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Hilton has come out with a very welcome announcement today advising that they’ll be once again extending elite status for all of next year. That’s not all though – elite nights from 2021 will roll over to 2022, elite status earning requirements will once again be reduced and more.
You can read the full announcement here, but here’s a summary of the changes.
Status Extension
The status you currently have will be maintained through March 31, 2023 unless you earn a higher status level in the meantime.
That’s particularly good for someone who earned status based on stays in 2019 as Hilton extended that once already due to COVID, so it’ll continue even further until the end of March 2023.
Reduced Status Qualification Requirements
Similar to 2021, Hilton will once again reduce the number of nights, stays or base points required to earn elite status:
- Silver status – 7 nights, 3 stays or 17,500 base points
- Gold status – 28 nights, 14 stays or 52,500 base points
- Diamond status – 42 nights, 21 stays or 84 base points
Milestone Bonuses
Milestone bonuses will continue to accrue from a reduced starting point:
- 10,000 bonus points for every 10 nights starting at 30 nights
- One-time bonus of 30,000 points at 60 nights
Gifting Elite Status
After earning 40 elite nights you’ll be able to gift Gold status to a family member or friend. If you earn 70 elite nights, you’ll be able to gift Diamond status.
Rollover Nights
Any elite night credits earned in 2021 will be rolled over to 2022, potentially giving you a nice head start for earning elite status next year.
Hilton rolled over elite nights from 2020 into 2021; nights from 2020 won’t be rolled over a second time to 2022, so it’s only nights actually earned in 2021 that’ll roll into next year.
Free Night Certificate Flexibility
In the past, free night certificates earned from having the Hilton Aspire credit card or by putting enough spend on the Surpass or Aspire cards could only be redeemed at the weekend. Hilton introduced flexibility to those last year by making them bookable on any day of the week and that’ll continue through December 31, 2022. That includes any new certificates earned in 2022.
Credit Card Spend Will Count Towards Status
In a continuation of a policy that began last year due to COVID, eligible purchases made on Amex Hilton cards will count as base points towards elite status qualification, as well as towards lifetime Diamond status. This will be valid on all eligible credit card spend through December 31, 2022.
Points Expiry Paused
Hilton Honors points normally expire after 12 months of inactivity. That policy was paused last year due to the pandemic’s impact on people’s ability and willingness to travel and Hilton has announced that they’re once again pausing points expiration through December 31, 2022. It’s not hard to have qualifying activity on your account, but it’s another change that’ll no doubt benefit some customers.
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These are all very welcome changes from Hilton, especially seeing as they’re announcing it with 3.5 months of the year to go. It’ll be interesting to see if any other hotel chains follow suit in one way or another. For example, in 2020 and 2021 Marriott offered bonus elite night credits based on the status you already held, so it’d be great if they continued that policy into 2022. That’s enabled both me and my wife to earn Titanium status this year which means we both have not only (almost) top-tier status but also earned a couple of extra 40,000 point certificates as our Choice benefit selections and United Premier Silver status.
What would be even better is if Hyatt continued offering the ability into 2022 to earn Globalist-lite status by earning 30 elite night credits. With several months to go until the new year and Hilton announcing their update so early, hopefully Hyatt, Marriott and other hotel chains will be encouraged to offer their own version of easy elite earning next year too.
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So if I have Gold status with the Hilton Biz Card, anyone know how many nights or how much spend I need to reach diamond?
Depending on what category(ies) you spend on, you’d have to spend anywhere from $14k-$28k on your card to reach diamond next year. Nights and stays needed are listed above.
Thank you. I see the list but I didn’t know if since I already have gold if that means I would subtract the gold requirements from the diamond requirements so then I would only need either 14 nights, 7 stays or 31,500 base. But your spend calculations tell me that’s not the case. I could do that much spend next year…but not sure if I care enough about diamond and a free night cert to do that.
Unfortunately there is no subtraction of requirements. But whatever nights you accumulate through stays this year, will rollover to next year also (for reaching status).
How did you earn titanium? Thanks
For me, 15 nights from a personal Marriott credit card and 15 from a business Marriott credit card. Another 38 from their elite night rollover and 51 nights from actual stays.
For my wife, 15 nights from a business Marriott credit card and 5 nights from their elite night rollover (she only had Silver status). The other 57 nights she’ll have by the end of the year will be from stays (she’s at 62 nights right now, but will hit 77 nights by the end of the month with our current stay and next one).
“ In a continuation of a policy that began last year due to COVID, eligible purchases made on Amex Hilton cards will count as base points towards elite status qualification, as well as towards lifetime Diamond status. This will be valid on all eligible credit card spend through December 31, 2022.”
Was this promo in effect for 2021? I contacted their chat support a month ago and they said this ended on December 31, 2020…
You might be right – now that you mention it, I can’t remember if they continued it in 2021.
Yes it was continued.
That’s very odd then, I even asked the chat rep to check how many base points I had earned thus far this year and she said zero. So that seem to be a pretty clear indicator that they were not counting any of the 2021 credit card points as base points
My experience says the opposite, I earned diamond this year solely from CC spend on my Hilton card, and it wasn’t $40k. The base points in my account correlate correctly with my spend as well.
OK, maybe I just had an incompetent chat rep. Is there a way to check base spending on the Hilton website or did you have to do it via chat/phone call? (I’m on my mobile device at the moment).
Do you have the Hilton app? Base points should show up in “account” in the app, under “2021 Progress”, along with nights this year and stays. At least that’s what mine looks like with an android. As far as spend, you can check that in your Amex login.
Ah, yes I see the same thing in the “2021 Progress” section.
I also see that the app says “Congratulations on your Diamond Status!” but unfortunately it doesn’t specify what year(s) that is good for and/or what date my status is due to expire.
Is there a way to check when my current status is set to expire?
“Your Hilton Honors Monthly Statement” email should say “Current Tier Diamond” and under that it should give your “Tier Expiration Date: XX-Month-202X”.
Ok, thanks for all the help. (Rather odd that they don’t make it easy for us to find this info in the app/website.)
I would also welcome free night extension, though I have a tentative plan to avoid losing any (across 3 brands). In addition, my $250 resort credit from Aspire is going to go to waste unless something changes.
I wish / hope they will extend the Free Night Certs that are set to expire on 1/1/22. I have 3 with no plans to use them due to Covid.
Wish they would extend the free night certs to put some pressure on Marriott. Really hoping for another 6 month to a year extension on the 5 free nights for getting the Boundless card. I emailed this week and was told no but to contact again closer to the expiration date. Tough situation considering the need to have something booked before then.
I have Diamond status from Aspire CC that I cancelled this year. Will that status be extended?
Whatever your current status is will be extended
Canceled last year and it has held up this year.
Would that my timing were so good in all matters.
Now if they will just extend the free night certs again. I have so many set to expire at the end of the year and I keep canceling travel plans due to covid surges.
When did you earn them, as there are different expiration policies based on that.
Certs earned before May 1, 2020 are valid through January 3, 2022.
Certs earned May 1 to December 31, 2020 are valid for 24 months.
Certs earned at any point in 2021 are valid through December 31, 2022.
I only have 1 Hilton cert that expires at the end of the year…but I have Marriott and IHG certs too, and I think if one chain extends them, they all will.
Does this apply to Weekend nights earned with credit card spend?
Yes