Hilton’s New Instant Free Gold Status Offer

by Gary Leff

Hilton HHonors is giving away instant free Gold status through May 2013 to Visa Infinite cardholders.

The way they verify that you’re eligible, i.e. that you have a Visa infinite card, is by asking you to enter the first six digits of your card. Those six digits are ‘issuer identification numbers’ that say what kind of a card it is.

Great in theory, you have to know the first six digits of a Visa Infinite card to take advantage of the promotion. But that information is even available on Wikipedia, the very first result found in a Google search.

Which means that anyone can effectively take advantage of the promotion. As a Hilton Diamond member already I haven’t actually tested this out, I’m interested in it as a purely academic matter. But apparently entering the first listing in Wikipedia, for Masterbank of Russia, unlocks the page. (If I bothered looking at the code on the page I might find other ways to unlock it as well.)

Then again, they might not be trying all that hard to exclude ‘ineligible’ members considering that this past summer they gave away Hilton Gold to anyone with a Visa Signature card though that was for three months only and this is for a full year. Though in that case, existing Gold and Diamond elites got 5000 bonus points as a ‘consolation prize’ as well.

Though the benefits do vary slightly by brand and property, roughly speaking Gold status gets a (generally quite modest) upgrade, continental breakfast, free internet, and discounts on multi-night award stays.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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  3. Yup, instant Gold for my wife using a number off Wikipedia. Plus, 40K HHonors points for 4 stays by May 31, 2012. Makes me wonder why I bother earning Gold. 🙂

    Ike

  4. I keep getting an error: We’re Sorry, 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.

  6. I’m in the middle of a gold challenge. Is there any reason to not do this? I have 2 stays, with 2 more booked in January. The idea is to have Gold status for an award stay at Conrad Tokyo in mid-Feb.

    -David

  16. T&C seem to say you only earn 40K bonus points if you use your Visa Infinite card to pay for the stay. Is that a correct reading, Gary? Although free gold status is nice, it’s a pity those of us who aren’t really Infinite card holders can’t get the bonus, too.

  21. Wonder if they will be verifying acct. Home addrs… From the FAQ

    ‘Who is eligible to participate in this promotion?
    This offer is open to selected Visa Infinite cardholders residing within Asia Pacific, Central Europe, Middle East and Africa and who are enrolled in Hilton HHonors and register for the promotion.
    *Asia Pacific denotes Australia, Hong Kong, China, Korea Singapore, Taiwan, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, and Philippines’

    Infinate card numbers from banks in other regions do not work. Worth a go, thanks Gary!

  28. I got an error message saying that they will be investigating this issue. I’m not sure why it didn’t work. Good for you guys that did though!

  31. I think, for reasons of privacy as to credit cards, that it will be VERY difficult for Hilton to say, “Oops” and undo the status that they give you. Thanks, Gary.

  32. Thanks for the Gold tip, didn’t work first 2 times as couldn’t find box for entering Pin/Password.

  33. it’s ridiculous that a company like hilton runs an offer like this but can’t make it work. i have an RBC Visa Infinite yet the numbers are invalid but it works with the Russian Masterbank numbers. Oh well, at least i’m gold now.

  34. @samuel, I got the same error message several times.
    Clear your cache and try again!
    The website is being super glitchy. For instance once it finally accepted the Visa number, it did not accept my HHonors number, so I did it again.
    The box for entering my HHonors PIN code was also missing, but when I hovered and clicked below the box for HHonors number it appeared and I was able to enter it. Hope this helps someone.

    Too bad I don’t REALLy have the Visa…I would have loved the 40k miles after four stays they were offering!

  38. Gary, I don’t know how and where you came up with these kind of deals and travel hacks. My hat is off to you. You are simply amazing.

  42. Nice to see that, in the rush to out-metal each other, Peoples Trust offers a “Vanilla Visa”, while Bendigo offers one in “Basic Black”…

  43. t&c
    Hilton HHonors Members with Blue or Silver status will receive HHonors Gold Elite status at the time of registration valid for one year

    Not till 5/13

  44. I wonder what will happen when Hilton notices that there are a lot of Russians signing up for this. None of the other numbers on the Wiki work.

    Got mine. Hope I keep it.

  45. @Peter S: this is on FT & MP since tuesday, slickdeals picked it up last night, so it will not last long….

  47. just signed up, checked my hilton’s site, it said gold, so went through ASAP.

    also, got this email today from priceline:

    Save up to 33% during The December Sale1
    Celebrate another year gone by with a much-deserved break during The December Sale. Book your getaway at any Hilton Hotels & Resorts by January 1, 2012*, and stay by January 8, 2012, and you’ll save up to 33%. With savings like this, it’s the perfect time of the year to get to experiences worth sharing.

  48. About 15 years ago, a friend of mine descibed the Internet as “the repository of all the information you’re not supposed to have.” Too bad for Hilton, and good for us, that this remains true.

    Instant Gold for me. Ridiculous.

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