smartinez

I was looking to get the Amex Plat card, and thought I saw Hilton Gold VIP status on the list of benefits when I looked a while back, but today I don't see it. (I also searched this forum and the page comes back completely blank)

Was this just wishful thinking? Did I hallucinate that?

Thanks in advance

karthik

The Amex Platinum includes SPG Gold. No HH Gold. The only Amex products to include HH Gold are the Centurion card and the Amex HHonors credit card if you spend $20k on it in a given year. The Amex HHonors card gives you Silver to start out with (which as a Gold you know is basically useless.) This is a good deal if you like earning HHonors points and charge a reasonable amount.

The Amex SPG credit card also includes SPG Preferred Plus, which is the same as Gold except that you don't get a 50% point bonus. You get the same room upgrades and 4PM checkout as Gold members for $30/yr (plus one SPG50/yr) so this is a very good value.

As for other cards, the Citi Chairman Card includes HH Gold.

DJ_Iceman

And both SPG gold and HH gold are basically useless...

miikka

Well SPG Gold is useless. HH Gold is useful in certain countries, USA is not one of those countries in most cases.

beergut

Don't know about SPG but HH has saved me a small fortune with free breakfasts, booze , upgrades etc ^

karthik

SPG Gold gets me a possible upgrade (though doesn't seem to be as consistent as HH Gold, at least in Asia which is the only area I can do a fair comparison as of now), but most importantly it gets me a guaranteed 4PM checkout at most places. This can be quite important depending on flight schedules, jetlag, my own weird sleeping patterns, and such. I booked a night at the supposedly-horrid Sheraton Heathrow for tonight as I have a late afternoon flight out of LHR and would like to sleep in since I will be out until late. There are reasonable and cheaper accomodations, but I know I'm not guaranteed anything past 11 or 12 elsewhere (other than at the significantly-more-expensive-for-tonight Sheraton Skyline) so SPG gets my business there! Of course, SPG Preferred Plus gets me the same upgrade potential and 4PM checkout anyways for $30/year from my SPG Amex, so I'm not going to bother to qualify for Gold for next year. (Shame again SPG for the 3rd time or so, if only you'd given me the double nights/stays promo I'd give you 10 multi-night stays to qualify for Plat, and thus stayed quite a bit more next year. Happily shifted 15 nights Hilton's way in July to get the three free Q3FN Cat 6+ night certs after being enrolled in the 5/10/15 promo that was openly offered to FlyerTalkers; that's the way to do it! I have perpetual HH Gold from Citi at the moment so status wasn't even an issue there.)

The double-Starpoint-on-SPG-purchases feature that's finally shown up will compensate for the loss of the 50% Gold bonus quite nicely!

I have had great success with HH Gold upgrades in Australia and Asia. Can't comment on the US as I don't do much business travel in the US at the moment, and last I did I was sadly one of the uninformed masses losing out on a decent amount of hotel points and some miles.

s25843

I only bothered to active my SPG Gold because it came free with my Plat card, otherwise Hilton gets 100% of my business. I have found Hilton with my HH Gold status is pretty good at upgrading at the minumum my "View" in the room, eg. City to Bay etc..., which 98% of the time, is more than enough for me. Not to mention the evening receptions and breakfast in the mornings.

amorn

In some Hilton family hotels in the US, you get some perks as a Gold member. Free internet if the hotel charges for wireless internet and a bunch of coupons: free breakfast, drinks between 4-7, etc.

As a silver last year, I was nickel and dimed for the above.

mia

Confusion is understandable because Hilton Gold status is offered as a benefit (for one year only) of American Express Platinum charge cards issued in the United Kingdom, including the International Dollar Card. It is also offered by the Citigroup Chairman card in the USA. You may have seen discussion of one of these cards .

dennis

Joe1690

Well actually, starting october 1, the SPG Amex platinum card will offer SPG gold status if you spend $30,000 on the card per year.

smartinez

perhaps this is true. I am HH Gold now, but won't requalify. I like it, got a few upgrades, breakfasts, things like that, so I'm looking for alternate ways to stay gold.

MattUK

I dunno why so many people slate HHGold as useless. Maybe its a US thing, but in Europe its a *very* useful card, and gets my rooms upgraded to Executive rooms every time I use their hotels, and more and more Hiltons have Executive lounges and dining.

Very useful if you ask me.

queritor

Nobody seems to have mentioned the fact the US Amex Platinum card does include HHonors Silver status.

More Champagne Sir?

Hilton HHonors Gold Card is included in the UK Amex Plat package. Perhaps that's where you saw it listed. From speaking with a US colleague, the UK package is considerably better than the US package. Ironic, as after all it is American Express!!

DJ_Iceman

Really? Is this new?