Comments on: Double trouble with my hotel points

By: MORT HERMAN

MORT HERMAN — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 11:31:47 +0000

O.K. I AM CONVINCED. HILTON IS OFF MY STAY LIST JOINING MY DO NOT FLY AIRLINE LIST. WOW! MY LIST IS GETTING TO LOOK LIKE THE MANHATTAN TELEPHONE DIRECTORY. (AN EXAGERATION BUT…..)

By: Noah

Noah — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 21:21:23 +0000

“So by failing to put the points in your account, Hilton wasn’t violating its own terms.”

Not necessarily. Most likely, a court would read this agreement to require that Hilton deposit the points in a reasonable amount of time. Eight months is almost certainly not reasonable.

By: FL Traveler

FL Traveler — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 04:53:41 +0000

I, too, have become disillusoned of late with the HH program although not for the extensive reason this traveler has. Only recently did I become aware (by means of an email) that if you don’t earn points in any 12 consecutive months, you could lose everything. Actually it said I WOULD lose everything. When I went back and checked, they failed to credit me 1 hotel stay and 1 (partner) car rental this past may. The would greatly effect the 12-month standing of the accoun time-wise. So far, I have been unable to fix the problem. I am not much concerned about the small amount of points I am missing but rather the loss of everything else due to supposed “none use.” Here’s hoping . . . .

By: Anne

Anne — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 14:13:10 +0000

Phone calls don’t always work as well because the person you are talking with may not be the person who will implement the solution. The customer service agent will probably put in a routine request that X points be credited to your account and then it goes off to the points department and gets shuffled in the file. Your rank and file agent lacks the power to stamp things “urgent” as a general rule. But, a letter can be faxed, copied and taped to the doors of the people who can turn the wheels faster. A second-hand message just isn’t as powerful as direct communication. I used to call the points-people for my hotel chain all the time on behalf of guests. They would hem and haw and explain it would take days or weeks. If I handed that phone to the guest the agent would magically find a way that took only minutes. It just didn’t seem urgent until they could hear the guest’s difficulty personally. They handle hundreds of problems a day but you need to be able to keep the issue fresh and your tone under control. A letter or email is perfect for that.

By: Jim F

Jim F — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 15:10:51 +0000

“I think this might have gone smoother if you’d taken a moment to compose a short, cordial note and sent it to Hilton. A written request is far more difficult for a travel company to ignore.”

While I agree that writing a letter helps, I just don’t understand why phone calls asking to resolve the problem don’t work. If after making 2,3 or 4 calls and everyone is in agreement that there is a problem and it will be fixed, why isn’t that enough? A letter shouldn’t be necessary if the problem is acknowledged by all. Most phone calls are taped so the company just needs to listen to the tapes to find out how their own people said they would resolve the problem.

By: Carver Farrow

Carver Farrow — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 13:25:58 +0000

@MarkeieA

I think that’s a bit harsh. I don’t believe that Hilton Corporate is trying to screw someone out of a few thousand points. You’d be amazed at how incompetent corporate divisions can be.

By: MarkieA

MarkieA — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 00:58:24 +0000

Again, just another example of one of these places trying to rip someone off and not getting away with it ONLY BECAUSE THEY WERE ABOUT TO BE EXPOSED BY A NATIONALLY SYNDICATED COLUMNIST. How many times have they gotten away with this and not been called to task?

Vote with your wallets folks. If something like this happens to you and you call to explain, and they fix it. Yeah, it’s an honest mistake. If they don’t fix it within a reasonable amount of time, it’s not a glitch in the computer system, it’s not an assistant manager who was unfamiliar with corporate policy; it was a concerted effort to screw you over in the hopes that you’ll get frustrated and give up. Your best revenge is to stop patronizing their business and let all your friends know about it.

By: Charles L Ruffner

Charles L Ruffner — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 18:40:09 +0000

American Airlines offered a 30% bonus if you purchased miles in a promotion that ended June 30. My wife and I each purchased 40,000 Aadvantage Miles. The offer specified that the miles would be posted to our accounts “within 6 to 8 weeks after the promotion ended.” 56 days after June 30 was August 25. I called them yesterday, August 28, and was told by customer service that they “thought” the miles “might” be posted in a week or so. And I am a lifetime gold member with AA too!

By: Steve Surjaputra

Steve Surjaputra — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 13:51:07 +0000

You’re absolutely right about writing, Chris. I had a problem with the Hilton in Seattle. I was staying there using my points. I left a Discover card at the front desk for incidentals. When I checked out, my folio showed a charge to my card for a mini-bar charge. There was no mini-bar in my room and the front desk said they’d take care of it. When I got home and looked at my folio again, they charged me the entire stay even though I was using my points.

I wrote a letter to Hilton Corporate and the manager at the Hilton Seattle property took care of the whole thing for me.