Earlier today Hilton shared that they are updating the CRM platform they use to run the Honors loyalty program. They’re going to take systems offline October 30 and into October 31 (“depending on your time zone”). This surprises me, loyalty programs almost always make these transitions over a weekend.
While they’re porting over to the new system it will not be possible to make, change, or cancel award redemptions – whether online or by phone. That includes Amazon redemptions with points as well.
Conrad New York
Hilton expects that points will post more quickly with the new system. I’m sure there are other advantages for them in running the program (“we also look forward to sharing details of newly enabled user experience improvements as they become available”) but they haven’t shared their broader thinking behind the move.
It’s important if you have stays checking in October 30 or 31 to get your Honors number into the reservation in advance. There will be a period of time where it won’t be possible to access account information.
Naturally data transitions can be scary times for members. We’ve just lived through Marriott making a hash of it, taking a month for many accounts to be right (some readers tell me they still have issues with theirs). No one has ever made as big a mess of a data transition of United, but as with Marriott that was at a time where they were combining accounts from two different programs onto a single platform.
In recent years we’ve seen American move to a new back-end system before moving US Airways Dividend Miles onto the platform. We’ve seen Hyatt move to a new member database. Those processes went fine, though Hyatt’s took a strangely long time to complete.
Hilton toiletries
Hilton assures that “existing reservations will not be impacted.” Let’s hope everything goes as quickly as Honors expects. But get all of your Hilton business done before October 30 and assume it could take longer than a day before you have access to your account back.
May the Salesforce be with them.
Headline is extraordinarily misleading. Updating a system or a database in no way implies a move to a new database, as the headline mistakenly implies.
A fix I’d like is when a frequently flyer partner or credit card on a existing reservation is updated that it gets to hotels, rsther than the old info still there at check-in. Reservations for October that I updated in August for their Lufthansa promotion and my new Aspire card all had the old info at check-in.
Hilton Honors website has not been adding my loyalty points since October 27, 2018. Must be a major bad problem with their upgrade as over 5000 points that I have accumulated since then are not appearing. Also, no official response about this to an email sent over 3 days ago.
I have had 5 stays and 13 nights since October 24th. None of those stays posted points or days into my account. Each time they added them manually on my request, which worked right up until the last stay, for which even though I see points added manually, nether those points nor the days have changed my account totals. I’m getting pretty sick of the response from Hilton Honors, which is ‘Make sure you give them your Honors account number on check in’. Really? Come on guys – this is not my first stay, and also, the activity is posting into my account, just with zero points and zero days. Obviously this is a Hilton Honors problem since the system upgrade.
Here’s an email thread where customer support assures me that points from 10/27/18 have been applied to my account, even though I believe I clearly stated that no points have been added SINCE 10/27/18. I should think when I say I am missing nearly 5000 points and ask when the obvious problem will be fixed, I WASN’T asking about the last point tally ON 10/27. I just hope that when I arrive at my Florida Hilton property in February, my reservation will be there to greet me!
I think they need to dump the software they bought and go back to their previous system which has worked for me without a glitch for at least the past decade. At the very least, let the customers know what is going on!
Bruce Kiacz Today at 9:53 AM
To
hilton@hilton.com
Message body
Hello,
No, this is not what I asked. I have accumulated over 5000 points on the Hilton Guest Opinion Rewards site since (that is after 10/27/18) and none of these points have been added to my total. I continue to get the message that the Hilton Honors website is under maintenance:
Maintenance Notification
We appreciate your patience as we work to ensure all stays, nights and points are reflected in your account following a recent system update. Your latest account information should be available within the next few days.
The suggestion that latest account information should be available within the next few days is in error, as it have been over 2 weeks with no update of my point total. Here is a summary of the total missing points:
Date Description Hilton Honors Bonus Points
10/29/2018 Home & Family 150
10/29/2018 Social Topics 150
10/29/2018 Social Topics 50
10/29/2018 Home & Family 10
10/29/2018 Social Topics 150
10/29/2018 Social Topics 10
10/29/2018 Shopping & Retail 10
10/29/2018 Business & Employment 10
10/29/2018 Home & Family 250
10/30/2018 Social Topics 10
10/30/2018 Business & Employment 5
10/30/2018 Food & Beverage 50
10/31/2018 Business & Employment 300
10/31/2018 Healthcare 200
10/31/2018 Business & Employment 10
10/31/2018 Business & Employment 10
11/01/2018 Social Topics 100
11/01/2018 Social Topics 100
11/01/2018 Business & Employment 150
11/01/2018 Entertainment 10
11/01/2018 Food & Beverage 10
11/01/2018 Entertainment 150
11/01/2018 Business & Employment 10
11/01/2018 Business & Employment 10
11/01/2018 Social Topics 10
11/01/2018 Business & Employment 10
11/01/2018 Food & Beverage 10
11/01/2018 Business & Employment 5
11/01/2018 Shopping & Retail 10
11/03/2018 Business & Employment 375
11/03/2018 Business & Employment 300
11/03/2018 Food & Beverage 10
11/03/2018 Social Topics 10
11/03/2018 Social Topics 10
11/05/2018 Social Topics 200
11/05/2018 Social Topics 150
11/05/2018 Home & Family 100
11/05/2018 Shopping & Retail 50
11/05/2018 Wellness 10
11/05/2018 Business & Employment 10
11/05/2018 Healthcare 750
11/06/2018 Business & Employment 10
11/06/2018 Shopping & Retail 10
11/06/2018 Business & Employment 10
11/06/2018 Food & Beverage 10
11/06/2018 Home & Family 10
11/06/2018 Travel & Tourism 100
11/06/2018 Business & Employment 10
11/07/2018 Entertainment 10
11/07/2018 Home & Family 10
11/07/2018 Home & Family 10
11/07/2018 Business & Employment 10
11/08/2018 Social Topics 5
11/08/2018 Social Topics 100
11/08/2018 Business & Employment 10
11/08/2018 Home & Family 10
11/08/2018 Home & Family 10
11/08/2018 Social Topics 150
11/08/2018 Business & Employment 75
11/09/2018 Travel & Tourism 100
11/09/2018 Business & Employment 10
11/09/2018 Food & Beverage 5
11/09/2018 Home & Family 10
11/09/2018 Business & Employment 150
11/10/2018 Home & Family 10
11/10/2018 Home & Family 200
11/10/2018 Food & Beverage 10
11/10/2018 Healthcare 10
11/10/2018 Home & Family 10
11/10/2018 Business & Employment 10
11/10/2018 Business & Employment 10
11/10/2018 Business & Employment 10
Total Missing Points 5040
Please confirm my points earned with Guest Opinion Rewards and add them to my total on Hilton Honors.
Thank you,
Bruce Kiacz
From: “hilton@hilton.com”
To: bruce kiacz
Sent: Sunday, November 11, 2018 6:14 AM
Subject: Re: Website Feedback
Hello,
Thank you for your inquiry regarding guest opinion rewards. We appreciate you taking the time to contact us.
Please be informed that you have received 700 points on 27/10/18 as per your account.
If there is anything else we can assist you with, please do not hesitate to contact us. For immediate assistance you may reach us via telephone by dialing 1-800-774-1500. If you are unable to access a 1-800 number, please visit http://www.hilton.com/en/hi/feedback/hrwfone.jhtml for a list of our Reservation Offices and their telephone numbers.
Best regards,
S. T.
Corporate Guest Relations Specialist
Hilton Reservations and Customer Care
—————————————————————————————————
To: hiltonnet@hilton.com
cc:
Subject: Website Feedback
HICU20181109134503_35TMC1EF5IYGCCSQA0M3EWQ
File ID : HICU20181109134503_35TMC1EF5IYGCCSQA0M3EWQ
File Origin : Contact Us
Form Language : EN
Confirmation Number :
Hilton Honors Number : 972645637
Reservation Name :
Name :
First Name :
Last Name :
Contact Title :
Contact First Name :
Contact Last Name :
Address :
Address2 :
City :
State :
Country :
Postal Code :
Phone : 419-877-0745
Email : bruce kiacz
Evening Phone :
Contact Preferred :
Hotel Brand :
Hotel State :
Hotel City :
Hotel Property :
Frequent Flyer Number :
Arrival Date :
Departure Date :
TypeOfIssue1 : Website Feedback
TypeOfIssue2 :
TypeOfIssue3 :
Computer Type : PC
Operating System : Other
Browser Name : Google Chrome
Browser Version : 70.0.3538.77
No Nights Booked :
Type of Room Confirmed :
Number Of Guests :
Value Of RoomRate Booked :
Select Currency :
Value Of LowerRate Found :
Select Currency LowerRate :
LowerRate Found Location :
TravelAgent Name :
TravelAgent Phone :
TravelAgent Email :
Csv RatesClaim TravelAgent Country :
Comments : Honors website continues to be under maintenance. None of my Guest Opinion Rewards earned since 10/27/18 have been added to my rewards total. Currently missing nearly 5000 points. When will this be fixed?
ref:_00D41XOXt._50041ixwpL:ref
I lost 110K points during the transition. I had 54K points, then suddenly my balance went to -47,810. The first time I called a gentleman asked me if I had been in the hospital. What???
The second time I called a lady said I must have forgotten to cancel one of my stays. When I asked which stay I had forgotten to cancel, she said the new system was not giving that information, but she was certain that’s what had happened.
After those two disastrous phone calls to the Diamond Status number, I started sending emails. The first response said they were working with a new system. Second response said my account appeared to have a glitch. Third response said they were not able to determine my account balance before the conversion, therefore my current balance must be correct (by then I was back to a positive points balance). Next email I sent a spreadsheet doing the math for them. Email responses 5-9 have simply thanked me for being a Diamond Member, and given my current account balance.
I sent a snail mail letter to Hilton Headquarters in McLean, VA in December. No response.
I travel about 170 nights per year. Hilton has been great in the past. I’m shocked that their customer service has dropped so much since October.