Even as Hilton offers double elite nights for the last two and a half months of 2022 against still-reduced elite requirements for 2022, Honors has laid out what elite status-earning will look like in 2023: a snap-back to pre-pandemic rules, mostly.
Nights, stays, and base points revert to pre-pandemic levels:
- Silver: 10 nights or 4 stays or 25,000 base points
- Gold: 40 nights or 20 stays or 75,000 base points
- Diamond: 60 nights or 30 stays or 120,000 base points
So what’s different than qualification used to look like? Spend on co-brand American Express cards continue to count as Honors base points through December 31, 2023. as they have for a couple of years. That means (1) spend counts towards status, and (2) counts towards lifetime status as well.
Bear in mind,
- The premium Hilton Aspire card from Amex (which comes with Diamond anyway) earns 14 points per dollar on spend at Hilton, on top of the 10 base points earned for Hilton stays.
- Since the Aspire card comes with Diamond, 2023 status-earning isn’t leveraged as such this way. But look at earning lifetime Diamond. That requires 10 total years of Diamond plus either 1,000 nights or 2 million base points. Lifetime gets nicely accelerated.
- Event planners should all be lifetime Diamonds, putting the events on their personal card and getting reimbursed from work if they’re allowed.
I’m not sure why a U.S. member with the ability to get approved for an American Express card would go out of your way to stay to earn Hilton status, unless you were doing so by happenstance, given:
Hilton status is basically a credit card perk, and keeps you out of the room above the HVAC (usually) plus gives you a food and beverage credit or lounge access in those hotels that still have one. What’s nice is Hilton’s footprint – it’s easy to go with Hilton as a backup chain if you’re selecting a smaller but richer hotel program for primary loyalty, recognizing that those won’t have properties everywhere you might want to go.
Meanwhile Hilton is improving its points expiration policy, moving from requiring activity every 15 months to every 24 months – perfect for occasional engagement!
(HT: Loyalty Lobby)
