Points disappear and are not refunded back - new low from Hilton
 

At the beginning of November 2018 I cancelled 2 points stays planned for 2019.

43k Honors points should have been refunded into my account. This didn't happened.

I followed up with Hilton. The only reply is "we are investigating". Followed up with Lauren. Same reply.

Investigation of over 2 month for a simple points refund does not sound reasonable to me. I find this incompetent and customer-unfriendly.

Just wanted to give the community the heads-up on this development of Hilton customer serivce. Not only they don't care, but they are also clueless when something goes wrong in their systems.

Regards,

El Puerco Volante

I had this back in June/July.

As I understand it, a "E-Certificate" is issued by the system to the property hosting you for the value of the point you are redeeming. I assume this is an accounting thing for franchisees can "charge" corporate for reward nights. Normally when you cancel a points or points and money stay the certificate cancels automatically and points so back within two hours. Apparently sometimes the system gets "stuck" and the cert doesn't cancel and then you don't get your points back. I kicked off and customer services "loaned" me the points till they cancelled off several months later.

Your points didn't disappear - you used them.

I've been dealing with a similar issue. I cancelled 2 room @ 300k each on Nov 23rd - both rooms on same reservation. Only received the points back for one room. Contacted Diamond Desk a week later - the agent could see that 600k had been pulled, but only 300k returned. She said she was going to contect hotel (SJU DT) on my behalf to see what they were going to do. That seemed odd, but okay. Received this reply:
​​​​​​Thank you for taking the time to reach out to share your concerns. It was my pleasure to assist you with the concerns you have expressed with your recent stay. We take your feedback very seriously and will do everything possible to resolve your concerns in a satisfactory manner as quickly as possibl
Please allow us 72 business hours to resolve this matter for you.

A few days later, received this e-mail:
Recently you contacted Hilton with your comments regarding your stay at the Doubletree Hotel San Juan, Puerto Rico on January 29, 2019. We understand that the hotel has been in touch with you and we wanted to make sure that your concerns were resolved to your satisfaction.
Please feel free to reply to this message if further assistance is needed.
Thanks for your ongoing loyalty and understanding.

I responded back with a note that matter had not been resovled and I would appreciate help to resolve. Heard.......nothing. Called again on Dec.. 27th, that agent did not understand why hotel had been involved, and opened a case. I believe she said up to 7 - 10 business days to resolve. Five business days, still no points. Hoping I won't need to call again at the end of this week.

I agree with OP that this seems a bit ridiculous.

I posted about this last summer. One time it took 4 HUACA before I got my points back, although I wasn't told (and didn't need to know) it was actually a "loan" until they finished their "investigation" 1 month later.

Avoid cancelling stays on weekends and on the website. App is usually ok although maybe best to do it on the phone - anyone had any problems with points refund when getting an agent to cancel?

Although likely not the cause here, make sure you always read the conditions before booking a points stay.

I was booking a points stay for new years eve and happened to notice just as I was about to click the button to book that the reservation was non-refundable - even though this was a property where points stays are normally refundable until a day or so before checkin.

Marriott got that booking instead...

I guess it's very YMMV. In October had a reservation that cost 280k points. Noticed on the way to the hotel that the reservation had been cancelled. I hadn't cancelled it and it was mid-afternoon so it wasn't like it was cancelled due to a no show. Long story short, I had to rebook using additional points to make sure I had a room for the night (fortunately hotel wasn't sold out). Hotel said they would fix but after a couple of weeks and no points returned I contacted Hilton. At first they said points had been refunded but that was because they saw some redeposits from some reservations I had made setting up the trip and didn't know exact dates, number of rooms needed, etc. Anyway, once I pointed it out to them I had my points back in ~24 hours or less.

So my experience was that mistakes happen but Hilton fixed it relatively quickly and easily.