Hilton HHonors - Hilton changed my reservation, then charged me for not showing up!

So this morning I was doing my regular checkup on my credit card statement online, and noticed that a week ago i had a $350 charge from Hilton Los Cabos. I have a AMEX 4 night reward stay with them in late May, but thought it was odd that a possible deposit was out there already. I called the Diamond Desk to ask what it was. They told me it was a no-show fee. A no-show fee for a reservation that is a month out? I take a look at my account profile online and see that my reservation is now gone too. After further investigation, she says that I called the hotel directly on April 20th and asked them to change my reservation to April 22nd, and that I never showed. WHAT?? Why in God's name would I call a hotel in Mexico to change a reservation to two days prior to new arrival date?? Especiallly considering I have airfare for the date in late May. The Diamond Desk was not very helpful, and sounded like she didn't beleive me either. Got transferred to customer care and a case is now open.

Do these cases ever result in getting help? I'm worried that I'm going to just be screwed and stuck with a $350 no-show charge, $200 to cancel my airfare, a loss of 125,000 points. All because of a call I did NOT make.

Also, why would I take on international charges to call a hotel in Mexico when I NEVER call hotels directly, only go through the DD. I'm just so furious right now that I cant even focus on work.

I believe you get your 125,000 points back. You didn't use the certificate so they are still yours. Just redeposit them or book another room using the certificate. That is why they charge the no-show fee in cash. You can dispute the charge with your credit card if it's not resolved by then.

If you have airfare for those dates, why would you cancel and not go? That is what makes it sound fishy to me. Are you going or not?

If you have airfare for those dates, why would you cancel and not go? That is what makes it sound fishy to me. Are you going or not?

OP thinks that the 125k points are gone and can no longer afford the hotel for the may dates.

OP thinks that the 125k points are gone and can no longer afford the hotel for the may dates.

This.

If the worst case scenario happened and they said "too bad, you dont get your points back AND you're SOL on the $350 no-show fee", then I'm going to have to cancel the whole thing. $350 no-show fee + now having to pay for a hotel I should have had for points + the $ we had budgeted for the trip.. makes it way more expensive than what our budget was planned for.

Up until I noticed that charge, everything was fine and was looking forward to my trip next month. I just dont know how this whole thing could have been changed! Pretty sure I would remember a call to Mexico to change a reservation. No way in hell would I have done that!

Customer Care rep said he does see the original arrival date, so there is proof that it was scheduled for the date I had planned on. But unfortunately it's going to come down to my word against theirs on whether or not I called to change the date.

Hum, did you try to call the hotel and work out with them what happened?

You should of gotten a confirming email regarding the reservation. Did you check it to see what it sez?

MisterNice

Hum, did you try to call the hotel and work out with them what happened?

No. My first call was to the Diamond Desk, since I was just questioning a charge on my AMEX, not knowing yet my reservation was gone. They then determined what happened and passed me on to Customer Care, who works with the hotel to attempt to figure out. The next step is that the hotel should be contacting me.

Another thing I just thought of that you would think shows more proof in my favor is that I stayed at a Hampton Inn last week from 4/20-4/25. So they could even see in their records I was in another Hilton chain hotel at the time I supposedly was changing my Cabo reservation to. Another one of those "why would he change the reservation if..."

This whole thing is just insane.

You should of gotten a confirming email regarding the reservation. Did you check it to see what it sez?

MisterNice

Yeah, and it confirms the date I had booked. The problem is that it was changed (on 4/20 apparently). I did not receive an email about a change, which I should have right? If I had received an email saying my res changed, I would have dropped everything and been on the phone.

Send an e-mail to flyertalk@hilton.com.

They can often fix things.

They don't always confirm telephone changes with an e-mail. I changed a reservation this weekend directly with the hotel and didn't get a new notice for it.

I would call the hotel directly.

OP thinks that the 125k points are gone and can no longer afford the hotel for the may dates.

osupike17 are you aware that you still have the 125,000 points from the original certificate? Call the Diamond Desk and get them to make you a new reservation for the original dates using the 125,000 certificate you already have. Then dispute the no-show fee with the Diamond Desk, the hotel and if all else fails with your credit card.

The 125,000 points are not gone. They were never used and you still have them in the form of a certificate.

Well I received an email an hour or so ago from the hotel saying that they have recreated my reservation and will be crediting the $ back to my card. They didnt mention anything about how or why it happened, but really I'm more concerned with actually having everything in order before making an international trip than I am with explanations. Thanks to those with suggestions on here. Finding this out first thing this morning was a very stressful start to my week.... luckily my week will end in Vegas :)

Now if we can just get this swine flu thing figured out before I head to Mexico!

Congrats on getting your situation resolved. You gotta keep your eye on those shifty hotel reservations... As soon as you turn away they rebook themselves to different dates :)