nsx

I just redeemed two awards using a VIP coupon on each, so I am a happy camper. I hope this means that Hilton has decided to rescind the earlier memo.

As others have posted, voiding VIP discounts without notice never made sense. It makes less than zero sense to tell some customers that their VIP certificates are worthless while honoring these same certificates from other customers.

Hilton needs to make a firm decision either way and publicize it. If they decide to honor the VIP coupons forever, I suppose that no notice to members is warranted other than a post here by Adam, since members were never notified otherwise and the coupons clearly carry no expiration date. Adam can just say that the memo was somebody's April Fool's joke at the office.

If Hilton decides that the benefit of imposing an expiration date exceeds the cost in the goodwill of long-term customers, then an announcement of the expiration date (preferably a future date) is warranted.

If Hilton can come clean on this and ask forgiveness, I'm confident that FTers will be grateful and will return loyalty for loyalty. I know I will.

SteveHOU

I must say that I am stunned, happy, and disappointed all at the same time.

As was suggested by many I went ahead and sent my request for one SP-5 award (100,000 pts.) to Hilton via FedEx (actually UPS 2nd day air) along with my 20k VIP discount certificate on Friday, May 25. While I was at it I sent in my last two 10K VIP discount certificates and requested a 100,000 pts. ALON award before the points increase. My requests could have arrived yesterday so I just checked my HHonors account online and both award redemptions have posted to my account along with the 20K VIP Discount Credits for each reward. Only 80K pts. were deducted for each reward.

I am not saying that I would have taken the word of multiple agents and not tried the above anyway but it is very disturbing when you receive multiple identical "official" responses, including the actual email response from Hilton that AISIAN_TRAVELLER received and posted, stating that something is no longer valid and then find out that they are continuing to [i]"un-officially"[i/] HHonor the certificates if one takes the initiative to send them in anyway.

This is just plain disHHonest and crosses the line on proper business ethics. Hilton should learn a lesson from Enron and other companies that feel they can cross ethical boundaries without it becoming public knowledge. This definitely has a negative impact on this long time customer's loyalty.

nsx

ROTFL!

Seriously, I think Hilton can salvage this with a direct admission and correction of the mistake. And that's exactly what I expect to happen, at least if anybody there reads this board or is otherwise made aware of the problem.

RTWSTARALLIANCE

I'm not going to slam on Hilton. I agree that this could/should be handled differently. As for the rest of FTs who have these certificates I believe you have been given the path. Follow it and get those awards issued asap.

aussielori

I had some expired hyatt money certs. it says expiry date not valid where contravenes state law including california.
Does this also apply to these certs. if so get a california addrress and they MAY have to accept them.
I think with no valid date they could be in some trouble.I used some last year.
Where is Adam when you need him.
They sure need a Lurker.

thesilb

You could not use the CA "gift certificate" law for these coupons; the law applies only as to "escrow" type certificates where merchant receives cash or cash equivalents and promises to honor the certificate as cash or cash equivalent in the future.

MileKing

I would second RTWSTARALLIANCE's advice.

MIKESILV

Thats OK for you to say, but I still got 10 of them left even I had that much points( I suppose I could redeem some useless CO miles) I really dont have the time time to stay on 5 GLONS by next June.
mike

[This message has been edited by MIKESILV (edited 04-29-2003).]

Asian_Traveller

Folks, the later corrrespondence is posted below:-


========================

Dear Madam

Thank you for your prompt reply.

If you have not been accepting them for the last 2 years, may I ask this:-

(1) Exactly when (ie cut off date) was this terminated?
(2) Was there an announcement?
(3) If yes, when and where?
(4) If not, why not?
(5) Are there any members who, after this cut off date, are still allowed
to use the vouchers?
(6) I heard of members who do have their vouchers points credited recently.
Are
you aware of that? Why is there a double standard?

Please go to http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum57/HTML/007507.html

I hope you can reconsider the matter and favour me with a fair and prompt
reply.

Thank you.

Regards
============================================

>


Dear Mr. [ ]

I apologize for the inconvenience this has caused you. The VIP Discount certificates were phased out over a period of time and are no longer accepted. We began enforcing this as of April 10, 2003. Unfortunately, I do not have any further information about this.

Please let me know if you have any other questions.

Respectfully,
Elfrieda Joyce

NJUPINTHEAIR

Interesting how the "we have not been accepting them for over 2 years" suddenly became a decision not to accept them post 4/10/03.

What I find even more disturbing is the fact that no one from HHonors, despite Eugene's specific request on behalf of all of us to provide some form of grace period, has not even had the courtesy to post a reply on this thread, even though all acknowledge that they read this forum on a daily basis.

Unfortunately, Hilton, that was one of the first on these boards to have an official troubleshooter that was a great benefit to us all -- and I might add, that on occasion, we also helped to provide them with important feedback on a host of issues -- has fallen so low as regards its customer service.

Not only is it a stupid move to alienate their longstanding core audience on such a small number of points considering their recent promotions of the last 2 years, but they are doing so when the lodging industry is experiencing a similar degree of softness of demand, as seen in the airline industry.

Not only would a acknowledged deadline of 5/31 or some such other date help encourage those to trade in their points for vacations and therefore help fill rooms that might otherwise go vacant during this slack time, but they would be able to remove/write down and take out of circulation some of the HHonors points that, I would assume, must be treated as some form of accounting liability on their books. This is in addition to the obvious good will they would engender by agreeing to meet this small request.

Sadly, I think that the chances of their doing this is reflected by their non-responsiveness to this very thread, so I would not get one's hopes up.

The moral of this story seems to be -- as noted in another thread current in this forum -- is to henceforth switch one's loyalty to another program and hotelier, who looks after their clientele with a great deal more consideration.

Just my 2 cents or 8 HHonors points.

nsx

I would have been less confrontational and simply asked very humbly for a big favor on the basis that (1) the certs claim to be be good as long as you remain VIP, (2) no announcement was made (if they had, someone here would know it), and (3) others have had their certificates honored as recently as today. Basically, "pretty please do the right thing". You want to make "yes" the easiest choice for the reader. And then add, "In the interest of avoiding future problems for others, you might want to suggest to your management that they re-think their policy".

nsx

Patience, patience. Bureaucracies are slow. Give Hilton a chance to make good. I should note that so far no one who actually sent in the coupons has reported being turned down.

BTW, the points are almost certainly not carried as a significant liability on the books, and Hilton probably would rather that you don't burn them, even during a downturn.

Asian_Traveller

nsx

I didnt realise my email confrontational...

MIKESILV

I dont think Asian_travellers e-mail is confrontational at all, this is a situation requiring some sort of prompt response considering the change in reward structure come June 1st.
All that would have been needed for someone from Adam Burke's office to post " we are reviewing that situation"

Look I dont think anyone has been a stronger defender of the Honors program on these boards as I have been, but there comes a point where one feels betrayed when the cancellation of promised perks and THE WAY THY ARE HANDLED is indefensible.

Those 10k certs were hard enough to use in the past since for the first 8 or so years of
my participation in the program one only got 500 points per stay for any stay other than the business or rack rate.
Stays at places like the HHV and HWV you got 500 points PERIOD even you stayed for two weeks.

With the new reward structure, if the 10k discount were still valid for only 100k or higher rewards, they would redeemable with the new GLON2, TEEN2 etc no more SP5, SP6 etc etc. EVEN THAT CONDITION WOULD HAVE BETTER THAN CANCELLING THEM AFTER THE FACT.

Personnally I am pretty pissed about this in light of having redeemed some 360K in rewards last Oct( but only one 100k plus) where I could have modified my vacation only slightly spent less regular points and used more of the 10ks.
Plus the fact that these changes affect long time VIP members, not the recent 4 stay = Gold types, it almost bewildering that some sort of notice about the change was not communicated to us.

By my observation it appears that all the good PR that Adam Burke had garnered on these boards nover the years has been squandered in the last 6 months.
mike

Eugene

Folks, nsx's advice is solid, IMO: patience, patience. I'd rather not post specifics here yet, but trust me on this: Adam and his crew were made aware of this issue and this thread, and it is being discussed internally even as I post. Hopefully, we'll get a reply within the next few days.

Those of us who were on this board long enough, know that Adam prefers to have the final answer before posting. Let's extend some courtesy to him here, he definitely deserves it.