Originally Posted by
arsebandit
thank you !! So to confirm, as soon as I see a 5 night standard availability, I have to call in and talk to a rep? And pray that those dates don’t get booked by someone else right ?
Yes, you can't book any FNCs without calling a rep. It used to be easier to get the FNCs included (maybe took 2 reps) and now it's common to churn through 3-4 reps to get one who can make it happen. You can honestly usually tell within the first minute if they're going to be able to get it done - don't waste an hour of your life with a rep if they don't seem to think it's possible but they want to "look into it."
Originally Posted by
Wozza2404
Honestly if I saw 5 nights availability pop up I think I'd just book and if the next night or two happened to still be available I'd call to try and get those done as FNC nights.
Exactly this. If a stay pops up that I have been waiting for I usually don't try to call reps to make it happen - book the five nights on points and then add any FNCs to the front and back. Plus, this route saves the most points.
Originally Posted by
agjil
I've seen blog posts about this method but thought they were outdated and Hilton did not allow this anymore.
I stand corrected.
Now I am getting curious: can you get a 5th night free without having to use any points if you have 4 FNs in your account?
Or do you still need to pay 120,000 points on top of the 4 FNs if you were to aim for a 5th night free booking at the WA Maldives with 4 FNs?
While I've never done it with 4 FNCs, I bet you would still need to pay 120k for the 5th night due to the prorated calculation used. The max I've ever used in a 5 night reservation is 2 FNCs. But if someone happens to be successful definitely report back (although in this thread there aren't going to be a ton of opportunities for it).