Originally Posted by
nsatish
I'm planning to get Hilton Reserve, which is offering 2 free nights.
I'm hoping to use them during Thanksgiving weekend, which is about 2.5 months away. I need to spend 2500$ before I can get the free night certificates, which will take me a couple of weeks to a month may be. The offer states that it will take 4-8 weeks to get the certificates after I meet the minimum spending requirement.
So my question is, can I make hotel reservation now without the certificates, and later apply them towards my reservation when I receive them? Or do I need to wait to get the certificates before I can make the reservation?
Booking a paid reservation now will NOT impact booking an award reservation, i.e., you CANNOT squat on a room. If you want to make an AWARD reservation, you MUST have the certificates ready to be used.
You CANNOT convert a paid reservation to an award one. There must be standard room availability for your dates for you to use your certifiates and you will get a NEW reservation. If there are no standard awards available, you will NOT get an award reservation.
FYI: the certificates can ONLY be used for standard rooms. If these are all gone for your dates, a real possibility for the high demand dates you are looking at, esp in popular areas, the certificates can't be used at that property.
Given you don't have the card yet and you won't meet spending requirements for another month, I think the chance of an award room being available when you get your certificates are pretty low. Be aware that you won't receive the certifiates until AFTER the closing date of the statement on which you meet the spend requirement. This could add another month to your estimations.
1 week to apply & receive card (if you have good credit scores), 1 month for spend requirements, statement closes additional 1-3 weeks later. You are looking at a possible 2 months from now before you have your certificates. Don't think you should count on using those certificates for Thanksgiving.