Very true, and I do agree that Diamonds should always receive upgrades over gold, but I do think that the hotels should do at least something to distinguish amongst the diamond and gold members rather than time of check-in, and it should be based on some combination of CRM data. I hope in that example the high revenue gold would at least hit diamond on base points before nights/stays. Also, I imagine that a high revenue or nights in bed gold would hope there is some system in place to help them get the upgrade in a tie breaker situation over someone who recently opened a credit card and hasn't spend many nights or dollars with Hilton.

Random data point - At the Waldorf Astoria NYC, they average 200 (!!) diamonds a night. They don't even upgrade golds (http://www.tripadvisor.com/FAQ_Answe...s_Members.html) to attempt to accommodate as many of the diamonds as they can. They do diamond upgrades at check-in ONLY. They will not assign an upgrade in advance even the night before or day of, only at check-in. As a result, someone with 1,000+ lifetime nights with Hilton could end up in the room type booked while someone who opened a credit card and manufactured $40K in spending and has never stayed with Hilton scores the one suite left, because they arrived 30 minutes earlier. I just don't think that is fair, but seems like I may be alone in this one . I get the argument that a diamond is a diamond, but with SO MANY diamonds, no one is elite. Also I am not trying to knock WA NYC by pointing this out as I love staying there and have always gotten great upgrades but am trying to provide an example.