Currently Hilton Diamond elites can receive upgrades to suites. The issues with this are:
- There must be availability at check in
- Hotels are free not to offer these upgrades, even if availability is there
This basically makes this ‘benefit’ useless. Hilton is currently testing a pilot program where select elite members can confirm an upgrade to a suite at the time of booking. The pilot program has been targeted towards a select few high value customers.
- Each select customer receive one upgrade certificate
- Certificate must be redeemed by March 31st, 2019
- Certificate can be used on reservations up to 7 days long
- Certificate can be used on paid and award nights
Hilton has also gone on record as saying they plan to roll out guaranteed upgrades at booking to more customers by the end of year but it’s not clear if those will have the same rules as the pilot program above or not (and will likely depend on the pilot program itself). It’s also not clear if all Diamond members will receive this benefit or if you’ll need to stay more than 60 nights to be eligible.
If a benefit isn’t guaranteed then I don’t really put much value in it, having the chance of getting an upgrade doesn’t really do anything for me. Because of this reason I’ve given up chasing status with most programs, I do think this is something Hilton has desperately needed to address so it’s good they are finally making a move in this direction. It’s obviously too early to tell how useful this benefit will actually be, but I’m excited to find out the final details.
Hat tip to TPG
