Banana4321

Called up just now. Re-routed to India

Me: Hi I need to renew my Hilton Honors membership that has expired
<usual id/security checks]
BA: So you wish to get back the Avios that have been deleted from your account?
Me: No, I wish to renew by Hilton Honors membership
BA: Let me check with the back office, you need to revoke your membership correct?
Me: <thinking this is getting a little dangerous> "It's ok, I will call back later. Thanks for you help"

Is this the new normal?

BA6501

Basically, yes. There are a couple stars in that team, but most are just incompetent.

ermen

is that a normal BA India line or a dedicated India GGL overnight line?

Banana4321

It was answered as GGL....

LTN Phobia

Unless urgent, I suggest you email them. I believe Hilton status is requested from Hilton in batches anyway, so an instant upgrade won't happen in any case.

orbitmic

^ Agreed. That said, I would say 1) that I have also had excellent service from the Indian night staff, but maybe just like 70% of cases, it's just that it is less automatic than Didsbury which hours I wait for whenever things are not urgent, and 2) I have had big issues renewing my HHon Diamond through the regular GGL team this year so I think somehow there seems to be issues in the process.

LondonCanuck

EsherFlyer

If you make regular use of Hilton they may just comp you to Diamond anyway. I started travelling / staying too late in the year to hit the annual quotas, but was (and am) exceeding them on a pro-rata monthly basis for the part of year I'd been active. After using one of their "4 stays for Gold" accelerators I left it a couple of weeks and called in to request upgrade to Diamond, which was granted.

LTN Phobia

I think the UK team deal with all the GGL emails (I've only ever had replies from the UK-based team) no matter what hours you email, so I think it should be safe to email them any time of day or night. They're very efficient and normally reply within 15 min to 24 hours.

P.S. UK daylight hours are too restrictive in winter

orbitmic

Can you imagine?! Next week in Didsbury will be something like 8.10-15.40 or so, and that's as long as clouds don't make it look even shorter! - we'd all be lost!

Banana4321

I understand about the Hilton batching, thanks all.

That wasn't my query though. I just wondered if this is the level of understanding of the GGL "Product" between the hours of 23:59 and 07:00. If that's the case then I will plan my sleeping hours around the world accordingly.

LTN Phobia

They'd understand the Joker (don't use that term though, use its proper name of Gold Guest Redemption) but not worth trying them for more obscure things like the Hilton status or whether your GGL will qualify for a free HEX upgrade, or any other hotel status benefit that comes with Gold etc.

My hints would be:

- Only request bog standard, basic and common GGL things outside UK GGL call centre hours. Hilton status is not one of the things that is worth discussing with non-UK agent.

- Don't request a 6k joker use outside the UK call centre hours. My thinking is that non-UK ones might not be able to access any information on it.

- Deal with them as much as possible by email. They'd action a Joker request, GUF, whatever else by email very efficiently, only requiring a call to confirm the payment, and this is what I normally do unless it is really urgent. It will save having to be up at funny time of the day/night to talk to them.

golfmad

I don't think that's the case. You had a poor agent, that's all.

BA6501

It's 21:45 to 06:00 I believe.

Beano HK

Based on my experience, it is sent weekly. My last renewal was around the time I was burning some Hhonors points which was interesting. (In terms of room upgrades / status / "entitlement" etc)