Yes, started in Perth with the Doubletree and literally made its way across the country

Are you saying that Diamonds won't get EL access?

I don't know about Perth, but it had been in place at the Hilton Sydney before the pandemic but was rescinded when the lounge was closed or not offering much. I'm unclear on exactly what counts as Continental breakfast at Glass: only cold items (so no oatmeal nor scrambled eggs nor poached eggs), or only items on the buffet (so yes oatmeal, scrambled/poached eggs, but no omelettes)? The executive lounge had scrambled eggs the one time I checked on it in late February, so it would seem reasonable to me that it would be everything on the buffet at Glass, but I don't know.

@lcohen999, what is included/excluded at the Doubletree Perth?

That's a stated benefit. Continental breakfast (as each property defines it) is also a stated breakfast, but for decades non-U.S. properties have included full breakfast. I think the poster's point is that Hilton properties in Australia are removing one of the most important benefits of Diamond status. I tend to agree.

I think Hilton is going down the wrong path by gutting its program. Travel demand is high sh the moment and chances are it'll get away with it. What will Hilton do once demand levels off? No guaranteed 4 PM checkout already means Hilton isn't my first choice.

Any more details on what the extra AU$10 gets you. And how do they enforce it? It’s been a while since I was at Glass, but they seemed to have a bunch of stations so how would they know if you only have continental vs full?

The $10 breakfast upsell for the full buffet has been the case across all NZ and AU Hilton properties since pre Covid for all gold and diamond members.

Some properties have opted to still give the full buffet to diamond's with no upsell but with diamond now being the new silver with virtually every US Honors member seemingly being a diamond it's hardly surprising they're no longer being so generous and simply going back to what the published benefits say. Free continental or the $A10 upsell for a great breakfast represents pretty good value compared to a stay at a US Hilton where you get a $10 credit that can barely buy anything.

The $10 gets you the full breakfast vs just the continental. I have zero idea how they actually go about enforcing this - I had a few stays there possibly early 2020 when I dropped back to Gold and always took the $10 upsell. I've only had one stay there post Covid and took the upsell as well so don't actually know what they determine to be a continental breakfast or how they could really enforce this. When the place is busy it'd be pretty hard for staff to keep an eye on people!

100% agree that UA$10 is not bad compared what the US based properties allow. And agreed that Diamond is relatively easy to come by particularly with the AMEX card. But still, it seems pretty cheap to nickel and dime people.

Hilt sydney
 

HI wondered if check in is available again in lounge. rgds andrew

Still not staffing the EL when I was there last week

You mean the lounge is closed?

No, just that there isn't someone at the desk who can do checkin/out

One word of warning here - the gym (not run by Hilton but accessible to guests) has gone to pot.

The pool is cold. I mean ICE cold - I like a cooler pool for lap swimming, but the ocean would likely be warmer right now. Two of the steam rooms were U/S and the spa has been for weeks.

I love this hotel otherwise (on track for 200 stays sometime next year) but this really puts me off. The Shangri-La is often a similar price and whilst the pool is only 15m vs 25m, at least they get the temperature right.

How are they currently with early check ins and late check outs? We're arriving from LAX at 7 am and I'd love to be able to get to the room around 9 am. Seems this might be hard. We're also departing at 3 pm so I was thinking about asking for 1 pm check out. Also, is there breakfast and some evening food in the lounge now? Thanks for any insight. I have low expectations but hope to be positively surprised as Diamond. I usually stay in the Sheraton where they always treated me well and gave me suite upgrades but for the dates we needed it was way more expensive than Hilton.

How does the Hilton Sydney compare to the Sheraton Hyde Park?