How to retain Hilton HHonors Gold Status without meeting the eligibility?
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at 18:29 by jayjay007.
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syedislamParticipantHi!
I am currently a Hilton HHonors Gold member but my status is valid till March 2012. However last one year I have hardly travelled and therefore I do not have the minimum nights to maintain the Gold status?
Is there any way to retain the gold status as I am planning to travel extensively after April 2012 and i will miss out on the Gold benefits! If I write to HHonors, will they extend it for another one year?
Thanks for your views!16 Jan 2012
at 14:45
LuganoPirateParticipantI don’t want to crush your hopes, but two years ago the same happened to me. Despite telling them my travels would increase dramtically, they did not even respond. When I called them I was told its all done automatically and as soon as I’ve spent enough nights I’ll re-qualify automatically.
I didn’t bother as I felt my spend was not worth wasting on them and switched to Leading Hotels which are far superior to Hilton and don’t cost much more.
16 Jan 2012
at 15:13
Henryp1Participantsyedislam – 16/01/2012 14:45 GMT
I would assume that this is not possible as you didn’t qualify. I wonder how many people tell a particular company they will give future loyalty if the company gives pre qualifying benefits. As always I work to the fact that benefits are for the period gained and not for periods of inactivity for whatever reason.
Should service providers give pre qualifying benefits, this may dilute the product in the longer term for those who do meet the criteria. Speaking as a Diamond Hhonors member for many years.
Henry
16 Jan 2012
at 15:41
superchrisParticipantI agree with Henry on this one. Im afraid that too many unscrupulous travellers have tried the old ‘Im about to start travelling again’ line one too many times and the suppliers are starting to get wise. Also agree that if you start just handing them out then it completely devalues the status for others.
That said, there are ways you can speed up qualifying for gold next time round, such as book 2 separate nights, rather than a two night stay for example or as I did recently, take my wife for a cheeky midweek stay at a local Hilton by using a ridiculously cheap winter sale rate. You can soon get up to the required number of stays (16 I think??)
16 Jan 2012
at 16:54
PatJordanParticipantJust a thought, syedislam, but if your travels include Hilton properties and you have made pre-paid reservations that might just persuade them to retain your status.
Or of you hold elite status in other hotel FFPs, Hilton might give you a status match.
Pat
16 Jan 2012
at 22:08
syedislamParticipantThanks for all the feedback!
I understand the point being made and accepting the reality that I will lose the status soon!
Btw, currently I have 160,000 points on my card – is it possible to retain the Gold status by giving up some of the points? Has anyone done it before or it doesnt make sense to trade points to retain status rather than booking free stays?
Cheers!17 Jan 2012
at 05:37
highcadenceParticipantI was in the same situation a couple of years back (close, but no HHG cigar). However, Hilton ran some type of promotion (via email) that if you had ~4 stays in the next 1-2 months, they would renew gold status. I did and worked out fine. I’m hoping for the same again this year as I’ve finished 1-2 stays short!
17 Jan 2012
at 11:55
SimonRowberryParticipantI’m also pessimistic that you’ll get Gold renewed.
I am a former Diamond member who was downgraded to Gold in 2011. I am only three or four nights short of regaining Diamond status for 2012, but I don’t expect that Hilton will do that for me, despite actually having stayed for some 30 nights in 2011.
By the way, I don’t think that making two separate bookings for the same hotel on two consecutive nights, as suggested above, works. My understanding is that this is treated as a single “stay” rather than two “stays.” I would be very happy to be told that I’m wrong on this….
The same is true with Starwood. On a recent trip to Brussels I stayed the first night in the Four Points, the second in the Aloft and the third back in the Four Points to get three SPG nights credited.
Also, on the subject of SPG. A very recent change is that Starwood now allow reward nights to count towards qualifying stays. This is something, of course, that Hilton have always done.
Cheers, Simon
17 Jan 2012
at 14:52
SimonRowberryParticipantPat,
Many thanks. It’s nice to be able to contribute positively again, too!
Simon
17 Jan 2012
at 23:32
NTarrantParticipantIn 2009 I had 15 stays, one short to retain Gold. I emailed and asked if they would look favourably. They repiled that it was “not financially viable” to do so. I responded that if that was thier attitude then I would not use Hilton again. I received an instatnt reply saying they would do it “this time”!
Hi Simon, Hope you are keeping well. Nigel
18 Jan 2012
at 09:13 -
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