sdsearch

I don't think there's a "should". Full awards have at least sometimes counted in the past. Or once it said I had completed the fast track after 3 stays of any kind, not 4! ^

The best plan is do your stays early enough in the 90 day period that if something doesn't count, you'll have time to make it up with another stay. (Of course, that strategy only works if you've already dropped below the status you're fast tracking to, because only in that case can you see whether your stays counted because you see your status update if they did. If you're trying to do a fast track for a status you already have but will lose soon, I'm not sure how you tell whether everything counted.)

sandyph

registered through https://hiltonhhonors.hiltonapps.com/ and get the email for the challenge (4 stay before May 17th)

but in the email it say this challenge is to extend the status match through 31-March-2018 while the hiltonapps page say it is for 31-March-2019

anybody know which is the correct one (email or page) ?

maxp0wers

Same thing here. Registered last week under the 2019 status match page, got an email saying I'm registered and status will extend to 2018, and noticed today that under active offers, it is saying status match challenge to March 2017.

They are just all over the board with this one! I saved a screen shot of the 2019 offer though, but curious what others' experiences are.

sandyph

no reply on the email so far, I guess I will just complete the challenge and see what is the outcome

sandyph

Completed 4 stay on the 15th of May, got email on the 19th stating that my gold is extended till March-2019

Watchful

Just remembering the good old days of multiple 5K/10K/15K/20K challenges (5K bonus points first stay...10K second stay...etc. etc.).

Combine that with 6 nights at the Waikoloa in Hawaii for only 100K - ah yes....the good old days!

jamesteroh

I agree on the credit card. Automatic gold every year and diamond status if you spend $40K

The free night certificate you get every year more than pays for the annual fee. I'm using mine this year in July at the Waldorf London when rates are absurd and over 400 pounds a night so the certificate is paying the annual fee almost 5 times over.

sdsearch

Huh? You don't get a free night certificate every year just for paying the Citi HH Reserve annual fee. You also have to spend $$$$$ to get it. So how is that just paying for the annual fee? It's also paying for the $$$$$ you spent on this card instead of something else (such signup bonuses for several other cards)? If you look at it that way, it's pretty poor value for those who don't have tons of spend to throw at every card in sight (and are interested in much more than just one Hilton night).

It's a Chase card (IHG, Marriott, Hyatt) that really gives you a free hotel night (capped or not, depending on the program) just for paying the annual fee. The Citi Hilton Reserve card is nowhere near as generous, since for those who don't spend $$$$$ on it in a year, it gives squat (other than Gold status, but you could get that for $20 less a year with the Amex Surpass card).

jamesteroh

Not sure how Marriott works but with the Hyatt card the certificates (outside of the sign up certs) are only good at I believe cat 4 or lower. There's a lot of hotels I tried using it at and it isn't good at a lot of Europe hotels and there are no Midtown hotels in NYC it is good at. The citi Hilton card can be used at any hotel as long as there is a standard rate available, I'm using it a hotel in London that is over 400 pounds so that is a great redemption.

You don't get free breakfast with the Hyatt or Marriott cards either. You do with the Hilton card. If Marriott gave free breakfast with the card (well the status that gives free breakfast) I would get the card again.

There were rumors Marriott was going to start giving out gold with $10K spend on their card which would have been enough for me to have signed up again but unfortunately that rumor didn't materialize

jamesteroh

I miss the days of the promo of a free night with every four stays stacked with double points and 250 Delta MQMs. Hilton got all my business that quarter they had those offers

sdsearch

The Marriott cert is capped too. The IHG cert is uncapped, and by the way the IHG card has the lowest ($49) AF of the three.

Yes, but that's useless (after the first year) if you don't do the required huge spend on the card. You get 0 (zero) free night certs from Citi Hilton Reserve card in subsequent years if you do only modest spend (say, only using the card for your Hilton stays, which presumably aren't all that many a year if you needed the card to get Gold status). While with those Chase cards, you get free night certs, capped as some may be, with $0 spend required, only pay the annual fee.

You get free breakfast with two Hilton cards. The other one is the Amex Hilton Surpass card, which gives you free breakfast for $75 AF instead of $95 AF. And it gives you the same 0 (zero) free night certs in years 2, 3, and 4 that you have to pay $95 for with the Citi HH Reserve if you don't do the huge spend.

So for those who are not going to do the huge spend, please explain the reason for holding (not signup) the Citi HH Reserve insstead of holding the Amex HH Surpass? That's what I don't get, why you keep mentioning only the Reserve and not the Surpass. The Reserve only gives you two one-year-expiration weekend (not weekday) free night certs, once, if you don't do big spend. The Surpass instead gives you a bunch of HH points as the signup bonus, and those HH points don't expire (as long as you have "activity" every 12 months). Both cards give you exactly the same Gold status.

It's fine to say that if you're going to do big spend, the Reserve card has this benefit. But IMHO it's misleading to mention this benefit if you don't always mention that it requires the big spend to get it.

Yllanes

For a person who's not signing up for new cards all the time, $10k is not huge. I understand that a lot of people on this forum are constantly searching for sign-up bonuses, etc., but for someone who doesn't want to play that game, the HHonors reserve is a good card to keep. I am HHonors Diamond on stays and find it valuable for the extra HHonors points and the free night.

jamesteroh

I'm also a HH Diamond from activity (for now) and find the card to be valuable for Hilton activity, especially at overseas Hiltons. For many FTer's 10K isn't much especially if you do a lot of travel and manufactured spend. For someone that is a Hilton regular (who affinity cards were originally designed to target) this is a great card to have. I'd rather have a minimum spend requirement and be able to use it at an expensive hotel like the Waldorf or the Rome Cavalieri when hotel rooms are well over $500 US a night than a certificate that is capped like the Hyatt card where there are NO hotels at all in NYC that it is good for. I cancelled my Marriott card because I couldn't use the free night at any hotel I stayed at and you get no benefits from it like free breakfast.

For the people that get status through credit cards and don't stay there much this might not be the best card but the OP was asking the best way of getting HH gold. If someone isn't staying in Hilton's much such as the OP, this is a good way to get gold status and keep it. And this card is accepted at a lot more places than the AM EX and provides benefits such as no foreign transaction fees.

This thread is proving how easy it is to get status.

At least Hilton is starting to recognize their more valuable customers with the lastest promo of 3x points per $ spent for diamonds.

One thing the OP should keep in mind if upgrades are important is that the front desk knows how many nights you have stayed with Hilton at check in and some of the hotels will give priority to upgrades to those with a lot of nights as oppose to someone with only a few nights (which they should).

jamesteroh

If someone isn't going to do any spend and meets the Am Ex requirements then it would be a better card.

If someone isn't going to do $10K in spend (which I think is a great deal if you use the cert at an expensive hotel) I think it's still a lot better deal than the Marriott card. Free night isn't valid at any of the properties I use. While you don't have to have a minimum spend for the Marriott or Hyatt certificate it isn't nearly as valuable as the Hilton one.

ANd Marriott is VERY cheap with the benefits they give with the card, you don't get free breakfast or a chance at a reasonable upgrade and upgrades to rooms with lounge access aren't available unlike the Hilton card.

If the rumors are true that you will start getting gold access with the Marriott card once the SPG merger is fully in place (which I hope they are) then I will sign up for the card since the breakfast benefit will be worth the annual fee even if I don't use the card or sign up for the SPG AM EX and drop my Hilton Am Ex.

The problem is some of these loyalty programs are becoming more for credit card holders than actual loyal customers and these credit cards aren't being designed anymore for the brands loyal customers.

While I still give Hilton a lot of business, I could be a top tier on Delta with the amount of flying it takes to be their lowest tier thanks to Am Ex. I give Delta a lot more than 25,000 miles a year but I get 100,000 MQMs a year thanks to Am Ex and only need to fly 25K more to be diamond and I can be their second highest tier elite without stepping foot on a plane.

sdsearch

I think you're assuming that everyone's travels are the same as yours, if you're extrapolating from your inability to use the Marriott reward cert as meaning no one else can either.

And you do get free breakfast without status at Fairfield Inn, SpringHill Suites, Residence Inn, and some other brands, just as you get free breakfast without status at Embassy Suites, Homewood Suites, Hampton Inn, and some other brands. And in the IHG program you get free breakfast at Staybridge Suites and Holiday Inn Express. So you again seem to be assuming that just because you only want to stay at brands where only elites get breakfast that everyone else always does.

I have had no problem using my Marriott certs. Now, I have status at Marriott, because that's where I actually stay more (I have Hilton Diamond status through match to my Marriott Platinum status). But half the time I used those certs at Fairfield Inn or SpringHill Suites. For example, once I flying into BUF in the evening, and wanting to stay by the airport that night before moving on to Niagara, and the Fairfield by the airport was the best choice and no problem using the free night cert there, despite cash cost being over $150. So $85 annual fee for $150 hotel (that gets better reviews than "higher up" hotels in the same area), I'll take that, thank you. That's not as good a value as using one of my IHG card's certs on a Staybridge Suites near Times Square in NYC when it was $350 cash, and that's for a cert from a $49 AF.

So I especially don't know why you don't even like the IHG card, since for the lowest AF you get an uncapped free night. If you demand free breakfast buffet, then only do that free night at StayBridge Suites. But another year I used that free night for the IC (InterContinental) at the top of the Spanish Steps in Rome. (It was also many hundreds of dollars for the night.) The breakfast buffet at the hotel was too pricey ($33 cold, $50 hot), so I ate outside the hotel. But since the stay at that great location only cost me $49, it was no big deal to pay for a restaurant breakfast.

I find it a bit strange math to balk at using a <$100 cert for multi-hundred-dollar hotel just because the breakfast isn't free. (Btw, IHG doesn't give free breakfast at most of its brands to anyone, no matter what their status, so you're not losing out so much by only getting IHG Platinum status from the IHG card. IHG Platinum gives you free breakfast at some Crowne Plazas and the very occasional Holiday Inn, but that's about it. IHG status doesn't give any free breakfast as a stated benfit; it's up to the individual hotel as to whether they go above and beyond the status requirements.)