Cynicor

Sorry, probably posted elsewhere but is there discussion of the increase in base points required to become a diamond?

"During calendar year 2012, Hilton HHonors Diamond Elite membership will be awarded to Members with 28 stays, 60 nights, or 100,000 Base Points. Beginning January 1, 2013, Hilton HHonors Diamond Elite membership will be awarded to Members with 30 stays, 60 nights or 120,000 Base Points earned during any calendar year"

pauleeepaul

Good catch I had not seen this either. Gold also increasing to 75k base points to qualify. Somewhat sneaky to roll this out in the T&C fine print but what do you really expect? Hopefully some meaningful improvement in benefits will accompany.

lcpteck

Saw the article on Loyaltylobby.com.

Gold takes 20 stays now. Diamond takes 30.

travelinfoo

Are the Fast Tracks still in play (4 stays in 90 days)? Or have they changed, too? I'm dropping from Diamond to Gold in 2013 and prb will not qualify for Gold any of the regular hotel loyalty ways any more.

Funny, they are making it harder to get to Gold via the true loyalty path but make it so easy via other ways.

If Hilton is trying to restrict the numbers of Golds and Diamonds, this is not the way to do it.

blackjack-21

Just noticed this while checking my HHonors account (Gold) and going to the qualifications page to see if anything had changed. Here's the T&C from HHonors regarding the qualifying changes for Golds starting in 2013.

1.During calendar year 2012, Hilton HHonors Gold Elite membership will be awarded to Members with 16 stays, 36 nights, or 60,000 Base Points. Beginning January 1, 2013, Hilton HHonors Gold Elite membership will be awarded to Members with 20 stays, 40 nights or 75,000 Base Points earned during any calendar year. A "night" is a night that is part of a "stay," as that term is defined herein. Base Points earned will count toward Gold Elite tier qualification. Bonus Points earned on Base Points do not count toward Elite tier qualification.

No changes for Silvers, but there are also new qualifications starting in 2013 for Diamonds.

So a bit harder to make each of the two higher tiers, unless you regularly exceed the norms anyway.

bj-21.

Abidjan

thanks for the heads up.

if needed: http://hhonors3.hilton.com/en/explor...g-changes.html

cjd

At least if you qualify this year on the existing requirements, you'll be Diamond until the end of 2013 and probably till the end of March 2014, unless they also modify that changeover date.

CAlex

I think it is not a bad sign, because this means Hilton will continue to give the same ammenities to Golds and Diamonds. It's strange to me why spend for Diamond increased 25%, where the number of stays required only went up 7%, by 2 stays/year, and the number of nights stayed the same.

fozziedoggie

What about the $40K spend for Citi Visa Reserve or AmEx Surpass? I wonder if those will go away, or if the spend requirement will increase. Certainly be nice if a Hilton rep addresses the logic behind these changes; any lurkers around?

EDIflyer

Disappointed to see these increases - especially given they seem to give out Gold and Diamond like sweeties to US credit card holders, but offer nothing comparable for those of us living elsewhere who can only maintain status the hard way! Perhaps if they stopped handing it out so freely to CC holders they wouldn't have had to increase the requirements??

fozziedoggie

Perhaps. Does't UK law prohibit these types of perks on UK issued credit cards? Seems that Hilton would want to extend same CC perks if it were up to them, no?

EDIflyer

Nope there's no such restriction - indeed the Amex Platinum offers status with some hotels (although only a year of HHonors Gold, not recurring) - however it's a pretty small number of cardholders (given it costs £450/year) so nothing like the impact of the cards in the USA. I suspect it's more just the competition between card providers in the States is different - see the new Club Carlson one offering recurrent last night free on redemptions, or the mammoth 100k Avios sign-up bonus - all much better than what's on offer here. In different markets they have to do different things to compete, I just find it a bit annoying how easy it is to potentially get the status through a credit card when that avenue isn't open to me!

fozziedoggie

Indeed. Too bad Hilton doesn't place pressure on the CC card companies to mirror US perks. Never seen Discover card in the mix, maybe not that widely accepted to be worth partnering with. Perhaps Hilton will one day roll out a program similar to the IHG Ambassador program.

redshift27

UK Hilton credit card - free Silver, or Gold if you spend £10,000 per year.

https://www.hhonorscard.co.uk/Hilton...e/Welcome.aspx

3Cforme

What's the logic in that, really? Do you think that Hilton is going to run out of free continental breakfasts, bottled water, or points?