Standard Room Rewards now that Premium Room Rewards are available
Myself and several other Flyertalk members have noticed a disturbing trend with regard to Premium Room Rewards. At several properties the trend that seems to be developing is a complete lack of availability of standards awards, even if the base category of room at the hotel is available for purchase.
Some prime and specific examples of this are:
Hilton Bora Bora - 12/12/2011-12/13/2011 - This hotel lists a total of 10 room categories on its site. On these dates, all ten room categories are available for purchase. However, every room has a point value that is far above the 50,000 points that should be required for a Category 7 hotel. The lowest point redemption shown on these dates is 138,447 points which is almost 3x the standard redemption rate.
Hilton Moorea - 12/12/2011-12/13/2011 - This hotel lists a total of 7 room categories on its site. On these dates, all seven room categories are available for purchase. However, every room has a point value that is above the 50,000 points that should be required for a Category 7 hotel. The lowest point redemption shown on these dates is 93,185 points which is almost 2x the standard redemption rate.
Waldorf Astoria Beach House Maldives - 12/1/2011-12/2/2011 - This hotel lists 6 room categories on its site. It is unclear which category is the "standard room" category for redemptions, however it is clear that it is not the "Grand Water Pavilion" nor the "Grand Beach Pavilion" since there seems to be only one of each of these. On these dates, all four other room categories are available for purchase. From the cash rates listed, it appears that the "King Water Villa" is the "standard room" category for redemptions since it has the lowest rate, $875. However, that room category has no point value listed meaning it can not be reserved with points. The lowest redemption rate listed for the other three room categories is 250,582 points. The standard redemption rate for this hotel is either 50,000 or 80,000 points per night, depending on high or low season. That means that the lowest redemption offered is between 3x and 5x the standard rate depending on season.
This pattern is repeated over and over thru they entire 1-2 year redemption availability listed on the website. These hotels list absolutely no nights where a room is available for redemption at the standard point rate over the next 1-2 years.
I would like to know if these situations are glitches in the Hilton reservation system, or a sign of things to come - the complete inability to redeem for standard awards at certain properties. This would seem to contradict several taglines that Hilton has been promoting:
"If there’s a standard room available at any Hilton Family hotel or resort worldwide, you can redeem points for it. No exceptions, no fine print. It’s that simple." - The availability at the Waldorf Astoria Beach House Maldives seems to contradict this since the standard room is available but it can't be redeemed for points. Source -
https://www.hiltonhhonors.com/landingpages/nobods.aspx
"Now you can use your points to book any room, anytime, anywhere" - Again, the availability at the Waldorf Astoria Beach House Maldives contradicts this since a room is available and it can't be redeemed for points. Source -
http://hhonors1.hilton.com/en_US/hh/...BOlLMCB8dwOAl7
I would very much like to hear Hilton's response to this serious issue and seemingly large degradation of benefits for loyal HHonors members like myself.
Respectfully,
jasonvr
HHonors Diamond #xxxxxx