According to View from the Wing, Hilton has updated its elite status match challenge: those who sign up for the challenge now and complete the requirements within 90 days will keep the status for nearly a total of 2 years. In order to participate in the challenge, you will need to not currently have Gold or Diamond status and you’ll need to have status from another program to match, but if you do this could certainly be a pretty good deal.
The Deal
- Hilton Honors is offering a status match to Gold or Diamond status if you have elite status in a competing program as follows:
- Match to Gold, then stay 8 nights within 90 days to keep gold status through March 31, 2026 (note that Gary says that this has been extended to 2026 despite the fact that the landing page says 2025)
- Upgrade to Diamond if you stay 14 nights within 90 days (status will be valid through 3/31/26
- Direct link to this deal
Quick Thoughts
Hilton Gold or Diamond status can be useful enough to have, and with this challenge, if you have status in a competing program, you’ll get matched for 90 days, so you’ll get access to the Hilton Gold status benefits relatively quickly (though note that it apparently does take 7-12 business days to initially update your status) with the ability to upgrade to Diamond status.
While status can be useful, it is also very easy to get since you could simply get a credit cards that costs $150 per year to get Gold status or one that costs $550 per year to get Diamond status. The challenge really only makes sense if you don’t want / can’t get a Hilton credit card and/or you have a bunch of upcoming Hilton stays and you want to parlay that into almost two years of status.
It wouldn’t be worth mattress running just for status rather than just getting one of the corresponding credit cards, but if you have elite status in another program, it could be worth a match if you have Hilton stays coming up anyway.
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I can’t seem to apply for the card having a Non-US address. Could someone confirm this?
You too can get “status” on Hilton that is basically meaningless. No free breakfasts (unless you’re in Europe or outside the US in general), increasingly rare executive lounges/floors (same), almost no chance of upgrades, no complementary parking, et cetera et cetera.
They cut back during the pandemic and it’s only gotten worse since.
Nick, wouldn’t you say it’s somewhat interesting how all of these status matches have popped up? BA never has a status match. For non-US residents, FB has one. This is about the right time for Delta. Wynn has one. Etc., etc. Are the various programs sensing a compulsion to do so?