Premium Room Reward only at certain properties - Major Devaluation of HH points
Oct 13, 2011, 10:20 am
#121
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: From ORK, live LCY
Programs: BA Silver, EI Silver, HH Gold, BW Gold, ABP, Seigneur des Horaires des Mucci
Posts: 14,209
That's been standard at Sydney for some time.
On the other hand, the London Hilton on Park Lane has some pretty stupendous Points and Money rates.
On the other hand, the London Hilton on Park Lane has some pretty stupendous Points and Money rates.
Oct 13, 2011, 10:21 am
#122
Join Date: May 2001
Posts: 360
Another wrinkle........I just checked the Hilton Phuket. Per the hotel's website it appears the 'lowest' room type, ie should be the 'standard' room, is the Twin Deluxe Garden View.
So, I checked various dates for reward availability--
For Sept 2012, one year out during monsoon season, ALL room types are listed as PREMIUM rewards, even the Twin Deluxe Garden View (Isnt this a huge resort??? Shouldnt some rooms be 'standard'?) The room though is listed for around 24833 (?) points which is sort of correct for a category 3. OK.... BUT... if you check for the same room type in high season, Jan 2012, the Twin Deluxe Garden view is 129244 points per night!!!!!!! So now its different points by season, because they are saying NO rooms are standard, quite impossible in a huge resort like that.
So, I checked various dates for reward availability--
For Sept 2012, one year out during monsoon season, ALL room types are listed as PREMIUM rewards, even the Twin Deluxe Garden View (Isnt this a huge resort??? Shouldnt some rooms be 'standard'?) The room though is listed for around 24833 (?) points which is sort of correct for a category 3. OK.... BUT... if you check for the same room type in high season, Jan 2012, the Twin Deluxe Garden view is 129244 points per night!!!!!!! So now its different points by season, because they are saying NO rooms are standard, quite impossible in a huge resort like that.
Oct 13, 2011, 10:24 am
#123
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: NYC
Posts: 1,756
Last night I booked 8 nights for Los Cabos with 290K and this morning these points returned to my account and now no reward rooms for my week is available. I checked 3nd week of April and there are standard rooms available but once I select them and continue I get this message:
Your selected rate is no longer available. Please re-select rooms/rates.
Your selected rate is no longer available. Please re-select rooms/rates.
Oct 13, 2011, 10:33 am
#124
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: 10^7 mm from Ȱ
Programs: Hyatt D/HHonors D/ SPG P/ Marriott P/ IHG P/ UA 1K/ AA EXP/ DL D
Posts: 1,976
Received an interesting response from [email protected]. Their response to me seems different than what others have received. The following is the email:
Mr. T,
The Hotel converted to use expanded rewards and has currently set aside Premium rooms for reward usage. We unfortunately do not know the estimated time when they will correct this to have a standard room type set up for reward usage. Management is aware of this and is working to correct this situation. Let us know if you have any questions or concerns regarding this.
Thank you,
Mina S.
Coordinator
Looks like HHonors is pointing the finger at FP and FP is pointing the finger at HHonors. Someone at Hilton needs to take control of the situation and get a real story out to everyone.
Also noticed today that Sydney appears to have no standard rooms available in 2012. If you use flexible dates, some dates show up as 50K per night but when you go to actually book, it changes to over 106,000 per night. Of course this is for a "King Plus". No "standard" rooms even show up for a paid reservation.
Mr. T,
The Hotel converted to use expanded rewards and has currently set aside Premium rooms for reward usage. We unfortunately do not know the estimated time when they will correct this to have a standard room type set up for reward usage. Management is aware of this and is working to correct this situation. Let us know if you have any questions or concerns regarding this.
Thank you,
Mina S.
Coordinator
Looks like HHonors is pointing the finger at FP and FP is pointing the finger at HHonors. Someone at Hilton needs to take control of the situation and get a real story out to everyone.
Also noticed today that Sydney appears to have no standard rooms available in 2012. If you use flexible dates, some dates show up as 50K per night but when you go to actually book, it changes to over 106,000 per night. Of course this is for a "King Plus". No "standard" rooms even show up for a paid reservation.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/17266537-post467.html
jasonvr got another disappointing reply:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/17267451-post108.html
Oct 13, 2011, 11:00 am
#125
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: ATL
Programs: Delta Platinum, Hilton Gold, Marriott Platinum, Hertz Gold, Avis Preferred
Posts: 70
Could someone with a good (or, should I say horrible) story notify consumerist? I think they have a border reader base.
Oct 13, 2011, 11:20 am
#126
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: 10^7 mm from Ȱ
Programs: Hyatt D/HHonors D/ SPG P/ Marriott P/ IHG P/ UA 1K/ AA EXP/ DL D
Posts: 1,976
Could someone with a good (or, should I say horrible) story notify consumerist? I think they have a border reader base.
Oct 13, 2011, 11:40 am
#127
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: So Cal
Programs: UA Gold/0.744MM, WN AL, Hyatt Diamond, MR Scum, Hertz PC, National Exec, Avis PC
Posts: 5,561
Another interesting development - I got a call from someone at Hilton regarding my emails. It looks like this is starting to get some visibility. I, however, could not get a straight answer out of her. She definitely admitted that there was a glitch, but that it was not 100% the cause of all the changes. I really tried to get a straight answer out of her on the different answers we have been getting:
1) It's a glitch, we're working on it
2) The hotel is now all premium rooms
3) The hotel has only set aside 5 of that category room for awards and they must all be gone.
She did go into the speech about the hotels only booking a certain number of rooms at certain rates (like AAA) and seemed to imply that could apply to points as well. However, she then interjected about the Hilton no blackout policy stating that if a standard room was available, it could be booked for points (but she never specifically stated it would be for the standard amount of points).
Thru the whole thing she kept towing the line of "exciting change" and "a lot of discussion and emails going on especially today", so I'm not exactly sure what to believe at this point.
Now, the most interesting point was that they reached out to me (must have looked up my phone number in my profile) and she gave me her contact info. She specifically stated that if I was looking to book the affected properties with points to call her and they would be able to assist. I told her that I was not specifically looking to book and was more interested in what was happening in the program.
HOWEVER, I did make specific mention of the poster who was attempting to book their honeymoon in FP and all the effort they had gone to (applying for credit cards, transferring miles, etc) only to find that once all the points had posted they could no longer book at the expected rate. She seemed to take some interest in that. I would encourage that poster (sorry, don't have the time right now to search for the specific individual) to contact Hilton and be persistent because there may be some people there willing to help.
1) It's a glitch, we're working on it
2) The hotel is now all premium rooms
3) The hotel has only set aside 5 of that category room for awards and they must all be gone.
She did go into the speech about the hotels only booking a certain number of rooms at certain rates (like AAA) and seemed to imply that could apply to points as well. However, she then interjected about the Hilton no blackout policy stating that if a standard room was available, it could be booked for points (but she never specifically stated it would be for the standard amount of points).
Thru the whole thing she kept towing the line of "exciting change" and "a lot of discussion and emails going on especially today", so I'm not exactly sure what to believe at this point.
Now, the most interesting point was that they reached out to me (must have looked up my phone number in my profile) and she gave me her contact info. She specifically stated that if I was looking to book the affected properties with points to call her and they would be able to assist. I told her that I was not specifically looking to book and was more interested in what was happening in the program.
HOWEVER, I did make specific mention of the poster who was attempting to book their honeymoon in FP and all the effort they had gone to (applying for credit cards, transferring miles, etc) only to find that once all the points had posted they could no longer book at the expected rate. She seemed to take some interest in that. I would encourage that poster (sorry, don't have the time right now to search for the specific individual) to contact Hilton and be persistent because there may be some people there willing to help.
Oct 13, 2011, 11:41 am
#128
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: BTR, MSY
Programs: DL, BA, AA, UA, HHonors, PC
Posts: 200
I do think something of this magnitude may impact more of the general public. It is also much easier to switch hotel chains than airlines. There is nearly always a Fairfield, Hampton Inn and Holiday Inn Express in a city. However service to certain airports is dominated by certain airlines.
Oct 13, 2011, 11:53 am
#129
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Benicia, California, USA
Programs: AA PLT,AS,UA PP,J6,FB,EY,LH,SQ,HH Dmd,Hyatt Glbl,Marriott Plat,IHG Plat,Accor Gold
Posts: 10,820
Received an interesting response from [email protected]. Their response to me seems different than what others have received. The following is the email:
Mr. T,
The Hotel converted to use expanded rewards and has currently set aside Premium rooms for reward usage. We unfortunately do not know the estimated time when they will correct this to have a standard room type set up for reward usage. Management is aware of this and is working to correct this situation. Let us know if you have any questions or concerns regarding this.
Thank you,
Mina S.
Coordinator
Looks like HHonors is pointing the finger at FP and FP is pointing the finger at HHonors. Someone at Hilton needs to take control of the situation and get a real story out to everyone.
Also noticed today that Sydney appears to have no standard rooms available in 2012. If you use flexible dates, some dates show up as 50K per night but when you go to actually book, it changes to over 106,000 per night. Of course this is for a "King Plus". No "standard" rooms even show up for a paid reservation.
Mr. T,
The Hotel converted to use expanded rewards and has currently set aside Premium rooms for reward usage. We unfortunately do not know the estimated time when they will correct this to have a standard room type set up for reward usage. Management is aware of this and is working to correct this situation. Let us know if you have any questions or concerns regarding this.
Thank you,
Mina S.
Coordinator
Looks like HHonors is pointing the finger at FP and FP is pointing the finger at HHonors. Someone at Hilton needs to take control of the situation and get a real story out to everyone.
Also noticed today that Sydney appears to have no standard rooms available in 2012. If you use flexible dates, some dates show up as 50K per night but when you go to actually book, it changes to over 106,000 per night. Of course this is for a "King Plus". No "standard" rooms even show up for a paid reservation.
Another interesting development - I got a call from someone at Hilton regarding my emails. It looks like this is starting to get some visibility. I, however, could not get a straight answer out of her. She definitely admitted that there was a glitch, but that it was not 100% the cause of all the changes. I really tried to get a straight answer out of her on the different answers we have been getting:
1) It's a glitch, we're working on it
2) The hotel is now all premium rooms
3) The hotel has only set aside 5 of that category room for awards and they must all be gone.
She did go into the speech about the hotels only booking a certain number of rooms at certain rates (like AAA) and seemed to imply that could apply to points as well. However, she then interjected about the Hilton no blackout policy stating that if a standard room was available, it could be booked for points (but she never specifically stated it would be for the standard amount of points).
Thru the whole thing she kept towing the line of "exciting change" and "a lot of discussion and emails going on especially today", so I'm not exactly sure what to believe at this point.
Now, the most interesting point was that they reached out to me (must have looked up my phone number in my profile) and she gave me her contact info. She specifically stated that if I was looking to book the affected properties with points to call her and they would be able to assist. I told her that I was not specifically looking to book and was more interested in what was happening in the program.
HOWEVER, I did make specific mention of the poster who was attempting to book their honeymoon in FP and all the effort they had gone to (applying for credit cards, transferring miles, etc) only to find that once all the points had posted they could no longer book at the expected rate. She seemed to take some interest in that. I would encourage that poster (sorry, don't have the time right now to search for the specific individual) to contact Hilton and be persistent because there may be some people there willing to help.
1) It's a glitch, we're working on it
2) The hotel is now all premium rooms
3) The hotel has only set aside 5 of that category room for awards and they must all be gone.
She did go into the speech about the hotels only booking a certain number of rooms at certain rates (like AAA) and seemed to imply that could apply to points as well. However, she then interjected about the Hilton no blackout policy stating that if a standard room was available, it could be booked for points (but she never specifically stated it would be for the standard amount of points).
Thru the whole thing she kept towing the line of "exciting change" and "a lot of discussion and emails going on especially today", so I'm not exactly sure what to believe at this point.
Now, the most interesting point was that they reached out to me (must have looked up my phone number in my profile) and she gave me her contact info. She specifically stated that if I was looking to book the affected properties with points to call her and they would be able to assist. I told her that I was not specifically looking to book and was more interested in what was happening in the program.
HOWEVER, I did make specific mention of the poster who was attempting to book their honeymoon in FP and all the effort they had gone to (applying for credit cards, transferring miles, etc) only to find that once all the points had posted they could no longer book at the expected rate. She seemed to take some interest in that. I would encourage that poster (sorry, don't have the time right now to search for the specific individual) to contact Hilton and be persistent because there may be some people there willing to help.
Of course, I've been hopeful about all of this before...
Oct 13, 2011, 11:58 am
#130
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Posts: 423
Yes. I broke the news to two coworkers yesterday who had been collecting HH points for years but read no travel forums or blogs. They wouldn't even believe me until they checked the site themselves. A lot of people get the branded credit cards based on mass media advertising, and now most of the claims used to hook in people through those ads are no longer true. People deserve to know and that lame "exciting changes!" email sent to members obviously doesn't tell the story.
I collected SPG points for years before hearing about any travel forum. Ironically it was my research on FT that led me to convert all those points into AA miles and then to HH points for a FP stay last month. No fault of FT, but I wish I never had. At least my SPG points would still get me a few nights somewhere.
Oct 13, 2011, 12:02 pm
#131
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Maine
Programs: Hyatt Platinum, Hilton Diamond, Marriott Gold
Posts: 187
Apologies for a basic question since I'm not a HH veteran, but will this premium room change affect the use of free nights earned from the ongoing promo? I have switched all my travel to HH this quarter to earn free nights to use in Hawaii next spring. If these free nights aren't going to be usable at any of the upper level HH properties then I'll switch my business back to Hyatt instead.
I am seeing some standard room awards available for properties in Hawaii next March so I am hoping that I will be able to use these free nights.
I am seeing some standard room awards available for properties in Hawaii next March so I am hoping that I will be able to use these free nights.
Oct 13, 2011, 12:10 pm
#132
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Bay Area
Programs: HH, PC, SPG, MR, GP, US, UA, AA
Posts: 3,464
Most likely it will, since you can only redeem the FN cert when there is standard award available.
Apologies for a basic question since I'm not a HH veteran, but will this premium room change affect the use of free nights earned from the ongoing promo? I have switched all my travel to HH this quarter to earn free nights to use in Hawaii next spring. If these free nights aren't going to be usable at any of the upper level HH properties then I'll switch my business back to Hyatt instead.
I am seeing some standard room awards available for properties in Hawaii next March so I am hoping that I will be able to use these free nights.
I am seeing some standard room awards available for properties in Hawaii next March so I am hoping that I will be able to use these free nights.
Oct 13, 2011, 12:19 pm
#133
Moderator: GLBT travelers, India-based Airlines and India; FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Asia
Programs: Yes!
Posts: 15,512
Last night I booked 8 nights for Los Cabos with 290K and this morning these points returned to my account and now no reward rooms for my week is available. I checked 3nd week of April and there are standard rooms available but once I select them and continue I get this message:
Your selected rate is no longer available. Please re-select rooms/rates.
Your selected rate is no longer available. Please re-select rooms/rates.
Did you get the confirmation email with the reward cert number etc after completing the booking?
Oct 13, 2011, 12:28 pm
#134
Join Date: Jan 2008
Posts: 16
HOWEVER, I did make specific mention of the poster who was attempting to book their honeymoon in FP and all the effort they had gone to (applying for credit cards, transferring miles, etc) only to find that once all the points had posted they could no longer book at the expected rate. She seemed to take some interest in that. I would encourage that poster (sorry, don't have the time right now to search for the specific individual) to contact Hilton and be persistent because there may be some people there willing to help.
The last email I received from Hilton said:
Hello Ms. XXX,
It is my understanding that the hotel is unable to make modifications to the number of HHonors points required for complimentary night stays. I apologize as I know this is a huge disappointment to you. I understand that Bora, Bora is the other destination and I am awaiting their response.
I hope I was able to resolve and assist you with all matters. We appreciate you taking the time to contact us and value you as our loyal guest and look forward to serving your lodging needs again in the near future.
Kind regards,
Rona G
Guest Assistance Specialist
From the same person I received:
Hello Ms. XXX,
It is my understanding that the hotel has been in contact with the Hilton HHonors Customer Care department and are unable to modify the point requirement for reward stays at their property. I am so sorry that you were disappointed, in lieu of the fact that you planning to include that location for your honeymoon.
I hope I was able to resolve and assist you with all matters. We appreciate you taking the time to contact us and value you as our loyal guest and look forward to serving your lodging needs again in the near future.
Kind regards,
Rona G
So, it's the hotels issue, I assume....However the hotels say,
Dear Mrs XXX,
Greetings from Moorea !
First of all, I would like to thank you for your interest in doing your Honeymoon at the Hilton in Moorea.
I write on behalf of your request to negotiate room night with Hilton Points. I checked with our Reservation Manager and, unfortunately, it is a Hilton Word Wide who decides the number of points needed. The Hotel don’t have any liberty on the decision.
If you request, I can checked with our reservation to nogociate a special room rate for you?
I stay at your disposal for any further information,
Warm regards,
Katherine T.
Chef de Réception / Front Office Manager
Ugh, I put sooo much effort into figuring out the best deal with which hotel brand and transferred to Hilton because of this. I can't even talk to my fiance about it because he doesn't travel or understand the points so I just get frustrated and cry because I have no idea what we're going to do.
Oct 13, 2011, 12:30 pm
#135
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: NYC
Posts: 1,756