In an unexpected move, Hilton has just announced a strategic partnership with Didi in China. Didi is China’s local ride-hailing company who also operates in some international locations in Asia Pacific and South America. You can think of them as an Uber equivalent – in fact they bought Uber’s business in China a few years ago.
It’s not rare that hotels work with ride hailing companies – we have Marriott & Uber plus Hilton & Lyft already. What surprised me is how deep the collaboration is, extending to even reciprocal membership benefits.
For Didi Members:
- V6 members receive Hilton Silver status and can apply for a 90-day Gold challenge, requiring 6 nights
- V7 members receive Hilton Silver status and can apply for a 120-day Gold trial & challenge, requiring 8 nights
- V8 members receive Hilton Gold status and can apply for a 120-day Diamond trial & challenge, requiring 12 nights
For Hilton Members:
- Silver members receive eight V5 upgrades
- Gold members receive two V7 and six V6 upgrades
- Diamond members receive eight V7 upgrades
An upgrade is valid until the end of the next calendar month. I’m currently Hilton Gold and claiming the V7 upgrade was very easy.
V7 members are eligible for a bunch of money-off voucher and higher in priority when requesting a trip. In addition they receive one complimentary airport lounge access (China only, powered by Joyful Journey) per calendar year.
If you live in China or are going to visit the country, you’ll very likely need to use Didi and those coupons plus benefits are nice to have. You must log in to Hilton’s Wechat mini-program (search 希尔顿) in order to link your accounts, but annoyingly it appears to enforce mobile phone verification but accepts Chinese number only.
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