jws5527

UPDATE: I called American Express who agreed that I had met the requirements to be elevated to Gold status. We conferenced HHonors in on the call and they claimed that they must never have been notified by AMEX. I filed a "dispute" with HHonors and was told that it could take up to 30 days to have the "dispute" resolved.

Long story short: About 7-10 days later my status was updated on Hilton's website. FWIW, I was never directly notified by either AMEX or HHonors that the situation was resolved nor did I receive a welcome package from HHonors (I'm assuming there is one). I recently requested an additional HHonors membership card online.

I anticipate exceeding $20,000 in spending again in 2010; hope I don't have to go through this with AMEX/HHonors every year.

Splittin' Aces

Same issue here. I went over the $20K on Nov 7th. 3 statements later (11/15, 12/15, 1/15), 4 calls with AMEX, 5 calls with Hilton, 2 Conference Calls with both AMEX & Hilton, 2+ hours of my time and still Silver. Now at 13 weeks since crossing the $20K level and counting. AMEX says thay have finally transmitted the info to Hilton. A week ago the CSR from Hilton said "it'll take 3-5 business days". Called Hilton today and the updated info from the CSR was "it'll take 3-5 business days". Kicking the can down the road . . .

Combine this with the AMEX point posting issues a few months ago and the recent devaluation from Hilton, and I'm thinking about moving on to a different hotel & card.

UPDATE: Gold VIP status given 2/16/10, 14 weeks after going over $20K annual spend.

nemloc

Seems to be the norm now. I qualified prior to my December statement, called yesterday, and was told by the Amex CSR that it takes 10-12 weeks from qualification for the systems to catch up.

sullim4

Just FYI to all of you in this situation. I had to call Hilton last week about this, and they assigned a case number. About 5 days later, I got my gold status.

If you don't have gold yet after reaching $20k spending last year, call them and have them start a case on your account.

lexman

Another FYI. I'm the OP on this thread. After repeated phone calls, official inquiries opened, conference calls between AmEx and HH Supervisors, not a thing had happened to move me from Silver to Gold thru mid January. I had actually reached the 20K spend in mid October (statement notification early Nov) last year. So, by mid Jan, just over twelve weeks had passed. I decided to throw in the towel and waste no more time on this farce.

Instead, I called the latest HH Supervisor who was helping me (not) and informed her that I was canceling all my Hilton booked stays,except one, in favor of my other hotel program, Marriott, and would not book any Hilton stays til this was solved. Hung up and promptly canceled four stays (seven nights), rebooked at Marriott properties, sent copies of the bookings to Hilton.

By mid Feb, nothing had happened (now approaching 16 weeks). Mrs Lexman and I went to Las Vegas for a week, returned Feb 17, and the HH site now had me at Gold status. Don't believe my petulant cancellations had a thing to do with the status change finally happening. Instead, methinks it's just a totally screwed up "promotion."

In the meantime, I certainly intend to keep my one Hilton reservation, which is for a week in May at the Rome Cavalieri on points. Meanwhile, I have notified HH that I've not received any Gold Welcome Packet (or card) and will continue to book my stays at Martriott until I do. Intend to send copies of Marriott folios to Hilton as the year progresses.

lex

asandrs

My silver to gold update happened in late Feb (passed 20k spend in December). Did repeated e-mails to Amex and Hilton, don't know if that helped the process or if they were just their normal slow in communicating.

Amex Customer Care

I’m sorry to hear some of you have encountered difficulty receiving your Gold VIP status at Hilton after meeting the $20,000 spend threshold. Please accept my sincere apology for any inconvenience this matter has caused you.

For our Hilton HHonors Surpass Card, Gold VIP is complimentary for the first year and then $20,000 in annual spending is required to maintain Gold status. The Terms and Conditions state “Allow 10–12 weeks for VIP status to be upgraded.”

For anyone who has met the spend requirement and would like me to look into why you have not received your Gold status, I kindly ask you to contact me via our Secure Message Center and I will be happy to research this matter further for you.

Please log in to our Secure Message Center at:

www.americanexpress.com/messagecenter

If you are not registered to access your account online, simply click on the “continue” box located on the right to create a User ID and password.

After logging in, click on the box “Compose A Message” and select “Social Media Inquiry” for “Choose a Topic.” If you address your email to me – Beth/FlyerTalk – I will respond directly to you.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Beth Henry
Amex Customer Care

Amex Customer Care

lexman -

I want to personally reach out to you and apologize for the inconvenience you encountered attempting to resolve this matter. If you could send me a PM or email me through our Secure Message Center, I will forward your FlyerTalk posts and account information to the appropriate people to investigate and correct any defect associated with this feature.

Thank you for posting your experience on FlyerTalk.

Beth Henry
Amex Customer Care