GM1985

Fanjet

Yeah? But I'm sure it would be considered an "aspirational" bridge.

BearX220

No, they'd be sleeping at Hyatts.

Cledaybuck

Why not? I will only spend 10+/- nights at Hiltons over a year. Is there a reason I shouldn't take the diamond status when the $450 card gives me $500 in credits for stuff I am going to do anyway?

B3nder

imo with restrictions the credits is not really worth $500, although there's also a free night. If the two credits were easily convertible to a $250 airline and a $250 Hilton gift card, I'd only value them around $400 myself. I still agree with you completely, though if the airline credit gets further useless (I never would normally buy any incidentals) I may cancel. From a couple family member cards ive already run into a couple certs nearly expiring and no travel where one if the few participating resorts are resulting in a $250 resort credit unused. I'd imagine average breakage is very high on the Expire card annual credits and night certs. And the Amex-gimped Priority pass is also very low value. But prior to Amex I was instead already paying $50-100/yr to Citi solely for Hilton Gold, so Diamond status value also factors in.

To me, the main absurdity of the "credit card diamonds are bad" idea is that if they don't stay much they won't be receiving many of the upgrades and not reducing availability much. And people paying for status for vacations who don't travel for work (a third party funding the "organic" status) are more likely to be high- value incremental customers for the chain, the exact customers where the best incentives should be targeted to from a business standpoint.

Employees who travel frequently may have the ability to influence the decision of where they stay and how much the employer is willing to pay for said stay, and likely just using "free" points for their own travel decisions. But a credit card diamond is likely spending 100% of their own money, and also has 100% of the decision-making power. This is also a reason it would be reasonable (I am NOT saying they should) for Hilton to exclude employee rates from earning points or stay credit and upgrade status benefits. Hilton employees already have the incentive to book Hilton due to the low employee rate and don't "need" any additional motivation.

Cledaybuck

All of what you stated above is why I hadn't gotten the card until recently. But then we had a trip booked to CA/HI where I will easily use the resort credit and 4 separate legs on which we will need baggage (at least one, if not two) on an airline where I would have to pay $30. At this point it was practically a no brainer, plus I have an additional $250 airline credit to use before the end of this year (which I did). Throw in the free weekend night (my 4th in 2 years) and the 150k point upgrade bonus, and they are practically begging me to take their money. Now in the future, if I don't have a resort stay or incidental spend, I will get rid of it. The Ascend/Surpass actually makes more sense for my spending habits anyway.

B3nder

Yep still worth it for status and night cert. Challenge here on certs is "Hmm I shouldn't use it at a cheap place for ~$100, I'll save it for somewhere more costly", and then before you know it I'm near month 12 with unused cert even though Ive already had several trips. I have 7 active certs this year to juggle with varying dates due to the CC changeover from Citi and Amex product changes (5 myself with only 1 aspire, 2 from one family member with surpass->aspire upgrade). Also aggravatingly there's 0 Hilton hotels where I planned my big trip of the year and will 16 nights total at 10+ different places...

GM1985

zombietooth

I never implied that you shouldn't take Diamond status and exploit it to the max, I was merely pointing out that "Credit Card Diamonds" taking upgrades from more deserving BIB (Butt In Bed) Diamonds is a myth, and that the value of Diamond to someone like yourself who is only staying 10 nts/year is low (since $30- is the average executive upgrade cost at the properties that I stay at in Asia, we'll call it $300-).

If you don't spend enough at Hiltons to get the $250- resort credit and/or the $100- Conrad/WA Credit, and the extra free night at 60K spend, then the card has limited value to you. However, to me, the card has a minimum of $1,400- (two free nights at a high-end Conrad/WA, where the cheapest prepaid or corporate rate is $700- and more) plus $250- airline incidentals credit (for flying my dog) plus $250- resort credit plus $100- Conrad/WA credit plus a {7 pt earning differential over the zero fee card} x $30K (my estimated Hilton spend for 2019) = 210,000 points, which at .005 cents = $1,050-, for a grand total of $3,050-.

Forever in Seattle

Employees booking a personal stay using their staff discount rate will reflect in their booking code, but if they use the Friends and Family rate, it can be used by others so not distinguishable.

If an Employee is staying in a property for business, they book under a corporate discount code, just the same as other corporate customers.

hugolover

I thought TEAM MEMBER HHONORS was in giant letters in the background on the OnQ screen?