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It’s not really news that award stays booked with Hilton Points should count towards the excellent Hilton Honors status match/challenge, but policies can vary over time, so I’m pleased to be able to personally confirm that they still do.
Over the weekend, I completed the last of the 8 required stays to keep Diamond status until 31st March 2020 and got a nice email from Hilton Honors this morning:
7 out of my 8 stays were booked using Points, so it’s safe to say Points stays definitely do count!
The reason this matters is because if your travels take you to somewhere with a low category Hilton, costing just 5,000-10,000 Points per night, you can complete the challenge extremely economically! For example, I managed to bag 3 stays (at places I wanted/needed to stay at) during a trip to Istanbul for a total of just 20,000 Points.
How to request an Hilton Honors Status Match
You need to start out with elite status from one of Hilton‘s competitors. They list the usual suspects, but will definitely consider many other chains such as Best Western or Radisson Rewards.
In general, Honors will match the competition’s top level status to Honors Diamond (i.e. Diamond, Globalist, Spire, Platinum, etc.) If the competing chain has a relevant mid-tier status, such as Marriott Gold, then this can occasionally be matched to HHonors Diamond, but you might only be matched to Gold. IHG Platinum (and maybe Best Western Diamond) is still getting matched to Diamond.
If approved, Honors members will enjoy their matched status for a period of exactly 90 days. This can be extended until 31 March, 2020 by completing:
- 4 stays for Gold status
- 8 stays for Diamond status
Note that these need to be separate stays, not just 4 or 8 nights.
The process of requesting a status challenge is simple. You must fill in the online form with your first name, last name, email address, Honors account number, and the status you’re hoping to match. You must also upload proof of your competing status, as well as proof of a stay within the past 12 months with that hotel chain.
Meeting the Requirements
8 stays within 90 days is quite ambitious, but is obviously based on the fact that regular Diamond qualification requires 30 stays in a year (so 8/90 is roughly one quarter of the stays in one quarter of the year). This works out well for those who can accumulate many one-night stays, but is quite difficult for those who have less frequent, but longer hotel stays.
Points stays count towards qualifying for elite status and there are several Category 2 hotels in the United Kingdom costing 10,000 Points per night.
As regards cash rates, Fridays and Sundays tend to offer the best prices and don’t forget that there are some excellent prices available at the moment in the big Hilton Summer Sale. We even flagged some of the best bargains in a post the other day.
Bottom line
Hilton Honors Gold is excellent, and Diamond guarantees executive lounge access on top (when the hotel has one!). With free breakfast being introduced at Waldorf Astoria properties, elite status is arguably more useful than ever. Being able to match and get 90 days status for free (and longer if you meet the stay requirements) is fantastic.
The fact that you can get a Hilton Diamond status match from IHG Platinum (which you can get just by having the IHG Rewards Club Premium Credit Card, costing £99 per year) plus one IHG stay in the last 12 months, makes it very accessible too
Apply for your Hilton Honors Status Match here.
Hi Joe, Congrats!
I am doing this now and have some queries:
1- Is Hilton particular about exact 90 days to complete 8 stays?
2-It started for me on the day I was checking out of Hilton- will that count,? as I did not expect to be upgraded in a days time and have another stay at day 92!( because I get two months with 31 days)
3- Regarding upgrade – should I ask each time I check in?
4- It doesn’t look like UK has any 5 K point reward nights.
5. What cash value do you put on HH points, as some cash stays appear to make more sense rather than use 30k( for £100for example).
Thanks
Cheers Sharat!
1) When you sign up you should get an email which has the deadline date on it (so I signed up on 24th April and had to complete it by 23rd July) – as far as I know there isn’t any flexibility there.
2) Honestly not sure – I would ask them to see.
3) It should be offered proactively, but there’s certainly no harm in asking if it isn’t. If it’s an important stay/special occasion/etc, I would get in touch with the hotel before, asking nicely if they might be able to upgrade to the particular room I wanted.
4) Nope, not anymore sadly.
5) I generally try to get at least 0.4p for mine but others would say more like 0.3p. Using cash can definitely make sense rather than Points sometimes, but when depends on a huge amount of factors (promotions, Points balance vs bank balance, etc, etc)
Hope some of that helps!
Hi Sharat,
I find that upgrades are processed in advance by management. You can certainly make yourself difficult at the front desk, but most of the time I’m told I’ve been upgraded as a matter of habit, even though I haven’t actually been upgraded. (at least noticeably so)
I value HH points at 0.5 US cents, which is roughly 0.38p. If you want to get really advanced, you can look at how many points you would earn with a paid rate, especially when there are double or triple point promotions running…