domicone

This is nonsense. I just sent my second message to Hhonors. This year I had 239,000 base points and over a hundred stays. I saw the (later) comment that this may be disappearing in 2015. It's too late. You're losing my business.

stimpy

I think the main point is that no other hotel website (nor airline, nor car rental site that I'm aware of) engages in this nonsense. Talking about Ticketmaster or NY EZpass isn't really germane here.

Hilton is in competition with Starwood, IHG, Marriott, Hyatt, Accor, etc. None of those chains force us to deal with Captcha.

falizzadro

What do you do if you're a robot?

CMK10

Kill all humans, probably.

beltway

On the plus side, that means greater award availability and--once SkyNet takes over the HHonors program--more rational decisionmaknig about program benefits.

sdsearch

Leave the box unchecked, obviously!

Howste

I still need an answer for when I log in with an android...

sdsearch

It's you doing the logging in, not your phone.

And "i-phone" could be construed as a non-human also ("you human, I phone"). So could a bunch of "Windows". As well as a "Mac" (whether meaning a raincoat or a truck or macaroni or a type of apple fruit).

So if you think about it, just about everything you can log in with is named after something not quite human.

But it's who is doing loggin in, not what they're logging in with, that matters.

So the answer is very simple: If you (the person logging in on whatever device) are not a robot, check the box. (And, btw, if you are a robot, you're writing the best robot posts I've ever seen! Congratulations! )

Howste

Thank you, I think. I'm not sure what a beset robot post is, but it sure sounds like a compliment.

docbert

This is Google continually improving their CAPTCHA system. Basically it's now a risk-based system, where they base the decision on how hard to make you work based on history, location, and a likely a number of other things.

eg, Go to the Hilton website and attempt to login, and you'll likely get the simple tick-box. But then open a new in-private browser window and do the same thing again - you'll probably get a more complex test (after ticking the box) as the in-private browsing means no history.

Hilton adding this captcha isn't ideal, but given that they had a real reason for adding it (accounts being hijacked and points being stolen) it seems like a good short-term solution to me. Other sites may not to do, but don't be surprised if they start introducing it as many other travel sites are starting to get hit with the same thing - especially those that have relatively insecure logins (eg, Hilton's 4-digit pins)

zar1001

I agree, Captcha is awful!

Eujeanie

I had an interesting one on another site (can't remember where).

They asked "which is bigger?" (I at first tried to type "which is bigger?") until I saw that it was a drop down menu where you had to pick between choices like a pie, a pencil, China, an elephant, etc.

Miesque

This is what it all boils down to, there are HHonors members have had sizable point balances stolen and this is at least some sort of step to further protect accounts (while hopefully they do what is necessary to enhance their systems). I don't have a problem with the number captchas, but the words are quite difficult and appear to be getting worse (well except the Happy New Years that was there yesterday )

At some point over the past few months Delta initiated a third step when signing on and that is after your enter your passcode a new field pops up asking for your last name. I assume that is attempting to provide a somewhat similar function to the captcha but is a lot easier on the user. I personally think Hilton could improve things just re-engineering the way you sign on to have to be a password that is a lot more secure than a 4 digit PIN (aka number and letters and one being upper case)

sdsearch

That third step was there much earlier in 2014, and in later 2014 Delta got rid of the PIN completely and required you to create a password and use that from now on.

If you haven't been to Delta.com in many months, I don't koow if they will let you log in one last time with a PIN or not. But even if they will let you do it one last time, they will require you to create a password on the spot.

bldr1k

They just made this far worse today. I tried 10 times to logon and I can't even read the recaptcha text. At least last week it was readable.

HILTON -- THE IS A COMPLETE JOKE. YOU HAVE MADE YOUR WEBSITE USELESS !

I am astounded how these major companies have no commitment to IT security and have to implement these hacks. Every one of them should fire their CIO (or the CFO if he is the one preventing the CIO for spending what is required to secure their IT infrastructure).