Booking Question

[smithym]

HI Guys,

Bit a a neby question. Just got my HH Diamond curtsey of my new DJ Plat. Have just made a booking for Hilton Syd next week and at the end of the booking there is the option select an e-standby upgrade for a fee etc...

Do you need to do anything here in order to be eligible for an upgrade with my diamond membership??

Any help greatly appreciated

 

[tuapekastar]

I do not think it is necessary. I have never tried using it, and have always managed an upgrade of sorts.

 

[beardoc]

Generally speaking, these upgrades are referred to as NOR1 upgrades (have a look at the URL of the site you are taken to when you are offerred the upgrades, and you'll see NOR1 in there). They are an attempt by Hilton to upsell your room (a bit like "would you like fries with that?"). It's an agreement that if there is a premium room at the time of your check in, you agree to pay an additional fee to be put in that room - for you, it's cheaper than paying for that level of room albeit not guaranteed, and for Hilton, it's extra money.

But my experience as a Hilton Diamond is that you'll usually be upgraded to the premium rooms if there is space available anyway. Different hotels interpret the upgrade policy differently, so it's not going to be this way in every Hilton everywhere in the world, but I don't take any of the upgrade options at all - I leave all of those choices alone and don't confirm anything in the NOR1 upgrades.

As it's a different system to the status based upgrades, I tend to leave it. Often hotels will list a particular upgrade which you would get as a result of MyWay - in my own experience, you still can get better upgrades at check-in than what they claim your complementary upgrade will be on the NOR1 upgrade system.

The important thing here is that how individual hotels use NOR1 is very different - some list your MyWay Diamond Upgrade, some don't. It's extremely variable. But my experience is that I don't offer to pay for extra upgrades, and as a Diamond, I am still well looked after.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

As a point of reference, I recently chose a Nor1 option when booking a room in a very full Hilton (Cairns for the eclipse).

My reasoning was that the hotel will more than likely have limited upgrade possibilities and given I was only offered a Hilton guest room on a 48hr guarantee booking, I presumed an upgrade would possibly be offered to Nor1s first (at a fee) rather than diamonds as a status reward (no fee).


Upon check-in, no mention was made of Nor1 (it was my understanding a Nor1 upgrade offer could be declined at check-in), but instead I received the spiel about how they were pleased to upgrade me due to diamond status etc, etc. All good untill check-out and the bill showed $69 per night Nor1 upgrade fee.


Happily, Cairns Hilton very quickly removed the charges when I queried the diamond upgrade speech versus not even a whimper about Nor1 at check-in but it has demonstrated to me that;

a) Nor1 does apparantly override a status upgrade;
b) Hilton will capitalise on it and claim diamond benefits extended (at your cost rather than theirs); and
c) You may not be given the option to reject the Nor1 upgrade at check-in as mine was passed off as a status upgrade and the first mention of Nor1 is on the bill (after the fact).

I for one will not be selecting Nor1 again and to be honest, your status upgrade may be trumped by a blue member using cash! Status upgrades and Nor1 upgrades are only offered "if available" so I guess my experience demonstrates who Hilton would prefer to see get the upgrade (money talks apparantly)!