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Me again, with another Hilton angle. I flagged last week how you could sort of justify making use of a Hilton Gold fast track that could possibly apply to you if you read the terms and conditions widely. Added to the fact it was technically open to all, it was a very viable option for many.
However, some people get understandably nervous about the possibility of bending the rules here, and that’s why the latest (re) launch of a Hilton Gold fast-track is worth flagging.
This fast-track is available to anyone who is:
“an athletic administrator, athlete, or affiliated with a sports entity, sports related company, sports group or event”
That is wide, to say the least – but this “Sports MVP” Hilton Gold fast-track always has been, and has always worked (when live). To break it down to how it could apply to you, I would submit that if you sign up to a football team or major athletic event’s mailing list, that’s enough to get you “affiliated with a sports entity or event”. Here’s the Great North Run mailing list, for example. A gym membership absolutely works here, too.
Otherwise, of course, if you are an “athlete” (someone who jogs?), or a member of a football, tennis, squash, snooker, golf, lawn bowls etc club, entered into a 10k or even Santa Run somewhere, this also indisputably applies to you.
From a purely technical perspective, you are also entirely free to sign up to this fast-track and will not be asked for proof of your signing up to the Great North Run mailing list etc!
What are the terms of the Hilton Gold fast-track?
Once you’ve signed up, you need to complete four qualifying stays within 90 days of registration. This is currently a great time to do it – if you complete the 4 stays after 31 December, you’ll get Gold status
- for the rest of 2019
- for all of 2020
- until 31 March 2021
This is due to the generous Hilton allocation of elite status for the rest of the year you earn it, all of the subsequent year and then till 31 March in the year after that.
Bear in mind that the qualifying stays here must be booked via the official Hilton channel, which you can do here.
I currently have Gold, it will expire, i think in March 2019, and back down to member.
Can i register for this to have it roll over? or do i need to wait for it to run out first?
I can only speak from personal experience, but I have always been fine taking advantage of these fast-tracks when Gold. Plus, there’s nothing in the (admittedly very short) ts and cs to prevent it.
So, in your situation yes – I’d sign up now, complete the 4 stays sometime in earlyish 2019 and enjoy my Gold status through to March 2021!
Thanks! I’ll try..
Quick follow up if you don’t mind -I’m staying in Venice Hilton for 2 nights and a garden city 1 night this weekend but can I complete the challenge the other side if the new year to get that full duration ?
Hi William. You absolutely do not need to complete the challenge this year, and in fact it would be far better if you did BOT complete it this year. The reason for that is Hilton’s generous approach to the Elite status “year”, which is:
– all the rest of the calendar year you qualify for the status
– all of the subsequent calendar year
– until 31 March of the year after that
So, qualify before 31 December 2018 and you’ll get Gold until 31 March 2020, but qualify on or after 1 Jan 2019 and you’ll be Gold until March 2021.
Thanks Miles. Much appreciated.
Following up on this very old article, in case anyone finds it via a search – I have just qualified for this offer in Feb 2019, and Hilton has informed me that my new Gold status will expire on 31 March 2020 – not in 2021 – so Hilton is not applying the standard policy for this special offer. My account does also indicate that I have already qualified for Silver in 2020 (by virtue of the 4 nights).
Don’t worry, just email them. The same happened to me and they sorted it to 2021
I have a Hilton Barclaycard., which also gets you Gold when you spend £10,000 on it in a year..
I did not spend £10,000 on it last year, but I did a four stays challenge rather similar to this one, which presumably should have got me Gold until March 2019. However, after completing the four stays, I got an e-mail with some Hilton Barclaycard branding saying “Welcome to Gold Status. You will retain this as long as you keep your card”.
This year, I have easily achieved the £10,000 spend, assuming I need it, although I have received no communication from Barclaycard or HH telling me that I have. So my Gold status is presumably going to expire in either March 2019, March 2020, whenever Barclaycard ends its relationship with Hilton for existing customers, or never.
I could also sign up for this challenge next time I am going to do a few Hilton stays and make sure that I have the status at least until March 2021. There is no harm in doing this, and I do enough Hilton stays that I can fit this into my regular plans easily enough.
This looks really interesting, can each of the 4 qualifying stays be single nights and do I actually have to even stay. i.e could I find the cheapest night and pay upfront and not go just to get the status.
Single night stays are fine (but you can’t do consecutive nights at the same hotel as different bookings – it’ll just count as one stay). Unfortunately, though you don’t have to actually stay, you do have to physically check in each time – so you can’t jst book somewhere really cheap in Turkey or Egypt or whatever, unless you happen to be passing through.
Many thanks Joe, will give it a go!
I just tried to register for this – my gold status expires in March 19. Got a screen saying “Oops! Looks like you’ve already registered for this! I know I haven’t. Help please?
Have you never, ever used a Hilton fast track offer?
Currently working towards the Gold. Does anyone know whether 10 stays would qualify for diamond status and if it does is it worth the extra 6 stays.
Not sure where you’ve picked up the idea that you can fast-track Diamond with 10 stays.
There is the Diamond status match challenge that requires 8 stays. But that’s separate from this Gold fast-track that doesn’t require status with another hotel chain.
Thanks, having looked again that makes perfect sense!
Just think slightly outside the box. If I achieve gold status, are there any other hotel groups that offer a status match to the Hilton Gold.