Originally Posted by
Dovster
I am HHonors Gold. I didn't spend a night in one of their hotels last year but I also did not bother changing my Surpass card. If I could use the new benefits from the Aspire card I might upgrade to it, but I don't use any particular airline (and when I do it is in Biz so the baggage fees mean nothing to me) and I probably won't be going to any of the designated resort hotels. Hence, I will remain Gold -- but if I did get the Aspire and became a Diamond, it would in no way take anything away from the other Diamonds. At most, I will be staying at one HHonors property for a single trip in 2018. Like others who don't spend much time in HHonors properties, I represent no threat to Diamonds as far as taking their upgrades from them.
I suspect this will attract less hardcore Hilton travelers and more casual travelers. This is a great perk for someone that just hits the Hiltons for personal travel because one, they probably don't already have status, and two, provides perks for both an airline and hotel. Business travelers aren't paying for most their flights, so the credit isn't huge for them and they already have status. The interesting point here would be this, the influx of diamonds may tend to show up more around holidays and weekends compared to standard weekdays. This might not affect current diamonds much at all except for if they have business near the holidays or when they extend a trip into the weekend for some personal time or a personal trip. This may just actually let Hilton maximize their diamond offerings without incurring real (regular) capacity issues and degraded quality, except for the occasional holiday peak time, etc.
I travel mainly for personal reasons and don't have status. I would like status. I tend to hit a Hilton maybe four or five times a year, usually for just overnight or two night stays and maybe one longer 4 to 5 night stay every other year. Most the travel is checking in on a Saturday and checking out on a Sunday. The longer stay usually is checking in midweek and checking out Sunday or Monday. Most of that is probably not going to affect the business traveler but would be away for me to gain diamond and let me utilize my free night on one of those quick stays and the resort credit on another quick stay. (Since the resort credit will apply to nightly rate; I would actually shift from a non-resort stay to trying to find one that counted as a resort to utilize that credit for a night). If I can utilize the resort stay for a night or heavily discounted night, the free night stay, and the airline credit every year, then I'm basically break even or better AND I have diamond and much higher point earnings at Hiltons. The big wildcard will be if eGift card work arounds and stuff keep working with Amex for the travel credits. Otherwise they become much less useful for the casual personal traveler.
Really wish this offered Amex lounge access, even if it was like limited to 10 visits a year or something. Then it would almost be a no brainer on ditching the platinum and getting this instead. As it stands now though it's a hard pick between the two... I do like Amex lounge access, I only am missing out on $50/year airline credits, BUT MR points are MUCH more valuable and easier to use then Hilton points...