Free Hiton Honors Gold status till 2013 with Visa Signature Card + 3 stays before 31 August 2011

It came on HH's facebook page:

https://www.hiltonhhonors.com/landingpages/VisaSignature_confirmationgoldbefore2013.aspx

Nice

Saw this on their Twitter this morning. Entered my Visa # and HHonors number, and my account showed Gold immediately!

Some members on the other board are reporting they are getting 5,000 bonus points if they are already an HHonors Gold or Diamond elite member.

Clicking on the link above took me to the booking page you see AFTER registration. To register, I went here, per the Terms & Conditions: www.hhonors.com/VisaSignature

I have more than one Visa Signature. I just realized the one I used for verification is not the one I would likely use for Hilton stays. Has anyone tried to verify more than one card, or will using any Visa Signature card to pay for the stay be sufficient?

I think any Visa Signature card should work. I used my Citi AA Visa and my account showed my Gold status right away.

Awesome! Now I just have to figure out how to work in 3 Hilton stays through 8/31 as I already have 3 Marriott stays booked through August.

And remember to use the VISA Signature card, which in my case means leaving the Hilton Amex in the wallet and not collecting the higher points/dollar and the 500 point Amex booking bonus.

Yet *another* US-only offer

I tried my non-US Visa Signature and it works for me. Instant status upgrade online... give it a try...

I've already got Gold, but am unsure whether it'll get extended with the stays. It didn't recognise me for the 5000 extra points.

The Chase BA visa is a "signature" card. If you signed up for that card (and still have it), you're eligible for this promo.

I didn't see anything in the terms and conditions stating that the stay had to be paid for with a Visa Signature card, just that you had to be a card-holder in order to be eligible. Did I miss something? B/c it's 99.9% that my stays will be paid for with my corp amex.

T&C from the offer page:

I'm in the same boat. I guess we'll have to wait 1-2 weeks to see if it shows up.

Thanks for posting this. I am now Gold

My non-Hilton Visa Signature card worked.

I used two cards.

First one gave me gold.
Second one said, thanks for playing, since you are gold, here are 5,000 points .

Hmm, interesting. I was going by what the confirmation page said after submitting my request:

"You now have HHonors Gold membership through August 31, 2011. You can immediately take advantage of Gold benefits at any of the 3,700 hotels and resorts in the Hilton Worldwide portfolio. To extend your Gold membership through March 31, 2013, simply complete three stays using your Visa Signature card by August 31, 2011. Click here for the full terms and conditions."

But you are right, they don't have it in the T&Cs, which I think is an oversight since clearly this VISA-sponsored promotion is designed to drive business to them. So the questions then are:

- does their software actually enforce it?
- will we be able to get HHonors CS to grant Gold until March 31, 2013 if the software denies it? I am going to keep a pdf of the T&Cs and FAQ

I just tried to sign up my wife's account and it failed with

An error has occurred in the system, and we are unable to process your request at this time. The error has been recorded and will be investigated by the system administrator. We apologize for this inconvenience. You may contact the Hilton Reservations and Customer Care nearest you for assistance, or call 1-800-HHONORS.

When I tried to submit a second request for my own account to maybe get the 5000 points, I got the same error.

I got that error message too - tried twice with Firefox but when I switched to IE, it worked and I got the message that I would get 5,000 points since I already have elite status

Thanks, I was using Safari on my Mac and that turned out to be the cause of the error (yesterday's successful signup was with Chrome).

I was able to get it to work with Safari today. It did take a few tries before ti would take.

Thanks for the tip! Worked for me, too! Not only got the extra 5,000 points, but also registered a 2nd Visa Signature card in case they do require you to use the card you verified.

"Since you are currently an elite HHonors member, you are already enjoying these benefits. We appreciate you taking the time to enroll and will credit your account with a one-time bonus of 5,000 HHonors Bonus Points. The points will appear in your account within 1-2 weeks.

*This is a one-time bonus. Your HHonors status will not be changed or extended based upon registration for this offer. Please allow 1-2 weeks Bonus Points to appear in your account. "

They seem to have closed the loophole that will let you register once to get gold and then register again for the 5,000 points. I 'luckily' have a few Visa Sig cards and even tried using a different browser. I still get the 'thanks you are already registered' message....

Indeed.

The Capital One Venture card also pays off, as if the $1,800 in hotel certs in other programs were not sufficient from "match your miles"