What has this wonderful forum turned me in to? Currently on a status match with temporary Diamond Status which I will only retain if I manage 8 stays within 90 days (effectively end of Feb). Will easily get 4 stays with work trips but 8 is very uncertain. So I have just been researching cheap Hilton stays in my home town of Leeds. And I can get Sunday night stays at £48!!! So rounded 4 if those up to 200 quid. I have not yet considered the added benefits of current points promotion where I would get 2000 points per stay, and also would hit the 5th stay for an extra 10000 points, as this is a fresh plan. So while I find time this evening to calculate the value of those points, I thought I would ask for opinions. Am I mad? Because the Gold status I will retain is not much lower than Diamond. If the stays were booked, I have not yet decided whether they would be mattress runs, or whether I might try to stay, for respite from the kids if nothing else. And I would hate to miss the free breakfast that i would get.
Haha - yes it appears you've definitely been bitten by the 'travel hacking' bug! It really depends on how often you think you'll stay with Hilton in the next couple of years (I think I'm right in saying you should get to keep Diamond until March 2021), and how much you value lounge access / better upgrades/ more points. Personally, I'd definitely go for it - particularly if you can enjoy a few little staycations too rather than just purely mattress running.
It entirely depends on your travel profile John... If you frequently stay in hotels with exec lounges, then diamond has quantifiable benefits, i.e. book a normal room and get guaranteed lounge access. Alternatively, if you do say 20 Hilton stays a year, the extra points gained as diamond would make it worth your while to 'pay' for the higher status. Conversely, I make a small number of trips to hotels with no exec lounge each year, so am perfectly happy with Gold! HTH, Steve
Thanks for the replies so far. I have taken the plunge. 3 of the 4 nights are booked and 2 of those will be definite stays. I went a step further tonight and finally registered for AwardWallet as well. Which leads to a further question if anyone can help. AwardWallet has pulled through all my future booking with IHG but none of my bookings with Hilton. A quick Google has not found any obvious answers.
As an example of how much I am loving it, on one night in January I have 2 hotel bookings! One was the original £28 IHG MasterCard partner rate booked purely as a mattress run to qualify for the free night, and the other is now the Hilton stay, for £48 Which will be an actual stay. Totally nuts, but I am finding it slightly easier to explain this whole thing to friends and family now.
Great work. Yeah, the explaining to friends and family thing eventually ends when people learn to just accept the benefits of travelling with you. It does lead to some interesting theories though - despite explaining repeatedly to people exactly what I do and how they could do the same, I'm certain some of my friends still think I'm actually a hotel inspector/spy/secret millionaire/criminal of one kind or another...
To my eternal travel hacking shame, I've never got round to sorting out my awardwallet account properly. It's genuinely very useful and definitely something I should get round to doing though. Unfortunately, that means I can't offer any insight on the hilton question, but hopefully someone else will be able to.
A bit counter-intuitive, but I'm happy to give AW my account details for thousands of pounds of value in miles/points, but I won't let them access my email account to pull hotel and air reservations...
I've thought about trying to explain it like a Groupon voucher : if you could buy a voucher for £x that gets you a stay in a much more expensive hotel, would you do it ?
I had overlooked just how long I will retain the status for. So that's 27 months. And due to an unexpected additional work trip the cost of my personal bookings is down to £158, not taking into account any point value. So that's £5.85 per month for Diamond Status. Not bad.
Yes, the Groupon analogy might work. More likely though, they will just end up thinking that they should look for holidays on groupon or something
Having had my first taste of executive lounge last night, plus an upgrade to a huge room, on top of excellent service, I certainly think it's worth it.
