RPOlosophy

Over the past 6 months, I have been traveling more and more. I just qualified for Silver status on NWA and I’m well on my way to Gold.

So today, I went to online to book some hotel rooms. I entered my Hilton Honors Silver VIP number and password. I received on a screening message: “invalid member number” I looked at my card to confirm my Hilton Honors number. Right number. I looked at my Silver VIP expiration date. March 2010.

I was perplexed. I’ve been a Hilton Honors member since May 2002 and all of a sudden I was invalid. After several more tries entering my information and getting the same response, it seems I had no longer existed in the Hilton world.

I decided to pick up the phone and call Hilton. After navigating the Hilton Honor phone system, I finally reached a customer service person. I explained my problem and verified my identity. The customer service agent keyed all this in and said:

“Mr. Diamond, we voided your Silver VIP Hilton Honors because of your lack of hotel stays over the past 12 months.”

I explained that I have been a loyal customer for 7 years. I explained that my Silver VIP card did not expire until 2010. The agent repeated:

“Mr. Diamond, we voided your Silver VIP Hilton Honors because of your lack of hotel stays over the past 12 months.”

After several more back and forth exchanges the picture was getting clearer. Hilton had unilaterally cancelled loyalty membership and expunged my 70,000 loyalty points. I was a Hilton PNG (persona non grata).

I am extremely persistent so the conversation went on for several more minutes. I suggested several times that they reinstate my card and my points. Each time they denied my request. She even tried to place the blame on me since I didn’t have the foresight to purchase the minimum $.50 worth of loyalty points to keep my account active. I guess Hilton dropped me because not only did I not have enough stays, they also thought I didn’t meet their intelligence standards.

So after years and years of Hilton hotel stays, they had cast me aside. Hilton was done with me and taken away my 70,000 loyalty points.

And this finally brings me to my RPOlosophy topic: Read the rest of this entry »