Unique situation cost me the 60th eligible night 30K milestone bonus
 

So, I had a unique situation that cost me the Hilton 60 night Milestone bonus (30,000 bonus points). I had a trip scheduled for Las Vegas during the second week of December 2019 and chose to stay at the Waldorf to make sure I hit the 60 night Milestone. Well, a couple days before the trip, my work informed my that I would need to be in a different city during the first night of my planned vacation. So I flew to LAS a day early as I had my girlfriend with me, to make sure I got her checked in and then I would depart for SFO for the night and return the next day. I decided to book the extra night at the Hilton Tropicana as it was cheap. I land in LAS, check her in to hotel for the night and then fly to SFO. Once in SFO, I check into Embassy Suites for the night and then my meeting the next day. After which, I fly back to LAS and we then check in to the Waldorf as we had originally planed. I get the notice on my Hilton App that I've crossed the 60 night threshold and made the bonus, but it never posts. After contacting Hilton twice, I get a response "Your stays are overlapping stays which is not considered towards milestone bonus as per the policy.".
The app or my profile never updated until Jan 1st, so I thought I was good, but Hilton is now claiming that I only had 57 nights and not 61. Each of my stays was legitimate, do I have a case to stand by here?
I checked the rules (after, not before this) and it does state: "Members will only receive credit for the nights stayed for one room, not multiple rooms booked for the same duration by the same Hilton Honors Member.".
I would have thought for legitimate stays you wouldn't get penalized, but I guess I was wrong.

You can only receive one night credit each night regardless of the number of rooms you book at one hotel or multiple hotels. This has been the policy for as long as I can remember.
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hilt...e-rooms-2.html
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hilt...same-city.html
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hilt...-question.html
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hilt...ervations.html

You can always ask Hilton to make an exception or otherwise seek some consideration Hilton has been having with the stay counter counting non-qualifying nights.
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hilt...-bonus-12.html
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hilt...-supposed.html

This is not unique in the least. It happens routinely and that is why the rule is what it is. Not sure what a "legitimate" stay is, but that is not the point.

Agreed that your best bet is to approach HH hat in hand with a much shorter and to the point explanation. Keep it to three short sentences and someone might read it. Don't hold your breath for a positive answer though.

I’m confused. It sounds like there was only one night where you had two rooms booked - the night you checked your SO into the Tropicana, and then you flew to SFO and stayed in the Embassy Suites. Then the next day, you returned to LAS and checked into the WA. The entire time you were at the WA, you had no other rooms booked elsewhere.

Is that right? If so, you should still get credit for the entire WA stay, so I don’t see how you come up 4 nights short. If there were only two overlapping 1-night stays, that’s the only portion which should be in question. So I can see them saying you should have 60 nights and not 61... but I don’t understand where 57 comes from.

Not unique at all, but unfortunately a bit dumb to book 2 Hiltons for the same night when you apparently have Marriott status as well.

But I can't see why the longer Waldorf stay was a problem, since that didn't overlap.

Even if the stays are simultaneous or overlapping, the nights from the longer stay should count. I can't imagine this is working as intended and the response from customer service is disappointing.

You are exactly correct. I booked Tropicana and Embassy Suites on the same night, not realizing this would cause a problem as it was two separate cities. Then Waldorf was it's own, so I feel I should be credited with that stay.

I actually didn't realize this was a rule. I was aware they frown upon checking in/checking out/checking in consecutive nights at the same property. But in this case, I needed two rooms in two different places. I booked both with Hilton as Tropicana was priced well, and I like the embassy @ SFO.

Thanks for the advice, I have reached out again to HH. By "legitimate", I was meaning to imply that I just ran into a position where I needed two different rooms in different cities on the same night. Should you really be punished for loyalty?

That is the wrong question. Do not even have it in the back of your mind when you speak.

The rules are simple. No more than one credit per night. Period.

Well... YOU didn't need a room in Las Vegas. Your girlfriend did, and could easily have booked the room under her own name. Except you were trying to allow somebody else to take advantage of your elite benefits she wouldn't otherwise be entitled to...

Your motivation is common and I don't think it's a big deal, especially if the elite member is there for check-in. But for future reference you should never be booked into two hotels from the same chain at once. You won't get double credit and it looks dodgy.

This is true, I just didn't look at it from this perspective, but makes perfect sense. And sadly, in Las Vegas at the Tropicana, there really isn't any great elite benefit, lol. Though she did enjoy the room, so no complaints there.

You are correct. Lesson learned.

They don't frown upon that. The nights just get linked so that they only count as one stay.

Even this scenario would be ok, instead of not counting any night credit as they've done.