Hilton HHonors - Getting promoted and little travel

I am getting ready to start cutting back on my travel a ton. I average 150 nights with hilton and 60 with SPG. I may travel once a quarter. How do I loose my status? will I go to gold or back to blue? Also when do I loose it? I have a million plus Hhonors points, will it be next to impossible to use them with out the 48 hrs rule. I also have 500k NW Miles, same issues. Any advice on how to ease the transition would be great.
Thanks,
Troy

Hi,

I think with Hilton it would be a " hard drop" ie to the level that your number of stays you have earned. with the new rolling tier I think the drop might only take effect in Apriil 07?

With NW miles , you may want to post in the NW forum) but a lot of airline schemes would cancel your membership if there is no activity (earning/spending) on the account for 36months (3 years)- however you would probably be dropping status yearly with no flights

Regards

TBS

Having been through this before myself, I can almost guarantee you Hilton will drop you to the status you have earned at the time your current level expires. You could always call and ask for a "soft landing," a drop of only one status level, but odds are, based on my experience, that won't happen. Good luck -- it's always worth a phone call just to see. The worst that can happen is they say no, but there's always the chance they'll be nice and not drop you all the way.

It may or may not be practical in your case, but ...

If you have the Hilton AMEX card and you put $20K or more per year on it, you not only get the points, but you will get Hilton Gold.

It's not a Diamond, but overseas it counts for a lot more than plain Blue.

Been there, Done That :rolleyes:

It was a hard drop for me to Blue. On my way back up after another job change. Although it did take a year for it to happen.

Your points are still good, I would use them for a planned vacation somewhere instead of last minute stuff.

It may or may not be practical in your case, but ...

If you have the Hilton AMEX card and you put $20K or more per year on it, you not only get the points, but you will get Hilton Gold.

It's not a Diamond, but overseas it counts for a lot more than plain Blue.
I did not even think about my amex. I would hope I still can do 20 k on it a year. At the moment that is every two months so that will be a change.

Been there, Done That :rolleyes:

It was a hard drop for me to Blue. On my way back up after another job change. Although it did take a year for it to happen.

Your points are still good, I would use them for a planned vacation somewhere instead of last minute stuff.
I guess I will be able to plan for once.

My sympathies- I never traveled as much as you have, but it's been a struggle since I changed jobs to keep Elite status. My husband and I go to Europe twice a year, and added to the business travel I still do, I manage to make 25,000 miles a year on AA.

While you still have lofty status, you might want to book some Reward travel- much easier to get those coveted first-class seats to London or Honolulu if you're high-tier Elite. One tactic I've used is booking a paid ticket for myself and a Reward ticket for my husband (both in Coach), so I continue to get EQMs and we can both use the short lines and get occasional upgrades and exit-row or aisle seats when we travel together. (Husband is semi-retired and rarely flies on his own.) PriorityPass is a good substitute for an individual ailrine club membership; do a search on it and there are a few threads with more details here.

In addition to the good advice on Amex (that's how we keep Hilton Gold status, and we've been in many lovely Executive lounges in Europe), the Marriott Visa provides Silver status- no minimum spending requirement. Good for an occasional early check-in or late check-out.

It takes a little more work and focus, but you can still get some of the perks. And you may actually find you enjoy being home and settling into your own bed with a warm Significant Other beside you at nght- I do!

I was promoted last year and as a result travel much less. I have lost BA Silver (no big deal) and am about to lose SAS and BMI Gold (upset about this). Over summer I trashed most of my SAS miles, which expire after 5 years, on C class tickets to China for the whole family.

My HH Gold lasts till 2007 so that will be OK. HH Silver is very easy to get but I have an upgrade voucher back to gold with my Amex Plat.

The one status I am desparate to keep is SPG Plat. My strategy is that on my annual leave I stay at SPG's - thats about 20-25 nights which means that my travel requirements with work are less onerous. Also I have some friends at work who check in at SPG's when they visit me and we pretend I am staying in the same room as them - costs an extra 10 Euro per night!! I check in with them and check out with them - I just happen not to sleep very much!!

I also have a Diners club which gives some lounge access, and a Priority Pass card which is just excellent!!

Hopefully I will change jobs next year and find something where I have to travel a little more!!