Originally Posted by IIDXias

Okay so new data point on using the $400 resort credit: my plan was to book a stay in September at the Conrad Resort World, which last time I booked (in 2023) charged the first night deposit pretty much immediately- this way the deposit will post before the end of June and then the actual stay will post in September, and I’ll get both halves of the credit.

Well, they may be on to this plan, because here’s what happened. On this past Friday (6/14), I booked two nights in a One-Bedroom Suite for Monday 9/2 & Tuesday 9/3. Total for the stay, including resort fee & tax, was $508.62. The confirmation screen and the email both said it charged me $254.31 immediately, but no charge posted to my Aspire card.

I waited until today and called the property- the guy in reservations told me that since this was for a stay in September, they would not pull the $254.31 deposit off my card until August. Obviously that does nothing for me to use the first half of 2024 resort credit. I tried to get him to send me to the front desk but he kept insisting that I call the main Hilton line. I didn’t think they would be able to do anything for me but I tried anyway.

Here’s where the story takes a positive turn. I use the app to request a call from Hilton- I get someone from the “Diamond desk” basically immediately after I requested it, very nice and helpful woman. At first she’s basically like, well, I don’t know if I can help you- since this isn’t a pre-paid reservation we wouldn’t charge you from Hilton corporate (and as we all already know the prepaid reservations charged by corporate don’t work for the credit). I explained to her why I was trying to get them to charge the deposit now- I was just honest and said I was trying to get the Aspire resort credit to trigger before the end of June, and unlike the guy at Resorts World she knew what I was talking about immediately. So after I explained that, she offered to call them back for me and see if she can get them to charge the deposit now.

She put me on hold, and after about 8 minutes she came back on and said they charged it. I checked my account and sure enough, there’s now a charge from the RWLV Hotel Front Desk for $254.31 listed as pending. So I assume after it posts, the $200 credit will come off with no problem.

Long story short, my plan to use both halves of the resort credit at the Conrad Resorts World in Vegas looks like it will work. But it involved a little more legwork than I expected due to them charging the deposit differently than they did last time I stayed there. So if anyone else is going to use this method, just be prepared to possibly need to get the front desk in Vegas to charge your card manually before the end of June, as apparently it won’t happen automatically. I’ll update when the credit posts just for posterity.