jamesteroh

I had a couple shuttle bus questions with Hilton.

The only time I really take them is if I do a park and fly at a DTW property and typically have no problems since they do scheduling and the driver for the HGI is always very polite.

This wasn't the case with a friday night stay I had this past friday.

My flight was cancelled Friday due to a weather related stay. The diamond desk was GREAT about getting me a room at the HI (all the DTW hilton properties were sold out according to their site but the diamond desk got me a room for under $90 at the HI).

I asked the diamond desk if I could have the phone number for the hotel to call direct for a shuttle pick up. He asked how long I would be before I would need the shuttle and I said it would only be a few minutes. I was still in the secured area but only a few minute walk to the shuttle pick up and it was possible the hotel was running a shuttle anyway since all these flights were cancelled and the hotels were showing booked on hilton.com. He told me he would call the hotel to be safe. He asked if I had my diamond card which I did. He said if there was a long wait to get on the shuttle (which there was) to show my diamond card and I shoudl get priority boarding.

There happened to be a shuttle there that had a long wait and the driver was rude and told me the card didn't mean a thing and there were three shuttles running and maybe the next one would realize what the card meant but he never saw a diamond card before and didn't know what it meant. The next driver was extremely rude and said he had a rough night and a guest trying to get on actually assaulted him and there were a couple otehr guests that got nasty with me. The one said he was P**sed off about people with stuats getting treated better than him and thinking they were bettter than him (and I was being rude I simply showed the driver my card both times and told him what the diamond desk told me) and was complaining he was on hold with delta for over an hour to get his flight changed while people that had diamond cards with delta were getting rebooked right away and given special treatment at the airport. He asked me what this diamond desk was I was telling the driver was and I told him it was a special line for diamodn guests with hilton and he asked how long it took me to get a reservation with them. I told him I called at 9:30 and was booked right away. Obvoiusly a big mistake since he was complainign he couldn't get an answer on the terminal phone to hampton or any other property and had to go back to the delta country and wait almost an hour to get them to get him a room he had to pay for.

Ok sorry about regressing My questions. 1. Is getting priority boarding on the hilton airport shuttles a true diamond benefit? I can't find anything on hiltons T&C about it and both drivers I encoutered seemed clueless (I ended up splitting a cab with a couple other guests that had been waiting an hour and were tired of the wait).

2. Who hires the drivers? Are they contractors or split between the Hilton properties? These shuttles I know handle the HI, the HGI next door and the embassy.

I can't imagine hilton would tolerate that kind of behavior from one of their EE's. I also had prolbems Saturday morning. The drivers at the HGI always come in to announce they are there. That morning I was charging my phone by the door and saw him pull up. There was a guest waiting outside the property and when I saw him pull up I unplugged my phone and put it in my bag and by the time I made it outside he was pulling away. He didn't both coming in to the HI to say he was there. I tried flagging him down and he didn't stop. Luckilly I was able to run over to the HGI in time to make the shuttle there. Needless to say he didn't get tipped

You would think the drivers would be very polite since they get tipped. If I would have made it on the shuttle at the airport that driver would not have been tipped either.

At least the front desk staff was very accomodating at HI and I could tell they were having a rought night and their phone was ringing non stop and they were sold out.

cordelli

I have never heard of elites getting priority boarding on a shuttle bus for any hotel chain. It's possible it happens, but I've never heard of it, nor would I expect to get it.

Not to be rude, but you did more than just show your card to the driver in the other people's waiting eyes. You had to try to cut in front of all them to get to the driver, so it's understandable they were a bit upset. If they have been waiting an hour for the shuttles, the last thing they want is somebody (rightly or wrongly) just skipping up to the front of the line past all of them.

It may have been worth mentioning to the manager at the hotel if they were hotel employees, or they could have brought it up with the shuttle company if they were not. But at times like that, the shuttle drivers know full well anybody waiting that long isn't tipping no matter how nice they are, and after a few trips with a busload of angry people, it rubs off on them.

BobH

+1

DTW was hit with a major thunderstorm that night and thousands of people lost power. (situation in Chicago was much worse)

At most major airports, there is a phone bank near luggage claim that can be used to call for shuttles and it would have been better for the OP to use that to call the hotel (or his cell phone) rather than rely on someone else to do this for him and

even worse ... it sounds like he violated the number one FT rule -- when you have a situation like the one he was it, to make everyone who is trying to help you, your best friend for a few minutes at least.

Bob H.

jamesteroh

I have never heard of hotel customers on any chain getting priority either. I figured it wansn['t like airlines with higher tiers getting priority treatment and on airlines they do boarding calls. The first time the shuttle was boarding and was almost full and just asked the driver and he acted clueless. Second time I was in the line and went up and asked leaving my luggage in the line (I knew if I was told no I was just going to grab a cab than wait any longer since they only had 3 van sized shuttles running and DTW has two different terminals). I have no status on Delta any longer but am a delta club lifetime member (I was able to get the status when NW had it and was a road warrior) and they were great about rebooking me but people were3 coming in out of the concourses that had no DL status and weren't club members getting rude with the desk staff because they would only accomodate skyclub members. People were complaining about that as well that weren't members (the sky club was great, they got me as a non-dl status into first on a 10:15 newark flight) of the skyclub they werne't accomodating them.

I am not sure why the dimaond desk told me that. I got through to the GM this morning (also to compliment the great FD staff as well as complain) and the hotel refunded the stay under HI's guarantee and I would have been happy with just the cab fare refunded (and didn't even want that if the diamond desk would have told me the correct info).

jamesteroh

The diamond desk was the ones that said they would call. I ASKED for the number to the hotel from the diamond desk because I was going to just call walking from the delta club (I was at the one by the terminal entrance) as soon as I hit the bridge to cross over to the hotel pick up area. The diamond desk told me they would call. Sounds like no one was answering anyway from the phone bank hotels down there anyway and the shuttles were just running non stop. I was friendly to the driver and simply asked the question. If someone stays with any chain to be in their highest tier it should tell the person you are a frequent customer. I was just doing what the DD told me to do.

And I also made sure when I complained to the GM this morning about the driver that I appreciated the FD staff and wanted to make sure their performance and friendlisness under the circumstances didn't go unnoticed.

If the DD wouldn't have told me that about priority boarding, I would have simply asked others in the line if they wanted to split a cab or just paid it myself.