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Your Hilton status has been extended to 2022 – plus qualification levels cut and elite nights rolled

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Hilton Honors has made a major announcement this afternoon about your status level for 2022.

This is important because, even if Hilton Honors is not your major programme, the other big chains are likely to take careful note of what Hilton is doing.

There are a lot of moving parts here to get your head around, but it is all very positive. In general, the 50% cut in targets for 2021 has become a 30% cut in targets for 2022, which feels fair.

You can find out more on hilton.com here – scroll down to the ‘Keep Your Status & Benefits through March 31, 2023’ link.

Your Hilton status has been extended to 2022

Your existing Hilton Honors status has been rolled over

Whatever level of Hilton Honors status you have, you will keep it for 2022.

Because of the three month stub period, you are guaranteed to keep your current level until 31st March 2023.

Your points won’t expire

All points expiry has been paused until 31st December 2022. To be honest, this was never a major problem with Hilton because any activity, not necessary a stay, was enough to keep your points alive.

It will be far easier to earn status in 2022

Hilton has reduced its status requirements for 2022 from its usual level. This will make it easier to retain your current level for 2023.

This is what you will need to earn in 2022 to gain or renew status:

  • Silver – seven nights, three stays or 17,500 base points
  • Gold – 28 nights, 14 stays or 52,500 base points
  • Diamond – 42 nights, 21 stays or 84,000 base points

This is roughly a 30% reduction on the usual levels.

Your Hilton status has been extended to 2022

Your 2021 nights will be rolled over

To make it even easier to get status in 2022, your elite nights from 2021 will be rolled over.

(For clarity, this excludes any nights rolled over from 2020. My Hilton account currently shows 62 nights, for example, but 60 of those were rolled over from 2020. I will only carry two nights into 2022.)

This means that if you have 42 elite nights in the bag by 31st December 2021, you will renew Diamond for 2023 automatically. This is because your 42 nights from 2021 will be carried over into 2022.

Stays do not rollover – only nights. This is a bit odd but Hilton did the same thing with 2021 extensions.

Milestone bonus targets

This is less important for most people, but the 2022 milestone bonus targets will be:

  • 10,000 bonus Hilton Honors points at 30 nights
  • 10,000 bonus points fo every additional 10 nights after that
  • One-time 30,000 points bonus at 60 nights

Anyone with 40 nights can gift Gold status to a friend, which can be upgraded to Diamond status at 70 nights.

Conclusion

This is an impressive move by Hilton and will put pressure on Marriott, IHG and the other big chains to reciprocate.

The smart move is the rolling over of 2021 nights into 2022. This will encourage people to move their stays for the rest of 2021 to Hilton in the knowledge that they count for next year. In effect, Hilton is giving you 15 months to earn the nights required for 2023 status.

Let’s see what the competition does …..

You can find out more on hilton.com here.


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. 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.)

Comments (118)

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

  • Harry T says:

    Superb – I only need two more nights this year or next year to hit Diamond and keep it until Feb 2024.

  • Can says:

    Does it mean that Amex Plat people will only need 14 nights?

  • Dominic says:

    Excellent news!

    This also encourages me to keep giving Hilton my stays for the rest of this year (rather than seeing it as a foregone loss, thus preventing me from trying).

    Fingers crossed Marriott and Radisson do the same.

  • Andrew says:

    Let’s hope IHG follow too.

    • Paul John Ashmore says:

      Me too, I have been a spire ambassador member since that started and a platinum member back to 2003. Not done the traveling this year due to COVID, will be lucky to get Platinum this year.

      • John says:

        If you renew amb you are quite likely to have spire renewed automatically (which is outside the rules).

        You may also find your spire is renewed automatically regardless, even if there is no official extension, but obviously this is not guaranteed

  • Save East Coast Rewards says:

    I worry this is devaluing diamond status too much if travel does pick up in 2022.

    They should have picked one of status carrying forward, points carrying forward or reduced thresholds. Someone who earned diamond in 2019 has had to do nothing to keep it, that could mean those who have managed to stay in hotels during 2020/21 and would qualify on normal criteria will be fighting for upgrades with those who haven’t stayed in a Hilton since 2019.

    On the positive side I’m more interested in trying the BA Holidays double tier point offer now I don’t have to direct all my leisure travel to Hilton to maintain the status.

    • Dominic says:

      Yes, but by the same argument, I must have spent in excess of £10k in Hilton’s in 2019, yet those that stayed last year barely had to spend £2k?

      I agree with the risk of devaluing it, but I imagine the number of those that have actually managed to hit Diamond criteria last year or this year is pathetically low.

      • Blenz101 says:

        Only in the U.K.

      • Save East Coast Rewards says:

        My spend in 2019 must have been ridiculous with over 200 nights as I was working away a lot. I already hit the 60 nights by March 2020 and by the end of the year nearly hit 100. So far this year I’m on 39 nights (not including the ones carried forward as they only carry forward once).

        They really should offer something extra for those who have continued staying in their hotels during this time.

        Hitting diamond this year was easy. ALL nights from 2020 carried over and the target for this year was 30 nights.

      • Chrisasaurus says:

        I think that’s the point that was being made!

      • Ikaz says:

        I have legitimately hit diamond for the past 2 years, with over 100 actual nights last year, and 80 this year (140 this year if you include the roll over nights from last year)

        • Save East Coast Rewards says:

          I’m thinking of emailing Hilton and asking if they plan on providing anything additional for those who have qualified on normal levels during the pandemic.

          I’ll wait a bit first and see if anything appears such as bonus points, free night vouchers or something else interesting.

          I still have lifetime diamond to reach for at least.

          • John says:

            They did give out 10000 points for free recently – but seems like people who stayed a lot didn’t get it, possibly because Hilton thought they would be staying anyway.

  • Ryan says:

    Is that definitely the case Harry?

    My initial thoughts were some would get Diamond for 2023 based on on their historical stays that could have had zero stays in 2021 but are rewarded until 2023?

    Others like ourselves for who have been trying to max diamond status during 2021 don’t see any additional benefit. Let’s hope it’s to 2024 as you say!

    • Save East Coast Rewards says:

      It will be, if he gets 42+ nights this year they roll over to next year and so instantly qualifies for 2023 which is valid to March 2024

  • Chrisasaurus says:

    The rolling over of nights has to come hand in hand with any extension of status otherwise they’d hugely damage bookings for Q4 for anyone currently short of requalifying who was planning to make an effort (which if the systems works should be everyone since the point of the tiers is in part to drive extra spend)

    Not sure of the value in IHG following suit since all Spire really does is mean having to stay in an IHG property isn’t as bad as it could be and gives a tiny incentive to book with them rather than the hotels.com route. By now that’s a reflex so people might not even notice their status expiring…

  • Blenz101 says:

    Happy with this. Was a little sniffy having earned Diamond this year through pushing stays but rolling those nights over seems like a fair compromise.

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

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