Originally Posted by
davew-krdm
So I am traveling a lot this year and through rollover, credit card bonus, and stays I will requal as Gold well before 6/30/14. I'm not tied to Marriott; I had Hilton Diamond for 6 years until this year and dropped to Silver. So I'm trying to figure out the best plan of attack for the remainder of 2014. My choices:
- Go "all in" on Marriott and qualify as Platinum sometime in Q3 or early Q4.
- Stay 70+ (but not 75) times and stay Gold with some decent rollover.
- Requal as Hilton Diamond with 25 more stays (of which 10 can be burning some Cat 1 points redemptions).
Having not been a Platinum before at Marriott - other than the bonus points, does it really make much of a difference? Gold seems to get me most of what I care about - is there a noticeable difference between the levels? What are some of the elite gifts that can make it worthwhile?
I have to admit that I miss being Diamond at Hilton for the times I do need to stay there. But redemption-wise, Megabonus and other factors make Marriott preferable....
Thoughts?
Dave
You seem to be thinking there's Silver and Diamond at Hilton HHonors and nothing in between.
80% of the Diamond benefits are available to Gold. And Gold can be had with 0 stays with a credit card ($75/year Amex HH Surpass or $95/year Citi HH Reserve, neither requiring any spend for the HH Gold status any more), or with one of several "stay 4 times in 90 days, get Gold" promos. So HH Gold is 95% easier to get (for those based in the USA) than HH Diamond.
So is it worth putting 25 stays toward HH Diiamond when you can get HH Gold for a fraction of that effort? (I guess it might depend on how much you stay at places that have lounges that are open to HH Diamond only and how much you use those lounges. HH Gold still
sometimes get access to lounges, for example if they get upgraded to the lounge floor.)
Meanwhile, back to your original question: Marriott Gold is the "sweet spot" is the Marriott program. Platinum gets you slightly more points, slightly higher priority on any upgrades, etc, but it's not a very "obvious" difference.
However, what are you
long term plans? Marriott has a lifetime status program, while Hilton doesn't. (And at Marriott, you can't earn second-tier status from just a credit card, while at Hilton you can.)