Hilton HHonors - Stupid newbie fasttrack gold Q's

I'm AA exp so they sent me this gold card.
Do I really get gold as soon as I sign up, or do I have to do several hotel stays first?

I can't seem to sign up online, when I plug in the acct # and pin it spins forever with no error message. I guess I need to call up and do it over the phone.

They don't give benefits for priceline at all right? Also no credit for PL stays right? Any benefit to having gold if someone else uses their points for a stay for me?

Last year AA had HHonors Gold for PLT and EXP. I had an existing HHonors account so I just needed to call HHonors service center and tell them to UPG my existing account.

I have not hit a PL stay at Hilton but from everything I've read, no points/miles but possible stay credit, same as with award stays, toward both elite stay and nights. Points for incidentals allowed.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by rbAA:
Last year AA had HHonors Gold for PLT and EXP. I had an existing HHonors account so I just needed to call HHonors service center and tell them to UPG my existing account.

I have not hit a PL stay at Hilton but from everything I've read, no points/miles but possible stay credit, same as with award stays, toward both elite stay and nights. Points for incidentals allowed.</font>


Anything that's not booked directly with HiltonRWW or Hilton.com or as an Award booking i've found never earns me any miles or HH points, EVEN ON INCIDENTALS!

grrr!