Hard Copy v. Electronic Dcumentation - what do you do?

[mannej]

E-copies are great until you crack the LCD part of your smartphone screen

I guess one rotten egg can spoil it all...

 

[serfty]

Re: How do Hilton treat you as an Elite?

...
I live in Bris. - why would I bring a hard copy of reservation on short trip to Melb!

Last year checking into the Mecure Sydney Airport hotel (old Hilton) they could not find my booking, and indeed, they were "booked out".

On production of the printout they found my booking under "another name" ... I could have dug the booking up on my netbook after booting it (No smartphone for me then) but it only took a few seconds to dig up the hard copy.

 

[munitalP]

Sorry to have a WHINGE in this section but:

HSW
Gold
Last Fri to Tues
$214/night Great Getaway
Poor customer service and rude reception staff (they lost our booking and tried turning us away)
No upgrade ('apparently' due to a convention on that weekend)
First and last time at this hotel
Time to give Accor or Starwood a go...

This morning received an explanation (via email) from Customer Care Texas USA “a system error with hotel bookings” no other explanation or apology given.
I have 427,000 HHonors points – can anyone recommend an airline partner etc. whereby I can transfer the points before I cancel my account with Hilton.
Ps I have an AMEX Plat. Card and been busy signing up with Le Club Accor Hotels and received Platinum status, IHG Priority Club Rewards and received Gold status and Starwood SPG and received Gold status and haven’t even stayed one night yet.
No more LOYALTY or HHORRORS for me.

In my experience, I have found HSW check in a little hohum with no real coordination in keeping the HH line free for HH Guests and/or no dedicated receptionist - especially noticeable on a Sunday morning, however in saying that, I think that HSW is the best Hilton in Australia with Adelaide following a close second.

You are not guaranteed an upgrade as a Gold HH member - having that many HH points, you should know this as I'm guessing you have stayed in a few Hiltons, so I don't know why that would get your nose out of joint - like a seat on a plane, you get what you pay for and anything else is just a bonus.

If you head into the Accor programme expecting NOTHING, you are going to be extremely satisfied. But if you think that Accor Platinum is something special, it's not. Rest assured, your HH Gold is worth 100 times more IMHO than anything Accor offers. Starwood - I cant comment as I don't stay in their properties.

 

[Major]

Re: How do Hilton treat you as an Elite?

I always take a paper copy of E Ticket, hotel res,rental car booking or other event booking.

If there is a problem it's just so easy to produce the piece of paper from my briefcase and thrust it into the disbeliever's hands

 

[RB]

Re: How do Hilton treat you as an Elite?

The world will most probably change rapidly with respect to this, but I always try to have printed e-tix, reservations etc. ready on hand.

If anything, most customs or the like around the world have a propensity not to look kindly on you if you start to fire up your electronic device in their presence when needing to produce documentation.

I know that, for example, Deutsche Bahn (German rail company) will only accept printed tickets on board (unless they've recently changed their rules). They expressly say that an electronic copy shown on a device (laptop, iPad etc.) is unacceptable.

Yep that is still the case with Deutsche Bahn

 

[ksthommo]

Re: How do Hilton treat you as an Elite?

Electronic for me, transfer my Outlook Email PST backup to the Iphone/Ipad, paid the cash
for the application Pst Mail for iPhone.

 

[Fantic125]

Re: How do Hilton treat you as an Elite?

I usually have a paper copy of all my reservations, bookings and transfer details on me, preferably in both English and native language (particularly in China, Taiwan & Korea).

Apart from evidence of bookings, etc, I find it useful for taxi drivers, directions, etc.

I also keep pdf copies both in my tablet and as attachments in my blackberry calendar.

 

[drron]

This morning received an explanation (via email) from Customer Care Texas USA “a system error with hotel bookings” no other explanation or apology given.
I have 427,000 HHonors points – can anyone recommend an airline partner etc. whereby I can transfer the points before I cancel my account with Hilton.
Ps I have an AMEX Plat. Card and been busy signing up with Le Club Accor Hotels and received Platinum status, IHG Priority Club Rewards and received Gold status and Starwood SPG and received Gold status and haven’t even stayed one night yet.
No more LOYALTY or HHORRORS for me.

Sorry but you are basically stuck with them.Very few airline partners now though you can transfer to Virgin Atlantic.They dont show conversion rates.When I was looking at getting my AA LTP it was ~100000 hh points=~17500 miles.However you now cant transfer to any major FF program.
This is where SPG has it all over Hilton.20000 SPG points=25000 miles on a lot of programs including AA,SQ,US.
PS-you can also transfer your Amex points to SPG.

 

[trblvb]

In my experience, I have found HSW check in a little hohum with no real coordination in keeping the HH line free for HH Guests and/or no dedicated receptionist - especially noticeable on a Sunday morning, however in saying that, I think that HSW is the best Hilton in Australia with Adelaide following a close second.

You are not guaranteed an upgrade as a Gold HH member - having that many HH points, you should know this as I'm guessing you have stayed in a few Hiltons, so I don't know why that would get your nose out of joint - like a seat on a plane, you get what you pay for and anything else is just a bonus.

If you head into the Accor programme expecting NOTHING, you are going to be extremely satisfied. But if you think that Accor Platinum is something special, it's not. Rest assured, your HH Gold is worth 100 times more IMHO than anything Accor offers. Starwood - I cant comment as I don't stay in their properties.

No expectation of an upgrade - I know how it works, so no "nose out of joint" for this. I only expected minimal customer service from this international hotel chain. Remember the paying customer is always right.

 

[simongr]

I only ever print when traveling to Inja - as you can't get into the airport without it...

 

[anat0l]

Remember the paying customer is always right.

I cringe when I see this motto, because it just simply is not correct (read: it is not correct all of the time).

That said and done, if you are looking at an alternative, your best one would be Starwood in my opinion. You won't find many of their properties in Australia unfortunately. (That is where your IHG membership will be most valuable, but given most of the Australian IHG properties are Holiday Inns, don't expect too much).

To be honest, in my experience, I expect less out of the IHG chain than I do out of Hilton. That said, each has its place in my hotel stay portfolio.

 

[codash1099]

Being an old fashioned belt and braces man, I have everything printed, on my iPhone, on my iPad, on Tripit with links from both iPad and iPhone, and all stored online at Google Docs. My kids also have copies of everything.

I am now certain that something will go wrong!!

 

[TonyHancock]

I'm starting to lean towards electronic copies on my iPad, but I think Serfty makes some excellent points.

On Monday I'll be returning to Australia with EY, in J, as a VA Plat. As A QF FF I'm used to wandering up to the F counter and handing my passport & FF card over, I'll probably be printing my itinerary out at the Hilton on Sunday!!!!

 

[Princess Fiona]

I store all my info on Worldmate and travel with paper copies of everything in my hand luggage.
This saved me enormous amounts of grief recently when I was able to show US immigration a copy of my valid ESTA which turned out not to be actually valid on my passport as I had entered the wrong number
If I hadn't had the paper copy the questioning could have become interesting and/or I could have been looking at flying back out of LAX that day.

 

[trippin_the_rift]

Paper copies all the way. I've had too many experiences where it's saved the day... mostly O/S.

 

[11sjw]

Anything beyond an interstate trip and I have hard copies of reservations and flight itineraries (combined if I used a TA to do the bookings) as well as having them emailed to my yahoo account. Similarly for scanned copies of my credit cards (front & back), DL and Passport.

 

[Mal]

Locally rely on electronic tools.
Overseas generally print everything. Flights in particular, have had quite a few "prove who you are flying with" moments.

Have only had one local hotel lose a booking. Very painful but sorted in the end. That was before my quick access mobile days and as a result doesn't affect what I do domestically.
Apps like Tripit cache locally so as long as you have a charged battery things should be OK.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using AustFreqFly

 

[seanpodge]

Re: How do Hilton treat you as an Elite?

Had a two week trek though Europe and only printed out one train ticket. Everything else done with iDevices. Obviously nothing went wrong, but I find it much more convenient than having to manage reams of paper.

I know that, for example, Deutsche Bahn (German rail company) will only accept printed tickets on board (unless they've recently changed their rules). They expressly say that an electronic copy shown on a device (laptop, iPad etc.) is unacceptable.

Yep that is still the case with Deutsche Bahn

Looks like they may have moved on now (for iPhone users at least). App Store - DB Tickets

 

[Blackadder]

Re: How do Hilton treat you as an Elite?

Paper all the way, last o/s trip to the US I am sure a small forest sacrificed itself for all my printouts.

 

[AVC]

Re: How do Hilton treat you as an Elite?

Funnily enough, being a tech-head, I use paper. The info is in the laptop or iThing, but it's a failover, tech likes to fail at the worst possible time. Like standing in line at the fully booked hotel.

We had the need to pull out the paper twice on our trip to LA (read my TR for details)