HH Diamond Desk - loyalty rewarded

[Gold Member]

I rarely write up reviews of my stays across all the various hotels I stay at (let alone HH properties) nor their respective customer service, but I thought I'd share this experience with you relating to how I was treated by the HH Diamond Desk last night.

Prior to the infamous HH points devaluation which took effect at the beginning of this month, I exhausted most of my points on 5 nights at the Conrad Maldives for March next year (200,000 points then - Now 475,000). I was watching Etihad First Class availability to/from AUH/MLE and seeking to book at the earliest possible moment close to 330 days out (via AA points redemption - 45K Biz, 60K First, one-way). Long story short, I get held up with work for a week or two and wasn't able to spend any time on my travel arrangements and of course by the time I came back to check FCL availability with AA on the Etihad flights I wanted, they were all gone. Furthermore, on one of the long-haul legs there wasn't even Business class availability - I was ready to cancel my Maldives trip if I couldn't fly at least Business the entire journey. But I thought I'd try HH first and see if they could do anything WRT to moving my reservation to different dates or adding an extra night (at the old points redemption rate - wishful thinking).

I explained my circumstances to the CSR and confirmed that I could see standard Beach Villa availability for the night prior to my original reservation, albeit at 95,000 points. I had only ~35K points balance left in my account and was advised that I did not have enough points to make the award booking under the new points scheme. I asked if there was anything that they could do for me as a loyal Diamond HH member (thank you Virgin HH Diamond status gifting) given that I'd just booked my non refundable flights that saw me landing 1 day earlier (which I hadn't). After being put on hold for 5 minutes, to my amazement the CSR came back and reported that a new award reservation had been made for the preceding night at 95,000 points. The CSR deposited 60,000 points into my account, gratis, took 35K HH points from my account, and confirmed the reservation.

So I now have a 6 night reservation at the Conrad Maldives that matches my new AA award booking with Etihad which is now all in Business Class. EF alerts set for FCL availability if and when it opens up.

Very pleased to share with you all that the HH Diamond Desk does look after their Diamond members!

 

[Cynicor]

My story is pretty much the opposite. Had a booking for 10 nights under old points scheme but tried to change it to 6 nights. They system was broken (as usual) and my points and booking went into the ether. Multiple patronising emails to me and promises to credit the points and receive nothing until after the devaluation. Then get a final denial on the rewards stay so I'll have to pay double.

Hilton have pretty much lost my business after this year. I will continue staying this year as I am a diamond (on actual qualifying criteria, no less!) because it will be cheaper than moving all my stays to SPG but after March 2015 I can't see myself staying. 2014 will be points burning time.

 

[Sprucegoose]

Good news.

I double booked in the states as a diamond on a no refundable deal, they couldn't do anything.

Hotel loyalty is scratchy at best. Save your money and buy the room you want rather than chase status in my mo at present

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Save your money and buy the room you want rather than chase status in my mo at present

There's a lot to be said for this comment. Although it's nice to be a DYKWIA for a while, hotel status can be disappointing and very restrictive. I'd guess most of us would struggle to retain top tier in any more than one, maybe two schemes and dependant upon which scheme(s), means slumming it with the rest in many locations regardless.

Recently, we stayed in Port Douglas (no Hilton) so chose Sheratin Mirage. I'm just a base cough with SPG but regardless, was treated very well. There's no lounge there anyway (at least I don't think there is) so we missed out on a freebie breakfast. The upside of that is we weren't tied to the hotel and instead nipped down to the marina and had a lovely breakfast whilst watching the boats board and leave for the reef for the day......far better than being couped up in a hotel restaurant. Because we got a good deal (price match against Wotif), we effectively got the breakfast paid for by the saving anyway!

The upside of status is points accrual for free nights and flights, downside with Hilton at least, is the point earn/burn ratio has recently become far less attractive and the very limited range of properties in AU/NZ. At least with the Alice and Darwin coming on line, it'll make for a few more holiday spots, provided they don't become like Hilton Perth, which is far from a value stay by being overpriced and no lounge benefit to partly offset it.

When I compared the Perth prices, the Rendezvous (thanks to AFF advice) was available with lounge access rate and breakfast and free parking for a similar rate as the Hilton with no lounge and pay for parking. I didn't actually choose the Rendezvous lounge rate though, because their base rate for a double double was so cheap and we're looking forward to breakfast and evening canapes down at Fremantle or somewhere. Huge $ saving (for 4 of us for 2 nites.......Hilton = $1180.......Rendezvous = $425). Pretty hard to ignore and the accommodation savings pay for a great breakfast and wonderful dinner out plus some. Let's face it, we usually only sleep in the rooms anyway.