HHonors Pts. and Airfare, a Little Help Please

We just purchased a 4800 pt. platinum package at Hilton Seaworld, and are getting over the fact that we got SOAKED for $22,000. I know, I know, we could have done much better purchasing through resale; please don't remind me. My questions are these:

1. I negotiated for 14,400 bonus points in the deal, thinking that we could convert them to 360,000 HHonors points (25:1 ratio), and use them to send my in-laws to Athens, Greece for a 50th anniversary present. The HGVC salesman told us that round trip airfare to Europe is 50,000 HHonors points (100,00 pts), and we could use the remaining 260,000 pts for a stay at the Athens Hilton. Was he talking trash, or was he correct? I am not able yet to log onto the HHonors website to check things out for myself, so I don't know how many HHonors points are needed for airfare, hotel stays, etc.

2. We really loved our stay at Seaworld, and despite being soaked for the $22K, we are thinking of increasing our HGVC points through resale. When someone who is already an HGVC member purchases another point package through resale (and passes ROFR), how do the points get handled though Hilton's end. Are the points just deposited into the member's preexisting account? Or does a second account get created?

A little help. Thanks.

judgerey said:

We just purchased a 4800 pt. platinum package at Hilton Seaworld, and are getting over the fact that we got SOAKED for $22,000. I know, I know, we could have done much better purchasing through resale; please don't remind me. My questions are these:

1. I negotiated for 14,400 bonus points in the deal, thinking that we could convert them to 360,000 HHonors points (25:1 ratio), and use them to send my in-laws to Athens, Greece for a 50th anniversary present. The HGVC salesman told us that round trip airfare to Europe is 50,000 HHonors points (100,00 pts), and we could use the remaining 260,000 pts for a stay at the Athens Hilton. Was he talking trash, or was he correct? I am not able yet to log onto the HHonors website to check things out for myself, so I don't know how many HHonors points are needed for airfare, hotel stays, etc.

2. We really loved our stay at Seaworld, and despite being soaked for the $22K, we are thinking of increasing our HGVC points through resale. When someone who is already an HGVC member purchases another point package through resale (and passes ROFR), how do the points get handled though Hilton's end. Are the points just deposited into the member's preexisting account? Or does a second account get created?

A little help. Thanks.

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1.) I don't want to hurt your feelings, but 50K in HHonors points could not possibly get an air ticket to Europe - that will get you about two nights in a minimum category Hilton hotel. Maybe someone else knows something that I don't, and could help you with more advice...However, 260,000 HHonors points will probably get (or come close) 6-7 nights in a hotel in a large European city.

2.) To the best of my knowledge, if the new deeds are drawn up exactly the same way as the existing account, everything should go into one HGVC account. You should check with Seth Nock or another authorized HGVC broker to get the exact requirements.

nonutrix

The Athens Hilton is a category 5 hotel, and cost 35,000 points per night. If you are eligible for VIP awards, you can get 6 nights there for 150,000 points.

I could be wrong, but I thought Hhonors discontinued the ability to convert Hhonors points to airline miles. I couldn't find anything about using points for airlines on the Hhonors website.

HHonors discontinued their airline rewards program but you can still convert HHonors points to miles - http://hhonors1.hilton.com/en_US/hh/points/pointsformiles.do

It's just not a great conversion rate.
For example the conversion rates for American Airlines, Gulf Air, Hawaiian Airlines®, Mexicana Airlines®, Midwest Airlines, Qantas Airways, South African Airways, and Virgin Atlantic Airways is 10,000 HHonors points for 1,500 Airline miles

You don't need to login to see the HHonor points requirement.

Here's the link to the Standard Hotel Rewards - http://hhonors1.hilton.com/en_US/hh/rewards/freenight.do
Here's the link to the VIP Hotel Rewards - http://hhonors.hilton.com/en/hhonors/rewards/hrr/index.jhtml
Here's the link to hotels by reward category - http://hhonors1.hilton.com/en_US/hh/rewards/categories.do

You can also go to hilton.com to find your hotel and look for the hotel category listed on the hotel's main page. For example, here's the Hilton Athen main page - http://www1.hilton.com/en_US/hi/hotel/ATHHITW-Hilton-Athens/index.do

Using Bonus Points

You can use bonus points for airline travel. The points will get you certificates to fly on American Airlines. The certificates work pretty well. It takes quite a few points for the travel. There is a bonus points brochure that you can access through the HGVC members site. The brochure includes the schedule for using the points for airfare. According to the brochure it takes 7,220 bonus points to obtain a coach round trip ticket to Europe.

The bonus points do convert at 25:1 to HHonors Points. As a HGVC member you are automatically HHonors Silver which entitles you to use the VIP awards. The schedule for these awards can be found on the HHonors site. For an example one week in a category 6 hotel would be 175,000 HHonor points using the VIP award. In my opinion this would be a good value at hotels/resorts outside the US where the nightly room rate can be quite high. You can always use the Hilton site to check the week you are interested in and determine whether the rate quoted justifies the use of your points for the stay.

I hope this helps a bit. Calling the number on the brochure 1-800-932-4482 and talking to HGVC directly can also be helpful.

kckreardon said:

You can use bonus points for airline travel. The points will get you certificates to fly on American Airlines. The certificates work pretty well. It takes quite a few points for the travel. There is a bonus points brochure that you can access through the HGVC members site. The brochure includes the schedule for using the points for airfare. According to the brochure it takes 7,220 bonus points to obtain a coach round trip ticket to Europe.

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Thanks for the info.
I wish this option was available with regular HGVC points. Starwood and Marriott hotel reward programs still offers an airline reward option. I guess I'll have to write a letter suggesting that this option be available with regular HGVC points.

Thanks to all. The information is helpful, but depressing. I was clearly sold under false pretenses.:annoyed: Not much I can do about it now. I guess its only money!

judgerey said:

Thanks to all. The information is helpful, but depressing. I was clearly sold under false pretenses.:annoyed: Not much I can do about it now. I guess its only money!

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You should make the sales manager aware of the misrepresentation. Sales agents should be held accountable for their actions.

I also recommend calling a vacation counselor. Their phone services are one of the pluses of HGVC ownership. I have always found them to be very helpful.

Seth and Terry, thanks for the suggestions. I think I will try to deal directly with my sales agent first, and see if he can make good on his promise that the bonus points will enable us to send my inlaws to Greece for their anniversary. If he doesn't help us out, I will contact his Sales Manager and Quality Assurance Manager. I don't like going over people's heads, and maybe there is some way he can do the right thing by us without us getting in trouble.

I have to say, I'm really jazzed about TUG. I think "timeshares" are a great way to vacation, but there are so many different programs, so many disreputable sales agents, and so much information to absorb, its difficult for consumers to make rational decisions. TUG simplifies things a great deal and provides excellent information. I only wish I knew about TUG before we purchased.

Maybe they would be willing to give you enough bonus points to book the 2 airline tickets. I don't know how many that would be, but that is what I recommend you request. Maybe it was just an honest mistake.

Thought I'd provide an update. On Seth's advice, I complained to the agent who sold us the Seaworld TS. He was unaware that HHonors stopped the direct transfer of HHonors points into airline tickets (they stopped on 1/1/07), and that he would look into it. I asked him to credit us with additional bonus points enough for 2 airline tickets and 10 days at the Athens Hilton (knowing that would be a long shot). After 2 weeks, I was advised that HGVC would give us 5000 extra bonus points (brining the total up to 19,400), and that we might have to use some club points to make up the difference for the trip to Greece. He was right, 19,400 is not enough for 2 airline tickets and 10 days at the Athens Hilton. That being said, I am still pleased with HGVC's response. We will have to either (1) purchase the airline tickets (about $2400 on priceline) and use 10,000 bonus points for 10 days at the Athens Hilton, and then use the remaining 9,400 bonus points for Open Season or RCI vacations; or (2) use all of the bonus points for 2 American Airlines tickets directly through HGVC (14440 bonus points) and use the remaining 4960 bonus points for conversion into HHonors pts (124,000) and purchase additional HHonors pts for the remaining days at the Athens Hilton ($1260 for 126,000 more HHonors pts) (250,000 HHonors pts for 10 days at the Athens Hilton).

Lessons learned: (1) BUY RESALE; and (2) always complain . . . "the squeaky wheel gets the oil."

Thanks for the update. I'm glad it worked out for you.

Note: You can only purchase up to 40,000 HHonors points per calendar year

From the purchase points page - http://hhonors1.hilton.com/en_US/hh/points/purchase.do
Need more points? If you'd like to buy more points to complete a Reward Reservation, you may purchase up to 40,000 bonus points per calendar year to be used toward any HHonors reward. Now when you purchase at least 10,000 HHonors Points at one time, your cost is only $.01 per point. If you purchase under 10,000 Points in any one transaction, your price will remain at $.0125 per point. You will need to allow 30 minutes for your account balance to update before you begin your Reward search

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Alwayson . . . Thanks for the info.

kckreardon said:

You can use bonus points for airline travel. The points will get you certificates to fly on American Airlines. The certificates work pretty well. It takes quite a few points for the travel. There is a bonus points brochure that you can access through the HGVC members site. The brochure includes the schedule for using the points for airfare. According to the brochure it takes 7,220 bonus points to obtain a coach round trip ticket to Europe.

The bonus points do convert at 25:1 to HHonors Points. As a HGVC member you are automatically HHonors Silver which entitles you to use the VIP awards. The schedule for these awards can be found on the HHonors site. For an example one week in a category 6 hotel would be 175,000 HHonor points using the VIP award. In my opinion this would be a good value at hotels/resorts outside the US where the nightly room rate can be quite high. You can always use the Hilton site to check the week you are interested in and determine whether the rate quoted justifies the use of your points for the stay.

I hope this helps a bit. Calling the number on the brochure 1-800-932-4482 and talking to HGVC directly can also be helpful.

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I have 4 reservations already made directly with Hawaiian airlines - can I contact hIlton and see if they can apply some bonus points I have toward one of these tickets?

Bonus points for airfare

I don't know the answer to the question. Can only relate my experience using bonus points for AA tickets. We exchanged the bonus points for AA certificates that were then used to obtain the actual tickets for the flight. Sorry I can't be of more help with respect to your question.

benjaminb13 said:

I have 4 reservations already made directly with Hawaiian airlines - can I contact hIlton and see if they can apply some bonus points I have toward one of these tickets?

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It sounds like you've already paid for your tickets. If that's the case, Hilton is not going to refund one for you, but if you want to a fifth person to your journey, I'll volunteer to carry your bags.

Talent312 said:

It sounds like you've already paid for your tickets. If that's the case, Hilton is not going to refund one for you, but if you want to a fifth person to your journey, I'll volunteer to carry your bags.

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Of course you can come, o helpful one- all have heard about your bag toting "talent" and expertise.

Is 7000 club points (is that 173000 HH points?) enough for a round trip ticket to hawaii?

benjaminb13 said:

Is 7000 club points (is that 173000 HH points?) enough for a round trip ticket to hawaii?

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You cannot use your club points or HH points to obtain airline tickets directly (only "bonus" points are eligible for AA certificates... see https://www.hgvclub.com/hgvclub/pdf/CRP-MKT-0090BonusPoint.pdf); however, you can convert your club points to HH points and thence, "exchange" your HH points to miles in whatever FF program you wish.

This page lists the ~37~ participating airlines, exchange methods and conversion rates: http://hhonors1.hilton.com/en_US/hh/points/pointsformiles.do

Conversion rates for Southwest Airlines: 10,000 -> 1.0 credit.
Conversion rates for US Airways: 10,000 -> 850
Conversion rates for -- American Airlines, Gulf Air, Hawaiian Airlines, Mexicana Airlines, Midwest Airlines, Qantas Airways, South African Airways, and Virgin Atlantic Airways: 10,000 -> 1,500
Conversion rates for all other partners: 10,000 -> 1,000