Hilton HHonors - Booked ALON as Gold, Will be Silver when I get there

I just booked an ALON for May 2003 - 6 nights at the HHV. I am Gold now, but I will be Silver when I arrive.

(1) Will the hotel view me as a Gold when I check in, or as a Silver? (Assuming I don't alter the reservation after turning Silver.)

(2) Is there a difference in treatment between Silver and Gold at the HHV these days? Lounge, Breakfast, Upgrades, Parking, basic Spa access, etc. Do they give any of these free to Gold ALON guests but not to Silver ALON guests? Or has everything pretty much been ripped from all ALON guests? (Obviously, I'm looking for FRESH information here. I was at HWV in Oct 2002 on an ALON as a Gold and I received wonderful treatment both from the front desk and from the concierge.)

(3) I'm AA Plat. Does the AAGU thing still work?

May I add a similar, follow-on question?

1) I've made a reservation for arrival in early May...I'm currently Gold and booked an ALON award but will have no (Blue) status when I arrive due to the April 30 expiration of my Gold status.

Will I be eligible for any Gold benefits?

2) Pinniped, I tried to use AAGU last week (I'm an EXP) when I got my letter saying that I was being dropped to Blue status with no success from 2 or 3 different agents.

chicagoflyski

[This message has been edited by chicagoflyski (edited 04-15-2003).]

Ask to be fast tracked back to Gold. Your stay at HHV will count as one. Then you just need 3 more in 90 days. The AA promo expired end of February, at least that is what I was told.

[This message has been edited by SoCalPLT (edited 04-16-2003).]

pinniped,

I find myself in the same situation as you, also having been dropped down to Silver, and having back to back July reservations for HHV and HWV.

Last year, Hilton mistakenly made me a Diamond for about a minute and a half before correcting their error. During that time, I made a res at the Hilton NY. Upon checking in a month later, my status was noted as "Diamond" although I never technically was. Point being, I believe my status was noted as it appeared at the time of reservation, therefore I think you and I may both appear as Gold when we check in in Hawaii.

By the way, check the letter you received with your Silver card. My letter offers a fast track to gold for 4 qualifying stays or nine qualifying nights between May 1 and July 30. Might be worth it to book a few $50 Hampton Inns in order to keep Gold for your vacation. And don't forget that award stays now count toward status as well.

chicagoflyski,

surprised you were dropped completely to Blue. I wonder why no Silver cushion for you?

Comped to Diamond for 90 days last summer. Immediately booked HHV ALON for January, 2003.
Never touched the reservation after downgrade to Gold.
Reservation showed me as Gold at check-in.
YMMV.

I'm guessing that you get the status as of the day before check-in when they choose a preliminary room number for you. At that time the hotel will pull up your info and look at it for the first time.

Anyone have info regarding my initial question (2). Do they really treat Golds any better than Silvers at HHV (when ALONs are involved)? Is it worth my while to try and find a way back to Gold by May?

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Anyone have info regarding my initial question (2). Do they really treat Golds any better than Silvers at HHV (when ALONs are involved)?</font>

One gets you breakfast. One doesn't.

I just booked my ALON for mid-April seeing as I may lose my Gold status May 1. Those Gold amenities help make the stay much more enjoyable.

I totally agree.. my first time as a silver for years... not sure how I will be treated.. but will find out...

With Hilton properties, your status will be reflected at check-in.

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As a Silver, you will be treated to the worst room in the hotel, forced to change your own bed, and clean your own washroom. The benefit is that you get to keep whatever you decide to tip yourself. I guess you won't get upgraded to an Exec level room if one were to be available at the property, nor get the breakfast benefit. Silver is Silver, and you get what goes with that status level. Gold is better, and Diamond the best...

Just expect nothing and be pleasantly surprised if you get something. If you go in expecting too much, you are bound to be disappointed and feel miserable for that otherwise could be an enjoyable week.

I just made Diamond, but I have a lot of upcoming award stays at Hawaii, Rome, etc...that were made as a Gold member. Should I call to have them check the reservation or does the consensus indicate that I will be taken care of??

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by jkzahn:
I just made Diamond, but I have a lot of upcoming award stays at Hawaii, Rome, etc...that were made as a Gold member. Should I call to have them check the reservation or does the consensus indicate that I will be taken care of??</font>

I also just made Diamond. I e-mailed HWV asking if I needed to do anything to update my status for an August ALON stay that I reserved when Gold. They replied that the Diamond status was shown on my account and that I would receive all the Diamond benefits for my stay.

As a gold member I booked two stays in March for stays last month. When the stays came around I was silver...but when I arrived at the hotel I was treated as gold with invitation to lounges. So my experience was that the status at time of booking was the important thing.

I posted my actual HHV trip report on this board. For the purposes of this thread, I'll summarize: they absolutely knew my status at check-in. They knew I was Gold when I booked the room in April and they knew I was Silver when I was standing there at check-in asking for a nice, big ocean view room. I was surprised by this: I thought they would either think of me as pure-Gold or pure-Silver.

To summarize, the hotel was at 60% occupancy, so they gave me "partial Gold" treatment. No Rainbow Tower corner room, but a nice ocean view Tapa Tower room instead. They gave me the free breakfast card, but said they could not give me free passes to the weight room. I was reasonably pleased: they could have totally d*cked me, but they didn't.

Also see:

www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum57/HTML/008106.html (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum57/HTML/008106.html)