Donating "Frequent Stay" points for Charity/Haiti

[ShibbOleth]

I have received emails from Hilton Honors and Priority Club (Holiday Inn group) to donate points that they will convert to cash donations.

Hilton Honors:

Dear Hilton HHonors Members:
Help the Earthquake Victims in Haiti.

Hilton HHonors® has partnered with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies to help victims affected by the January 12th earthquake in Haiti. If you would like to support the effort we have arranged for HHonors members to be able to donate points to support relief efforts.

For every 10,000 points you donate, we’ll send US$25 to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

If you would like to join us in supporting the victims of the earthquake in Haiti by donating points please visit us here.

Priority Club:

Donate your points to help earthquake victims in Haiti

On Tuesday, January 12, 2010 a 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck near Port-au-Prince, Haiti leaving the country in need of immediate assistance. 	Donate Points Now!

The American Red Cross is supporting efforts to provide urgent relief. You can help by donating Priority Club® points to the American Red Cross today.

Priority Club converts all points contributed into cash donations. For every 10,000 points you donate, Priority Club will send $40 to the American Red Cross. This is a great way to support the Haitian community.

Has anyone else done this? I see that on both websites there are options to also donate to other charities. I do wonder how I can know/trust that the money will get there? I’m also curious if there is a tax credit side, for them or the donor? I know that there is some benefit to the hotel chains to clear these off their books from a balance sheet perspective.

[Markxxx]

They’re being cheap, as I used to work for Hilton and a Hilton point back in the late 90s cost a hotel 1.8¢.

In otherwords if the hotel gave a customer 1,000 points, Hilton Corp would charge the hotel 1.8¢ per point. So in that case it’d be 1,000 X $0.018 = $18

And you can bet after 10 years at least, the cost has gone up.

So Hilton Corp charged at least $180.00 at least to each hotel for those points. (10,000 X $0.018 = $180.00).

So Hilton got $180.00 (At least) for those points and now it wants to give back $25.00 on those points.

[NinetyWt]

Still sounds like an easy way to send $$ to Haiti. I figure, at the rate I’m gaining points, I’ll be 100 years old before I gather up enough for a free stay anyway.