Hilton Diamond Status after 7 stays

So I've decided to switch my hotel allegiance. I have nothing but rave reviews for the Starwood program and I will continue using the Starwood Amex. However, Hilton's offer of Diamond Status after 7 stays between 4/1/10-6/30/10 is too hard to pass. I got this offer with my welcome packet for Hilton Silver last month. After a month of wavering, I've decided to go with Hilton.

Hilton Diamond is Hilton's top tier program which is equal to Starwood Platinum. As a Diamond, I will get club access, free internet, free room upgrade, 50% points bonus among other things. After taking a look at my travel plans from now until end of June, I should have no problem qualifying for Diamond. I hope...

Change is in the air

I had a change of heart today...I went into the year with the full intentions of achieving United 1K status. I would have had to fly 100k butt in seat miles and planned my schedule accordingly. With 3 planned trips to Asia, ~12 trips to SF, 5 trips to Chicago, I would still be ~30k miles short. Which means, I would have to rely on a Double EQM promotion or 6 coast to coast mileage runs. Seeing that we did not get a Double EQM promotion this Spring, I was not looking forward to all those mileage runs.

Thats why today I decided to split my mileage between Air Canada's Aeroplan and United's Mileage Plus. To qualify for Star Alliance Gold, I would need 50k miles on United or 35k miles on Air Canada. Since United Premier Executive does not gain access to the United's Red Carpet Club, and Aeroplan's Elite level does, I am going to split my miles between the 2 Frequent Flyer Programs. So 50k on United to qualify for Premier Exec and 35k on Aeroplan to qualify for their Elite Level.

Another thing I placed into consideration was the ability to transfer my miles from Starwood to Aeroplan at a 1:1 ratio.(I only get a 2:1 ration for United)Since 1st class redemption to Asia on Air Canada is 120k miles and United is 135k, I should have no problem getting enough miles to redeem a 1st class ticket next year on ANA, Singapore, Thai or Asiana.

Although I will not get Economy plus access or higher baggage allowance crediting miles to Aeroplan, I plan on crediting miles to Aeroplan only on my flights to Asia, since I will most likely be flying a partner airline anyway.

Another big announcement is that I've decided to switch back to Hilton as my preferred hotel chain. I will try my best to attain Gold VIP status on Hilton which requires 16 stays. With Gold VIP, I get 4pm late checkout, 25% pts bonus, club access and space available room upgrade. Also the good thing about Hilton's program is the ability to simultaneously redeem for both Hilton points and airline miles. This way I could credit the miles to to Aeroplan and be 500 miles closer to my First Class redemption.