Originally Posted by
jamesteroh
Diamond status at Hilton is VERY easy to acheive if you live in the US. All you need to do is apply for an American Express card which ended up having a negative annual fee if you use just a couple of the benefits. The annual fee is $450 but you get a $250 resort credit (easy to use in Vegas since room rates apply to the credit as well and all Vegas Hiltons are considered resorts), a $250 annual airline credit which those two benefits are more than the annual fee and a free night a year and I used mine at the Paris Hilton opera when the rates were $600 a night. Even though I'm an earned diamond with Hilton the card is worth me getting.
On the Hilton facebook group some people were posting a couple years ago how to status match to Wyndham with their diamond from Hilton back when Wyndham was doing status matches and then matching to CET diamond and then how to do the trick of matching every year to get diamond status in both. No wonder they did away with this trick.
As much as I liked having easy status in both programs, I totally get why they closed that loophole.
As far as CES credits go, I know they are worth the same regardless of status but I meant in my case they aren't as useful if I'm not a diamond anymore since I used them for CES rewards stays. If I lose the diamond status then that will mean no more waived resort fees and I'll stay at the Hilton Vacation club on Karen where they waive resort fees with my corporate rate.
The $250 resort credit on the Hilton Aspire card is only good at Hilton resorts, in Vegas I don't stay at Hilton as I get comped rooms at CET and MGM
The $250 airline credit is for bag fees, etc.............I already have free bags
The card does give one free night at any Hilton which is a great value if you can use it.
Also MANY can't get the SUB on Amex cards via prior churning and the card also takes one 5/24 slot.
You could match to Wyndham diamond from MANY hotel chains, by far the easiest was IHG that gave you platinum status for getting the credit card, 80K IHG points and back then it was the select card with a $49 AF that also included a free night every year.
I wouldn't say the above ( getting a credit card with a $450 annual fee ) amounts to easy ( giving away like Candy )Diamond status.