FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
 

Here is the full response from Aaron, cleaned up from the original reply.

Hi all,

Aaron and I really enjoyed reading through all your posts - it was great to receive such constructive feedback. After reviewing them, we wanted to address a number of the popular topics you raised. Please find Aaron's initial responses below.

Thanks again for participating!
Lauren


--

Hello FlyerTalkers,

I couldn't be more thrilled to be here and to connect with some of our most active members. When Lauren and I initially discussed this Q&A session, we knew there would be some interest. But the outpouring of comments - and your excitement about the future of Hilton HHonors - has truly exceeded our expectations.

Our top priority is to put members first, and at the heart of everything we do here at Hilton. That means we will continue to evolve and grow the program for you - based on your feedback. Through our new brands, new hotels and game-changing digital innovation, we are focused on creating lifelong relationships with our members by delivering exceptional, personalized experiences.

With that in mind, it's been incredible to see all your direct feedback on what's going well and what we can improve.

Hilton HHonors Promotions
Our team has been hard at work over the past year improving our offers and simplifying our approach to Hilton HHonors promotions. Many of you took note and it's great to hear your positive feedback. We've strived to make our promotions simpler, straightforward, asterisk-free, and inclusive of all properties - and it's clearly resonating with you. To keep up the momentum, we've got another promotion coming soon that we think you will enjoy.

Hilton HHonors App
When I joined Hilton, one of the things I was most excited about was our amazing Hilton HHonors app. We love it and based on your comments, so do you! It's amazing to hear all the ways it has improved your stays - whether choosing your own room or going straight to your room with Digital Key. As a road warrior myself, I've become a devoted fan - counting down until check-in time, browsing the floor map for green dots, and then picking my favorite room. We're also excited about more app enhancements coming soon, and the expansion of Digital Key to even more of our hotels across the world.

Gold and Diamond Tier Benefits
We received a lot of feedback on what you most like about each tier and our opportunity to think more about the progression from Gold to Diamond Elite. Our aim is to offer our Gold Elite members a choice of benefits from among the areas you've indicated are most important to you. Our Diamond tier takes these benefits to the next level - from upgrade priority, even more Bonus Points, a dedicated Diamond Desk at our Call Center and our up-to 48-hours room guarantee. That said, we've heard you and will continue to find ways to evolve both elite tiers

Lifetime Diamond
Launching Lifetime Diamond last year was a historic milestone for the program, and our inaugural "Class of 2015" and this year's "Class of 2016"" has shared incredible feedback. We also know that more of you want to achieve this exclusive status. While we are not ready to announce any qualification changes at this point, we are reviewing the status earning criteria with your thoughtful feedback in mind.

Room Upgrades
Complimentary room upgrades are certainly something we spend a lot of time thinking about and working on. We know you want more of them - and so do we. As you might imagine, there are many considerations in awarding upgrades across over 4,660 properties worldwide. But we hear you and will be looking for more and new opportunities to address your suggestions.

Breakfast/Waldorf Astoria MyWay Benefits
Breakfast benefits - whether part of the Hilton HHonors program or a standard offering of our brands - are an important part of our members' stay experiences. As you many of you know, we offer a full or continental breakfast for our Hilton HHonors members at the vast majority of our hotels. That said, we're not at 100% of our brands - namely Waldorf Astoria. While we do offer food and beverage benefits at Waldorf, we understand your perspectives and will be discussing it further with our teams.

Hotels Benefit Delivery
We will continue to focus on how we consistently deliver your Hilton HHonors benefits at each hotel. Our aim is deliver a more consistent, rewarding experience at all hotels by finding new ways to enable and empower our hotel Team Members across the globe. We relentlessly track performance at each hotel and work to quickly address the gaps you share. We also encourage you to provide "in the moment" feedback through the Hilton HHonors app and have our commitment that the hotel will respond rapidly during your stay to make it right. Keep your feedback coming - to the hotels and to us - and we'll keep evolving our approach.

Partnerships
We're proud of our partnerships and the opportunities to redeem Points for exclusive events -- from Live Nation concerts and exclusive artists experience to unprecedented McLaren-Honda VIP access races to rock-star-like access at The GRAMMYs. Glad you are enjoying them too - keep an eye on our auction website as we continue to add once-in-a-lifetime experiences to the mix.

Additional Suggestions
You shared feedback on a number of other areas - some more general and some very specific. We need a bit more time to consider these items, but it's incredibly helpful to know what you value most so we can prioritize accordingly. We'll use these insights for developing future changes to the program.

In closing my first Q&A with you, I'm reminded of what an exciting time it is to be at Hilton. My first job - many years ago! - was at a Hilton hotel. As such, I have a strong emotional attachment to this company and a passion to ensure Hilton HHonors continues to lead the industry. Even more importantly, I'd like to recognize our amazing Hilton HHonors team - the most talented, committed, and enthusiastic people in the business - and the 300,000+ Team Members who deliver exceptional experiences to you, our members, every day.

Warm regards, and I look forward to staying connected.

-Aaron