pegasus8228 wrote:
Until recently, it was awful!

Of late, Hilton has improved its tracking 900% for me. I was going to say 1000% but there's still Doubletree - 0 for 2 stays last Nov. and Dec - I think I will avoid the brand as much as possible. They don't yet seem to be very happy hosting HHonors folks.

I will spare you many gory details of my Hilton past. Suffice to say I joined the HHonors program in 1987, but my HHonors card says Member since 1993 - they dropped me from their active file because according to their records, I hadn't stayed at a Hilton property in over a year; this in spite of letters and phone calls requesting credit for stays during that year.

We generally received good treatment when we actually stayed at Hiltons, but we didn't go out of our way to do it much because getting credit was so difficult. Nevertheless, some of our convention business took place at Hiltons, so we did keep staying occasionally.

(We think the problem was with the way Hilton used to not let certain rates, like weekend rates, qualify for credit, or only 500 points. We would actually be in at a convention rate - which absolutely DID qualify for full credit - usually Th-Mo, but because it was usually a Good convention rate, and spanned the weekend, the hotel back office would decide our stay didn't qualify, and wouldn't bother to submit the information. That's a theory anyway.)

Before and during this time, we also maintained Platinum status with Marriott. In 15 years, over 1200 room nights at Marriott properties, I can think of only 5 times that we didn't get proper credit for our stay. 3 of those cases were resolved by a simple one paragraph letter to Member Services. I can only remember 2 room nights in all that time that we finally gave up on getting credited for, and I'm not actually sure we even wrote a letter about one of them. I don't much care whether it's long distance to call Member Services at Marriott or toll-free, if we never have a problem in the first place.

DOC2BE, I do empathize with your problems - they seem to be the yin to our yang.

Let me also say that the nice treatment we got at Turtle Bay Hilton when I arrived from Australia sick, and the spectacular treatment we got at Hilton Hawaiian Village when we missed our flight to the mainland on that same trip, is initially responsible for my renewed activity with Hilton - but it's the fact that I'm actually getting credit for my stays that's keeping me going back. This time last year I was happy when 2 out of 3 stays in 6 weeks posted. It's much better now, except for Doubletree.

I'd actually made Silver between October and December when I came across the Fast Track to Gold promo on this forum. Just finished my fourth stay - no retroactive credit, but that was OK.

Things aren't perfect, but it's nice to see a travel product where things seem to be getting better.

Good luck, pegasus8228. Maybe Adam can help figure out what your jinx is.