What was your first Hilton stay?
Jun 8, 2014, 10:22 am
#34
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Toledo, OH
Programs: Delta DM & MM, Hilton DM, Marriott gold, Hyatt Globalist, Alaska 75K, Wyndham Diamond,
Posts: 15,399
Hilton Pittsburg when I was in college in 1986. Conference had the hotel booked and I am pretty sure that hotel is no longer a Hilton.
First experience as an HHonors member was mid 90's at the Hilton Windsor (and also was the first property I stayed a lot later when I recited diamond status) which is also no longer part of Hilton but was always treated great
First experience as an HHonors member was mid 90's at the Hilton Windsor (and also was the first property I stayed a lot later when I recited diamond status) which is also no longer part of Hilton but was always treated great
Jun 8, 2014, 10:40 am
#35
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: AMS
Programs: LH FTL, HH ♢, HGP P, Accor P
Posts: 840
What was your first Hilton stay?
Grand Wailea W-A Maui, I think 2009, as a designated conference hotel. Great stay. Even though back then I was a mere Blue member, I still got a nice room very close to the ocean.
Jun 8, 2014, 10:58 am
#36
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: Western Wisconsin
Programs: DL DM, HH Devalued Diamond, Hertz President's Club
Posts: 800
Hilton Omaha. First big travel project and for first year put up in the host company's barracks that they used to use for agents in town for training. Place was awful. Then they tore it down and started putting me in the Hilton Omaha which remains my favorite to this day. I have been a perpetual diamond since that stay which was in 2003.
Jun 8, 2014, 1:05 pm
#38
Join Date: Sep 2007
Programs: DL Silver, AS MVP, UA Silver, HHonors Diamond, Marriott Plat, SPG Plat, National Exec Elite
Posts: 3,883
Doubletree Louisville KY in middle- and high-school at mock UN and mock State Government conferences in the mid-to-late '90s.
Hampton Inn Provo was my first HHonors stay as well as my first business trip visiting my company's headquarters with my boss. I actually didn't join HHonors for another 3 or 4 months (until recommended by another co-worker, an outside sales rep with many more stays/year than me) but I was able to go back and submit stay credit requests for all my pre-join stays. This was all mid '06... I got Gold on a fast-track and then Diamond on stays (with much mattress hopping). From then on I exploited the rolling-calendar as much as possible to maintain Diamond until I switched jobs in early '10 and just moved back into a traveling job in late-'13.
I'm back with HHonors for now, but I'm going to re-evaluate at the end of '14 and see if I can jump to SPG or Hyatt for '15 (unless details of this "accessible lifestyle brand" that was mentioned at the same time Curio was announced surface and look equivalent to Aloft or at-least as good as Hyatt Place).
Hampton Inn Provo was my first HHonors stay as well as my first business trip visiting my company's headquarters with my boss. I actually didn't join HHonors for another 3 or 4 months (until recommended by another co-worker, an outside sales rep with many more stays/year than me) but I was able to go back and submit stay credit requests for all my pre-join stays. This was all mid '06... I got Gold on a fast-track and then Diamond on stays (with much mattress hopping). From then on I exploited the rolling-calendar as much as possible to maintain Diamond until I switched jobs in early '10 and just moved back into a traveling job in late-'13.
I'm back with HHonors for now, but I'm going to re-evaluate at the end of '14 and see if I can jump to SPG or Hyatt for '15 (unless details of this "accessible lifestyle brand" that was mentioned at the same time Curio was announced surface and look equivalent to Aloft or at-least as good as Hyatt Place).
Jun 8, 2014, 2:20 pm
#39
In Memoriam, FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Durham, NC (RDU/GSO/CLT)
Programs: AA EXP/MM, DL GM, UA Platinum, HH DIA, Hyatt Explorist, IHG Platinum, Marriott Titanium, Hertz PC
Posts: 33,857
Jun 8, 2014, 3:12 pm
#41
Join Date: Jul 2002
Posts: 3,643
Jun 8, 2014, 7:19 pm
#42
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: JNU
Programs: HH D, AS MM/MVPG for life/AL, Awesome Wipes VIP Club, NEXUS, Hertz 5-Star Gold
Posts: 2,893
What was your first Hilton stay?
Like a previous poster, I visited NYC with my parents in 1964 (August) for the Worlds Fair. Stayed at the Hilton in Manhattan. Remember having lunch at the Stage Deli and also at the Spanish Pavilion at the Fair.
Jun 9, 2014, 8:38 am
#45
Join Date: May 1998
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah USA
Programs: DL 2MM/PM, HH LT <>, Amex Plat
Posts: 1,283
My first Hilton stay was in 1983 for 45 days at the HHV. It was at the very beginning of the Hhonors program and I was a Gold through a Delta Air Lines affiliation. What made it really memorable; I got a call from the GM and was upgraded to the Alii tower for the remainder of my stay! Gold really meant something back then probably because there weren’t so many of them.
Jim
Jim