sallyerd

I just got off the phone with Diamond Desk who told me that the FN601 certificate that I had already used in late March 2010 in Miami had not been sent in by the hotel. The DD rep tells me that all their hotels have an entire year to submit the certificates and if I had accidentally used the certificate a second time (like I planning to do on June 9th in NYC with my confirmation in hand), I could have gotten a bill from the second NYC hotel ANYTIME in the next year dunning me for payment personally.

IOW, it is our responsibility to know if any hotel has not submitted our certificates and keep track of how many we have spent. Sort of easy to do with a FN601 "devaluation" certificate since there is only one per customer but how about everybody's Q3FN certs? IS THIS TRUE?

I didn't remember which certificate I had spent in March. During a May 19 telecon with a DD rep, I had been informed that I still had an outstanding FN601 certificate ready to use and to "hurry up using it" since the certificate will be expiring soon in June. Jeesh.... narrowly missed that bullet.... I wonder what the second hotel would have charged me for the supposedly free room long after I learned the certificate had been used inadvertently twice by me. Some crazy A - - rack rate, I presume?

Jaimito Cartero

I'd guess it's whatever hotel hands in in first that gets the normal credit. Honestly, if they don't hand it in within a month or two, I'd assume they wouldn't be using it.

vrbaba

I wonder how someone would know if a cert got used or not. Last time i called to use in my Q3Fn certs, the agent just asked me which numbers I want to use. The one before that the agent confirmed me the available numbers and which ones she was using.

sallyerd

The way I finally confirmed that the rep was correct, was by examining the two-month old Miami confirmation and the fine print showing the certificate number and FN601 code in itsy-bitsy fine print. Then I could compare the new June NYC confirmation and certificate numbers. Luckily I happened to keep the two-month old Miami confirmation. But I don't always keep my old Emails or confirmations. I just got lucky.

I am even wondering if this is a great little revenue enhancer. Why should Hilton care if we accidentally use the same certificate twice? The hotel can always come after us many months later for cash. I just can't believe it is our responsibility to make sure the certificates were redeemed and submitted by the first hotel. If not, it comes out of our pockets anywhere up to one year in the future.

Flying Lawyer

IOW: It is your responsibility to know and track which certificate you have used and which not. Neither a difficult not a big job. And unless you use them in a way that you make a reservation with a certificate, wait until is is send in by the hotel and only than make the reservation you need to to this anyway.

Flying Lawyer

As said earlier and to say it again: It is not your responsibiliy to check whether the vouchers were submitted by the first hotel but only to track which voucher you spent and which not. And this is a thing I do since the invention of electonic vouchers.

WillR

I agree. What alternative does the OP want? Accidental re-use of a certificate results in two free nights?

MayorMcKnife

The devaluation cert I got via email had a June 2010 expiry, but the one in snail mail extended it to 2011. Did you not get the same? I would have to go back and look at the thread, but I thought everyone did. FYI - both had the same Reward Confirmation #, but different Control Codes.

tegwj

I didn't get a snail mail FN601, but I did have a similar issue with my e-FN601 as the OP. I cashed it in in February, and found out last week that the hotel had never submitted it.

Oddly, they had instead laid claim to a C604 which was never affiliated with my booking at that particular property. After an internal investigation, Hilton fixed the error and my C604 was no longer marked in the system as 'used'.

twj

Flying Lawyer

I fail to understand how that can happen without the guest taking notice of it. The certificate number is in the reservation confirmation, so I know what I have used and what not.

tegwj

No, you know what *should* be used. That doesn't guarantee anything.

The C604 in question was attached to a booking which was planned for next month. Given the absence of any reporting on the Hilton site regarding certificate numbers and their usage status, I would have only found out the hard way when I presented the C604 and it was rejected when the hotel tried to submit it.

The data available between February and last week gave no indication that the Feb hotel had made an error, and in fact I only detected it when I called to cancel the June booking and refund the certificate, only to be told I'd already used it.

I am happy that you have such unabashed faith in the integrity of the system, but I can assure you there are a great many manual control points which introduce variability into the process. Most of the time things work correctly, but somebody obviously made an error on my booking. The HHonors rep guessed that, due to the large number of reward certificates I have issued (and unused), the manual accounting at the February hotel simply looked up the list and entered in the wrong number to their own internal chargeback system.

Why they didn't simply pull the correct cert # from my original booking confirmation is, of course, a mystery, but it would appear that step doesn't happen automatically anyway.

twj

Flying Lawyer

The certificate numbers are reported on the webside under "Redemption History". You are right, that the usage status is not reported. However, according to the rules a certificate is used as soon as a reservartion has been made. And you will find the "Reward Confirmation ID" in the reservation. As long as they do not have another bug, everything should be pretty obvious.

SimonsMiles

Hrm. My FN601 will likely go unused, and it would be useful to get it extended (I certainly have need in August!). I didn't get a "snail mail" about it at all...did you have to do something special?

-simon

travelinfoo

The FN601 has an exp of June 15th 2010. I also got a snail mail cert. It says it was valid thru 2011. However, if you look at the description, it specifically says the cert is valid ONLY from Jan 15 and June 15, 2010.
The cert #'s of the snail mail and email are the same and they are the same certificate, i.e., only ONE was issued.

There is no extension of the cert with a paper cert. It still confirms the FN601 must be used by June 15, 2010. The "vaild thru" date is meaningless. It reflects exactly 1 yr from the date of issuance of the paper cert (all reward cert are printed w/an exp date 1 yr from issuance). It does not reflect the cert validity date.

travelinfoo

Agree w/FlyingLawyer. It is OUR responsibility to keep track of whether we use our certs. Just like it's our responsibility to monitor our account activities.

For ex, the Q3FN certs expire 1 yr from issuance. I'm sure ppl are keeping a close eye on this and know exactly how many they have to use and how many they have used. If not, they have no one to blame but themselves.

There was another earlier thread of someone else whose FN601 cert had not been cashed in quickly by the hotel. This poster was going to use the cert again. Personally, I think that person (and anyone else) who try to game the system and get caught have no one to blame but themselves. I also believe they should pay all the consequences of their behavior.