Hilton not accepting UA after midnight
 

Just posted:

United Mileage Plus® / Hilton HHonors Reward Exchange Suspended
Effective immediately, requests to exchange United Mileage Plus miles for Hilton HHonors points and HHonors points for Mileage Plus miles through the HHonors Reward Exchange will not be accommodated. Exchange requests received by the Hilton HHonors Customer Service Center prior to 12:01 am Central Standard Time on March 21, 2003 will be processed, and no further exchanges will be accepted. We apologize for this situation.
st posted on the Hilton site...

Hilton supervisor said that you can initiate a change with United until midnight.

the phone will be busy.

new to this forum,
redeeming

redeeming --
What a great contribution for a first post.
Welcome to Flyer Talk.

Dont kill the messanger
I'm glad to know this and this was the first I've heard of it

This had been my escape route for my MP miles when it was looking like UA would go Ch. 7. Fortunately I was able to get through on the phone to MP immediately. The rep I spoke with said he had had lots of HHonors redemptions this afternoon. Miles usually transfer on the 5th and 20th, so they should go over tonight.

Thanks again to redeeming.

I was not intending to be sarcastic at all. I was quite sincere (as you can see from my 2nd post above).

Talk about programs being able to make changes at any time, without notice. This truly takes the cake.

Although I guess its Hilton just playing self-defense.

Not the kind of confidence-builder that UA seems to really need right now.


What does Hilton know that the rest of us don't know yet ......hmmmmmmmmmmmm?!

redeeming, thank you, thank you, thank you. I was planning to transfer in the next few days but your post expedited it. I already hold an ALON, but was planning another trip to Monterey later in the year and needed more HH points to accomplish this. The CS rep I spoke to was reading this off the ticker when I called. As was said earlier, great first post & welcome to FlyerTalk. There will be a lot of angry folks tomorrow.

The 6 people working at Hilton Honors that I was bounced around to and from were very surprised also. I had to help the supervisor find it on the internet...then I sat on hold...praying for my 30000 miles in transition from United. She definitely encouraged me that they would be honored!!!!!!!!!

Thank you for making us aware of this important change. I was able to call UAL at(800)421-4655 and spoke with an operator without waiting and transfered some miles to points.

Great catch. Thanks for the heads up.

Thanks redeeming! I just moved all UA miles to HHonors for the entire family. Just this morning I was considering this move and decided to stay put for a while, but this motivated me to do it now. Where did you find this on the website? Could you post the link? I hope United doesn't join Pan Am and TWA, but I couldn't take a chance. Thanks again and welcome to FT.

It is
http://www.hiltonhhonors.com/

Bad information in this message deleted. My apologies.

[This message has been edited by BBRebozo (edited 03-20-2003).]

When you open the www.hiltonhhonors.com

it is on the right top .

You can't possibly miss it; it's right there on the Hilton Honors home page.

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Vasant

[Edited for typo]

[This message has been edited by vasantn (edited 03-20-2003).]

Thanks redeeming. I have the HHonors logon page bookmarked so I bypassed the main page. This mileage situation is almost as bad as my retirement accounts the past few years. I'm sure the Latin Pass million mile run gave me more than a few gray hairs. Now United. It just goes to prove the only thing constant in life is change.

I spoke with the CS rep at United tonight. I am in a pinch. I have 3500 orphaned UA miles and I had already completed three stays in the last two weeks where I chose UA as my partner airline to get the 500 miles out.

I inquired if I could put in an order pending the posting (which she said was impossible). She did say, though, that it appears that the halt was started by Hilton and they were overwhelmed with requests for transfers based on rumors of liquidation. She said that they weren't sure whether this was a final change in policy or simply a stopgap to catch-up on the pending requests.

Thanks for the heads up. I just transfered my United miles was was pleasantly surprised to learn I got two for one.

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Given the volume of transfers that have been initiated, and since there is no written confirmation that the customer receives, I suggest you do what I did: ask the (very nice) CSR for his name and file number and location. I did so and he gladly told me his first name, file number, and the MP call center he was in. I said that I hoped to never have to use that information to track something gone awry, but better safe than sorry.

(He also said that indeed MP was getting "slammed" today and that so far the largest transfer was 500,000 UA miles. He said "folks must be reading this on the internet somewhere" http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif )

just transferred 60k miles to Hhonors - no hold time on the Mileage Plus line, and the CSR said "yeah (laugh) we're getting a lot of these tonight."

When I called to do two transferes the rep told me they had received so many calls today and wondered where I got the information. I told him it was a secret (shhh).

Here's another tip. My mom's account was short by 300 miles. I asked if I could buy some miles (I knew I could but only in increments of 1000) or could the rep do a customer service credit. I acted as if I didn't know about the cut off (this was my second call to them). I asked very nicely and the rep was kind enough to add those 300 points. I was surprised but happy to be able to tranfer those last 5,000 miles. It never hurts to ask.

Thanks so much for this post. I just picked up 30,000 hilton points that I was planning on transferring later. They would have been stuck in United as orphan miles.

Always a good idea, of course, but my transfer was viewable immediately on ual.com, too.

THANK YOU!
I had transferred 70k yesterday, but just transferred the other 75k upon reading this post.

FLYERTALK RULES!

Talk about scummy of Hilton to do with no notice....

I figured on hitting my next 5k in a few weeks. They may be worthless now. I certainly won't work hard to earn more.

JP

I don't blame Hilton. I'm sure we'll find out soon why this decision to quit accepting United miles was done quickly compared to the much longer time between the announcement and the deadline to quit accepting DL transfers. I transferred 50K DL miles when they quit accepting DL miles in Feb. I was fortunate enough to be reading this forum at 11:15pm, I just transferred 45K miles and will end up orphaning 3K.

Thanks FT!

Thank you. I just transfered my last 30,000.

1. Agree it was outrageously short notice from Hilton - note many UA staffers do not YET know about this so it was for sure HH pulling this plug with only a few hours notice.

2. There will be many FURIOUS Mileage Plus members tomorrow and in the days to come.

3. I always think posting something that affects lots of FT'ers is good on Miles Buzz even if it was in HH and UA forums. The proof is in the pudding - more posts on this here than anything in HH Forum. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

4. There is precisely 53 minutes left to do this folks, and thereafter the Hilton door looks like it is closed. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

5. This one might have even caught Randy by surprise? That is VERY hard to do, so maybe he already knew? Anyways He was cautioning just 2 days back not to rush into a HH transfer as the 'value' of points when in there is nowhere near as good as airline awards. (I totally agree).

6. This little incident gave me a wake-up call and today I am buying Randy's Award Guard insurance today.

7. Hilton pulled the Delta transfers only weeks back. Wonder if other airlines will be next? Could just be that Hilton thinks 2 for 1 transfers are not in their best interests anymore?

Just moved a bunch of my miles. Is the partnership with Amtrak Guest Rewards still in effect?

Thanks everyone, just off the phone with united - 19 minutes to go:

20-Mar-03 MILE TRANSFER TO HILTON HONORS -100000 -100000

Thank you very much for this info, which I received just in the nick of time! The CSR I spoke to at UA did not seem too pleased, barking off a snide comment that I couldn't transfer them back. I have an SK EB account which will now become my primary *A account. And I will have a nice, long vacation at a Hilton property!

Thanks again!

diana, I must have talked with that same rep... or at least one in the same foul mood. She also told me "you know we're not going out of business ma'am". I said fine... but I just want to be safe!

"2. There will be many FURIOUS Mileage Plus members tomorrow and in the days to come."

For sure... but there's no point as it's too late now. There was what? all of six hours notice? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

FewMiles..

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Yeah, I got that same one. Very snide, very rude. I said, "I feel bad for UA at this point," and after my explanation, she said, "yeah, everyone is listinging to all sorts of incorrect information that UA is going out of business, which it's not. Hilton is doing this because they've been hit with too many requests lately. This is only making it worse." She was quite snippy in her tone of voice and her comments.

About half the MP people I have talked to lately are snippy. One hung up on me and I had only begun my conversation and was quite polite in asking about an award. If United wants to continue it needs to snap these employees to attention. Unfortunately, if you don't have a name, you can even report them. One supervisor in Seattle had me fax her a letter and has not responded to me in two days. Good grief. What are they thinking? Alas, I was busy this afternoon and missed the opportunity to make a transfer. To add insult to injury, Chris at [email protected], in the process of correcting my account, locked me out of it. I have no idea what she did but I cannot get my PIN to work and even the one they say is mine (an old one) comes up with an error message. This happened to me about a year ago and took Adam Burke to fix it. Soooo, no MP, no HHonors. Guess I am staying home!

One simple question: why the panic?

Rather than suffering the devaluation, I'm burning my points on award travel and upgrades.

I proceed under the assumption that UA will be around for at least six months (enough to drain my miles), and that even if not, my current status and continued flying UA will get me ahead with another carrier.

I suspect the reason why they discontinued it was because too many UA MP customers were transferring to HH. HH hadn't realised how many redemptions would come through and now have a huge liability of HH points which they have to cover off.

Rather than let this continue like this, particularly with uncertainty over UA whilst it is in Ch.11, they probably decided to 'suspend' the service until further notice. Further notice probably being until there is further clarity of the future stability of UA before more people panic and do the transfers.

Not such a bad idea afterall, but having been one who was *severely* burnt with Ansett GR, I would urge FT'ers to burn your miles on UA or do something with them, maybe i'm being too cautious, but after what happened with Ansett, I don't feel comfortable about any hints of insolvency or even a Ch.11 filing. If I had UA miles, I'd be doing the same or using it (probably to the detriment and harm of the airline realising the points, especially if lots of people did it), but on the other hand, I want to protect my bottom and the value I have rightfully earnt in that program.

Very interesting.

I tried to transfer 70,000 MP miles to my HH account around a month ago. I asked for a 'receipt' and was told that was not possible. Yesterday morning, first day back in the office after 3 weeks vacation, found there was no change to either my HH balance or my MP balance so I rang again to transfer again. No receipt again but was told my MP balance should refelct the transfer immediately. This morning, having been amazed at this thread, I chacked my MP balance and it HAS been reduced by 70,000, so there is a way of checking the success of any requested transfer.

Phew!

[This message has been edited by gbogo (edited 03-21-2003).]

I moved 275,000 UAL miles a couple of days ago. I was 10 miles short of moving another 5,000 and asked the agent if it was possible to get a courtesy credit of the 10 miles. I was told "of course NOT".

I wish I would have known about the Delta miles transfer ending. I have about 300,000 of them I wanted to move also.

IMHO, I don't blame Hilton for it. It is the "payee" when miles are converted into points and the "payer" when the reverse happens.

Its not the volume that is of concern to Hilton. IMHO, Hilton does not believe that UA would exist as a company when the accounts are settled between them the next time.

6 months notice is a norm but these are not normal times. If I had my finger on the button at HHonors, I would have done the same.


[This message has been edited by Bourne (edited 03-21-2003).]