Hilton HHonors - complimentary gold VIP card

I was a Silver VIP till now. In fact in desperate need of 2 qualifying stays before end of the year to maintain silver status.
Yesterday I received a "complimentary gold VIP card".
Having stayed only once in a Hilton family hotel the last 12 months, I am very surprised.
I am happy of course, but don't understand the reason for this card.
Any idea ?

LUC

Elite status on an airline sometimes does it. Hilton does a lot of cross-promotion with airlines: I have received unsolicited Gold cards for this reason on a couple of occasions.

I came home today to find a Gold card had arrived in the mail for no apparent reason. Was also combined with an offer of 25k points for 4 stays by end Jan 2006.

Was previously a Silver VIP, which was on course to lapse.

Having stayed only once in a Hilton family hotel the last 12 months, I am very surprised.
I am happy of course, but don't understand the reason for this card.
Any idea ?

LUC

This happened to me once before. I think Hhonors just wants to spur additional stays from low level elites who are very close to requalifying. I think Hhonors is one of the programs that do it more often, i.e. I don't remember SPG doing such promos often.

I came home today to find a Gold card had arrived in the mail for no apparent reason. Was also combined with an offer of 25k points for 4 stays by end Jan 2006.

Was previously a Silver VIP, which was on course to lapse.

Same here valid through April 2007 - have had two stays since April this year.

I came home today to find a Gold card had arrived in the mail for no apparent reason. Was also combined with an offer of 25k points for 4 stays by end Jan 2006.

Was previously a Silver VIP, which was on course to lapse.

I've got the same letter - but as I'm already gold I'm a little bemused :confused:

Plus its a really flimsy piece of plastic - not even a proper credit card!

What is going on???

I came home today to find a Gold card had arrived in the mail for no apparent reason. Was also combined with an offer of 25k points for 4 stays by end Jan 2006.

Was previously a Silver VIP, which was on course to lapse.

Got the same offer (and got a "true" gold card - not a flimpsy one). I've had two stays with Hilton EVER. I am *G (SK) and IC Platnium - so I must be some kind of cross-reference.

Have received gold HH cards as promo associated with BA and Virgin in the last two months, plus wife have received one thru Virgin. We are diamond (Mutual) HH, so no use to us apart from the bonus miles / points.

I don't think any checks are done on who is a member of HH, otherwise basic things like 'we are already members' would be picked up. We already have BA and VS numbers loaded in our profile as earning partners.

OK - I have to whine now - is Hilton just giving away Gold like free candy? I earned Gold the 'real' way - staying at Hiltons. Its getting really insulting to keep hearing about these free Gold offers.

I'm glad I'm going to make Diamond by EOY - the inflation is getting ridiculous.

OK - I have to whine now - is Hilton just giving away Gold like free candy? I earned Gold the 'real' way - staying at Hiltons. Its getting really insulting to keep hearing about these free Gold offers.

I'm glad I'm going to make Diamond by EOY - the inflation is getting ridiculous.

I completely agree, pmaddock. A co-worker of mine, on the job for 2 months, was handed Gold after I worked 8 months to get it. I let Hilton know how I felt, and their response was "The targeted promotion was mailed to an audience of people who generally focus their travel outside of Hilton." Why, I wrote back, should I continue to be loyal to Hilton if I'll get the same benefits by staying at Marriott or Holiday Inn properties?

I asked for an upgrade to Diamond to keep things fair, and was denied. They gave me 1,000 points "for the inconvenience".

I think I've found the true meaning of "double dipping": stay at Marriott to accumulate their points & earn HHonors upgrades at the same time!

Got one too from BA, which i rarely fly :) didn't complain though.
Travel 365 days per year, but i rarely stay at hilton though.

Same here, i was already HH Gold and got another Gold Card, the flimsy one. It hadthe same 25k bonus promo too.

Have received gold HH cards as promo associated with BA and Virgin in the last two months, plus wife have received one thru Virgin. We are diamond (Mutual) HH, so no use to us apart from the bonus miles / points.

I don't think any checks are done on who is a member of HH, otherwise basic things like 'we are already members' would be picked up. We already have BA and VS numbers loaded in our profile as earning partners.

The wierd thing is that the letter already has my HH number on the card - so I have two identical gold cards! So they are checking numbers - but not status!

I am silver now....hoping to get complimentary gold in the mail...but no luck. :(

I am silver now....hoping to get complimentary gold in the mail...but no luck. :(

me too... wish I'd get automatic upgrades...

Got mine through BA too, even though I had not been even been a HH member.
One thing I noticed though when comparing it to a friends card who earned his Gold status ‘the hard way’, is that my card looks cheap, made out of thin plastic, and all black print on it, while his looks much more prestige, feels more like a credit card (thicker) and the print on it is in silver.
Anyone else notice this?

Anyone else notice this?
Yup but to get the nice card is an easy thing to do all you have to do is make a request for a replacement card.

Yup but to get the nice card is an easy thing to do all you have to do is make a request for a replacement card.

Yes, I did think of that actually, wasn’t sure if it would work though...

Just got my Gold comp this morning from Silver!! Absolutely no idea why though!! :confused:

I came home today to find a Gold card had arrived in the mail for no apparent reason. Was also combined with an offer of 25k points for 4 stays by end Jan 2006.

Was previously a Silver VIP, which was on course to lapse.

I got the same letter just a week ago; I have stayed once at Hilton in the last twelve month (was base) and have no imagination, why I got it. But it is nice, I will definitevly have three stays in the next weeks. I will try to change it to Hilton, if the rates are affordable, as I requalified for SPG Gold and PC Platinum for 2006.

Mine came with an offer for 50K for 4 stays which I completed last week.

I stayed for 11 nights at the Hilton in Ethiopia. Cheapest room available. The hotel didn't credit my points, and I had to fax them a copy of my bill.

2 months letter I unexpectedly received a gold card, with an expiration date in April 2007. It is a real gold card (same material as a credit card).

I stayed for 11 nights at the Hilton in Ethiopia. Cheapest room available. The hotel didn't credit my points, and I had to fax them a copy of my bill.

2 months letter I unexpectedly received a gold card, with an expiration date in April 2007. It is a real gold card (same material as a credit card).


they are real gold cards, but they look cheaper. I called Hilton already on two occasions and they told me to keep my regular gold card and they would add the bonus offers to my account. So take the extra points and keep your old card.

They're giving out Gold status, but on the CTCH promo, they audited many accounts and recinded Gold status? :confused: It doesn't make any sense! :mad:

They're giving out Gold status, but on the CTCH promo, they audited many accounts and recinded Gold status? :confused: It doesn't make any sense! :mad:


well makes sense to me, so many people did it (CTCH) and they all obviously could not have been entitled...

I got a Gold card yesterday in the mail. Valid to april 07. There was a letter offering 25k points for 4 stays before January 06. 2500 for 1st stay, 5000 for 2nd stay, 7500 for 3rd stay and 10000 for 4th stay. I´ll have to start booking some cheapo stays at Scandics as this is too good an offer to pass. What makes me wonder is that I have stayed once this year at a Scandic on a very cheap rate. I am SAS Gold, though. Maybe this has something to do with it? Travelling enough on Scandinavian Airlines to get *G, but not staying at the 100 or so Scandics they have in Scandinavia.

Well, I like this and am looking forward to see if it brings me any real benefits. I´m not exactly sure what to expect. That´s why I started reding the Hilton forum here on FT.

I would be happy if they offered these cards to Qantas Elites... alas, doesn't seem to be the case.

Oh well. Waiting for the next CTCH type promotion!

OK - I have to whine now - is Hilton just giving away Gold like free candy? I earned Gold the 'real' way - staying at Hiltons. Its getting really insulting to keep hearing about these free Gold offers.

I'm glad I'm going to make Diamond by EOY - the inflation is getting ridiculous.

I'm there with you... but in regards to *wood. I have a FTer friend who gets the "double stay credit" target promo each year while I haven't seen it once.

What's really strange about that is that he's an on-going Platinum (by stays) and *wood is going to get his business regardless. I on the other hand don't stay that often, but would if they sent me the offer. Go figure!

But I do get the comped Gold Card each year (last 3 years) from Hilton with a 50K "stay four times" offer and my friend doesn't. I have Executive Platinum with AA and I think that does it... but so is my friend. Go figure!

With that said, there has to be more to it in the demographic selection process then just being EP on AA, 1K on UA, etc. Could also have something to do with what credit cards you have and at what level, ie. Amex Criterion/Platinum and the like.

CF

I came home to a somewhat different offer... it stated that if I didn't stay at a Hilton by a certain date, I would lose all my points. I'm so tied in with Marriott this year that the only way I would stay at a Hilton is if they threw young Paris in for the night too. Well alright, maybe just the video then.

I attended a conference last week in the Hilton Prague. I heard of quite a few attendees that they received a complimentary Gold card. They all got and upgrade (so did I) on the room. However : the result of all this was that the 2 executive floors and the "clubroom" were full the whole week. As a matter of fact my upgrade really wasn't an upgrade. But I don't complain :the extra bonus miles, the rapid checkin and checkout, the free internet (only at the executive level : 3 PC's) and the free breakfast were worth it.

LUC

I got mine as a benefit of AMEX Platinum (Australia). At least I think that's why. Around the same time I also got a Gold SPG card.

got mine a 2 weeks ago, (the cheap one ) then this week a real embossed one turned up on the doorstep ! :) quite cool as I only had 2 stays last year !! The only thing I could think was I rang up Hilton to change my KLM FB number , I did let it slip that I was Plat elite , maybe that was it ??

Recently my co worker, who prefers Holiday Inns and doesn't even have a blue hilton card, gets a gold in the mail with all kinds of perks. I have been silver for many years, and this year I got a chance to "fast track" to gold. I made the required # of stays only to not be upgraded to gold. I had to call to get my gold status. I also have the Hilton Am Ex and Visa cards for the bonus points. Is that how Hilton rewards customers?

got mine a 2 weeks ago, (the cheap one ) then this week a real embossed one turned up on the doorstep ! :) quite cool as I only had 2 stays last year !! The only thing I could think was I rang up Hilton to change my KLM FB number , I did let it slip that I was Plat elite , maybe that was it ??

you can actually check this. If you do a stay during the promo period with the extra points, your account statement will (might) give you the reason with the promo points (e.g. KLM aquis ; if they used your KL (I guess it's now FB or AF or whatever) membership to select you).