kryten22uk

I understand what you're saying, but I dont see a "certificate" as part of the consumer contract any more. Its simply a backoffice admin thing.

When you make a reservation, you enter a contract based on terms and conditions made available at that time. There is no certificate provided to the consumer upon booking, and therefore Hilton can't introduce new hidden terms and conditions at a later point. Indeed the T&Cs suggest that the Confirmation email is the new certificates, as the booking is said to be valid "as provided on the Reward Stay Certificate or Confirmation".

Eujeanie

Can someone PLEASE tell me HOW to make a reservation more than a year out?? I'm not necessarily talking award, but paid, too...I know I can do it on spg (I think they go out 18 months) but Hilton I only see one year, the calendar stops right now at March 16, 2014.

kryten22uk

Phone up.

stifle

Thank you, Chapel Hill Guy. I stand by what I said. There will be people who show up at hotels and get told "your award cert is out of date".

If you want evidence of a time limit, you'll see it upthread.

You can go on about contracts all you like. I am pointing out that even if you do end up getting the stay you booked, there is a risk that you will have to incur considerable inconvenience to do so. If you get to a hotel front desk in Thailand, or New York, or Mauritius, or wherever and are told you need to pay, then you can tell them about UK contract law until you're blue in the face; they will say "that's fine, sir, but until you give me your credit card you won't be able to get a key card today".

cjd

Go to Hilton.com. Choose your location. Choose any dates within the next year. When it brings up your chosen hotel, click on "Book a Room." Then under Reservations Summary at top of page, click on "Change." It then lets you alter and book travel dates for any dates within the next 2 years for paid stays and award stays.

Chapel Hill Guy

And I understand what you're saying. But good luck quoting that semi-legal prose to a front desk clerk/manager if they tell you your award is not valid as it has expired.

I'd be proactive and try to get something concrete in writing or, as you keep saying, it's just conjecture.

Here's a recent example. Email with award cert has:

Reward Certificate ID: nnnnnnnnn

Issue Date: 25-Feb-2013

Expiration Date: 25-Feb-2014

One year validity. And the corresponding reservation confirmation email has:

HHonors Reward ID: nnnnnnnnn

nnnnnnnnn is the same number in both emails. Why would Hilton reference that reward ID if it had no significance? And why would there be an expiration date if it's just back office paperwork?

Eujeanie

Thanks for trying to help me, Chapel Hill Guy, but when I try to change the dates, even if I backspace over and put in the future dates, when I click "continue" it flips back to March. Sigh.

mybagfits

has anyone sending in feedback on this devaluation situation and our suggestions to not penalize the heads in beds earners received anything back from hhonors in response??

EDIflyer

Nope - not heard anything back at all, not even a stock response!

birdyy

The question in my mind is are there still certificates? Were is the proof that they are still using certificates? Wouldn't there be some kind of confirmation of certificates someone in our account?

I'm not understanding why some people are adamant that HH is still issuing them. It's my understanding from other posters they they are no longer using them.

I want someone who is convinced that these certificates are at the hotels and not for us to see, to show me where they are getting this information.

Eujeanie

kryten, forgot to say thank you for your help, too. I guess I will have to call. However, I've realized most of you are from the UK who can do it on-line, I wonder if that has anything to do with it? I've also tried different browsers. I just hate calling, like to do everything myself.

stifle

There are no physical certificates, but there does appear to be electronic certificates. Not unlike the transition from paper to electronic tickets in aviation.

birdyy

How do we know that??? Yes, they used to use them, but from what I have heard from a few other members, they aren't used everywhere all the time.

Where are these electronic certificates? I know in the past they were in our accounts with expiration dates, but where are they now?

stifle

They are attached to reservations, just like etickets are attached to plane reservations. The last time I booked a reward stay, there was an ecertificate# in the confirmation mail.

If you don't want to believe me, that's your choice; I'm done trying to convince you.

ukinny2000

They are using certificates. As I understand it in the case of GLON awards they are generated automatically when you do the booking, but in the case of AXON they are generated manually by the phone rep, and then again manually attached to the reservation. As an example, when I booked an AXON award I got this email from HHonors:

Reward Certificate ID: xxxxxxxxx
Issue Date: 21-Feb-2013
Expiration Date: 21-Feb-2014

Can I hand-on-heart say that I have first-hand knowledge that the hotels are checking the certificates upon check-in? No. What I do know is that the last Diamond desk CSR I spoke to told me in no uncertain terms that upon check-in for a reservation beyond the expiry date of a certificate, the hotel would see an expired certificate, call HH, and at that point the person checking in would be given a choice of paying the point difference or not being allowed to check-in.

I don't know if she was correct in her assessment, but what I do know is that
a) I would not want to risk booking > 1 year out, and
b) Just what a clausterfooken HH has created with the devaluation, poor IT systems, lack of information about what will happen to AXON post-deval (yes, they're staying, but at what rates and for which categories is as yet unknown, and apparently will remain that way until after Mar28), etc...

I am just glad I am almost done burning my points!