Reader Question: Booted From Hilton & Honors Account With 500,000 Points Closed

A LoyaltyLobby reader sent us a note about being booted from Hilton and 500,000 Honors forfeited and asked if anything could be done.

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Reader’s Email:

For years, I was a Hilton Diamond member, accruing hundreds of thousands of points, mostly through credit card spend, and some corporate room blocks. Since May 2022, I have had long covid, and by Nov. 2022, I had to go on medical leave from work. I mention this, because I had two major service issues that negatively impacted my health, and was dumped from the Honors program in July 2023, with no advanced warning, and with more than 500,000 points in my account. I got the boilerplate email about revenue, and another chain would better fit my travel interests.

One of my issues was at the Canopy by Hilton Jersey City. I have heat regulation issues, and need to have a cold environment. The air conditioning was broken in my room, could not be fixed by maintenance, and due to a race in Jersey City that weekend, the hotel couldn’t move me to another room. I tried to tough it out for the night, but literally was laying in bed, dripping in sweat. Around 11pm, I took my stiff and moved to a Marriott hotel next door (and paid a significant premium for it).

The second issue I had was at the Homewood Suites in Rochester, MN. I had traveled there from NY in February 2023 to go to the Mayo Clinic’s long covid clinic. I stayed for a week in a 1 bedroom suite. The hotel had not returned to its pre-pandemic level of housekeeping, and the hotel was disgustingly dirty. Our room was hardly cleaned, and it was difficult to get clean towels, or even toilet paper! Someone spilled something in one of the elevators, and it stayed there for 3 days. I really needed to have a clean and comfortable place to stay. The general manager apologized profusely. Offered a full refund, but like many complaints on your website, Hilton closed my account shortly after. With major health issues and a global pandemic, it was unreasonable to expect me to maintain the same expenditure level as I had pre covid. At the time my account was closed, I was booking a large room block at a Hilton-owned property in Las Vegas, that would have generated $30,000 – $40,000 in room, food and beverage revenue.

I haven’t traveled in 2 years, and would not choose a Hilton hotel. I tried to plead my case to the executive office, including sending medical records, and all I ever got was a boilerplate response. I asked them if I could at least transfer my points to a travel partner, so that it wouldn’t be a total wash, and was told no. I gave up after that. I now find myself needing to stay at a Hilton in May for a bar mitzvah. When I spoke to a reservation agent, he mentioned that there was an account associated with my email address. I contacted Hilton Honors to inquire about the account and received an email today that said:

Upon review, we found that your account ending with ****7556 was closed on July 5, 2023, due to compensation abuse. Consequently, the points cannot be retrieved at this time.

This reignited my frustration and upset, and want to see if there is anything I can do to recoup those points, or at a minimum, be able to transfer them out.

We have covered a few of these Hilton Honors account closures, and they share some similarities:

Compensation Clinic Disaster How To Get Your Account(s) Closed – Case Hilton Honors

Conclusion

If Hilton believes that complaining about non-working AC or the hotel’s inability to properly clean guest rooms and public spaces is too much and unreasonable, it should get out of the hospitality business and liquidate everything.

Usually, these account closure cases we have featured involve issues with award stays, followed by compensation in the form of Honors points.

Hilton then uses the award room reimbursement rate as a base and compares it to the purchase price of Honors points. If these are out of sync, they deem that the member has been compensated too much and ban them from the program.

I am non-negotiable about a non-working AC. If the AC doesn’t work or is insufficient, I am out, like the reader did. What purpose does the stay serve if you cannot get a proper sleep at a hotel due to heat?

Especially in the US, select-service hotels have been cut barebones during the pandemic, and you cannot expect or will receive many services at Homewood Suites branded property.

I don’t think that the reader has any other option than to cut their loss and move on.

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