave up on finding a relevant thread and started this one.

Well, I don't understand how they just can't verify that the person checking in matches the HH Number...no different than the airlines. Who pays is irrelevant in my mind. They made us both show our ID's at check-in. They looked up the Honors number which matched the address in the system. I am just as annoyed by the postings asking if you can get points by just booking a reservation or from someone else's stay. Found quite a few before I gave up on finding a relevant thread and started this one.

You will need to ask HH why they chose the method they did. My guess is simplicity was more important than convenience of the guest.