u600213

I got a fancy box with a deck of Hilton Playing Cards along with my next years Diamond card in the mail today.

tkelvin69

http://conradhotels3.hilton.com/en/h...ies/index.html

click on email us.

Note: I only asked for 1 night out of the 4 to be opened for a regular award.

Here's part of the email if you doubt the validity -

"Greetings from the Conrad Centennial Singapore .

We are pleased to confirm your reservation using your Hilton Honors Points for November 30 -4 December 2012. I have also contacted our Hilton Honors Customer Service to make the reservation on your behalf. The reservation have been made under the confirmation number XXXXXXXXXXXXX."

HHonors website:

Currently Reserved Room (Confirmation: XXXXXXXXX)
All prices subject to applicable taxes.
Room Type: 2 TWIN BEDS CLASSIC ROOM

Arrival: November 30, 2012

Departure: December 04, 2012


So, it can be done having the hotel make the reservation from your HHonors account.

GatorBlues

I am Gold through the HHonors Reserve Visa. I probably stay at Hiltons 15to 25 nights a year. There are large tuition payments I can put on the card to hit the spend threshold and make Diamond, but the school will require me to pay a transaction fee of almost 2% on the extra $20,000 in spend I can generate this way. In other words, it will cost me about $400 out of pocket to make Diamond by upping my spend using the tuition payments. For those of you who are Diamond, is it worth $400 in your opinion? I generally know what the available perks are, I just don't have a feel for how often upgrades are offered and how nice the perks turn out to be.

BobH

No ---

The difference between Diamond and Gold isn't that great -- unless you need to make a reservation at the last minute at a hotel that is full at rack rate.

Bob H

fozziedoggie

Yes, but not a penny more in my opinion. It seems like you travel enough, as long as it's primarily at DoubleTrees, Hiltons or Conrads where Diamond nets you more. Not so much for HGI or Hamptons.

SteveHOU

One key benefit my wife and I enjoy is guaranteed access to the executive lounge plus full breakfast each morning if we choose. This is a major benefit on international trvel. Many properties have special welcome benefit for Diamonds and/or property specific benefits. As with any elete program, your chances for upgrades increase as your elete status goes up. You also get 50% bonus on your Hilton hotel spend. Gold is becoming copper because it has become so easy to obtain.

You can dramatically reduce your costs for the additional spend by using the Amex Blue Bird; purchase VRs with your HHRV at $500/$3.95 or 0.8% of transaction cost vs your 2%, then make your payments via BB online payments with no transaction fee. Total out of pocket cost for the $20k would be $158 wich is offset by the additional HH points you will earn and the Diamond status.

stewaran

In my experience it varies greatly on area's you visit.

for example in the Hilton Warsaw, Poland. I was upgraded from a standard room to an executive corner suite. (really nice room).

where as in the USA i find upgrades to be just an executive room. which is of course better than nothing.

and as mentioned above, if you are staying in Hamptons or HGI etc, then there is no real value at all

jamesteroh

Depends on your travel habits.

If most of those stays are at properties like HGI and ES's where they don't upgrade typically anyway and you have no use for the diamond force, then probably not.

If the rumors are true that all DT's and Hiltons will have to have exec lounges by 7/31 or 12/31 or you travel to properties with exec lounges a lot then it may be (especially in Europe and Asia). With gold being so easy to obtain, many properties are enforcing the policy of only giving golds access if they on the exec level and there are a lot more golds now to compete against for upgrades, and properties should be upgrading diamonds over golds.

I booked a stay at the Trafalgar in London for this summer a few days ago and being diamond saved me a lot more than $400. The hotel was $409GPB (approx $650 US) and only premium rooms were available. Thanks to the diamond desk they were able to get me that room for an AXON rate. Doesn't work at a lot of properties, but at the hotels it does, it is a great benefit.

You also need to factor in the value of the 60,000 hilton points you will earn from the transaction into the equation as well. Those 60,000 points can be worth more than $400 on some reward stays.

cordelli

Depends on where you travel and usually stay. If you stay at Embassy Suites where breakfast is included, maybe free breakfast isn't for you. If you stay at cheap properties that don't have upgraded rooms, then maybe it's not worth it for you.

You need to look at where you stay and what benefits you think you will get by being diamond. If those benefits add up to $400, then it's worth it, if not, it's not.

3Cforme

Great answer! Please let this be the model and merge all the 'Is Diamond worth it?' threads.

GatorBlues

Fair enough, but I don't really know from year to year. I know this year I'll be at the Hilton Waikoloa for 8 nights for spring break. I have no idea where we'll go next year. We may be in Las Vegas for a long weekend or NYC, but maybe we'll go to San Diego or San Francisco. We will start mixing in some international travel now that the kids are getting older. So, I was really looking for people's general impression of whether upgrades and other perks come through pretty often or are so rare as to be illusory.

GatorBlues

Great point about the points from the spend itself. I hadn't thought about that. Even if the 60,000 points only net me a $200 reward stay, my net cost of having Diamond would be cut in half. Thanks.

thetagirl99

I would say between the 60,000 points and Diamond status, it is worth $400.

As one other poster mentioned, having Diamond force is quite useful when you need it. I've gotten into hotels when the whole city is sold out - East Lansing on a Michigan State football weekend, Madison on Wisconsin football weekend, Cincinnati on Oktoberfest weekend, etc. Not only did I get a place to stay, I got a hotel room that was going for $350+ for 35,000 points.

I've gotten upgraded during most hotel stays. Not sure if being gold would have given me the same upgrades or not. It does seem to make a difference internationally.

gemac

There are guaranteed perks and maybe perks. Guaranteed perks are things like lounge access, maybe perks are things like upgrades. Don't count on the maybe perks. Look at the guaranteed perks, compare to what you have now, and you decide. You are smart enough to be able to make this decision without help.

azepine00

2yrs worth of dia plus 60k points is probably worth it even with occasional travel...