Hilton HHonors - Flexible Rate Switched By Hotel to Pre-paid

A month ago I booked 2 nights for next May at the Wembley Hilton. Today I noticed that this weekend (and a month after making the reservation) the total cost had been deducted from my creditcard.
I called HH in Glasgow who told me the reservation had not been altered and it had always been a prepaid rate. They didn't want to deal with it at all and kept telling me I needed to call the hotel. I told them No-I had booked through Honors so it was their job to sort it out. Eventually I found the email which clearly states flexible rate and they are now taking it up with the hotel. The website now shows only prepaid rates and no flexible rate (for next May !!) but I know I wouldn#t have been crazy enough to book an inflexible rate so far out.
Is this a common problem with Hilton ? My expectation is for them to honour the original rate and to refund the prepayment-keeping the booking flexible in the event I do need to cancel (unlikely but I like to keep my options open). Is this a reasonable expectation and should I be expecting a few points for the onconvinience of having to sort this out ?

Are you staying there 17 May next year by any chance? If so, I suspect this event (http://www.thefa.com/TheFA/ContactUs/Postings/2007/03/TheFACupFinal2008.htm) might be the problem.

It's not uncommon for Hotels in the area to have blackouts on Flexible bookings around the dates of events like that mentioned.

If this is the case I would expect the hotel to have decided to apply these dates after you had booked. In which case the hotel seems to have unilaterally decided to change all existing bookings to non-refundable.

I'm not sure what I would do in OP's case - at the very least I would do as mentioned - i.e. get the hotel to re credit the funds to your CC and change the booking back to a Flexible one.

I have problems with European Hilton bookings, just a week ago my non-smoking room in MUC switched to smoking and a strange new phone number appeared in my reservation :rolleyes: Last year the address and name (!) on my reservation in FRA changed :rolleyes:
Everything always got sorted out and I am sure they will refund your involuntary pre-payment. It is strange that these things happen at all, I agree.

No it's a little later in the month-but there is a sellout show both dates at the arena which is I'm sure the reason.
They have now refunded the money back onto my card and reinstated the flexible status-and at my suggestion thrown a couple of thousand HH points onto my account. I was more concerned about the flexible status than the charge though.

OK a week later and they still hadn't refunded the money.
I couldn't get hold of the chap who had been so helpful at Honors so called the hotel direct. I think she forgot to put me on hold so I caught bits of the conversation and was told they money had been refunded yesterday (tho the conversation I heard indicated today). I reiterated that the res was not to be cancelled and was assured it would not be. Two hours later I got a call from "Helpful Chap" at Honors-he'd checked my booking-and had seen-it had been cancelled !!! Checked I still wanted it and got onto the hotel to reinstate it and called me straight back to say it was rebooked. The confirmation duely arrived-for a different-and unsuitable room type. I now have a confirmation for the right room type but it has been a timewasting farce.
I'm wondering why I'm bothering-my plans were to stay enough for Gold this (HH)year (can't see me making Plat) but if every stay is this problematic it won't be happening.
Any suggestions where to submit my "comments" to at Hilton ?

You probably do not want to hear this, but it would be a cold day in hell before I would stay at that particular Hilton. You are far better off staying at the Metropole and taking the tube to Wembley Central from Edgeware Road or taking the train to Wembley Stadium from Marylebone.

You probably do not want to hear this, but it would be a cold day in hell before I would stay at that particular Hilton. You are far better off staying at the Metropole and taking the tube to Wembley Central from Edgeware Road or taking the train to Wembley Stadium from Marylebone.

In most cases I'd agree with you I'm familiar with the hotel but in this particular instance this location suits me far better for several good reasons and it's only "a bed for the night" not a full hotel stay experience. None of the Wembley hotels are good enough IMO but for this stay location is the key factor.