Hilton Honors Macquarie Platinum Card

[nightelves]

Gday

Finally got the card in the mail today 2.5 weeks after i applied. I had an average credit score. Just slapped through the $2k spend to get a free night certificate. Will see how long that takes to show up. Am hanging out for it!

Pele.

Let me know how long it takes before you get issued your weekend nights. Thanks

 

[QF WP]

Re: Hilton HHonours Macquarie Platinum Card

Nice to be able to use my Reward Cert for an upcoming stay, but man o man, was it a painful process...

 

[nightelves]

Re: Hilton HHonours Macquarie Platinum Card

Nice to be able to use my Reward Cert for an upcoming stay, but man o man, was it a painful process...

Please share your experience

 

[QF WP]

Re: Hilton HHonours Macquarie Platinum Card

Sure. Rang the Aust Res number (1300445 866) and after inputting my HH number, was transferred to USA call centre and connected after a few minutes to George. He started to ID me then abruptly the call ended. I thought he had put me on mute so I was calling out for a minutes or so. Nothing. Hung up.

Second attempt only got as far as inputting my HH number and then the line went dead. Hung up straight away.

Third attempt - as I had the website open, I went onto Chat. Was passed around until Seth (USA Res?) told me that he couldn't process an online booking for a Reward Cert. Fantastic - wasted another 4 minutes. Ended the Chat and gave them my brutally honest feedback via guest survey.

Fourth attempt - back on the phone and this time got Manila Res. She was really helpful after I explained my issues to date. She had my account open, ID'ed me and could see my Cert number on file, so she checked where I wanted and there was availability, so through went the res. But that all up took 19 minutes to make the booking. Not the kind of service one should expect from an International hotel chain. Has me questioning whether I have sufficient loyalty.

 

[blacksultan]

Re: Hilton HHonours Macquarie Platinum Card

Thought one could contact the hotel directly !
Can it be used at Conrad hotels ?
Only for standard ( cheapest ) rooms ?

 

[annielee]

Re: Hilton HHonours Macquarie Platinum Card

according to the cert, u need to call the Hilton helpdesk (if im not wrong), i used mine at Conrad Spore early this year..

Thought one could contact the hotel directly !
Can it be used at Conrad hotels ?
Only for standard ( cheapest ) rooms ?

 

[QF WP]

Re: Hilton HHonours Macquarie Platinum Card

The email forwarding me my electronic Reward Certificate stated:

1. To make a Reward Certificate reservation before the expiration date of 12-Jul-2018, call 1-800-4HONORS.
2. Advise the reservations agent that you will be using the Hilton Honors Reward Certificate and provide the agent with the Reward Certificate ID

There is also a link to excluded properties (but it is actually a list of included properties ): https://www.hiltonhhonors.com/ProcessLanding/ProcessLanding/?lp=citiparticipatingproperties

Yes, only for standard room. From the reservation confirmation:

Redemption Type:

STANDARD ROOM REWARD

The property can upgrade if they wish...due to status etc

 

[drross]

Re: Hilton HHonours Macquarie Platinum Card

Thought one could contact the hotel directly !
Can it be used at Conrad hotels ?
Only for standard ( cheapest ) rooms ?

we used 1 cert at Hong Kong Conrad by booking directly to hotel - already had a 3 day stay booked and wanted to extend it by a day - quick and easy - no issue

 

[Pele]

Let me know how long it takes before you get issued your weekend nights. Thanks

Gday

Free weekend night certificate arrived this morning in an email. Status on the app has not yet been upgraded to gold.

Pele.

 

[2tall4Y]

I had a similarly painful experience using my Reward Certificate for a weekend stay at HSYD, with a total of 4 phone calls required to get it all sorted.

Same as QF WP, I rang the Australian reservations numbers first, as instructed on the certificate - after I clarified that mine wasn't a 'be my guest' certificate and being put on hold for about 5 minutes, the agent told me to ring the hotel directly. I queried the agent whether there had been a change of policy/process, given that the instructions explicitly said to call reservations, and she said 'yes' but with very little conviction.

I rang HSYD next, and after being connected through to reservations by the switchboard, seemed to get an agent who understood what was going on - she checked for standard room reward availability, and confirmed that one was indeed available for 57,000 points but then followed up by saying that the certificate would cover the entire cost of the stay. She confirmed the booking and gave me a reservation confirmation number, so everything seemed find until I checked my email. In addition to the reservation confirmation email, I received two emails with the title 'Your Hilton Honors Points Redemption has been confirmed', which prompted me to check my account balance - lo and behold, it had dropped by 57,000 points . Upon closer inspection, it was pretty clear to me that the agent had not used the certificate for my reservation, as the reward certificate number in my reservation confirmation (in my experience, even plain vanilla points redemptions have one of these) did not match the one on my Macquarie certificate.

I rang the diamond line this morning, and the first agent promptly transferred me the reservations - the reservations agent kept on insisting that the certificate had indeed been used, and that no points had been deducted. Once it was clear the call was going nowhere, the agent transferred me back to reservations, and after waiting for a few minutes, I hung up and rang the diamond line again. As soon as the agent picked up, I made it clear I didn't want to be transferred to reservations, and after waiting on hold for 10 minutes and eventually being put through to a supervisor, the issue finally got resolved - the supervisor admitted that the HSYD reservations agent had not used the certificate and apologised that the issue didn't get handled correctly to begin with. She cancelled the points reservation, and correctly re-booked using my certificate, and I can see that my Honors accounts balance has been restored to the level it was before I started this painful process.

Sure. Rang the Aust Res number (1300445 866) and after inputting my HH number, was transferred to USA call centre and connected after a few minutes to George. He started to ID me then abruptly the call ended. I thought he had put me on mute so I was calling out for a minutes or so. Nothing. Hung up.

Second attempt only got as far as inputting my HH number and then the line went dead. Hung up straight away.

Third attempt - as I had the website open, I went onto Chat. Was passed around until Seth (USA Res?) told me that he couldn't process an online booking for a Reward Cert. Fantastic - wasted another 4 minutes. Ended the Chat and gave them my brutally honest feedback via guest survey.

Fourth attempt - back on the phone and this time got Manila Res. She was really helpful after I explained my issues to date. She had my account open, ID'ed me and could see my Cert number on file, so she checked where I wanted and there was availability, so through went the res. But that all up took 19 minutes to make the booking. Not the kind of service one should expect from an International hotel chain. Has me questioning whether I have sufficient loyalty.

My advice is if you have diamond status, call the diamond desk

Thought one could contact the hotel directly !
Can it be used at Conrad hotels ?
Only for standard ( cheapest ) rooms ?

according to the cert, u need to call the Hilton helpdesk (if im not wrong), i used mine at Conrad Spore early this year..

The email forwarding me my electronic Reward Certificate stated:

1. To make a Reward Certificate reservation before the expiration date of 12-Jul-2018, call 1-800-4HONORS.
2. Advise the reservations agent that you will be using the Hilton Honors Reward Certificate and provide the agent with the Reward Certificate ID

There is also a link to excluded properties (but it is actually a list of included properties ): https://www.hiltonhhonors.com/ProcessLanding/ProcessLanding/?lp=citiparticipatingproperties

Yes, only for standard room. From the reservation confirmation:



The property can upgrade if they wish...due to status etc

we used 1 cert at Hong Kong Conrad by booking directly to hotel - already had a 3 day stay booked and wanted to extend it by a day - quick and easy - no issue

 

[nightelves]

Gday

Free weekend night certificate arrived this morning in an email. Status on the app has not yet been upgraded to gold.

Pele.

It's very concerning that my free night has not been emailed to me after meeting the spend 10 days ago. Have to follow up with Macquarie about this.

 

[QF WP]

I had a similarly painful experience using my Reward Certificate for a weekend stay at HSYD, with a total of 4 phone calls required to get it all sorted.

Same as QF WP, I rang the Australian reservations numbers first, as instructed on the certificate - after I clarified that mine wasn't a 'be my guest' certificate and being put on hold for about 5 minutes, the agent told me to ring the hotel directly. I queried the agent whether there had been a change of policy/process, given that the instructions explicitly said to call reservations, and she said 'yes' but with very little conviction.

I rang HSYD next, and after being connected through to reservations by the switchboard, seemed to get an agent who understood what was going on - she checked for standard room reward availability, and confirmed that one was indeed available for 57,000 points but then followed up by saying that the certificate would cover the entire cost of the stay. She confirmed the booking and gave me a reservation confirmation number, so everything seemed find until I checked my email. In addition to the reservation confirmation email, I received two emails with the title 'Your Hilton Honors Points Redemption has been confirmed', which prompted me to check my account balance - lo and behold, it had dropped by 57,000 points . Upon closer inspection, it was pretty clear to me that the agent had not used the certificate for my reservation, as the reward certificate number in my reservation confirmation (in my experience, even plain vanilla points redemptions have one of these) did not match the one on my Macquarie certificate.

I rang the diamond line this morning, and the first agent promptly transferred me the reservations - the reservations agent kept on insisting that the certificate had indeed been used, and that no points had been deducted. Once it was clear the call was going nowhere, the agent transferred me back to reservations, and after waiting for a few minutes, I hung up and rang the diamond line again. As soon as the agent picked up, I made it clear I didn't want to be transferred to reservations, and after waiting on hold for 10 minutes and eventually being put through to a supervisor, the issue finally got resolved - the supervisor admitted that the HSYD reservations agent had not used the certificate and apologised that the issue didn't get handled correctly to begin with. She cancelled the points reservation, and correctly re-booked using my certificate, and I can see that my Honors accounts balance has been restored to the level it was before I started this painful process.

Yours was a worse situation because more people knew nothing and you had to escalate. Good to see sanity (or knowledge) prevailed and it was sorted. My understanding is that the Certificate has the "value" of 50K points.

My advice is if you have diamond status, call the diamond desk

I was told that whilst online, but is there an Australian number to connect to the 1 877 US number for the Diamond Desk? Maybe that is my problem, I haven't been utilising the Diamond desk. Yes, I'm definitely Diamond (thanks to the Macquarie Hilton Plat Visa being my work expenses CC - not a problem putting $40K through it p.a.)

 

[QF WP]

It's very concerning that my free night has not been emailed to me after meeting the spend 10 days ago. Have to follow up with Macquarie about this.

Your expectations are too high. Macquarie will advise Hilton (probably weekly in arrears) and then Hilton have to issue. Concern should start at about 30 days

 

[nightelves]

Your expectations are too high. Macquarie will advise Hilton (probably weekly in arrears) and then Hilton have to issue. Concern should start at about 30 days

Here's the thing. I previously had an Amex Platinum card which offered automatic gold status with Hilton. Requested it twice and both times never went through. Tried it on my partner's card and the gold status came through within a few days. So I'm not sure what's wrong with my account and no one at Hilton or Macquarie could tell me what is wrong with my account. It's been frustrating as I need to use the weekend certificate to book a Conrad Tokyo in case rewards night dry up.

 

[Jonova]

My certificate arrived this morning 3 days after making the required spend. Does the certificate have to be used before the expiry date or can I make a booking before the expiry date for a later date?

 

[annielee]

i got a surprise email for certificate today coz i've spend more than $12k this year, which i thought i will be getting it when it reaches the anniversary of the card

 

[drross]

got one this morning too!

 

[kpc]

My certificate arrived this morning 3 days after making the required spend. Does the certificate have to be used before the expiry date or can I make a booking before the expiry date for a later date?

You need to use it by the expiry date ie stay at the hotel

 

[nightelves]

Re: Hilton HHonours Macquarie Platinum Card

Nice to be able to use my Reward Cert for an upcoming stay, but man o man, was it a painful process...

You're right it is definitely an uphill battle trying to redeem my reward cert with Hilton. Their call centre keeps saying there's no rewards night available while their online chat says there are. Even after asking to speak to the supervisor they hang up so I'm forced to call them again.

We will see how it goes.

 

[2tall4Y]

I am not aware of there being an Australian number for the Diamond desk, so I just rang the 1-877 number in the US.

I was told that whilst online, but is there an Australian number to connect to the 1 877 US number for the Diamond Desk? Maybe that is my problem, I haven't been utilising the Diamond desk. Yes, I'm definitely Diamond (thanks to the Macquarie Hilton Plat Visa being my work expenses CC - not a problem putting $40K through it p.a.)