kagero43

Hello all:
I am new here, but thought to share my experiences with this points program (which I have now been a loyal member at "Silver" status for a few years).This topic may be "old news")?) but thought to present my experiences nonetheless so others can avoid my frustrations in claiming lost points recently.

First, I am not leaving the program as I think it gives me what I need in a Hotel chain that I like staying at for their friendly service and nice clean hotels. My beef is with the very poor I&T systems and the Claims Staff that basically don't know what they are doing. Here are the issues:

1) Missing Points: I noticed that 3 out of about 10 of my stays this year, had missing points - others were close enough but not spot on. Not a lot of points, but some were as low as 300 and others as high as 5000, so if you don't check and claim your legitimate points, you might stand to loose a lot and you cant go back that far in their on-line systems.

The math you see on the system when logged into Hilton, just does not add up to what they promise. I understand it is based on "net" paid costs but still some numbers do not add up. In other words, check each stay and do not assume the points allotted are correct. There is no pattern to this and that is what scares me! How much have I lost in the past??? Good news is that their Customer Service are very good at reassigning the points back. One CS rep told me that they are about a few months behind in manually adding peoples points back into the system - MANUUALY! HUH??? The HH I&T systems and are simply CRAP, and they should be fired for designing a system that poorly, and will thus affect business with a chain that has great hotel's and wonderful front-line staff (at least so far in my experience).

2) NOW THE REALLY BAD...
It has been a month and running now, in my wait for my claim of lost points. They keep saying they are on it but I never get it solved and have to email them all the time on an update (they NEVER email me on status). Now to be fair, their CS staff gave me some points in kindness for all my troubles which I appreciate very much,

However the big mistake I made was that I BOOKED A HILTON HOTEL ON-LINE THRU THEIR Hilton SITE, USING A COMBINATION OF POINTS, AND PAID NIGHTS!!! I noticed later that my nights that I PAID (which I am thus owed points), were all "0" on the online system. When I inquired, they said I was NOT eligible because I "used points to book". Well, I didn't for those nights and PAID money by credit card! They did not understand that after a few emails and calls!!!v I think that area is in another country - not Texas where CS staff are and much more helpful. . Only when Customer Service sent them an email to give me my points, as well as the kind Manager of the actual Hotel we stayed at in Singapore, did they open the case! I also sent all docs to the Claims Dept but that did not work! They don't hold those invoices in their system. So YOU HAVE TO SAVE YOUR INVOICES YOURSELF AND DONT THINK THEY DO THAT IN THEIR IT SYSTEMS.

Any ways, I am still waiting and the pattern is clear: Do NOT reserve using a combination of points and paid nights during a single stay duration - regardless of what they say, Otherwise you will loose your "paid" nights!!! I was told this is an I&T issue and limitation in their technology. They are fixing it but its been a month!!!. At this time, I am just going to triple check my records and NOT reserve Hilton rooms using OTH points and money for a single duration stay. BEWARE!!!

Harvey