Hilton HHonors - Earning points through non-hilton site?

If I book a room at the San Francisco Hilton through idine.com or hotels.com, etc, do I give up earning my Honors Points?

Thanks!

If I book a room at the San Francisco Hilton through idine.com or hotels.com, etc, do I give up earning my Honors Points?

Thanks!

Here's a letter I received two days after staying at a Hilton property not booked directly through Hilton channels:

Dear [XYZ],

Thanks to new enhancements to our Hilton Family websites, there's no reason to make your reservations through any other online source. No matter which Hilton Family site you use, you can easily search all Hilton Family hotels at once--by city, by airport, by hotel features or even by travel route. And booking your stay through www.hiltonfamily.com or any Hilton Family website is the smart choice to ensure you receive Hilton HHonors® points, miles and stay credit for all of your qualifying stays. In fact, we promise that if you do find a lower rate on some other booking channel, we'll match that rate plus:


For stays in the U.S., Canada, Puerto Rico or Mexico, we'll give you a $50 American Express® Gift Cheque.*
For stays outside the U.S., Canada, Puerto Rico or Mexico, we'll take US$50 off your bill.

For more information on Our Best Rates. Guaranteed. Click here.

HHonors points, airline miles and stay credit toward tier status are not awarded for stays booked through third party online sites. However, we have made an exception for your recent stay at the Hilton Milwaukee City Center. Going forward, though, we wanted to remind you that to ensure you receive HHonors points, miles and stay credit when you book online, be sure to make your reservations through www.hiltonfamily.com or any Hilton Family website. Of course, you will also continue to receive HHonors points, miles and stay credit when you book through 1-800-HHONORS or any other Hilton Reservations Worldwide office, through the Hilton HHonors Diamond Desk, through corporate travel offices, through travel agents, through the websites of Hilton HHonors airline partners or when making reservations by phone directly with a Hilton Family hotel.

For further information or to book a Hilton Family hotel reservation, visit www.hiltonfamily.com today. We look forward to welcoming you again soon!

Sincerely,

Mary E. Parks
Vice President, Marketing
Hilton HHonors Worldwide

***********************************************
TERMS AND CONDITIONS
***********************************************
*Restrictions apply. Lower rate must be found on a non-Hilton Family booking channel.
Claim must be submitted within 24 hours of booking. Please visit
www.hiltonworldwide.com/en/ww/ourbestrates/guarantee.jhtml? for full terms and
conditions of Our Best Rates. Guaranteed.

You must be a member of Hilton HHonors to earn HHonors points.
Hilton HHonors membership, earning of Points & Miles®, and
redemption of points are subject to HHonors Terms and Conditions.
©2005 Hilton HHonors Worldwide.


I did not communicate with Hilton about this stay at all since I knew it was not going to get points or credit. And so far as I can tell -- and contrary to the letter sent to me by Hilton -- I did not receive points or stay credit from the stay booked via a third party channel. The stay shows up in my account, but with no points/miles and with no affect on my rolling tier re-qualification.

Here's a letter I received two days after staying at a Hilton property not booked directly through Hilton channels:



I did not communicate with Hilton about this stay at all since I knew it was not going to get points or credit. And so far as I can tell -- and contrary to the letter sent to me by Hilton -- I did not receive points or stay credit from the stay booked via a third party channel. The stay shows up in my account, but with no points/miles and with no affect on my rolling tier re-qualification.


I got a similar letter, and emailed Hhonors asking them to adjust the stay per the email from Mary E Parks. They did and now it shows as a stay credit, points and miles. When the adjustment was done it triggered the same email again.

I was also surprized to get the email as I was not expecting credit for the stay. It was a nice surprize.

Hilton.com had the highest rate - Travelocity was much better, and the Hotel's own site and Orbitz, etc. also had somewhat lower rates. So if you want the points at the casino hotels you have to pay the higher hilton rate.

Hilton responded:

Thank you for taking the time to submit a claim form regarding Our Best
Rates Guaranteed. We have reviewed your reservation and the information
found on Travelocity.com.

The reservation booked on the Hilton website was for the Las Vegas
Hilton. This hotel is not included, as stated in our terms in
conditions. Please refer to the "Our Best Rates Guarantee terms and
conditions under OFFER DOES NOT APPLY to the following:" The Hilton Reno
Resort & Casino, Las Vegas Hilton, and the Atlantic City Hilton.

Regards,
Catrina

Hilton.com had the highest rate - Travelocity was much better, and the Hotel's own site and Orbitz, etc. also had somewhat lower rates. So if you want the points at the casino hotels you have to pay the higher hilton rate.

Hilton responded:

Thank you for taking the time to submit a claim form regarding Our Best
Rates Guaranteed. We have reviewed your reservation and the information
found on Travelocity.com.

The reservation booked on the Hilton website was for the Las Vegas
Hilton. This hotel is not included, as stated in our terms in
conditions. Please refer to the "Our Best Rates Guarantee terms and
conditions under OFFER DOES NOT APPLY to the following:" The Hilton Reno
Resort & Casino, Las Vegas Hilton, and the Atlantic City Hilton.

Regards,
Catrina
Moral of the story is that you have to read the T&Cs. @:-)

Moral of the story is that you have to read the T&Cs. @:-)

No - the moral of the story is that you must first print off the terms & conditions. If you clik on "Terms & Conditions" many of the restrictions do not appear on the Hilton site on your computer monitor. Only after they denied the request and again checked T&C and it was not there, did I decided to print them off to. Only by actually printing out two pages of fine print do you find the limitation buried. They have a technical limitation/problem with the way they present their T&C. The problem appears on the HHonors web page. If you go to the over Hilton website main page, there you will get a full copy of the terms & conditions.

So I cancelled the reservation on Hilton.com, booked the first night with the hotel directly to get the stay credit, and the next two nights with Travelocity for the lower price and bonus offer.

But what about when you book a complete package through travelocity.com that includes air + hotel + car??

I am choosing Hilton even though it says "add $99 per person for the stay" in hopes of getting points - really there is no way Hilton could isolate/invoke best rate guarantee when complete packages are booked through travel agencies as it is not possible to isolate charges for each item in package! Most of the times I do see top class hotels listed as part of a total package work out to be way cheaper than booking nights directly through hotel sites.

But what about when you book a complete package through travelocity.com that includes air + hotel + car??

I am choosing Hilton even though it says "add $99 per person for the stay" in hopes of getting points - really there is no way Hilton could isolate/invoke best rate guarantee when complete packages are booked through travel agencies as it is not possible to isolate charges for each item in package! Most of the times I do see top class hotels listed as part of a total package work out to be way cheaper than booking nights directly through hotel sites.

You will not be rewarded for your loyalty. Most of the chains now ignore any loyalty shown in situations like this. You get your big discount but they will give you no credit (that means no stay credit and no points - benefits are at the discretion of the hotel) for choosing them over any other hotel.

I personally think this is bad business as once you klnow this you tend to stop showing loyalty to the chain when you can get a much better deal in a package and you know that you won't get any special treatment by picking the chain you are normally loyal to.