My Hilton Gold status, via the credit card, arrived – this is how it worked ….

I wrote an article in February discussing the speedy arrival of my free night voucher from my Hilton HHonors Platinum Visa credit card.  It turned up just 13 days after I hit the £750 spending target. 

However, looking at the comments you left, it seems that I got lucky and just snuck in to the end of a batch.  I now tell people they should wait 6 weeks before chasing up.

Having got the free night, I turned my focus to getting my Hilton HHonors Gold status back.  This expired at the end of March.  I needed to spend £10,000 on the card to receive it.

You can see the benefits of Hilton HHonors Gold here.

All Hilton status cards expire in March.  The programme works on a calendar year and your old status continues until March whether or not you retain it.

The £10,000 of spending on the Hilton credit card to obtain Gold status must be done in a calendar year.  As I got my card in January, this was not a problem.  Some people are caught out by this – it is NOT a good card to get towards the end of the year.  If you don’t hit £10,000 by December 31st, your target is reset to zero and you need to start again.

This is the timeline I experienced:

I passed the £10,000 target on March 1st

The statement which included that transaction was issued on March 19th

The payment deadline for that statement was April 13th, although I had paid it earlier

On Tuesday April 20th I received an email:

Look at the dates.  I received Gold status for the rest of this year, all of 2016 and the first three months of 2017.  That is 24 months of Hilton HHonors Gold – or 24 months of free breakfast, as I prefer to see it.

The bad news for Barclaycard is that there is no need for me to keep the Hilton card now except for the fact that I receive 2,500 bonus Hilton points on my first four stays.

Once I have earned those, I will cancel it – and then reapply closer to April 2017 when my Hilton HHonors Gold will again expire.

---

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – April 2024 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current sign-up bonuses.

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending.