This week I bought rooms with Priceline at one of the London Hilton's (Olympia Kensington). I've read of Priceline customers getting upgrades with their Hilton credit cards.

I've read online about the HHilton points system and the credit cards. I even called a rep about it. However, the information is vague, at least to me.

In other words, can I just get myself one of the Hilton credit cards and lay it on the counter in order to get the upgrades I've read about more than once, or do I need to rack up thousands of dollars on the card to get a better room?

I understand this travel question may be complicated, with layers of subtleties, so refrain from the flame.

Nevertheless, any information related to my question appreciated! Thank you!

The general rule of thumb is that Priceline rooms don't get you bennies, including points, stay credits and presumably, upgrades. In fact, I think Hilton was one of the first hotel chains to begin denying points and stay credits for any stays booked by a third party in order to drive the traffic to their own website and phone reservation system. I've heard of cases where that is not enforced, but you probably can't expect it.

I have heard contrary to that from more than one party.

Who knows what to believe.

You could very well be right!

You have to be a memeber of their HHonors program to even qualify for an upgrade. Hilton upgrades based on status in their Hilton HHonors program. Gold and Diamonds levels usually are upgraded on a space available basis.

Having a Hilton American Express credit card can get you Silver status for one year. However, Hilton does not offer upgrades below a Gold status.

ou can get an upgrade to Gold status via the credit card (American Express) if you put more than $20,000 on it in a calendar year.

You can also get upgraded to a gold via their challenges. In those, you have to have x number of stays or y number of nights in a specified time period (usually 90 days). You'll need to call to get that added to your account.

In their terms and conditions, they very clearly state that rooms booked via a third party site (priceline, expedia, etc) will get neither points not stay credit. They have made exceptions for their higher level customers (Gold/Diamond) but that is the exception.
Upgrades are usually not given for priceline, etc, rooms even based on level. Again, there have been exceptions but again these are the exceptions not the norm.

Get the credit card if it sense to have the credit card (getting points towards future Hilton stays). If you are getting only to try for an upgrade, then it would be essentially for nothing (no upgrade just for having the credit card).

Thank you for clarifying!