HHonors Diamond Status: price difference booking direct and i.e. Entertainment card

[ronnie66]

Just wanted to ask the opinion of other AFF members.
Tried to book a room via HHonors Hilton South Wharf for this Saturday. King room city view no breakfast etc. 309A$.
Via Entertainment membership same room 216A$. I thought the price difference was very remarkable.
Called Hilton to ask - they don't do price matches etc. Won't reward points etc, won't count towards qualifying nights.
But in all fairness: 93A$ difference won't encourage me to book via the Hilton website.
Their price guarantee won't apply via "membership sites". However are the points and/or a qualifying night worth this massive difference?
I guess if your company is paying you might not care, but I pay for my stays myself. I decided to book via Entertainment.
They offered to change the booking for me and allow me to qualify for points etc. but I had to pay the difference. Didn't find that an attractive offer.
Your thoughts?

 

[DeKa]

Re: HHonors Diamond Status: price difference booking direct and i.e. Entertainment ca

No price matching? Really?
http://hilton.com/en/ww/ourbestrates/terms.jhtml
Maybe it's the publicly available point.

 

[ronnie66]

Re: HHonors Diamond Status: price difference booking direct and i.e. Entertainment ca

Nope... no price matching. Not a public site and you have to by the Entertainment book to get access to the site (show your Entertainment card at check in). All good. The reason for refusing their 'offer' is the fact that for the whopping price difference I could buy 7200 HHonors points (if I wanted). The points are not the most important part of HHonors Diamond. I guess you have to book via their channels to (re)qualify for the Diamond level. However if the price difference is that much one can also pay for a more expensive room and buy the breakfast. I am not naive; nothing in life comes free and I am happy to pay a little bit more to try to qualify for the perks, but in this case it felt like stealing from myself.

The price match is very much restricted. During my first phone call to reservation I did get very conflicting and incorrect information. Have addressed that in a follow up email. They didn't really care. I get that. They prefer business customers; fair enough.

 

[Danger]

Re: HHonors Diamond Status: price difference booking direct and i.e. Entertainment ca

No price matching? Really?
Our Best Rates Guarantee Terms & Conditions
Maybe it's the publicly available point.

From reports on FlyerTalk, Hilton's BRG is notoriously hard to succeed with. Minute details like the exact same cancellation deadline (ie. to the hour), the exact same room type (like "Plus"), no registration to a competing site etc. are commonplace reasons to deny claims apparently.