Maximize points for long stay?
 

I am new to Hilton Honors program. I will be staying at a Hilton for the next 30 nights. Is there a way I can maximize points I can earn even though I have zero status right now? Also, I guess I will earn Silver in the middle of my stay. Will that take effect immediately? Or will I only receive the benefits starting on my next stay? I will also be 10 nights short of Gold after my stay, how much importance should I put on trying to get Gold status, are the incremental benefits compared to Silver worth that much? Thanks for any advice or input!

Welcome to FT, theflyesttalka!

Check in and out of different Hilton hotels as much as you can, bearing in mind any bonuses.

For example, switching every night for 30 days would get you to Diamond. But that's a lot of pain for most people. The current promo ( http://www.hiltonhhonors.com/hh4_More ;not sure if you can still register) gives 4x HH points on your base spending for a 4-night stay. So maybe that would work, switching every 4 days.

You might be able to ask HH for a status challenge before you check in, something like "Stay 12 nights in the next 90 days for Gold." Call and ask what they can offer.

Get the Amex Surpass card to pay: 12 HH points per dollar.

Also read here: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hilto...n-hhonors.html

wow thanks! signed up for the promo. 4X points for 30 days is great!

Probably not in this case.

Switching every 4 nights gets you 8 stays (7 × 4 nights + 1 × 2 night stay).

Getting gold would then require 10 nights which would put you at a minimum of 18 stays, or 2 short on stays unless on a challenge (i.e., you'd hit gold on nights before you could on stays). Of course if the OP is going for diamond rather than gold, it's different because then it's only 12 stays instead of 20 nights, which might be easier to achieve.

One thing I would suggest is that the OP wants to be on points + points or points + variable miles for this stay and not points + fixed miles, which work better for those with shorter stays.

Earning 2 miles/dollar on Virgin Atlantic would mean that they could earn 10k miles with $5k of spend - meaning that they would get an extra 20k points immediately if they average $166.67 per night (including incidentals). Alternatively they would get 20k extra points with $4,000 of spend if on points + points, but wouldn't be eligible for any airline bonus promotions in future unless they changed their preferences.

It might make sense to check out after 10 nights, do 4 nights in another Hilton hotel and then 16 more nights to make sure that the silver status hits immediately to earn bonus points (1.5 points/dollar) on the last 20 nights.

Glad that will help. But maximizing HH points and maximizing HH status (Gold/Diamond) are 2 different things, so study the program carefully.

At $100 a night, this promo will give you 100x10x4x30 = 120K points. That is not as much value as you might think. I consider myself fortunate to get .5-.6 cents each out of an HH point. Others say they might get 1 cent. So it's no fortune.

If you do not have a HHonors card from either Citi or Amex it would be a good idea to get one. Since you are there for 30 days, you could apply for the card, get it and use it to pay off your room upon checkout.

There are 2 flavors of each HHonors card. I'd recommed the Citi HHonors Reserve or Amex Hilton Surpass since you get the most points for them. Amex gives you slightly more points per dollar spent at HHonors properties (12 vs. 10) but the Citi gives you 2 weekend night stay certificates.

Getting the Reserve card or the Surpass gives you gold status. Also if you have the Amex Platinum you can get HH gold status. The other HH cards (Citi and Amex HH) give you silver.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/credi...iti-cards.html