MilesBuzz! - Is anyone able to get FF miles from car/hotel partners without follow-up?

I have NEVER had my airline FF accounts credited from car and hotel partners without some kind of follow-up after the trip. (Of course, I provide my FF number while making the reservation or at check-in.) And, sometimes I have to make several calls to have the hotel partner provide the credit. Many times, I never see the credit, even after several requests. I then just give up. Is there some trick I need to know about?

I'm a Hertz #1 Gold and have my Qantas FF number in my profile and therefore my car rentals.

All my rentals have been credited without my prompting. Points normally make it into QFF in a week or so after the rental.

Maybe you haven't given them enough time...?

About a month ago I got Hertz # 1 Gold for free here (maybe that would help you get miles posted promptly):

http://www.webflyer.com/blog/posts.php?entry=895

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Tomato:
Is there some trick I need to know about? </font>

Perhaps, switching your FF program might help. I credit most of my "partner" miles to AA (with the exception of car rentals going to Starwood and Hilton), and very rarely have a problem, pretty much everything posts automatically.

Some partners are good with credits, others are not.

Some partners post quickly, others do not.

I credit Thrifty car rentals to America West (which always goes smoothly). Otherwise, car rentals to go AA. Also smooth.

Hotels all go into their respective programs. I've never had double dip problems with Hilton - whenever my HHonors points post, I also get my airline miles. If one is missing, so is the other, and I follow up appropriately. That's generally an issue with the specific hotel property's transmission of data rather than the fault of the program.

Where things really get hard is with partners that don't do alot of business with airlines...or partners that aren't in such solid financial shape.

In the first category, partners that use miles only occasionally, they'll often wait and gather up all the miles from a promotion and transfer them in a lump after every conceivable transaction has been accounted for. It took MONTHS, for instance, to get miles from H&R Block after doing my taxes online.

In the second category, partners that aren't as well established... those generally aren't 'live' with the FF programs. They may wait awhile to post points because they have to pay for the points when they make the transfer... they want to hold off as long as they can.. or their status means they aren't in a position with the airline to go live.

In either category, I suspect that most companies don't realize just how negative an effect failing to post miles in a timely manner can have.

Some folks 'get it' others do not. I sure tend to do more business with those that get it... and I avoid repeat business with folks I have to constantly chase down for miles and points. It's just too much of a hassle nad life is too short. There's always another merchant out there to choose from!

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View from the Wing (http://www.webflyer.com/blog): A blog about Free Miles and Free Markets

I have had mostly good experiences with hotel-derived miles posting with no additional intervention from me. I send almost all my hotel credits to BA EC, and they tend to post within 2-3 weeks. The only tricky part is with overseas hotels (I travel mostly in emerging-market countries)--the desk staff are often unfamiliar with the whole concept of earning miles for stays, so you have to keep on top of them.

I have only tried to earn miles from a car rental once (also overseas, with National) and despite paying EUR 2 for the privilege and following up with National afterwards, I have yet to see any miles in my account. At 50 miles a day for a car rental, it doesn't seem worth the hassle to even bother with this.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by jmartin:
About a month ago I got Hertz # 1 Gold for free here (maybe that would help you get miles posted promptly):

http://www.webflyer.com/blog/posts.php?entry=895 </font>

jmartin, don't hold your breath. i'm hertz 5 star gold and have had 24 car rentals from them this year, around 5 posted my marriott rewards points without being prompted http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/mad.gif and the rest i have had to fax, email, etc. to get the points. good luck though, maybe it's just me. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

I'm a Hertz #1 guy and an Avis Wizard member. It seems I never get my rental miles w/o a fight. Hertz usually comes through but Avis still owes me thousands of miles. I've given us chasing them after nearly two years.

Good Luck with National

Terrible Luck with Thrifty requiring me to get on first name basis with customer service I don't think they try hard to improve or care so I use National more.

I also like National when I travel with spouse as they don't charge for 2nd driver as does Hertz ($7 a day) I am willing to pay fee if both of us drive the car at once. I don't see that happening in the near future. Another of the extra charges that make rental estimates ..random numbers

I have Starwood stays posted to my Qantas account and they always happen without fail, and quite quickly. One useful aspect of Starwood's programme is that you can set it up to do that automatically, so they don't have to enter the FF number at all, it's part of my SPG profile. Hilton double-dips similarly work fine.

Other hotel chains are very hit-and-miss. I usually have to fight for FF credit from Marriotts, since most Marriott staff don't even realise that credit to Qantas is possible and therefore often refuse to even try to put it through. Holiday Inns are likewise pretty random.

The basic element is: Does the clueless operator/checkin clerk/etc have to enter your FF number and get the airline code right? If the answer's "yes", your chances of success go down the tubes. That said, the two most recent Avis rentals I've had both credited to my Qantas account fine: In both cases the staff who entered the information looked up what to do or asked a supervisor, and they obviously got it right.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Kremmen:
I have Starwood stays posted to my Qantas account and they always happen without fail, and quite quickly. One useful aspect of Starwood's programme is that you can set it up to do that automatically, so they don't have to enter the FF number at all, it's part of my SPG profile. Hilton double-dips similarly work fine.

Other hotel chains are very hit-and-miss. I usually have to fight for FF credit from Marriotts, since most Marriott staff don't even realise that credit to Qantas is possible and therefore often refuse to even try to put it through.</font>

I have a Marriott Rewards account (as well as a frequent guest card at every other major hotel chain) just so I can avoid the fighting. You can set all of them up to send the stay credits directly to your airline FF account. I've never had a problem with Marriott credits posting, since the hotel clerk only has to input the Marriott number and the rest happens automatically. It's a pain to carry around all of these hotel cards, but easier than fighting with customer service later.

ALWAYS make sure your desired ff# is in the records at the hotel/rental counter, even if you've provided it over the phone when reserving or via the web. I've never had to followup & have received 100% credit in a timely fashion from Hyatt, Marriott, Avis, Alamo, National & Budget.

[This message has been edited by knowitall (edited 08-13-2003).]

We are both UA 1K, AS MVP Gold, Hilton Diamond and Starwood Platinum and Hertz President's Club.

We have never had a problem with miles/points cross posting. We book almost everything on line.

I rarely have problems with National or Hilton. Avis, on the other hand...is HORRID! Haven't been able to get them to credit me for the past 6 months' rentals....GRRRRR!

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by travelmad478:
I have a Marriott Rewards account (as well as a frequent guest card at every other major hotel chain) just so I can avoid the fighting.</font>

I'm not prepared to wear the enormous devaluation this causes. Marriott do it stupidly, so that you can lose a lot in the conversion. For example, if I'd put my last Marriott stay into Marriott Rewards and had that convert to Qantas, I'd have received 675 QF points. By putting it directly into QF, I received 1000.

(To make matters worse, since Marriott failed to credit it initially, I contacted them and, instead of crediting my QF account properly, they found my unused Marriott Rewards account, and put the points in there anyhow! It took months for me to get them to reverse this so that Qantas could make the correct credit to my account.)

Starwood do it properly, crediting the same min points to your airline account whether you put it through SPG or not. (And that means you get the stay credits too as well as the min. mileage.)

My Hertz-to-Marriott Rewards posts always flow through fine.

Hertz-to-AA never did, but then again I only tried earning AA miles from a car rental once or twice.

Best bet for Hertz is to use their home-grown points for free rentals. Better bang-for-the-buck, and the points post correctly and quickly.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Kremmen:
I'm not prepared to wear the enormous devaluation this causes...For example, if I'd put my last Marriott stay into Marriott Rewards and had that convert to Qantas, I'd have received 675 QF points. By putting it directly into QF, I received 1000.</font>

I haven't had this problem. I just looked at my last BA EC statement, which is the account my Marriott points get swept into. A recent stay of one night at the Marriott Moscow Royal cost $346. My BA EC account was credited with 742 miles for this. And a recent two-night stay at the Renaissance Chancery Court in London cost $722 and gave me 1,548 miles. I have absolutely no idea how that conversion works (2.144 miles/dollar??) but I'm pretty happy with it. Hilton stays get me 500 BA miles per night no matter how much I spend. I also gave my BA card to Le Meridien National (Moscow), where I have no frequent guest account, and got 250 BA miles for a $250 hotel bill. So it seems like giving the hotel my Marriott card is working best of all for me.

Rented from Thrifty in Vegas back in July and my miles were credited on my next FF statement.

No problem

Jon

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Tomato:
I have NEVER had my airline FF accounts credited from car and hotel partners without some kind of follow-up after the trip. (Of course, I provide my FF number while making the reservation or at check-in.) And, sometimes I have to make several calls to have the hotel partner provide the credit. Many times, I never see the credit, even after several requests. I then just give up. Is there some trick I need to know about?</font>

Yes, stop staying at Choice or Best Western family hotels. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif Choice has a goofy system where their hotel can't handle your FF number if you're a Guest/Choice Privileges member unless the desk clerk deletes the GP/CP number and puts your FF number in its place. Best Western has a different goofy system where it's all done with filled out paper forms (which are usually filled out incorrectly by the desk clerk, then half the time seem to get lost or whatever, I don't know!).

With hotel chains like HHonors (Hampton Inn, Hilton, etc) or Priority Club (Holiday Inn, HI Express, etc), I notice a coincidence: Both of these chains' frequent guest programs (which is where you tie in your FF program) have web sites where you can track all your mileage-credited stays (Choice doesn't let you track stays online at all, and Best Western doesn't track stays on which you didn't earn points, which you don't if you earn miles!), and by coincidence (? I doubt it!) these two chains I never have any posting problems with.

I've only used Avis, Hertz, Budget, Alamo, and Dollar for rentals where I earned FF miles/credits. The only way I rent is these days is online, at a site (the rental company's or the airline's) where I can put in my FF number at the time of reservation (or better yet, Avis remembers it automatically!). Doing things that way I've not yet had a problem posting (to either Southwest or British Airways). When I've done it at the counter (in earlier years), it still usually worked, but that's when it was a bit more likely to sometimes not work without followup.

I haven't had much problems, except with Hilton promos and bonus double dip credit.

Seems like multiple calls don't get the job done that I have to send them letters instead.

Next time, I'll just send them a letter.


When booking online, Southwest, Hertz, Dollar, Avis, and 6 Continents Hotels and Motels (Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn Brands, etc.) gave me the least headaches when it comes to collecting points and miles as they should be, and they post rather quickly.

[This message has been edited by whiskey0888 (edited 08-16-2003).]