Hilton is next out of the gate with further adjustments and extensions for their frequent guest program. The hotel chain announced the following Hilton Honors updates today:
New global program adjustments to 2020 and 2021 policies include:
- Extending Points Expiration so that no Points will expire until December 31, 2021.
- Extending Status to March 31, 2022 for Silver, Gold and Diamond members that were set to downgrade in 2020 or 2021. This means members can keep their status longer and continue to enjoy their benefits.
- Reducing Status Qualification Requirements by 50 percent across all tiers, including stays, nights and Base Points in 2021, to allow members to achieve status in half the time. For example, this means to earn Gold status, a member must complete 20 nights, 10 stays or 37,500 Points instead of 40 nights, 20 stays or 75,000 points. And, as previously announced, all 2020 nights will automatically roll over to the 2021 calendar year to help Hilton Honors members upgrade their tier status even faster.
- Lowering Milestone Bonus Night Threshold to begin at 20 nights in 2021 (was previously 40 nights) to align with new Gold status qualification and allow members to earn rewards faster. Gold members will earn 10,000 Bonus Points for 20 nights stayed and will continue earning the additional 10,000 Bonus Points every 10 nights above that level in a calendar year. At 60 nights, a member would still earn the additional Milestone Bonus of 30,000 Bonus Points.
- Reducing Gifting Status Night Threshold to the new Diamond status night qualification. Diamond members who stay 30 nights in 2021 will be able to gift Gold status (was previously 60 nights) or 60 nights to upgrade the gift to Diamond status (was previously 100 nights).
- Extending Benefits for Hilton Honors American Express Card Members
- Bonus Points will continue to count as Base Points on eligible purchases through December 31, 2021 on all cards and count toward Elite tier qualification, including Lifetime Diamond Status.
- All 2021-issued Free Weekend Night Reward certificates can be used any night of the week and expiration will be extended to December 31, 2022. Unexpired Free Weekend Night Rewards as of December 31, 2020 will expire in accordance with their previously communicated terms. All Free Weekend Night Reward certificates can also continue to be used any night of the week.
Earlier in the year Hilton had announced status extensions and pausing of points expiration but has extended those even further. Previously the pausing of points expiration was set to December 31, 2020 and that has been extended by a year. The status extension remains the same for those who have 2020 status but is a boon for those with 2019 status that was extended as that will now be kept until March 2022. On top of that they have also now added lower qualification requirements in 2021 for those who don’t have status or want to achieve a higher status than what is being extended plus they are lowering the thresholds for earning milestone bonuses and status gifting.
Learn more about these changes here.
Image via Hilton
