NC_Girl

Anyone else get this (targeted?) email?


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Your frequent travel has earned you a special offer from Hilton HHonorsTM. You can earn 25,000 AAdvantage® bonus miles plus instant HHonors Gold status when you sign up and stay with Hilton HHonors*:
Simply register to activate your HHonors account and receive instant HHonors Gold status until December 31, 2013
Complete three stays at any of the 4,000 hotels or resorts within the Hilton HHonors portfolio by December 31, 2013 to maintain your Gold status through March 2015
Complete five stays and you'll also receive 25,000 AAdvantage bonus miles — that's enough for a domestic round-trip MileSAAver® award (taxes and fees of up to $10 apply)

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When I registered, it gave me a new Hilton HHonors account #.... which is fine as I really haven't stayed much with Hilton before so have very few points and no status.

fmkgb

If you are already a HH member just call Honors and they will merge the accounts (the new # you received when you entered the promotion and your existing account #). BEWARE though -- they keep the new account # as your permanent # so that your gold offer still exists. Thus, you have to memorize and new # and change all your paperwork. If you have a Hilton credit card you should call them and make sure they have your new # so that you receive your points when you charge on cc. You also need to set up your pin again if you don't want to use the pin that was assigned to you.

I had to go in to my account and reinput most of my preferences even though the representative said she copied them over to the merged account. Review your preferences carefully. Also, if you have any reservations make sure they show the new account # after the merger. If you click on the reservation and it won't allow you to see it then the representative didn't import properly. Call them back and ask them to fix.

flyboy60

I just signed up for this today, and I'll easily get 3 stays in the Palm Springs area over the next few months.

NC_Girl

I've only got about 1000 points so not going to take the chance on merging the accounts and messing things up.

I am not too concerned with the gold status as I rarely stay at Hilton's anymore but the 25K AA is worth quite a bit to me. I will shift 5 upcoming hotel stays to Hilton to get that.

rodsren

I got the targeted e-mail. I am Gold with Hhonors as long as I have the Citi reserve card ($95 a year-well worth it I think.) I am very interested in the 25K aa miles, however, so will try to shift 5 stays to hilton b4 the end of the year.

worldiswide

I received the email. My husband and I have a grandfathered joint account that we don't want to lose. Anyone in the same situation who took advantage of the offer and can report on their experience in merging the new acct with the Hilton mutual fund account?

sagtravelgal

Hi All,
I just got the offer and registered. One problem, I don't have a need for any hotel stays right now. At what point does it make sense to book rooms just for the 25K AA points. I'm feeling desperate because I just depleted my AA account. I am looking to you for your guidance for the best way to accomplish this. Do you get credit when you don't book through the Hilton website?
Thanks for your help!
Sagtravelgal

NC_Girl

I can't find anything in the very short t&c about if the stays can be booked at a third party website so I am assuming they can be, but I don't want to do 5 stays then not get the points... anyone experienced with Hilton know how this kind of thing is normally handled? What about using discount codes?

ThePointsCollector

I asked that question in another thread and was told that third party bookings never count as stays and do not earn points. Sucks, because I have 3 stays booked and Hilton properties thru expedia.

Cymro

It depends what you can do with it.

I would suggest that the minimum cost of 5 stays is going to be at least $350, and very likely more depending on where you're located.

If you don't need those stays then the question is whether 25k miles is worth more to you than 5 Sunday nights (or whatever is cheapest!) less the points for those stays (with points + points plus 1k bonus as your gold benefit, which is a best case scenario, that's still just under 10k points).

Those 10k points might get you a night at a similarly cheap hotel in a poor location, in most cases, but at least you could save them for a high demand period, or use them towards more if you're a regular guest.

As for what you can get with 25k AA miles? Not sure... On BA I'd try to use them for an upgrade from premium economy to biz on a TATL flight but I don't know if you can do that with AA.

Of course if you intend to stay in Hiltons during the next year then I'd also add a nominal $20/night (for wifi, upgrades and breakfast - even if you don't get to use all three) although $95 for the credit card means that you would get that value relatively cheaply. Still, adding that to the value of the points might mean that the net cost to you could be as low as $200, probably more likely to be in the $250 - $300 range for 25k miles, so still around 1c/mile.

travelinfoo

WRONG!!! Third party bookings are ALWAYS INELIGIBLE stays.

Please take a look at the HHonors T&C before making assumptions & to avoid disappointment (and subsequently blaming Hilton).

From HHonors T&C:

A "stay" is defined as the total number of consecutive nights spent at the same hotel, whether or not a guest checks out and checks back in again. Specifically excluded from the definition of "stay" are the following types of ineligible stays: wholesale/tour operator packages; contracted crew rates; travel agency discount rates, packages exclusively for casino player card holders; Team Member Travel rates, Hilton Family Travel Rates; stays secured utilizing Hilton Grand Vacations Club and Hilton Club timeshare programs, Hilton Grand Vacations marketing packages with a sales presentation requirement; complimentary or barter rooms; Reward Stays (as defined herein); NET Group rates; Series Group or IT Group rates; contracted Entertainment or Encore rates; third party websites bookings (irrespective of rate paid); and "opaque" channel bookings where the brand may or may not be known at the time of purchase. HHonors Points (or stay credit) may not be earned (including as a My Way benefit) for or during ineligible stays, including without limitation, folio charges incurred during ineligible stays.

Certain discount codes are also ineligible stays. The most common ones, e.g., AAA and MVP, are usually OK. Some of the other codes do specifically say in THEIR T&C that they are excluded from any promotions.

MasterGeek

What is the link in the email ?

lcpteck

You'll need an activation code as well so it won't work if you were not targeted.

freepoints

very good offer pity i don't get the email. Anyone who could pm give me an activation code if you don't need it? very thanks

sbams

Received a similar offer but it was from KLM Flying Blue. T&C's the same.