Hilton HHonors - Beta Site Award Reservations change

Went to the beta site today, and this is posted where you search

Points will be deducted from your balance and a Reward Certificate will be issued at the time of booking confirmation. Already have a Reward Certificate?


This a big change. I guessd I can no longer make an award reservation before I actually have enough points to do so.

I wonder if this change applies to calling as well? Anyone experienced this?

Within the last week I made a reservation without having enough points - I got a confirmation number but it reminds me that I need to have a certificate at check-in and offers to sell me the necessary points.SPECIAL NOTE: HHonors Reward Reservation requires that VALID Hotel Reward Confirmation must be surrendered at time of check in. Need to buy more points or ready to Redeem Reward?

...HHonors has to go and %@* it up! Is there a 'tell us what you think about this site' button on the beta? pdhenry, I was crossing my fingers in hopes that this wasn't true, but I just tried to book w/out enough points and this is what came up:

"Please Note: Your Current Point Balance does not contain sufficient points to redeem your Reward selection online. You may:
Look for Point Stretcher Reward offers

Change your Search

Buy more points online"

Then I saw a link for 'already have a cert' and this is what the pop-up window said:

"Please Note: Pre-existing Certificates. If you already have a Reward Certificate, you can use this site to search for Reward Availability using your travel criteria. Then you will need to call the HHonors Customer Service Center to book your reservation using the existing Certificate ID number"

UGG! I'm sooooooo glad I booked a 3-nt a few days ago! I realize you have to call CS for a VIP award, so I hope you don't have to have 'cert BEFORE booking' for a VIP now too!

Anyone book a VIP today? Did you have to have enough points?

:o Lets all fess up. I don't think I am the only one who would, when planning travel to a city, make simultaneous Hhonors points reservations at several properties when I had not yet learned where in the city I would need to be (or when I didn't know which property would otherwise best meet my needs). :o I am assuming that actions such as this are what Hilton is trying to discourage.

When I try to get the beta site at
www.beta.hilton.com

I come up with some other site.
I know there is a link in one of teh threads that works.
can someone post it please.

Try it without the 'www' as in http://beta.hilton.com .

I'm posting from a PDA, so it's a little hard for me to check this, blt I'm pretty sure that's it.

I, too, am really glad that I did my reward reservation for August last week. I am planning on having enough point by the day I check in, but barely. I am certain if I waited until late July to book the reward stay, it would have been already gone.

Now, what this means is that I can no longer book a trip to HWV or Caribbean (or whatever) many months prior like I have been doing. I guess I have to build my account up before I can take advantage of HH again. Kinda sad. ^_

I made an award reservation over the phone today and wasn't required to redeem the award cert. I told them I'd get the award cert later and that was fine with them. So if the website won't let you book an award, give the phone a try. Note: I did have enough points in my account to cover the award; don't know if things would have been different if I hadn't.

I reserved two hotels online and two certs were issued right away. I then canceled the reservations and the certs naturally did not get redeposited automatically. Sigh. :rolleyes:

If you don't have enough points, you must call now in order to book a reservation without having points deducted.

I made some reward reservations for May using the new beta system with the reward being issued upon reservation. The confirmation tells me to bring a copy of the confirmation to the hotel as it now includes the reward certificate number that the hotel will need.

I have printed these confirmations, but then also tried to print the reward certs seperately. I found no way to print the certs and called the Hhonors desk to ask them to be e-mailed. The agent had not heard of this new system and understood my concern of showing up to a hotel without the certificate. They checked with a supervisor and were told that no cert was necessary - the number would be enough - and that there was no way to print the cert.

On the second call to Hhonors (just to see if I'd get the same answer)- The agent again had not heard of this and was sure a cert was necessary. She checked with her supervisor and was told that the cert would be mailed to me automatically.

I have in the past had hotel desk clerks mention that they only needed the number from the certificate, but am still leary of having a problem at check in.

Has anyone used one of these new reward reservations yet? Any problem just giving out the reward certificate number

bump

Has anyone used one of these new reward reservations yet? Any problem just giving out the reward certificate number?

All Hilton has to do is "dump" the award certificate stuff and make the points user friendly like Priority Club. At PC, I book, the points are taken, I cancel, the points return all with a few clicks and a few seconds. Sheraton's SPG is the same way, but I have to call to cancel (it used to be as easy as PC, but now we have to call). Why should I call!

Hilton is still doing the nuisance way with certificates. I have an award with the old beta and one with the new beta for Cat 1. I don't "trust" the higher Cat's just yet, plus I want more point stretchers! Especially for Conrad Hong Kong (what a nerve....40K for one night. 24K, please)! Otherwise, so far so good.