Just a few months removed from a Marriott/SPG loyalty program migration that didn’t go smoothly and still has members frustrated, Hilton Honors is planning a reservation and loyalty platform migration this week. While the exact timing is unclear, numerous systems will be “offline starting October 30, and depending on your time zone, extend into October 31,” according to a Hilton representative.During this outage, Hilton guests won’t be able to book, amend or cancel reservations — including redemption reservations — through the Hilton website, app, call centers or at hotels. Potential new members won’t be able to enroll in Hilton Honors. And, according to a banner at the top of the Hilton website, “you may be unable to use Digital Check-in or Digital Key.“Anyone with a stay during this offline period should have received — or will receive — an email informing them of this downtime. Guests are encouraged to contact the hotel directly if there are any issues.Since the exact timing is unclear, if you have a stay cancellation period that ends on October 30 or 31, you’ll want to decide before Tuesday whether or not to keep the reservation.It seems Hilton is doing what it can to give members and guests a heads-up about this downtime. However, it’d be helpful if Hilton would share what time it plans to begin the system migration so members would know when they’re losing access to their accounts and controls. When TPG asked a Hilton representative about the specific timing, we were informed that the “update will be taking place during a window from Oct 30 and into the early morning on Oct 31 (US time).“The good news is that there’s an upside to this downtime. Hilton shared with TPG that “upon completion of these updates, Hilton Honors members can expect to see their Points post more quickly.” Also, Hilton is working on “newly enabled user experience improvements” that it plans to share details about as these become available to members.Sign up for our daily newsletterEmail addressSign upI would like to subscribe to The Points Guy newsletters and special email promotions. The Points Guy will not share or sell your email. See privacy policy.Here’s rooting for the migration process to be smooth, the issues during the downtime to be few — with agents and hotels well-prepared for any issues that pop up — and the results to be worth the up-to-two-day inconvenience.
