Hilton HHonors - Award category changed since I've booked - will this date change work?

Before the award category increase a few months ago, I had booked an award stay using Hhonors points through the internet. Since then, this hotel has jumped three categories.

I had a pleasant e-mail exchange with the hotel reservation manager, who mentioned that the hotel wouldn't get more money for my award stay if I use the higher certificate, and that he would let me stay with the old certificate.

I called the Hhonors desk, but I am not sure the person in Estonia actually knows what they are talking about. Hence my post. She said, if the hotel accepts it, it will be fine.

The hotel has now changed my reservation dates on their end, and I plan on giving them the old certificate, which is included in the online reservation confirmation. The confirmation number is the same, so I think I should be fine.

My question: Will there be a problem during or after my stay? Or is this likely going to work?

How quick does a hotel get paid for an award stay? What happens with the certificate after I submit it at the front desk?

PS: At the time of the new dates my original reservation will be more than a year old, so I guess the award will be technically expired. If I have the OK from the Hotel, would it be worth the gamble?

I had a pleasant e-mail exchange with the hotel reservation manager, who mentioned that the hotel wouldn't get more money for my award stay if I use the higher certificate, and that he would let me stay with the old certificate.

You have this in writing, so it should be fine. I booked a number of award stays at properties that I knew were going up mid 2006. My certs were honored in each and every case at the lower category level, as they should have been.

The only gotcha in your case is that your reservation is more than 1 year from the time the award category changed. However, the hotel said they would honor it and you've got this in writing. Is the expiration date on your certificate still beyond the date that you are staying? Certificates are issued separately from award stay bookings, and you do need to be sure that the certificate hasn't expired.

As for the certificate, the hotel submits it to their regional office for reimbursement at the internal rate.

Last year, when HH made the announcement of award point adjustments effective June 1st, I was planning my trip to Europe in 2007 and at that time, I did not have enough points in my account to cover all of the nights I needed. I called numerous times and confirmed with numerous agents, that if I reserved my rooms at the current award point level, that when I redeemed my points after June 1st, the old award point level would be recognized. This was clearly stated on the website but I still wanted to hear it from an agent(s). They all said "Yes." One agent even called the Hotel directly and confirmed with the manager that I could so!

So I made June, 2007 reservations in May of 2006. Reservations showed the lower point level. I called back in June to confirm that the rez was still at lower level. It was. This past December as I neared enough points, I reviewed the rez on the website and it was showing the new level and the required additional HH points to confirm. After three different days of three different hour+ conversations with three different Supervisors, (the last Supe finally emailing the Manager at the hotel again to get permission because the agent back in May 2006 did not note the account properly!) I was finally able to get the confirmations for our 4 night stay at the original lower point level.

Things I learned form this:

1) I swear I printed a copy of the Website page detailing the change and that all Rez made prior to 6/1/06 would be honored but cannot find it. In the future, I will also save the page as an HTML file and keep on the PC.

2) If faced with a special situation in the future, I will ask the agent to note the account and ask them to repeat what they have noted thereby ensuring notations are in agreement with conversations and contacts.

3) Contact the Hotel directly if I get problems with HH agents. I probably could have saved a lot of time, effort, and blood pressure points had I done so.

All in all, if you have your confirmations at the lower point levels, I would contact the Hotel directly and say you are simply calling to "reconfirm" the reservation and that you are looking forward to your visit. If there is a problem, it will crop up then and so you would have time to work with the Hotel (not the HH agents!) to resolve. I doubt though that there will be a problem.

Enjoy!

The only gotcha in your case is that your reservation is more than 1 year from the time the award category changed. However, the hotel said they would honor it and you've got this in writing. Is the expiration date on your certificate still beyond the date that you are staying? Certificates are issued separately from award stay bookings, and you do need to be sure that the certificate hasn't expired.


Thanks for your help, SanDiego1K and yamonjon. This is where it gets a bit tricky. When you make a reservation online, you get a reservation confirmation e-mail that contains the reward certificate number and category. There is no seperate cert, opposed to phone bookings. When you cancel the reservation, you automatically get the points back. I don't think there is an expiry date on this "online award confirmation", but I'll have to double-check.

I am wondering if I should try to have them redeposit that reward from the end of May 06, and just have another certificate issued, with another certificate number that I manually have added to the res by the hotel. The problem is, when they redeposit those points, they might cancel the modified reservation as well. And if I don't, and I run into problems at the hotel, the award is likely expired and older than one year, and I can't even redeposit it and loose the points.

Here's what I would do.

I'd get a new certificate for the old category.

I'd call Hilton and ask them to cancel the old certificate. They can do this without canceling the reservation. I've had it done for me. YOu can give them the new certificate number for the reservation if they ask you for it.

Then present the new certificate at the old category for your existing reservation when you check in.

Hopefully you'll get competent people who can do this without creating problems.

It seems that it worked. Thanks for the advice.

The award reservation still shows at the original dates, but the hotel confirmed the new dates via e-mail and noted the new cert number in the res. So I think I'm fine. If not - I guess I'll have a no-show charge soon...

I'll post on the final outcome in late July.