I am Gold through the HHonors Reserve Visa. I probably stay at Hiltons 15to 25 nights a year. There are large tuition payments I can put on the card to hit the spend threshold and make Diamond, but the school will require me to pay a transaction fee of almost 2% on the extra $20,000 in spend I can generate this way. In other words, it will cost me about $400 out of pocket to make Diamond by upping my spend using the tuition payments. For those of you who are Diamond, is it worth $400 in your opinion? I generally know what the available perks are, I just don't have a feel for how often upgrades are offered and how nice the perks turn out to be.
The difference between Diamond and Gold isn't that great -- unless you need to make a reservation at the last minute at a hotel that is full at rack rate.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by GatorBlues
I am Gold through the HHonors Reserve Visa. I probably stay at Hiltons 15to 25 nights a year. There are large tuition payments I can put on the card to hit the spend threshold and make Diamond, but the school will require me to pay a transaction fee of almost 2% on the extra $20,000 in spend I can generate this way. In other words, it will cost me about $400 out of pocket to make Diamond by upping my spend using the tuition payments. For those of you who are Diamond, is it worth $400 in your opinion? I generally know what the available perks are, I just don't have a feel for how often upgrades are offered and how nice the perks turn out to be.
Yes, but not a penny more in my opinion. It seems like you travel enough, as long as it's primarily at DoubleTrees, Hiltons or Conrads where Diamond nets you more. Not so much for HGI or Hamptons.
I am Gold through the HHonors Reserve Visa. I probably stay at Hiltons 15to 25 nights a year. There are large tuition payments I can put on the card to hit the spend threshold and make Diamond, but the school will require me to pay a transaction fee of almost 2% on the extra $20,000 in spend I can generate this way. In other words, it will cost me about $400 out of pocket to make Diamond by upping my spend using the tuition payments. For those of you who are Diamond, is it worth $400 in your opinion? I generally know what the available perks are, I just don't have a feel for how often upgrades are offered and how nice the perks turn out to be.
One key benefit my wife and I enjoy is guaranteed access to the executive lounge plus full breakfast each morning if we choose. This is a major benefit on international trvel. Many properties have special welcome benefit for Diamonds and/or property specific benefits. As with any elete program, your chances for upgrades increase as your elete status goes up. You also get 50% bonus on your Hilton hotel spend. Gold is becoming copper because it has become so easy to obtain.
You can dramatically reduce your costs for the additional spend by using the Amex Blue Bird; purchase VRs with your HHRV at $500/$3.95 or 0.8% of transaction cost vs your 2%, then make your payments via BB online payments with no transaction fee. Total out of pocket cost for the $20k would be $158 wich is offset by the additional HH points you will earn and the Diamond status.
If most of those stays are at properties like HGI and ES's where they don't upgrade typically anyway and you have no use for the diamond force, then probably not.
If the rumors are true that all DT's and Hiltons will have to have exec lounges by 7/31 or 12/31 or you travel to properties with exec lounges a lot then it may be (especially in Europe and Asia). With gold being so easy to obtain, many properties are enforcing the policy of only giving golds access if they on the exec level and there are a lot more golds now to compete against for upgrades, and properties should be upgrading diamonds over golds.
I booked a stay at the Trafalgar in London for this summer a few days ago and being diamond saved me a lot more than $400. The hotel was $409GPB (approx $650 US) and only premium rooms were available. Thanks to the diamond desk they were able to get me that room for an AXON rate. Doesn't work at a lot of properties, but at the hotels it does, it is a great benefit.
You also need to factor in the value of the 60,000 hilton points you will earn from the transaction into the equation as well. Those 60,000 points can be worth more than $400 on some reward stays.
Depends on where you travel and usually stay. If you stay at Embassy Suites where breakfast is included, maybe free breakfast isn't for you. If you stay at cheap properties that don't have upgraded rooms, then maybe it's not worth it for you.
You need to look at where you stay and what benefits you think you will get by being diamond. If those benefits add up to $400, then it's worth it, if not, it's not.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cordelli
Depends on where you travel and usually stay. If you stay at Embassy Suites where breakfast is included, maybe free breakfast isn't for you. If you stay at cheap properties that don't have upgraded rooms, then maybe it's not worth it for you.
You need to look at where you stay and what benefits you think you will get by being diamond. If those benefits add up to $400, then it's worth it, if not, it's not.
Great answer! Please let this be the model and merge all the 'Is Diamond worth it?' threads.
Depends on where you travel and usually stay. If you stay at Embassy Suites where breakfast is included, maybe free breakfast isn't for you. If you stay at cheap properties that don't have upgraded rooms, then maybe it's not worth it for you.
You need to look at where you stay and what benefits you think you will get by being diamond. If those benefits add up to $400, then it's worth it, if not, it's not.
Fair enough, but I don't really know from year to year. I know this year I'll be at the Hilton Waikoloa for 8 nights for spring break. I have no idea where we'll go next year. We may be in Las Vegas for a long weekend or NYC, but maybe we'll go to San Diego or San Francisco. We will start mixing in some international travel now that the kids are getting older. So, I was really looking for people's general impression of whether upgrades and other perks come through pretty often or are so rare as to be illusory.
You also need to factor in the value of the 60,000 hilton points you will earn from the transaction into the equation as well. Those 60,000 points can be worth more than $400 on some reward stays.
Great point about the points from the spend itself. I hadn't thought about that. Even if the 60,000 points only net me a $200 reward stay, my net cost of having Diamond would be cut in half. Thanks.
I would say between the 60,000 points and Diamond status, it is worth $400.
As one other poster mentioned, having Diamond force is quite useful when you need it. I've gotten into hotels when the whole city is sold out - East Lansing on a Michigan State football weekend, Madison on Wisconsin football weekend, Cincinnati on Oktoberfest weekend, etc. Not only did I get a place to stay, I got a hotel room that was going for $350+ for 35,000 points.
I've gotten upgraded during most hotel stays. Not sure if being gold would have given me the same upgrades or not. It does seem to make a difference internationally.
I am Gold through the HHonors Reserve Visa. I probably stay at Hiltons 15to 25 nights a year. There are large tuition payments I can put on the card to hit the spend threshold and make Diamond, but the school will require me to pay a transaction fee of almost 2% on the extra $20,000 in spend I can generate this way. In other words, it will cost me about $400 out of pocket to make Diamond by upping my spend using the tuition payments. For those of you who are Diamond, is it worth $400 in your opinion? I generally know what the available perks are, I just don't have a feel for how often upgrades are offered and how nice the perks turn out to be.
There are guaranteed perks and maybe perks. Guaranteed perks are things like lounge access, maybe perks are things like upgrades. Don't count on the maybe perks. Look at the guaranteed perks, compare to what you have now, and you decide. You are smart enough to be able to make this decision without help.
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Also, the $200 cash-on-the-spot penalty is an incentive for them NOT to walk you if, say, you have a seriously delayed flight, arriving very late and exhausted at a sold out property.
$400 seems well worth it if your stay count is going to end up closer to 15 than 25 stays.
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International is the tipping point on this, as many have said. I get great upgrades, especially in Asia! Difference in room cost would be 100+ a night on most of my stays! The Conrads make this a great value as well, they are even better than Hilton properties. With the points you get, its not the full $400, so would factor that in as stated. Use them only for high dollar properties, like Conrad Singapore etc.
