Companycar

I know the title is a bit odd but my question is once you have hit Diamond and have over 28 stays should you keep focus on racking up stays or just sit back and relax?

smmrfld

Is green better than blue? Is a hot dog better with mustard or ketchup...or both? It is useless to answer a post like this without assessing specific travel preferences, volume, affinities, etc.

cordelli

What's your goal? How many more stays do you have? Can you stay somewhere else and gain status?

How are you defining focusing on stays? If you have a five day stay someplace, no it's not worth moving every day to get more stays. If you get a place that gives a decent upgrade, I would stay there. If you are maximizing some of the partner points, then it may be worth it, but as there's no real advantage to going past diamond just for the sake of diamond, I would say no, there's no need to focus on stays.

Ravenboy2001

Once I know Diamond is locked up for another year, my goal is strictly to maximize points and certs for the year and start planning the following year's family getaways. So if you look at an individual quarterly promotion like we had in Q2 (certs) then by all means STAYS was important over nights.

Companycar

Thanks Ravenboy2001 I had the same feeling I'm going for stays and points for the rest of the year just booked a Homewood Suites for Monday now that's a stretch for a stay IMO, Oh MVP rate didn't have any effect at this Homewood.

more4less

+1

I will arrive to the 28th stay this coming week and unless there is a promo related to stays, like Q4/2009(25.000 points for every 4 stays) or Q1 and Q2/2010(certs), I see no reason for moving, unless you want to go for elite status in another chain.
In my last trip to Mex I moved from ES to Hilton and back to ES. In my next trip all the nights will be at the Hilton.Much easier.

littlevoices

For me I still do stays: The bonus airmiles and 1000 welcome myway welcome points are worth more than my actual earned points for the stays at Hilton (i.e. my rooms are typically only ~$150 so that means I get approx 1500 points + 50% bonus... perhaps 2300 points). Adding onto that 1000 more points and 1000 bmi airmiles per checkin (though the airmiles for BD rack up for up to 3 days) means its still worth doing hotel hopping (especially since most airlines only give 1 lot on fixed miles).

But, I'm more commited than most, are a lost 3000 hilton points worth the inconvenience of hotel hopping 4 nights a week? Only an individual can decide...

(And FYI, I've actually gone back to Marriott for stays now for their promo as Hilton's latest promo isn't particularly good since I have plenty of airmiles already)

Keyser

i'm sure every person will have their own reason for continuing or not continuing to stay at a particular chain once they have top status....

i make it to both diamond with hilton & plat with spg fairly early in the year....usually by may/june....after that i just continue to stay where it is most convenient....but i have to admit that the promos the chain offer also have an impact on where i will stay....

troyintn

I tend to agree, it just seems SPG has been having a lot of promos, and the ones at Hilton are still pretty weak. But at least they have some now.

Keyser

very true....from almost no promos last year, hilton has picked up the pace this year with some pretty ok promos....but still, the spg promos have worked better for me so far this year....

dcshungu

Although it was a failed experiment, this is where the now defunct rolling tier status worked to the benefit of early re-qualifiers...

Keyser

i completely agree....i miss the rolling tier qualification....hilton should bring it back....

divemistressofthedark

All I have to say is, I'm racking up a free Southwest ticket after I finish four or so more stays in a couple weeks. (This is just another way of agreeing with folks who recommend focusing on stays as a means to achieving the quarterly promo benefits...)

(Q3 promo is double airline miles, which means 1 RR per stay on WN right now. If you use your WN Visa, you get doubled spend credit at Hilton, which is a Preferred Partner...this means more RR)

Abidjan

I agree, but I shudder at the regeneration of the "help me understand the rolling tier" threads. ugh!

dcshungu

That was the sad thing about the whole rolling tier experiment: something that worked to the benefit of the consumer was discontinued because the consumer could not figure it out!