Hilton HHonors - HH Base Points??

Very close to hitting Diamond and have a simple question, do I get base points for room service or using in-hotel restaurants while a guest? I know you don't receive base points for tax, internet, and parking.

Yes - "eligible" incidentals count along with the (pre-tax) room rate. Except at Hampton and Homewood.

what about phone calls?

Items eligible for base points are listed in HHonors T&Cs at hiltonhhonors.com:

6. Qualifying stays are those at all rates except otherwise specified in item 11, below. 'Eligible folio charges' for Hilton, Conrad, Doubletree, Embassy Suites, Hilton Garden Inn, Hilton Grand Vacations Club, Scandic and The Waldorf=Astoria Collection™* hotels shall mean: room rate, food and beverage, telephone, laundry, pay-per-view movies, entertainment and recreational facilities, and other incidentals charged to the Member's room. 'Eligible folio charges' for Hampton Inn, Hampton Inn & Suites and Homewood Suites by Hilton hotels mean room rate only. Dining room or other charges not billed to a Member's room during a stay will not be eligible for credit. Hilton, Conrad, Doubletree, Embassy Suites, Hampton Inn, Hampton Inn & Suites, Hilton Garden Inn, Hilton Grand Vacations Club, Homewood Suites by Hilton, Scandic and The Waldorf=Astoria Collection™* hotels as well as other selected participating hotels - may omit for purposes of point accrual, incidental charges or charges to the Member's room for non-affiliated hotel entities which are not owned and/or operated by the hotel including, but not limited to, food and beverage outlets, gift shop, drugstore, clothes, gallery or specialty stores, recreational or entertainment concessions.
*Effective June 1, 2006. Effective September 1, 2006, at Grand Wailea Resort Hotel & Spa.

Mike

what about phone calls?

If it can be charged to your room as indicated above you will receive credit. Please refer to the hilton hhonors page or the FAQ sticky above for more information.

Interestingly, room taxes are excluded but tax on a meal charged to your room is not. Most often parking is included.

Just to be safe make sure you check with the front desk also. I was about 54 base points from Diamond status. Since it was too late at night for room service I signed up for wireless access and raided the minibar. When I checked my room bill the next day none of the charges showed up.

I asked the front desk about it and they said the charges were comped since I was a "gold" member. So basically I ended up with a lot of bottle water, peanuts and pretzels, but no diamond status. The front desk also mentioned I could purchase points, but I later found out these are only bonus points and do not count towards status.

Interestingly, room taxes are excluded but tax on a meal charged to your room is not. Most often parking is included.
Gratuity on meals also always posts on mine. Parking has always posted as well to base points.

It always pays to double-check these things - you may be comped something, or you may not get points for a qualified purchase.

In my case, my folio for a recent stay - after backing out taxes, which are ineligible - was well over $700 (two rooms on one folio, plus one movie and one bottle of water.)

Looking at my HHonors activity online (HHonors Activity, Hotel Stays, Point Details from the specific stay listed is what brings the actual points earning detail up on the new site,) I received 35 base points, 17 bonus points and 17 Diamond bonus points, plus 500 AMEX co-brand bonus for one bottle of water for a total of 569 points. This example is a little over the top in how unusual it is, but a very good one to incentivize one to check these things throughly.

In all fairness, calling resolved the issue - apparently, the folio generated two pages, the last one with only the water, which was all that was entered as points earning. The stay was May 18-20, posted very quickly (I saw it this morning) and was rectified with a call to HHonors customer service. An hour later, the detail now shows 7,880 base, 3,940 bonus + 3940 Diamond bonus + 500 AMEX cobrand bonus.

Just to be safe make sure you check with the front desk also. I was about 54 base points from Diamond status. Since it was too late at night for room service I signed up for wireless access and raided the minibar. When I checked my room bill the next day none of the charges showed up.

I asked the front desk about it and they said the charges were comped since I was a "gold" member. So basically I ended up with a lot of bottle water, peanuts and pretzels, but no diamond status. The front desk also mentioned I could purchase points, but I later found out these are only bonus points and do not count towards status.

My mind is throughly boggled at the idea of a comped minibar for a gold - let alone a diamond!

I would have asked them to put some sort of misc charges for at least $6 on the bill for the 54 points.

My mind is throughly boggled at the idea of a comped minibar for a gold - let alone a diamond!

I would have asked them to put some sort of misc charges for at least $6 on the bill for the 54 points.

I was pretty surprised also. Even though my "MyWay" preferences is set to points, as a gold I'd still sometimes get a form letter from the GM welcoming me the hotel and stating that I can have two snacks and/or beverages from the minibar for free. So I grabbed about 6 or 7 items just to be safe and collect some points. None of this showed up on my final bill.

When I talked to the reps at the front desk, I asked if I could buy an umbrella, robe, alarm clock etc, or even just add a tip to my bill. In summary they pretty much said no. My guess was that it was 2AM the night before my checkout and they had already reconciled my bill and didn't want to be bothered to update it. They probably also thought I was crazy for asking my bill be increased rather than decreased.

I was pretty surprised also. Even though my "MyWay" preferences is set to points, as a gold I'd still sometimes get a form letter from the GM welcoming me the hotel and stating that I can have two snacks and/or beverages from the minibar for free. So I grabbed about 6 or 7 items just to be safe and collect some points. None of this showed up on my final bill.

When I talked to the reps at the front desk, I asked if I could buy an umbrella, robe, alarm clock etc, or even just add a tip to my bill. In summary they pretty much said no. My guess was that it was 2AM the night before my checkout and they had already reconciled my bill and didn't want to be bothered to update it. They probably also thought I was crazy for asking my bill be increased rather than decreased.


Ok I'll ask ... which hotel is that generous?

Also, if this were a relatively recent episode, I'd write a letter to Hilton, explaining the situation, asking if I could possibly have my status upgraded due to this highly peculiar circumstance and the very narrow "miss" in spending.

Ok I'll ask ... which hotel is that generous?

Also, if this were a relatively recent episode, I'd write a letter to Hilton, explaining the situation, asking if I could possibly have my status upgraded due to this highly peculiar circumstance and the very narrow "miss" in spending.

This was Embassy Suites Manhattan. I thought about calling customer service, but decided it wasn't worth it. I stay there pretty much every week and was going to be checking in again in three days. I figure I might have missed out on about 2500 diamond bonus points for the stay, but the free minibar cookies, candy, peanuts, drinks etc. made up for it. I think they just disable the minibar from tracking what you take instead of manually deleting charges for the two gold status "complimentry" items on your final bill...I could be wrong.

But if you are in a similar situation and know you will not be checking into a Hilton again any time soon, it is worth asking the front desk about your room charges and confirming the base point totals.

Wow. I have never in my stay experienced such comp on mini bar. Hmm... I have always been charged both legally or illegaly.:rolleyes:

One time, I didn't know that there is an immediate and automatic minibar with sensors. So, i tried to re-arrange the mini bar in mini fridge to utilize the space to chill my bottle water. The following day, it showed up as charges - a lot of charges. Sure enough, FD got a call from me!