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I have regularly cancelled Honors points bookings without problem, and the points have nearly always been credited back to me instantly. However, 8 days ago I cancelled two 40,000 UK bookings (Hampton Edinburgh Airport) and noticed that the points had not been credited back to me. The stays were not until August (so well within cancellation window) and were definitely cancelled as I have received cancellation confirmation emails.
I phoned Hilton 5 days ago and talked to someone who said they would look into it. I got a confirmation of this contact which says it could take 5-7 business days. Nothing back yet and if necessary I will chase after 7 business days have elapsed.
The question is – has anyone else had this problem? I only noticed because my balance was almost zero and I was expecting it to go to just over 80,000. In the past I have cancelled bookings when I had a high balance and have not always checked that they have been refunded – it would be quite possible not to notice the problem in this scenario!
Have you checked the cancellation terms from the original booking? I’m just thinking Edinburgh in August might be really high demand and sometimes Hilton makes these non-refundable.
I’ve had this happen with both Hilton and Marriott. Like you I had to call to have them manually re-credited. I’ve now taken to screenshotting my account balance screen prior to cancelling any points bookings.
Quite often if there’s an event they are non-refundable, isn’t the fringe in August?
I had this with IHG, logged an email with the Ambassador helpline and they were credited in half an hour.
Have you checked the cancellation terms from the original booking? I’m just thinking Edinburgh in August might be really high demand and sometimes Hilton makes these non-refundable.
Good thought but standard terms definitely applied. I have never seen points bookings on hilton.com which are not refundable.
I had this with IHG, logged an email with the Ambassador helpline and they were credited in half an hour.
Interesting! I am Hilton Diamond but am not aware of a special Diamond helpline. But maybe there is one hidden away somewhere?
Good thought but standard terms definitely applied. I have never seen points bookings on hilton.com which are not refundable.
Should add that the reason I originally booked on points was because these offered mega outsize value compared to cash bookings – hotel in question is capped at 40k points but cash rates were through the roof.
Quite often if there’s an event they are non-refundable, isn’t the fringe in August?
No, standard hilton.com points terms applied – eg one booking confirmation email had wording:
• If you wish to cancel, please do by 11:59 p.m. on Aug-21-2024, to avoid cancellation penalty equal to the first night’s room and tax.
What does it say re cancellation if you try and book the same dates now?
Often if the T&Cs get changed for certain dates because of e.g. large events when the hotel looks online at a booking all they can see are the T&C that now apply and not necessarily those when you booked – which are the contractual ones for your booking.
Once you speak to someone sensible and get to send them a copy of your email they can usually sort it out quickly.
This does happen occasionally with most of the chains.
What does it say re cancellation if you try and book the same dates now?
Often if the T&Cs get changed for certain dates because of e.g. large events when the hotel looks online at a booking all they can see are the T&C that now apply and not necessarily those when you booked – which are the contractual ones for your booking.
Once you speak to someone sensible and get to send them a copy of your email they can usually sort it out quickly.
This does happen occasionally with most of the chains.
Same terms as when I booked – cancel for full points refund up until 23:59 day before.
Anhow, the points were refunded 10 days after I complained. No email or anything else to notify me of this or to apologise. I am not convinced that they would have been refunded had I note complained! But I got 2,000 points credited as a goodwill gesture when I phoned. Anyhow, I strongly recommend that people take screenshots before cancelling points bookings and check that the points have definitely been refunded.
It once took 4 weeks for me to get points refunded.
The diamond number which I called using skype (toll free USA) is +18774449847
I found that it only recognises you as diamond if you have a US 5-digit zip code in your profile, otherwise it redirects you to the regular line. The regular line failed to do anything for 4 weeks. According to them, the diamond line agent was able to give me a loan of points equal to the amount that wasn’t refunded, and then 3 months later they emailed me to say that they finally sorted the refund and therefore took back the loan (there was no difference in practice to having received the refund on the day the diamond agent did it)
Some people say contacting Hilton on X is yields better results these days.
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