Hilton Extending Status, Rolling Over Elite Nights, Maintaining Reduced Status Requirements & More

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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.

Hilton Dead Sea Resort & Spa Jordan
Hilton Dead Sea Resort & Spa, Jordan

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.

Hampton Inn & Suites Hilton Honors Hotel Sign Logo

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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