This is weak. Doubly so since I have Hilton stays in Oct and Virgin Atlantic activity in Jan 2013. Not much activity for me in Nov/Dec.

Except it doesn't start until November. So no points for you!

I just checked and I have 12 stays and 20 nights with more to come between now and 12/31. I'm going to move as many as possible to Marriott to get the three free nights promo. Extras may go to Hyatt Place. 10 paid stays and 17 nights.

I will work on it tomorrow.

Hi,

I registered a couple of days ago.

You have to be very careful with airline designation as Hilton is partner with Virgin Atlantic (VS), Virgin American (VX), and Virgin Australia (VA). If you credit to VA, you won't get any bonuses.

That's not correct. Back in Q2 last year when there was a similar VS promotion, I got caught out. The VS number was on my HHonors account but because BD was my preferred partner when I made the reservation, the miles went to BD instead.

It is advisable to give the number at reservation, and checkin, and have it on your HHonors account too. But my experience is that what shows up on your invoice is what matters, and that is controlled by the number you give at check-in.

Points/Miles are based on what you have marked on your account as earning style and preferred at midnight the day of check out not check in or when you make the reservation.

Therefore, placing whatever info. on file with the hotel at check in means absolutely "nadah".

Your earning style must be marked appropriately and your preferred airlines must be marked appropriately by midnight the day of checkout.

If you think this is incorrect, I suggest you call hhonors and ask them to clarify. This is the way it works.:cool:

This has been my experience over the years. I've never given a frequent flyer number to the front desk at check-in. My bonus has been appropriately credited based on what changes I've made in my HHonors profile prior to departure. I just made a change of preferred airline to Delta last week and it was reflected in the bonus that I received for my recent stay as a result of their Q4 MQM offer.

The earning style you have on file (points and miles or points and points) at checkout determines whether you get points and miles or points and points.

The airline partner that gets stored with your booking is the preferred airline partner in your profile when you book, but only if you have points and miles selected when you book. Otherwise, nothing will be stored.

The airline partner that gets credited with miles (if you've chosen points and miles) is the airline partner stored in your booking. This will be the same as the airline partner in your profile if you haven't changed the profile or the booking between booking and staying. If you have, it won't. I absolutely guarantee you that if you have BA as your preferred airline partner in your profile and give a VS number at check-in, your points will go to VS. I have done precisely this when I needed a few extra VS miles once.

Only if you have no airline partner stored in your booking (for example, because you has points and points selected when you booked) will it pull from your profile. This has also happened to me when a travel agent booking did not include my HHonors number. I gave it on check in, and it pulled my preferred FF number from my profile.

In my previous example, I had BD as preferred partner when I booked, and VS as preferred partner when I checked out. I said nothing to the desk, and the miles went to BD.

If you believe you have a contrary experience, then the most likely interpretation is that HHonors IT is bugged :)

Yep, this is correct (and I've confirmed this with the Diamond Desk). The earning style is connected to your profile at 11:59:59pm Central Time on the day of your check-out. The preferred partner is connected to the individual reservation. I booked a stay last fall for this past March and had WN as my preferred partner when I made the reservation. Of course, that partnership ended as of Jan 1, so my new preferred partner automatically changed to Delta in my profile. This did not update in the reservation, so even though I had Points + Fixed Miles selected as my earning style, I only earned 10 points (since the reservation had no preferred airline partner).

To take advantage of the Virgin Atlantic offer I added Virgin to my current two FF choices a couple of days ago. I’ve had a largely unused Virgin account for a while. Despite recording this as my preferred airline partner and selecting fixed miles, on check in at the London Paddington today they had my bmi FF details. I asked them to change this and Reception indicated that the airline selected at time of BOOKING would be the one miles go to unless it’s changed at check in.

This seems to confirm what most people have been saying, and may explain why HHonors stress that the offer only applies to new bookings to stop them from being overwhelmed with complaints that miles have posted to the wrong FF scheme!

bmifly

Close, but not quite correct. At the time of checkout is incorrect. You have until midnight the day of checkout to change your earning style.

Deemus says you were correct, but then quotes the actual correct verbiage.

Here is the T&C from hhonors:

Members can change their Earnings Style at any time. The Earnings Style Option in place for a Member as of 23:59:59 U.S. Central Standard Time on the day of check-out for a given stay will be the Option that governs earnings for that stay. No changes can be made retroactively for past staysl (#3)

and here is the link if anyone would like to read for themselves.:cool:

http://hhonors3.hilton.com/en/terms/index.html


Giving your airlines number to the front desk does nothing. They cannot update your hhonors account for you without calling hhonors. However, you can update anytime during your stay or after you check out. But, it must be done by midnight the day of checkout.

Sorry bmifly. You spoke with a front desk clerk who apparently misinformed you on how the hhonors program works for miles.

If you account was set up correctly before midnight the day of check out, you can call hhonors to get it corrected. However, if you had a piece of missing info. (such as FF# there, but no DD earning style seclected for miles) then they will not correct for you (because of no retroactivating for miles).

T&C are very specific about this issue.

You mentioned you ask them (at the front desk) to change for you. FD cannot make any changes to your hhonors account (unless they call hhonors for you, in which case, it's better you make the call or the update yourself).

Unfortunately, many front desk clerks do not know all the T&C of the hhonors program or how it works.

Does anyone know how long it normally takes for the points to show up in your Virgin Atlantic account? My HHonors account is showing "VS EARN MORE, STAY MORE - 1ST STAY - 1000" and "VIRGIN ATLANTIC DOUBLE DIP - 1000" from a stay last week, so I did manage to get the right FF details onto the reservation (which this thread indicates is perhaps unusual!), but nothing has shown up on the virgin side after a week. Anyone know if that's normal?

These can take a while to post. If nothing hasn't showed up after a month, I would then get worried.