YVR Cockroach

If you haven't changed your assigned PIN, you might want to do so.

I helped my sister log into her account but transposed the 2nd and 3d numbers and ended up logging into the account of another individual (a 1 in 10,000 chance). It seems that Hilton may assign a limited range of PINs.

GiveMeATicket4AnAirplane

[This message has been edited by GiveMeATicket4AnAirplane (edited 04-02-2002).]

GiveMeATicket4AnAirplane

Um, how can this be? You'd have to also have typed correct account number to match pin. Did you mistype account number too?

srodr

The same thing happened to me once. I switched a few of the numbers in my account by mistake and ended up in some account of an airline captain with half a million points. I thought it was just chance, but apparently it is not so uncommon.

Shareholder

An "airline captain with half a million points" is a most interesting discovery. This guy must love to fly and travel since the rates paid by airlines for crew rooms are not technically eligible for collecting HHonors points. He'd have to do an awful lot of personal travel to accumulate that number.

I would think the most likely way of having a duplicated PIN is by selecting your own combination of numbers. HHonors would originally generate their numbers randomly, so the likelihood of duplication would be more unlikely than several members having the same birth dates [common PIN], etc.

But as noted, you would have to mistype both the account and PIN to get into someone else's account, and that would be a most improbable coincidence, since both numbers would be random choices and not often likely to yield an active account. That's really playing the odds.

Hope you went out to buy a lottery ticket the same day. Terenz.

[BTW, have you done your Buenos Aires trip yet?]

swag

My reading of the post is that he mis-typed the hhonors number (thus using someone else's). He types the (hilton assigned) PIN correctly for his sister, and it turned out that the someone else had the same PIN.

If the generated PIN's were random, then this is a one in 10,000 chance. But if they are not, then the odds become much more likely. hence, the conclusion that they may not be random, and the suggestion to choose your own.

srodr

I assumed airline captain because the account was under "Captain xxxxx yyyyy".
Maybe he was a captain of something else, I wouldn't really know.

fetchem

Or, he presents his card at check-in to gain lounge access. Then, the hotel gives him points by mistake.

drtravels

Not really. A week doing the Latin Pass adventure would have netted 2 million points.

cordelli

Charge a few meals, watch a few movies, catch a few of the 50,000 point bounus promotions, even if you are not paying for a room you can fairly easily get that many points if youa re staying several nights a week.

YVR Cockroach

Swag got it right.

I typed in X23X... instead of X32X... and the same PIN number and logged into the individual's account.

Anyway, I just transposed the 2nd and 3rd digits of my account number, used the original PIN assigned, and BINGO! logged into yet another person's account! PINs definitely don't seem to be random (2 occasions of 2 accounts each with the same PINs and same digits in the account number with the only difference being the 2nd and 3rd transposed). Or maybe at 1 in 100,000,000, I really should go out and buy a lottery ticket.


[This message has been edited by terenz (edited 04-03-2002).]

Satellite Parking

Yikes. People, do this right away.

I just tried switching the 2nd and 3rd digits of my account as well ... bing, bang, BOOM! Right into another account (only a Blue member, unfortunately)

It's as easy as choosing "Change PIN" from the drop-down menu under Member Services. It takes about 20 seconds.

You'll thank terenz later.

SP

CutStyle

Since you guys have obviously now changed your PIN numbers, what were the old numbers? Maybe a *huge* number of accounts went out with the same PINs?

mitquack

you guys are also very lucky with your HHonors account number selection, since these accounts are randomly generated by using some mathimatical rule... perhaps your account(s) were one of the earlier ones?

I wouldn't count on having this sort of luck on a consistent basis, so I'd say you guys should take a trip out to Vegas and see how far your luck may take you

YVR Cockroach

Can't say about the others but the 4 accounts were/appear to have been created between April 2000 and sometime in 2001.

I'll wait a few months until accounts that start with 46.... and 48.... appear to see if the PINs are truly random or not.