Bits: Hilton status match has a website, forget Uber – take an Avis car from the airport for £20

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News in brief:

Hilton now has a website for its status match

Hilton HHonors is currently matching top tier members of pretty much every hotel loyalty programme to its own top tier, Diamond. Your match will run until March 2017.

Full details of the Hilton status match are in this article so I won’t repeat myself.

The match runs until 11th January. You can no longer email Hilton. Instead, there is a special status match website here.

Fill in the form, email a screenshot of your current status and you are good to go. You would be crazy not to do this if you have hotel status elsewhere.

Avis offering one-way UK car rentals over Christmas

If you are travelling to or from a UK airport over the festive season, this could work for you.

Avis is offering one-way car rentals between 29th December and 3rd January for £20. You can book here.

This is valid from Gatwick, Heathrow Terminals 2-4, Heathrow Terminal 5 (separate pick-up area), Luton and Stansted. It is not valid for trips to the airport.

This could be your cheapest route home after your flight. It isn’t clear if you would earn Avios or other miles as well but there is no harm adding your number to your booking.

I did a dummy booking from Heathrow T5 to Avis Battersea for 3rd January and it priced at £20 for Ford Fiesta (Group B) and £25 for a Group C to E. You can’t argue at that price.

Category

Avis and Avis Preferred, Hilton Honors

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

Marti McHediad says:

24 Dec24 December 05:43

Europcar are doing similar one-ways to loads of places from various london depots for just £1
- Andy says:
  
  24 Dec24 December 06:12
  
  Don’t know whether there is some sort of up sale going on with this though. I have tried 6 different routs and each time I go to book I get an error message with instructions to call.
Mr(s) Entitled says:

24 Dec24 December 07:18

My Hilton Experience: Upon learning of the status match I applied for Accor Platinum via my AMEX. This took about 5 days to process. Once my account was available online I emailed Hilton with a cropped shot showing only name and status and politely requested that I was upgraded as per other top tier Accor members. I received an email the next day requesting my point balance (~950k) and the day after I was upgraded from Gold to Diamond. I cant recall a paid stay with Hilton in the past 2yrs but I have spent several hundred thousand points in redemptions.

HfP has proved it’s worth once again.
Jason says:

24 Dec24 December 07:29

Is it not better to apply Jan 1st so you get status until June 30th?
I’ve already done the match but thinking if it for my wife and she has just got Accor plat via Amex.
Gavin says:

24 Dec24 December 07:49

OT: Iberia points have posted about 8 or 9 days after transferring.
- IanT says:
  
  24 Dec24 December 08:11
  
  Same here, 1050 Avios now with Iberia.
  
  Still waiting for the Iberia ‘Buy Points’ to post though.
  - Andrew H says:
    
    24 Dec24 December 09:11
    
    Ditto!!! 1182 Avios in Iberia Plus this morning. Nice gift for Christmas Eve!
    
    Pulled them into Avios.com and then pushed them into BAEC. Sorted!
    
    Like you though, no sign of my Groupon Avios yet. Just glad I did not have to wait until January for these!
    - guesswho2000 says:
      
      24 Dec24 December 10:44
      
      Exactly the same experience, Accor points appeared in IB+ for both me & OH this morning, all now IB-Avios-BAEC. Still waiting for Groupon Avios, but only did that a couple of days ago!
- darrenf says:
  
  24 Dec24 December 13:36
  
  I got an email from Accor this morning saying the transfer was complete, but the Avios aren’t actually in my Iberia account!
  - Rob says:
    
    24 Dec24 December 14:21
    
    Ironically, I got no email but my Mum has her 1,100!
James says:

24 Dec24 December 08:13

Got my match and stayed in a Hilton for the first time ever. Greeted with ‘welcome back to Hilton!’ and a letter in the room thanking me for staying with their chain so often 😀
- InsideFlyer Tom says:
  
  24 Dec24 December 08:47
  
  Which is a good example of why these “status matches” are a bit of a kick in the teeth for those who achieve the status the “proper” way.
  
  (That’s not a dig at you – I status match whenever I can – but I do understand why it irks the genuine “heavy duty” loyal customer, which the recent Hyatt and Hilton “match anyone” offers definitely have done.)
  - Mr(s) Entitled says:
    
    24 Dec24 December 09:10
    
    I wonder as a percentage of any top tier how much of it is driven by stays vs. other incentives? Taking Hilton as an example, they have a very large US presence and very easy credit card targets. I’d be surprised if those parachuted into a tier didnt outnumber those who ‘earned’ their way their.*
    
    * Excluding the fact that there is value to the chain regardless of how you achieve status or else why would they offer it? Is a business traveller who has no discretion over their travel policy any more valuable than someone who decides where to spend their money and how to accrue points?
  - Rob says:
    
    24 Dec24 December 09:47
    
    I feel worse for Hyatt top tier who have genuinely been diluted to the huge extra competition for pre-booked suite upgrades. Less concerned about Hilton as the difference between Gold and Diamond is more modest.
  - Paul says:
    
    24 Dec24 December 10:30
    
    I don’t think it’s that big a deal. And it is a good idea too. My ihg status is expiring soon. I matched to diamond with Hilton. All my stays from next March will be with Hilton.
    - Sebastian says:
      
      24 Dec24 December 11:48
      
      As long as this is a one off then I don’t see the problem. However, for those that have Diamond the hard way, if it becomes as easy to get Diamond as Gold, then I can see the issue, as due to the amount of Gold’s the only people who seems to get the good upgrades on a regular basis in the States and ME are Diamond’s since every American seems to have Gold. So I can understand it for that perspective.
      - Rob says:
        
        24 Dec24 December 11:54
        
        There is perception that Gold treatment is better in Europe because the hotels don’t see as many, especially outside major cities.
      - InsideFlyer Tom says:
        
        24 Dec24 December 13:56
        
        Agree with this. Outside of London I have found that Gold gets you the proper red carpet treatment in Europe, almost without fail. Looking forward to putting Diamond to the test in 2016.
Liz says:

24 Dec24 December 09:10

My “free” Accor/Iberia points have also posted x 2 accounts.

I would like to say a huge thank you to Rob and everyone on HFP for all their help and advice. I joined this crazy bandwagon exactly a year ago I have been addicted ever since. In a year I have totally changed my spending habits, gone from having only the Tesco credit card for many years to going through about 10 different cards and joined in the madness of the many Tesco/ebay deals allowing me to amass an amazing 600K+ BA/Virgin miles and 300k+ hotel points. I look forward to “turning left” on my first ever business class flight in 2016 and to staying in nicer hotels/rooms courtesy of my IHG Spire and Hilton Diamond status.

Merry Christmas to Rob and his family and to everyone on HfP! x
- Andrew H says:
  
  24 Dec24 December 09:53
  
  Very nice. You’ve only been doing this a year?
  
  I haven’t joined the credit card club yet but will do so eventually. Have notched up plenty of other Avios tho 🙂
- harry says:
  
  24 Dec24 December 09:54
  
  +1 Happy Xmas Raffles – I guess you’re on your hols tomorrow & Boxing Day so have a good one, we’ve got a birthday today so celebrations started early!
- Kinkell says:
  
  24 Dec24 December 10:10
  
  Wow! You’ve done very well.I’m a bit behind ( well…a long way behind!) but I have gained such a lot of great info from Rob and everyone else. Our avios account was somewhat bare after I used up 2x 241 pre devaluation redemption trips in F and J and Y trips to Europe , so am looking forward to another year of tips on wheeling and dealing to maximise airmiles and hotel points. I’ll just have to open presents first thing tomorrow as there is no HFP postings due to keep me entertained over breakfast!
  Happy Christmas to you all
  Jill
harry says:

24 Dec24 December 09:24

Those car hire rates are amazingly cheap, shame I can’t take advantage.

Not doing too badly on my Purple Parking + RAC though – under £6/ day.
richard says:

24 Dec24 December 09:30

Uber has a long way to go before its as good as its us brother.

Used it just this morning.
I parked my car at the pod parking to be picked up on 3rd jan.
flying ex Europe so took a redemption from London city to Dublin on the 6.50 this morning.

so I requested an uber from the pod, the driver didn’t show up after 20 mins. I was calling but no answer. next I requested again. another guy then accepted the job. he called me instantly asking where I was going. once I said London city he didn’t want the job.
I cancelled the job.
re requested and the same guy accepted again. he then did this 2 more times.
the next guy had me waiting for 10m, so I called and he told me oh its only a 20 min journey?!? so I cancelled the job on him as he clearly didn’t know the way.
anyway eventually a young lad turned up in 65 plate prius. he drove like a mad man but I was getting late at this point so didn’t mind the undertaking, red light jumping, or bus lane using.
To be fair he did get me there fast, and the fee was £56 .
all my free credit got used up from cancelling the other fares. will complain to uber another day.

hopping back to Heathrow now to catch the American airline flight to LAX.
- London Pete says:
  
  25 Dec25 December 21:42
  
  Like you I’ve been blown out by a few Uber drivers, on one occasion when he was directly outside my door! When that happened, it coincided with the introduction of surge pricing after I ordered the car, so he ditched my job and went hunting for a more lucrative one. It’s down to Uber to prevent their drivers from cherry picking better fares AFTER they have accepted your request but seemingly there’s nothing to prevent them from hitting cancel ride for no reason. On one of these occasions I nearly missed my flight because I was being messed around, then couldn’t find a replacement car. Eventually it came down to the wire and I had to hot foot it to a metro station to make sure I would still reach the flight. This was abroad but no reason why it couldn’t happen in London too.