For more than a year now, Hilton has been offering holders of Visa Signature and Visa Infinite cards a fast track to elite status offer- register and make 2 stays or 4 nights within 90 days to get Hilton Gold.
Given that Hilton Gold normally requires 20 stays/40 nights/US$7,500 in annual spending, this represents a great short cut to elite benefits including room upgrades and free breakfast.
The most recent offer ended on 31 December 2018, but it’s historically been extended numerous times so I was hopeful it’d pop up again. Although it can’t be found on the official Visa Signature landing page, it appears that you can register through this link once more to enjoy the fast track offer. This is valid for registrations made between 15 Feb and 31 July 2019.ย
You can find the T&C of this offer here.
Once you register, you have 90 days to complete your 2 stays or 4 nights. If you’re successful, you’ll get Hilton Gold status for the rest of 2019 and 2020.
To re-qualify for Hilton Gold in 2021, you’ll need to make the usual 20 stays/40 nights/US$7,500 of spend from 1 Jan-31 Dec 2020. All stays must be booked directly with Hilton to qualify (i.e no OTA bookings).
Which cards are eligible for registration?
Any Singapore-issued Visa Signature or Infinite card will be eligible to register for this offer. Here are some entry-level ($30K income requirement) Visa Signature cards you can get:
- Citibank Rewards Visaย Signature
- Maybank Horizonย Visa Signature
- DBS Altitude Visa Signature
- UOB PRVI Miles Visaย Signature
- Citibank PremierMiles Visaย Signature
If you open your wallet, you’re bound to find at least one, probably two Visa Signature cards. That’s good, because should you register and fail to meet the fast track requirements, you will not be able to register again with the same card. You can, however, create a new Hilton account and use a separate Visa Signature card to register.
Other points to note
Based on past experience, people have reported that award stays count towards your 2 stay/4 night criteria, and if you’re choosing a revenue rate, there’s no need to actually use a Visa card to book or pay.
Remember that consecutive nights at the same property booked separately will still be counted as a single stay, so the easiest path towards qualifying would involveย either doing a single 4-night stay, or doing two 1-night stays.
Conclusion
Hilton Gold may not be the highest tier in the program, but it may be the most useful mid-tier hotel status out there because of the free breakfast and upgrade perks.
If you’re thinking about taking up this status challenge, you should also consider first getting instant Hilton Silver via the AMEX KrisFlyer Ascend (don’t forget to take part in this month’s SingSaver Valentine’s Day campaign) so that you can earn a bonus 15% points when making your qualifying stays.
You could also consider booking your four night stay through the Citi Prestige, in order to get the fourth night free.ย Rates booked by the Citi Prestige concierge will qualify for Hilton status credit.
I’m glad this got extended and I managed to sign up online.
Just want to highlight that I called UOB a few time these last couple of days and they told me that this fast track offer is no longer valid and 2 CSOs called me back to confirm. I then told them that on their website, it shows that there is an even better benefit of complimentary HH Gold status, and they told me that their website (https://pib.uob.com.sg/uobvisainfinite/privileges-travel.html) is simply outdated and despite having many complaints but the management is not doing anything about it. Sigh…
Does the Day Use rate count as stays in this fast track ?
I’ve no personal experience with this, but plenty of people have said that it does.
If I have registered using card A but didnโt hit the fast track. Can I use card B to link to the same Hilton account to hit the fast track?
not sure if they do 1:1 mapping. you can always try..and then check with hilton cust svc via livechat whether it worked
Does using the hilton voucher from amex ascend count as one stay?
Yeah was wondering the same, might be too much to ask though…!
Can I check if two x 1 night stay in the same property would be counted as meeting the requirement? Thanks in advance โบ๏ธ
No
I’ve just checked with Hilton Honors. Two x 1 night stay in the same property counts.
Do I need to use the Visa card that I registered to book for my stay? If no need, then how do they track my stay?
Errm via your Hilton acct.
If you are currently Gold, u cannot enroll for this until your status lapses – as pointed out by Hilton cc Hi xxx, Thank you for your inquiry regarding promotional offer. We appreciate you taking the time to contact us. I would like to inform you that your tier status is already reflecting as gold and we can not enroll you for the same. As always, thanks for traveling with us and please let us know if you have any other questions. You can reach us any time at HiltonHonors@hilton.com. Happy travels, xxxx Corporate Guest Relations Specialist Hilton Reservations and… Read more »
I signed up today as Hilton Honors member for the FIRST time in my life and then registered by Citibank Signature VISA card for this Upgrade program. Got this confirmation screen at the end :
?dl=0
Now what ? I just book 2 stays on the Hilton website and go ahead ?
Is there a way to figure out whether I ACTUALLY am on that program or not ?
You can check my promotion in Hilton Honors website
I registered in December 2018 so my Gold status would be valid till March 2020?
Does doubletree at jb count?
Hi,
Is there any way to verify with Citibank that I have achieved this?
I have made the 2 stays (Hilton Puchong is the cheapest option in KL) and would like to check with Citi if I have Gold.
You might want to just email Hilton instead. The promotion isn’t specifically under the purview of the banks – seems to be a tie-up between Hilton and Visa.
I registered my card and went for two stays, after my 2nd stay check-out the next day immediately I could see my Hilton Honors status has been upgraded to GOLD.
Glad to hear that the waiting time is so short..thank you for the info