Originally Posted by
sdsearch
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.)
True, I could stop at HH Gold, but I'm looking at about 20 "extra" stays to park at either Marriott or Hilton. If I do it at Marriott, I'm Plat. If I do it at Hilton, I'm Diamond. So for me the comparison really is between those two levels - which would be more advantageous. Leaning towards HH based on the feedback so far.
Credit cards - had the Surpass card for years but since all of my stays go on my corporate AMEX it was hardly worth it. Recently looked into reactivating one of my AMEXes as a HH card but the offers now all disqualify those who previously had the card, and I'd rather credit my spend to the MR Visa which has better benefits - I earn about 25 nights/year on the card.
From a lifetime perspective, neither my lifetime points nor lifetime nights are anything to write home about - I was a Hilton guy through and through until the program devalued enough to move to Marriott. Since that was only last year, I have many years to go before lifetime would be at a meaningful level.
I think that all of your ideas could readily apply to someone whose circumstances were slightly different from mine - who is closer to Lifetime status, or would be open to a Hilton branded card. And as I mentioned earlier today, if I wanted UA Silver it would really be a no-brainer to just go for MR Platinum. But none of those things really apply to my situation.
Thanks,
Dave