Gloucesterman

Just to clarify.... people have been told the deadline is both March 1 and March 9?
And this is only to book? - Not to complete stay?


I think I am done with hotels.com- always had somewhat shady promotions- (e.g. mail in rebate that never came). Just looked at booking Seoul (Hilton) with them and their tax and fees are MORE THAN DOUBLE others' (e.g. expedia)... looks like that will be how they plan to finance their rewards program.

dtefnut

You have to book your $400 limit hotels by MARCH 1st but can use it at a later date. Not sure why March 1st and not March 9th when the new rules take effect, although I assume most people will miss the March 1st deadline and Hotels.com will save a lot of money. You're right, they're quite shady at times. I've also never received "Hotel Bucks" in the mail as promised. But the question is...what is the next best hotels program to join if you're not loyal to one chain???

LWPV23

I'm a FiveStar member through hotels.com Welcome Rewards. I've called and emailed several times, to clarify, after reading this thread. Every single time, I've been told that the deadline to book under the old "$400 rules" is March 9th at midnight (so book on March 8th or before).

Here's the email I received from James H - FiveStar account rep:

To answer your question, anything that you book before March 9th will be under the old terms ($400 per night) even if the stay is future dated e.g. summer 2010. On the other hand, anything that you book after March 9th will be under the new terms (average dollar amount). The points will not disappear on March 9th but the value of the points will change.

skirkby

Just a little update.
I just recently cancelled two reward bookings and was wondering why the reward credits didn't return to my account (been waiting since March 1 and I had no problems just few days earlier).

Upon calling customer service they appoligized that some parts of the new program was rolled out "a little too early" and that refunds would now take 72 hours (or more). I mentioned that the FAQ still says "If you cancel a reward night reservation within the property''s cancelation window, then the welcomerewards credits will be returned to your account within 24 hours" - that part obviously has yet to be updated.

He would notify his manager and put an alert on the request - hopefully the points will make it into my account before March 9

My best recommendation right now would be - book on or before March 8 but DO NOT CANCEL any existing reward reservations at this point.

jmschn

Thanks for providing an update! This is good to know in case I see a more enticing offer before 3/9

skirkby

Received an email 12 hours ago saying that "points for this reservation has been credited back to your account. We apologize for the inconvenience"

Still no reply on my second cancellation - and still no points on my account for any of them despite numerous phone calls, emails and contact forms.

I bet the points will be back on my account 2 minutes after midnight on March 9 (and very conveniently 50-70% devalued with the new fancy program rules)

skirkby

Called them again today and was finally able to get my welcomereward credits back. Just made it in time for the March 8 deadline so I could make some very cool Shangri-La Singapore bookings instead (Horizon Club Premier Room - 72 sqm / 775 square feet).

LWPV23

I have booked rooms with all of my existing credits, except for two.

I can't decide what to do with these last two rooms...

jmschn

Booked my only free night for Las Vegas on my birthday =D

dakid23

Booked it last night ST. Louis 4 Season here i come!

wads

got my last stay credited back about 8 last night,


booked within the hour, it was a good ride, have to see how to optimize the new program

I_Sue_Debt_Collectors

Unfortunately, I missed the deadline to use my free nights. I got the email back in January saying they were going to change the rules, but I could swear that I read the T&C and it said that if you earned the free nights prior to the change then you would still get the $400 max value. Which is why I didnt worry about it, until yesterday when I went to book a free night. $400 in value down to $120.

Does anyone else remember seeing anything about the T&C's or am I just going crazy and not remembering it correctly?

Also has anyone had any luck in getting them to give you the $400 value?

mrkymark

that's why i studied the t&c's to the last period.

unfortuantely hotels.com has the legal standing on this one.

they put out the word early and the deadline was 3/9/10.

akbans

Hotels.com just sent out an email survey asking about its rewards program. I think this is an excellent opportunity to really tell Hotels.com how much we approve/disapprove of its new policy.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?s...1U_2bYrQ_3d_3d

pshuang

First, like others, I'm disappointed at the change in the welcomerewards program. But the previous program T&C's were simply unsustainable, and I think the new T&C's are sustainable, and it really is quite simple and straightforward. The new T&C's are not as lucrative as individual hotel chain programs when promotions are taken into account, for dedicated FT'ers willing to make the effort to really work those other programs. But welcomerewards is still an excellent backup for when your favored chain just doesn't have a property reasonably near where you're going or for anywhere near what you consider a reasonable price, even considering elite program and promotional earning benefits. I think they could have and should have given us more time than they did to redeem under the old T&C's, but they gave us enough time that I'm not furious about it, just disappointed.

I do want to know if anybody else has carefully done the math on the value of their new award nights and found significant disparity. I created a spreadsheet to track the average price per night for my 32 nights that qualify for earning welcomerewards credits, as listed on on the welcomerewards activity summary Web page. I am finding that the value of my free nights are significantly off:

My 1st night is listed as worth $141, should be $175.
My 2nd night is listed as worth $142, should be $206.
My 3rd night is listed as worth $105, should be $129.

Is this the case for anybody else? I note that the average price per night as listed on the activity Web page appears to correctly take into account any multi-night or other special sale discounts, and so represents what I actually paid, vs. what I see when clicking through to view the old reservations which sometimes show an un-discounted price for each night. The average price per night listed also already excludes taxes & hotels.com service fees, which would not count as value toward a reward night.