Hilton HHonors - "Base points" other than from hotel stays

Hilton <1 year newbie question: Is there any way of earning "BASE points" other than with hotel stays?

I need 60,000 "base points" within this calendar year to renew my gold status, as I won't make it on 16 stays/36 nights due to having 7 consecutive nights at one Hilton not credited as they were booked through a convention booker. Hilton website describes ways of earning "points" or "bonus points" through other means but does not say if "points" are the same as "base points."

I was comped Hilton Gold last September valid for a year (likely due to my NW elite status, as a promo), valid until this coming September. Since then I have sampled a variety of Hilton properties and with a couple exceptions have been pleased with my Gold membership and would like to keep it going (i.e., their marketing plan worked). Getting 60,000 "Base points" 1/1/04 - 9/15/04 (the anniversary of my "comp" status) seems the best way for me to do this without a mattress run.

Base points are usually only earned by spending $$$ at a Hilton - room rates and any incidentals. You will have to spend $6,000 in 2004 to remain Gold. Occasionally, and very rarely, will HH have special promos were you can earn base points as a bonus - usually for a stay.

Lots of people jump on the Gold bandwagon and forget that renewal is not that easy. Good luck.

Hilton <1 year newbie question: Is there any way of earning "BASE points" other than with hotel stays?

I need 60,000 "base points" within this calendar year to renew my gold status, as I won't make it on 16 stays/36 nights due to having 7 consecutive nights at one Hilton not credited as they were booked through a convention booker. Hilton website describes ways of earning "points" or "bonus points" through other means but does not say if "points" are the same as "base points."

I was comped Hilton Gold last September valid for a year (likely due to my NW elite status, as a promo), valid until this coming September. Since then I have sampled a variety of Hilton properties and with a couple exceptions have been pleased with my Gold membership and would like to keep it going (i.e., their marketing plan worked). Getting 60,000 "Base points" 1/1/04 - 9/15/04 (the anniversary of my "comp" status) seems the best way for me to do this without a mattress run.
That would mean you have to spend $6000 on hotel stays during that period. (Base points don't count your gold bonus, any points + points you choose, any other promos, etc.) That sounds might expensive compared to a matterss run or even a "phantom matteress run" unless you have most of those base points already but don't have very many nights or stays yet.

When you log in to HHonors, it tells you right away "current year stays", "current year nights', and "current year base points". In my case that's 19, 19, and 14920 (because all of mine we one-night stays in the $80ish range on average). It only took 16 stays for me to requalify for gold (I'm Diamond now from a "fast track" promo half a year ago), so I didn't even need all those 14k base points for that.

Now, in my case, since I "naturally" do almost all one-night stays, it was much easier for me to do stays than either nights or points. But let's compare nights to points: 60000 base points equals 36 nights (either gets you requalified as Gold), and my calculator shows that to mean 1667 base points per night. So you have to spend ON AVERAGE more than $167 per night for base points to work out better for you than nights.

Meanwhile, if you're looking at a mattress run, you have to do that same math but not on the total but rather on how many EXTRA nights, vs EXTRA stays, vs EXTRA points you'd need. And keep in mind that since you can do mattress runs probably at well under $100/night, and/or if it's at a property near you you can do "phantom" mattress runs (where you check in and check out but never actually stay!) at well under $150/stay even in the San Jose area I would think.

Finally, but perhaps most important: I think you should check to see when your Gold really expires. While you may think that it was only for a year, all I've ever heard is that HHonors drops status in April of each year, and requalification has to be done by the end of December. And the mattress run math might work quite differently in your case depending on whether you have to requalify by September or December.

Thanks for the detailed analysis, Stefan! I called Hilton and given my odd timing of new membership with my Gold comp starting 9/03, but active Hilton use since I became Gold (7 stays, 20 nights, 37,000+ base points, and 5 more stays booked so far for 9 more nights until the end of the year, though some are after
September), they told me they would mail me a new card showing my membership doesn't expire until December of this year. This should get me on track with the usual gold renewal timing and give me enough time to requalify this calendar year without traveling ungilded 9/04-12/04. At most I might have to do 1-2 cheap local "phantom" mattress runs in December to reach 16 stays if I don't need to make additional trips. Next time I'll know not to go with convention booking, which gave me 1 "stay" credit but no base points at an expensive Hilton where I spent a lot of money staying a week. My hotel usage usually involves only several stays of several nights a piece, typically at pricier Hiltons, which was why I thought going for "base points" might be optimal but it is not.

A good outcome ermdjdsj :)

By all appearances one does not have to make all paid stays to qualify for the required status, since reward stays count.

In other words one could redeem 16 one night reward stays ( or point stretchers for that matter) and have some sort of incidentals charged to room during each stay and bingo you are Gold again.

I would consider the above if I had say 12 or 14 ( or any number), claim a few single night rewards - you are all set.

mike

ermdjdsj, FYI, if you ever want to do any phantom mattress runs, both the Hilton Garden Inn Milpitas and Hampton Inn Milpitas usually have weekend rates of about $53 (AAA and/or AARP - note that HI does not require AARP membership but only that you be 50+ years old). They are both off 237 at 880 (McCarthy Ranch, one on each side of 237). I have found these two to be the lowest in the general San Jose vicinity, at least on the Hilton web site.