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We’ve covered in some detail the various current stackable offers with Hilton that, in addition to the Winter Sale they are also running, combine to give some pretty spectacular value at the hotel chain.
The headline result of the current range of offers is you can actually get stays at Category 1 Hilton hotels for the price of a chocolate bar/beer/other incidental (or £20 plus a chocolate bar in the case of Category 2 hotels).
Clearly, it’s not difficult to sell the idea of free hotel rooms. However, there is also an added and very substantial benefit you can bolt on to the free rooms: free Hilton Gold status.
The “free Hilton rooms” offer runs until 31 January 2017. So, sign up to this Hilton Gold fast-track as soon as possible, then follow our precise steps to book four (separate) “free” one night stays at a Hilton Category 1 hotel before 31 January (if you need to buy the 20,000 HHonors points – that will subsequently be returned to your account – you can do so for half price) and in addition to the stays being free, you will net Hilton Gold status, too.
The Hilton fast-track requires the four stays within 90 days, but given that the “free night” offer ends on 31 January, that is not an additional issue here.
Note that the one night stays need to be separate – two nights in succession count as one stay.
The Hilton Gold fast-track challenge has long been one of the best hotel deals out there, and this is an opportunity to combine it with pretty much the best Hilton points opportunity we have ever seen (it’s hard to beat free rooms, really). So we strongly suggest that you give this some serious thought.
If Category 1 hotels don’t work for you (and given that, it seems, Hamptons, Home2 Suites and Homewood Suites brands are not eligible for the 5K points rebate on points stays), you can also do this at Category 2 hotels, for a remarkable £80 for the four stays plus Hilton Gold status.
Offers like this do not come around very often. If you can make it work for you – do it!
I think I have missed out on this but do have gold status – and am looking to extend it
I am looking for another gold fast track. I have done 2 before. Both while still having Gold status and both worked fine. I first used with MVP but in the second year the system would not let me try again so I used an Air Berlin option. I haven’t tried Air Berlin this time but presumed it would be a one time option again. I have looked at several others but they seem to require you to work for a certain firm or book through a certain travel company.
My own circumstances are that I am in the UK so credit card options are limited and being semi retired don’t do enough stays now to qualify for Gold normally. I do appreciate the benefits though hence the looking for fast track. If another option does exist (and suggestions gratefully received!) I have also read of Hilton’s systems will stopping multiple attempts as it ‘abusing’ the Gold Challenge
Hi Ian
As you’ve experienced, it does appear that Hilton are (somewhat understandably) removing the ability of anyone to benefit from the company-specific fast-tracks, by now requiring you to provide a company email address.
If the MVP and Air Berlin (I thought it had expired) options don’t work for you, my suggestion would be the following:
1) Status match your Hilton Gold to Best Western Rewards. This should get you Best Western Rewards Platinum, or even Diamond.
2) To allow you to benefit from point (3) below, you’ll then need to collate evidence of 1 stay with Best Western within the last 12 months. If you haven’t got this already and don’t fancy a Best Western stay, you could of course book a fully refundable rate, get the confirmation email and then get a refund. But of course we could not possibly condone that.
3) Next, status match “back” from BWR to Hilton HHonors. Although there are examples of Hilton matching BWR Diamond to Hilton Diamond, I’d imagine your Hilton Gold track record will probably mean you get Gold at Best. If BWR match you to Platinum, then you’ll certainly only get Gold.
4) The above status match will give you 90 days as Gold, plus Gold for the “HHonors year” if you complete 4 stays in the 90 days. In the unlikely event you can secure a match to Hilton Diamond, you need to stay 8 times in that 90 day period.
Another option is the free Hilton HHonors Visa credit card (that’s an unaffiliated link).
You will get instant Silver status (pretty underwhelming), and Gold status when you spend £10,000 on the card in a year. You’ll also of course get a free weekend (Fri/Sat/Sun) night at any Hilton Worldwide property (i.e. including Waldorf Astoria, Conrad etc) when you spend £750 on the card in the first 90 days.
Hope that helps, but any further queries – just let us know. Obviously if your query gets really tricky I’ll just ask Joe 🙂
All the best
Tom