Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Hilton Honors will roll over ALL your elite status nights from 2020 into 2021

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

With airline and hotel loyalty programmes rushing to extend your status automatically for next year, a problem has emerged.

Once your status is assured for next year, what is the benefit of continuing to give your business to that airline or hotel?  (Apart, of course, from the obvious one – that you have status and should be treated better!)

We saw this with the Star Alliance Gold status match being run by TAP Portugal.  This got a lot of British Airways flyers very excited, because British Airways has already rolled over their status by 12 months.  Executive Club members can experiment with Star Alliance via TAP’s Gold status match (which is also offered to BA Silver members, who get Star Alliance Gold) knowing that they are not risking their British Airways status.

Hiltons Honors rolls over 2020 elite nights into 2021

Hilton has an answer ……

Hilton Honors has announced that it will roll over ALL of your 2020 elite nights into 2021.  This means that there is a BIG incentive to keep staying with Hilton in 2020, especially if you expect that your travel will also be below average in 2021.

On 1st January 2021, your elite nights will not reset to zero.  They will keep on going.

This means that you effectively have TWO years to earn Hilton Honors status.  Top tier Hilton Honors Diamond status could be in reach, even if you assumed you’d never manage it.

How many nights do I need for Hilton Honors status?

This is how the nights and benefits stack up.

You can see the full list of elite benefits by tier on this page of the Hilton website.

Silver (10 nights) – gets you 20% base points bonus

Gold (40 nights) – gets you 80% base points bonus, free breakfast, upgrade of some sort

Diamond (60 nights) – gets you 100% base points bonus, executive lounge access, free breakfast, upgrade of some sort

60 nights is a lot.  Spread over the whole of 2020 and 2021 ….. perhaps not so much.

Remember that reward nights also count towards status.

hilton honors rollover nights

Don’t forget the American Express Platinum route though

It is always worth mentioning, when discussing Hilton Honors status, that you receive Hilton Honors Gold status if you have the American Express Platinum charge card.

(You also receive Marriott Bonvoy Gold, Radisson Rewards Gold, Shangri-La Jade and MeliaRewards Gold status.)

The Platinum card also comes with a sign-up bonus of 30,000 American Express Membership Rewards points, which converts into 60,000 Hilton Honors points.

Our full American Express Platinum review is here.  At present, you have six months rather than the usual three months to hit the spending target to receive the bonus.

What else has Hilton Honors done to help?

As a reminder, Hilton has already put the following policies in place:

  • 2019 Status Extension: All members whose 2019 status was scheduled to be downgraded on 31st March 2020 received an extension to 31st March 2021
  • 2020 Status Extension: Your 2020 member status has been extended to 31st March 2022
  • Points Extension: Points expiry has been suspended until 31st December 2020

Conclusion

This is a smart move by Hilton, reflecting the fact that travel will remain subdued well into 2021.

With all of the major hotel groups dominated by the US market, we can expect further concessions if the coronavirus situation in the US continues on its current track.

You can find out more about Hilton’s ‘carry forward’ nights and other coronavirus policies on this page of the Hilton website.

How to earn Hilton Honors points and status from UK credit cards

How to earn Hilton Honors points and status from UK credit cards (April 2024)

There are various ways of earning Hilton Honors points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses.

Do you know that holders of The Platinum Card from American Express receive FREE Hilton Honors Gold status for as long as they hold the card?  It also comes with Marriott Bonvoy Gold, Radisson Rewards Premium and MeliaRewards Gold status.  We reviewed American Express Platinum in detail here and you can apply here.

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Did you know that the Virgin Atlantic credit cards are a great way of earning Hilton Honors points? Two Virgin Points can be converted into three Hilton Honors points. The Virgin Atlantic cards are the only Visa or Mastercard products in the UK which can indirectly earn Hilton Honors points and they come with generous sign-up bonuses. You can apply here.

You can also earn Hilton Honors points indirectly with:

and for small business owners:

The conversion rate from American Express to Hilton points is 1:2.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which can be used to earn Hilton Honors points. 

(Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from the major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.)

Category

Hilton Honors

Comments (52)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Alan says:
    15 Jul15 July 04:33

    Can you clarify they will rollover the nights and not the ‘stays’? Normally 30 stays are required to qualify for Diamond

    • FLYGVA says:
      15 Jul15 July 06:50

      Only the nights are rolled over, not the etsays. If you have 29 one night stays in 2020, you need 30 stays or 31 nights in 2021 to (re)qualify. If you have 4 stays with 10 nights in 2020, you get 40 nights for 2021 and only need 20 nights.
      Your are lucked out, if you have 31 stays with one night in 2020, because you requalifed Diamond for 2021 (but your status was extended anyway. You only need 29 nights in 2021 to requalify, though; but this does not help much.

      Rollover nights also do not count for the milestone bonuses

      To sum up, you benefit from this move when you requalify with nights rather than posts. But this is in line with the general approach by Hilton Honors

  • Tariq says:
    15 Jul15 July 06:12

    I usually qualify for status based on stays rather than nights, so this doesn’t really help me. My typical stay is quite short, often just one night. I can see how this will benefit long stayers that often spend full weeks away.

  • BJ says:
    15 Jul15 July 07:22

    Hilton continues to do well on everything except…rates! And for all the good stuff they have done, they are not getting me through their door when I can get substantially better deals at their competitors.

    • J says:
      15 Jul15 July 07:38

      I usually find Hilton cheaper than Marriott for similar properties in Europe and better Gold benefits at Hilton. Although Marriott points are more useful.

      • BJ says:
        15 Jul15 July 09:37

        Should have clarified it as ‘at this time’. The other chains seem to have better rates, promos and incentives than Hilton at tbe moment, at least where I’m looking.

        • Lady London says:
          15 Jul15 July 12:42

          Just booked a hotel for urgent travel in the UK.

          Where open Hilton seems to be discounting July to their nomal pre-pay ahead rates for close-in stay with flexible terms. I am sure this will become the case for August.

          Accor seems to be doing same with 15-30% off. But terms not as flexible. Accor also seems to be alliwing hotels to block payment with points and Accir Customer Service is as useful as a chocolate teapot as usual.

          IHG is doing what it takes to get occupancy.

          All these at.midrange brands or below.
          Calling hotels directly has helped clarify some benefits within the stay ahem. Stays of 3 days or more arw getting more help and better pricing but no one’s servicing rooms during stays but you can request supplies at Reception.

          For now I’m happy to book on the above basis. We have mayhem for the hotels now and my heart goes out to owners and staff who are only trying to earn a living like most of us. At a couple of hotels it sounded like three people are sharing 1 job. I think this situation may develop over 18 month or so? to pricing h*ll as capacity drops. New hotel formats will probably be needed for a chunk of the supply on a permanent basis looking forward.

          • BJ says:
            15 Jul15 July 14:37

            18 month?? … probably the biggest dose of realism we’ve had on HFP in the past 18 weeks @Lady London 🙂

    • Chrisasaurus says:
      15 Jul15 July 07:39

      Depends on geography though – still a number of places I’m staying that the Hilton option is by far the best property…

      But I assume this is a conscious choice to have lower capacity at high margin and keep staffing costs to a minimum whilst improving cleaning efficacy as they can rotate rooms in use. Logistically, running hotels right now is hard – factoring in breakfast arrangements, room service for all f&b and controlling guest flow around corridors, lifts, stairwells etc in buildings just not suited to social distancing in communal areas, corridors etc.

      I’d take the view of lower occupancy at high rates is more manageable. But clearly I’m not a rev manager at a profitable hotel either!

      • BJ says:
        15 Jul15 July 09:43

        Good points, but it is not without risk to Hilton if lots of loyal members decide to get a taste of something else and decide it works for them. The risk of losing Diamond members is likely very low though.

        • Chrisasaurus says:
          16 Jul16 July 07:40

          I imagine theres another element – reliance on f&b and event. The stronger the f&b and event revenue as a percentage of overall revenue, the more of a challenge it is to become profitable from what is closer now to a room only pricing strategy where ancillary revenue is slim to nothing and highly unpredictable

          What a time not to be in hospitality!

    • Harry T says:
      15 Jul15 July 07:53

      Marriott has been offering lots of variations of a Member Rate Welcome Back rate with discounts up to 25% on BFR, 50 euros/ pounds F&B credit, inclusive upgrades to the next room category etc. Haven’t seen anything from Hilton that’s similar.

      • Anna says:
        15 Jul15 July 08:02

        IHG’s offers have been excellent as well, although they still aren’t offering breakfast on standard bookings, unlike many of the Marriott offers (I got 2 nights at the Delta Cheltenham Chase for August for £154 in total including breakfast).

        • Harry T says:
          15 Jul15 July 10:57

          Yes, IHG have been doing a good job of incentivising cash and points bookings – I’ve made a cash booking and several points redemptions.

          Worth mentioning that Emyr can get you breakfast, though unsure if that applies to the special 3 for 2 rates (he usually pulls something out of the bag).

          • Anna says:
            15 Jul15 July 14:10

            I don’t think Emyr deals with £75 pn hotels …

          • Harry T says:
            15 Jul15 July 15:25

            My apologies, thought you were talking about IC bookings.

            I did get Emyr involved with a booking for the Alfonso for €150 a night… although it’s normally >€400.

          • Kevin says:
            15 Jul15 July 21:09

            Checked few IHG at Edinburgh for July/august and the 3 for 2 offer just few pounds cheaper per night comparing when book 2 nights or 3 individual night so it is not really 342 as it claims

      • BJ says:
        15 Jul15 July 09:47

        Yep, that was my point. And IHG have 342 and cheered some up for a while, or longer, with new dynamic reward pricing.

  • Anna says:
    15 Jul15 July 08:00

    I have permanent gold HH status (for now!) through the Barclaycard – would I still need to do the full 60 nights to get Platinum? It’s not clear from the app.

    • JOHN MATRIX says:
      15 Jul15 July 08:12

      Do you mean silver?

    • Stu N says:
      15 Jul15 July 08:12

      Yes – credit card status doesn’t give you any head start for next tier up.

      • Hotel-User says:
        15 Jul15 July 08:23

        Assume that the same for AMEX then ?

        It would have been nice if instead of Gold and 0 nights, they gave Gold and 30 nights ( same level ) so you could have an easy route to higher level.

        Might do a status match challenge when feeling a bit more confident to travel.

        • Harry T says:
          15 Jul15 July 12:17

          Hilton credit card status in the UK does not confer any actual elite night credits. So credit card Gold is not a leg up to diamond. Tbh I’ve never been super sold on Diamond having massive advantages over Gold, as the extra benefits are not as robust as Marriott’s higher tiers.

          • Anna says:
            15 Jul15 July 14:13

            Should have enough points for 10 nights in Mauritius or Seychelles in 2022, thought Diamond might get slightly better perks.

          • J says:
            15 Jul15 July 19:34

            More chance of upgrade with Hilton Diamond? In Europe I’m rarely upgraded as Gold – in Germany never. Marriott and Hilton Gold have served me very well in Asia – although I think that’s less to do with status and a lot to do with higher levels and service expectations. (e.g. Even 3rd party stays in 4 or 5* hotels there often had upgrades/welcome gifts etc).

  • Jessiefan says:
    15 Jul15 July 08:14

    Hilton Diamond less valuable right now as Executive Lounges generally closed and buffet breakfasts no longer. Hopefully that will change soon as prices are keen.

    • BJ says:
      15 Jul15 July 09:53

      I’ll take cooked to order breakfast over a buffet any day. I’ve also found that where there is no lounge or it is closed, Hilton hotels have been quite generous to Diamond members with bar vouchers and minibars.

      • J says:
        15 Jul15 July 10:23

        Usual breakfast buffet in Germany when I stayed at Hilton Cologne last week. Very mediocre stay – will go to the Marriott next time.

        • Lady London says:
          15 Jul15 July 19:40

          TBH when I had to travel for business to Cologne a few times I never found a really nice hotel.

          • BJ says:
            15 Jul15 July 20:02

            I once slept overnight on a bench at Cologne station!

          • J says:
            15 Jul15 July 20:31

            Did you ever go to the Steigenberger? They’re a good chain but obviously less attractive if you’re interested points from one of the main chains.

      • Harry T says:
        15 Jul15 July 11:04

        @BJ
        One of the positive outcomes of the covid precautions is that some hotels seem to be more inclined to provide a cooked to order breakfast which is higher quality or at least more classy than a buffet. Although Flyertalk is full of stories of hotels not even providing any breakfast to elite members – this does seem to be more of a problem in the US though, where service standards sound worse than Asia and maybe Europe.

        • Anna says:
          15 Jul15 July 14:18

          They vary, but the worst one I’ve had in the US was a HGI in Washington DC where the table “server” pointed us towards the buffet (no cooked to order, despite it being specified as a gold perk!), then wrote us out a bill for her tip!

          • BJ says:
            15 Jul15 July 14:49

            HGI is the most useless Hilton brand IME, I just don’t get it.

          • Premier01 says:
            17 Jul17 July 02:03

            This happened to us in a HGI in Long Island, NYC!

            Even more amuisng was when a lounge associate in Hilton Prague (not Old Town) presented with a bill with no charge, when we looked confused she hastily circled the ‘Gratuities not included’ text!

            Happy to tip good service but desperation is not a good look for premium hotel 🙂

        • BJ says:
          15 Jul15 July 14:47

          I think the benefit is now supposed to be continental breakfast and in the lounge if they have one. All a bit useless given most hotels don’t, and their breakfast is buffet. Personally, I’ve never failed to get full breakfast, and where they have lounge I was given choice of where I wanted to take it. I think this is the norm outside the USA, I can only ever recall one comment about a hotel having special seating for elites with access to continental breakfast only.

          • Anna says:
            15 Jul15 July 22:23

            Nope, still says complimentary hot cooked to order breakfast for you and guest!

  • zark says:
    15 Jul15 July 08:22

    I already have Diamond status earnt through a status challenge (18+4 nights stayed in January ’20) which was valid to March 31st 2021, but extended to March 31st 2022 by Hilton.
    Am I correct in thinking that if I earn 60 nights from January 1st 2020 to December 31st 2021 I will then receive Diamond status valid until 31st March 2023?

  • Charles says:
    15 Jul15 July 08:50

    I have the old Barclay’s Hilton credit card and if the Gold spend is attained in 2020, and you are already Gold, when would that Gold status expire, pease?

    I understand that if you are Gold now, you will automatically be Gold for 2021. If you actually attain Gold in 2020, regardless of the 2021 status extension, does it mean you will be Gold in 2022 via the Barclay’s Hilton credit card? Thank you

    • Anna says:
      15 Jul15 July 14:20

      I don’t know the exact dates but there is no reason for not spending £10k each year on that card, it’s very, very versatile!

      • RussellH says:
        15 Jul15 July 16:17

        I only managed the £10K for the very first time in 2018, and managed it again last year. It meant giving up on any Amex bonuses, but they are, effectively way out of my range now. But this year I have not even reached £4500 – just nothing to spend on since we have not been going to restaurants / pubs / hotels nor taking train journeys. Even now the weather is too wet to go to the pub – we do not (yet) want to be indoors there. And I am still due one refund onto the card.
        So if we can travel a bit next year, the Hilton Gold extension will be useful.

        • Boi says:
          15 Jul15 July 21:41

          Very easy to MS on barclaycard. I consider it a failure on my part if I get less than 30K points/month.

  • Harry says:
    15 Jul15 July 08:51

    I have the old Barclay’s Hilton credit card and if the Gold spend is attained in 2020, and you are already Gold, when would that Gold status expire, pease?

    I understand that if you are Gold now, you will automatically be Gold for 2021. If you actually attain Gold in 2020, regardless of the 2021 status extension, does it mean you will be Gold in 2022 via the Barclay’s Hilton credit card? Thank you

    • J says:
      15 Jul15 July 10:24

      Charles/Harry – I don’t think Barclaycard/Hilton have confirmed this but I think you would be. I’ve always hit the £10k of spend though so I don’t know for sure.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

New to Head for Points?

Welcome!  We’re the UK’s most-read source of business travel, Avios, frequent flyer and hotel loyalty news. Let us improve how you travel. Got any questions? Ask them in our forums.

NEW: Sign-up bonuses boosted to 3,000 and 18,000 points

Latest Forum Posts

Get 40,000 bonus points (worth 40,000 Avios) and £300 dining credit with The Platinum Card

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

See a whole year of reward seat availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Get £10 when you spend £150 on your free Currensea card

Booking a luxury hotel?

Our luxury hotel booking service offers you GUARANTEED extra benefits over booking direct. Works with Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis and more. We've booked £1.7 million of rooms to date. Click for details.

SME? SPECIAL OFFER TO 12TH MAY EARN POINTS WORTH 30,000 AVIOS WITH CAPITAL ON TAP

Get 20,000 bonus points, four airport lounge passes and your first year free with American Express Gold

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.

Got it!