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Hilton Honors 80% Bonus glitch? Site Down…144k points posted with no purchase.

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Hilton Honors 80% Bonus glitch? Site Down…144k points posted with no purchase.

Last night I was helping someone book a trip and logged into my Hilton account. I noticed my balance being WAY higher than it normally would be, and investigated what had happened…What I found was that my account was reflecting 144k points being added from buying 80k and receiving a 64k bonus. Now…I wrote an article about the Hilton Honors 80% Bonus a few days ago, but I didn’t buy any. At first I was afraid that I had inadvertently purchased points while posting the article, but my nerves were calmed after I checked that no charges were pending. What’s even more interesting is that the Hilton Honors 80% promotion site is currently down and not allowing any points to be purchased. So is there a Hilton Honors 80% bonus glitch? The site is down, and 144k points posted with no purchase on my end.

Here’s the promotion and link to purchase

Screen Shot 2017-01-20 at 6.48.16 AM

The error message when you go there now

Screen Shot 2017-01-22 at 3.35.12 PM

The points that posted to my account without purchase

Screen Shot 2017-01-22 at 2.44.41 PM

Glitch?

The only thing that I put together is that I clicked on the 80k + 64k pricing. I didn’t purchase, but I’m wondering if other people who priced out point purchases have been credited with points as well? It seems very suspicious that the Hilton/Points.com purchase page isn’t working.

What will Hilton do? My quick thoughts

If it’s just me…who knows? If it’s bigger:

This creates an awkward situation for Hilton if this is a bigger issue than just me…They’re faced with losses, but also customers getting mad because they’ve booked trips based on those points. I’m, as well as many of you, very aware of my point balances. Many people are not. If Hilton has credited accounts of people, and those people have booked stays, or even started to plan stays, based on those balances without realizing they were plumped on accident – Hilton’s mistake could cost people time and money. What will Hilton do…force customers to cancel trips booked with points?

It sort of begs the question…if this happened, will Hilton claw back the points, or will they just leave the deposits as is? I think they almost have to leave them.

Recently, Hilton garnered an enormous amount of good will by doubling extending Diamond status to those who had matched until 2018. In all honesty, the only reason I’ve been looking at Hilton and my account as much is because of that extension – so it’s at least attracting me to the brand with more frequency. I realize that this also annoyed many people who organically gained status and didn’t re-qualify, and believe me I’d feel the same, but Hilton is clearly looking to poach some elites from Hyatt and Marriott at the expense of their own loyalists. Why would they risk losing the good will of those new elites because of their error?

The worst case scenario as I see it for Hilton is that members have more points to go visit properties and spend money while there and lose the book value of the deposited points ( yes, that could be quite a bit). Those rooms have been marked for point redemptions anyways, and I’ll probably spend money at those properties in areas like bar/food/spa with much higher mark-ups and profit generation than a room that may sit unoccupied. It wouldn’t be a complete loss as this added revenue would help offset the mistake, maybe in some cases surpass it. If Hilton left the points…this would be a DOUBLE down on loyalty and customer acquisition through elite status and now free points. I’d make sure to throw business Hilton’s way.

Did you guys get any points without purchase?

 

Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.

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7 Comments

  • Sarah February 16, 2022

    Just curious if those points stayed in your account, I realize this is a few years later. I recently stayed at a HGV in Hawaii and got back and got an email with diamond status, and 324,000 points in my account. I don’t follow or use points much, so I wasn’t totally sure it was a fluke, but seemed like a lot of points for our 9 night stay. The points were in my account for 4 days and now they are gone and my balance is 62,000 🙁
    I still have diamond status though. I am debating calling Hilton and complaining. I had started planning out next trip with those points. But I am concerned if I call they will take away my diamond status.

  • Ben O January 23, 2017

    Just as a data point I just checked my account and no extra points posted. I also looked st the bonus last week but decided not to speculatively buy…

  • eponymous coward January 22, 2017

    “If Hilton has credited accounts of people, and those people have booked stays, or even started to plan stays, based on those balances without realizing they were plumped on accident – Hilton’s mistake could cost people time and money. What will Hilton do…force customers to cancel trips booked with points?

    It sort of begs the question…if this happened, will Hilton claw back the points, or will they just leave the deposits as is? I think they almost have to leave them.”

    See how that kind of logic works when a bank makes an error in your favor in your account and you spend the money.

    (Protip: the bank will want it back.)

    • Miles January 22, 2017

      Eponymous coward – I don’t really think this is an apple to apples comparison. Bank deposits are tangible and completely fungible currency – points are not. I treat my points, regardless of type, as a currency, but they aren’t recognized as such, so no matter how much I treat and think of them as currency, institutionally they are not. I don’t own my points, Hilton does, and if they want to cancel an account, claw back points, cancel a reservation, etc – they can. It’s the underlying reason why we don’t pay taxes on points, etc. My opinion is rooted in loyalty and whether it’s worth it to Hilton to cancel accounts, or demand recompense for spent points…You clearly think it is, whereas I think it’s questionable – like when AA + United had error fares to Beijing and Europe. AA honored the fares, United did not, and in those situations far more than $800 of ‘value’ was at stake. Thanks for reading and your thoughts.

  • WR January 22, 2017

    I’m thinking probably someone was buying points and accidentally put in the wrong Hhonors number. I wouldn’t expect those points to be there for very long.

    • Miles January 22, 2017

      WR – definitely could be the case, but with Hilton accounts being 9 digits long, pretty crazy to accidentally put my number in. But, who knows, stranger things have happened. Also weird that the promotion just started on the 20th…same day I priced out the option, and unless you can get the site to work – it’s down now and was last night, just a day after the promotion started. Odd.

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