PHL

Forgive me for being so Starwood-biased, but can I upgrade a reservation in advance with points rather than wait to see if I get the free upgrade on day of check-in?

Eugene

Nope. But if an upgrade is really important to you, quite often a well-written e-mail to hotel's GM does wonders.

traveler4ever

I'm brand new to this board. Just "found" it today. I was just telling my spouse the other day that I think it is really rotten that you get a "standard" room at Hiltons using HH points. Does anyone think they will ever change that rule? I noticed starwood allows you to upgrade your room to the club level using points. When I stay at a Hilton using my own money I like to stay on the club (executive) level and then when I book an award stay I get just standard rooms. I've been told before that we were "upgraded" but never to the levels of when I pay for the room. Will Hilton possibly change that rule?

patricia

Do you have status with Hilton? Gold or Diamond? then you shoud request the best available room on checkin I have done quite well I am also told it helps to be very nice to the reservation desk and not in any way agressive or demanding

traveler4ever

No, I am only a silver HH member. I am always as pleasant as can be. I hope they change the rules.

Eugene

With Hilton giving away Gold status for a phone call (you may want to do a search in this forum on "CNTU" promo, there's plenty of helpful information), there is no excuse to stay Silver. As a Gold, you'll get upgrades to executive floors and free breakfast.

And welcome to Flyertalk, traveler4ever!

traveler4ever

Thank you Eugene for such an informative reply! Gee, I love this board!! I did the search on CNTU and am finding such a huge amont of confusion about it. So many said the promotion ended August 30th and then a lot said November 30th. I guess I will call in the morning and find out. Then a lot said some of the crs people said it was only by "invitaion only" and some didn't even know anything about it. I guess I'll find out tomorrow. None the less, I appreciate your reply tremendously! This will be one of my "new" favorite sights for sure.

spstx

As a diamond member,was surprised on my last award stay that my check in papers at the front desk read: AWARD STAY, DO NOT MOVE.

MYR ES

traveler4ever

I am confused by your reply. What does "reward stay-Do not move" mean? Thanks!

Dave Noble

It might be to do with bumping. I recently booked at Melbourne Airport which was overbooked and there was a note that came up which had to be acknowledged whenever someone went into my booking on the computer which said "Diamond member - DO NOT bump"

Dave

traveler4ever

With some help from all of you I called Hilton today and wsa upgraded to gold using the CNTU code. What exactly does that stand for? Does anyone know? Anyways, thanks everyone for the help.

spstx

I took it to mean that since this was an award stay, I was not to be ugraded since when I asked for an upgrade, she said "let me see...oh, no, there is nothing available without looking at anything except my check in papers.

NCRBILL

I was upgraded to a nicer room and free breakfast with a point stay at Doubletree Suites in Times Square.

I had two rooms and they both were nice and given the breakfast. I don't think I would have paid the cost of the buffett if I didn't get it free. $69.00 for three adults and two kids, 11 and 4. Very pricey for me.

Andrew Yiu

It's a promotion that will give you Gold status and you'll also earn 50K bonus points for 4 stays. (5K for 1st; 10K for 2nd; 15K for 3rd & 20K for 4th)

Jet2K

Some posters has been successful in signing up in September even though the sign up period "officially" ended on 8/31/2002.

Once you have signed up, you have 3 months to get the 4 stays in. End of November is 3 months from 8/31, hence the 11/30 end of the promotion. As a bonus, you become Gold level member immediate upon sign up of this promotion. Check your HHonor statement online and it should show that you are gold immediately. IF not, you should call back rightaway and ask them to enter CNTU in the tier-upgrade field.

To get the full 50K points, just find 4 inexpensive stays at your local HHonors property such as Hampton Inns:

Stay #1, 5,000 point bonus
Stay #2, 10,000 point bonus
Stay #3, 15,000 point bonus
Stay #4, 20,000 point bonus


[This message has been edited by Jet2K (edited 09-09-2002).]