Saturday night was a fun occasion for my love of freebies, bargains and occasional luxury.  Our free night at the Hilton got upgraded to a full blown Rock star friendly butler button pressing massive suit with a minimum retail value in excess of £2,000.

It’s fair to say that appealed to me.  I like free.  I like upgrades.  I like suites.  There’s not a hope in hell I’d ever have paid over £150 for a room in London so to get this was pretty remarkable.

I also read with interest reports that Barclaycard might be stopping the Hilton card too and another company taking on the contract.  This is great news if true as it means I can meet another minimum spend challenge and get another free night out of Hilton if the terms and conditions are similar.

Of course, one of the downsides of utilising a freebie is that you don’t earn loyalty points.  Nil spend = nil points.  It’s a fair and understandable trade off and one that has had me doing quick calculations in my head on whether I’m best redeeming points or paying cash.  Not always a straight forward equation.

I’d completely forgotten about a promotion I’d clicked on with Hilton though.  Email invitation, register here (on the off chance) and then don’t use is my usual style.  It never crossed my mind that utilising a freebie would trigger “2,000 bonus points for every night you stay”.

A little bit of shock combined with an internal whoop as an email arrived in the early hours telling me I had indeed been awarded 2,000 points for the free stay in their second poshest suite.

It gives me a buzz.  I’ve played the game, got a result and then been treated further for it.  The value of the points is probably less than £10 but it feels great!

This is almost better than anything that hooker might have had to offer!

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