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We’ve written about the excellent status match / challenge offered by Hilton Honors many times over the years here at InsideFlyer. Hilton status offers great perks – even just Hilton Gold is well worth having!
The only real hitch is that you do need to already have elite status with another hotel loyalty programme in order to request a match. Fortunately, with a little bit of creativity, that’s a lot easier than you might think.
Before we get into the detail of that though, here’s a quick refresher on how the Hilton status match works.
How to request an Hilton Honors Status Match
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.
So, how do I get elite status with a competitor first?
The very cheapest way is to get the IHG Rewards Club Premium Credit Card, which costs £99 per year and comes with IHG Rewards Club Platinum status.
Hilton matches IHG Platinum to Honors Diamond, so the only other thing you would need to do is complete a stay with IHG before you send your proof to Hilton.
I wrote recently wrote about how you can book the Holiday Inn Express Bradford City Centre for just £21.60 per night. Add £21.60 to the £99 you paid for the IHG Premium Credit Card and you’re looking at a grand total of £120.60!
If Bradford isn’t convenient, you should still be able to find something similar near to where you live – just remember to book using the IHG Partner Rate!
If you don’t want to get a credit card, the next best option is to buy IHG Platinum status for ~£167 via the Intercontinental ‘Ambassador’ programme.
Craig covered the subject in detail here, but the upshot is that it costs $200 (~£167) or 40,000 IHG Points, and as well as a range of other benefits, you get IHG Rewards Club Platinum status.
Add a night at the Holiday Inn Express Bradford and your total cost would be about £188.60.
It’s worth pointing out that as well as being ready to request a Hilton status match, you would of course now have IHG Platinum status too. It’s not as useful as Hilton Diamond (or even Hilton Gold to be honest…), but it can come in handy for things like late check out.
With the credit card option you’d also receive 20,000 IHG Rewards Club Points (worth ~£80) as a sign up bonus; and many people find the benefits of the Ambassador programme to be worth paying $200 a year, regardless of whether they are interested in a Hilton status match. Therefore, depending on how you personally value those benefits, the net cost of putting yourself in a position to apply for a Hilton status match could actually be as low as zero.
Keep your Hilton Honors status until 2021
If your status match is approved you will enjoy matched status for a period of exactly 90 days. This can be extended until 31 March, 2021 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.
8 separate stays within 90 days is quite ambitious, but is 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.
It’s worth knowing that points stays do still count towards qualifying for elite status via the status challenge.
As regards cash rates, Fridays and Sundays tend to offer the best rates and don’t forget that there are some excellent prices available at the moment in the big Hilton Summer Sale.
Bottom line
You might be wondering whether Hilton Diamond status is worth the fuss – particularly if you only get to keep it for 90 days (unless you complete the 8 stays).
Most of the time, the honest answer would be no. Diamond is great, but if you’ve just got a couple of routine short stays during the 90 day period, it’s unlikely to make sense.
There are two big exceptions though:
- If you have a big special occasion stay coming up – like a honeymoon week at the Conrad Maldives. Hilton Diamond status could save you a lot of money and make your stay even better than it otherwise would be.
- If you can complete the 8 stays in 90 days. As long as you don’t have to spend a lot of money on unnecessary stays to hit the target, getting to keep Hilton Diamond until the end of March 2021 is potentially very valuable.
I found myself in the second set of circumstances last year and am very pleased I made the small additional effort required (I ‘hotel hopped’ a couple of times) to retain Diamond status. Free breakfast and lounge access are always appreciated, and I’ve received some really good upgrades too.
Do you think Hilton Diamond status is worth chasing?
Joe your great post has prompted a related question from me. MY existing Diamond status will expire in March 2020, and I will drop to very likely silver if I don’t have enough nights / stays to attain gold.
As I will have my IHG platinum status via the card, do you or other contributors know whether Hilton allow the status match for existing lower level members, or just for people new to the Honours program ?
I’d expect it to be all, but thought I should seek clarification, and as usual I prefer to ask the experts on here rather than Hilton direct !
Cheers John! – Assuming that Hilton are still offering the match next year (or whenever you choose to apply) and that you haven’t done a status match with Hilton previously, you would be absolutely fine applying.
In fact, even if you have matched previously, it’s entirely possible that you could get them to match you again if you set up a new account with a different email address etc (although, I wouldn’t recommend doing anything like that if you have a significant points balance in your existing account, as it’s bound to be against the terms).
Are they not dropping Diamonds into Gold?
No, there’s no soft landing in Hilton Honors. Next year’s status is determined by stays this year, or by a status match. Previously they have allowed multiple matches per member, although technically the T’s and C’s state that it is once per member. I’ve heard they are now enforcing that, which makes sense. They have occasionally offered a challenge towards the end of the year if asked, but it’s not going to be a gimme.
This offer is now defunct as Hilton will no longer match to Diamond (Gold only with a challenge to achieve Diamond after 18 NIGHTS, no longer 8 stays)
I tried to find specific T&C’s which said it was limited to once per honours member, and I can’t find any. So I’d be grateful if anyone can let me have details please.
Otherwise i’m hoping that they would accept existing honours members, who are gold, or even silver, but can match via another loyalty scheme.
Late last year, I was Gold via the credit card, and they matched me to platinum from my IHG spire elite. I had 3 stays already booked, including 2 conrad stays in Asia, I had a weekend in London in my plans, so did a night in the conrad followed by a night in the Waldorf hilton. There is a hilton close by to the airport I was using to go to London, so I booked a night there with cash (£50) and did a “check-in” on the way back from london. I threw in another couple of £50 nights, 1 that I did a nominal checkin and another that we decided to stay. So £150 plus my existing plans got me diamond.
The nice thing about the Hilton status match is that a) points stays count and b) you are diamond whilst doing the match(its a match, not a challenge). So had 11 nights exec lounge value in london, hong kong and Sinagpore and 7 more nights booked in hiltons with exec lounges between now and the end of the diamond status, for £150 cash outlay, or £8-ish per lounge visit.
Hilton Honors has changed the requirements for its status match programme – you now ‘only’ get Gold for the 90 day trial period – there is no 90 day trial of Diamond. Your 90-day target to keep Gold or Diamond into 2021 is now nights-based instead of stays-based – some people will find this easier to hit, others will find it more difficult.
grrrrr…I meant match to diamond…not platinum
I did a status match to Diamond last year, valid until March 2020. I guess only way to maintain status will be by doing the stays or nights.
Its best to check with Hilton if they will allow status match with another programme( and not the one use for a previous status match).
They may have another status match or accelerated programme for Silver next year?
I am signing up for Amex Gold now ( 10 K awards points ) until its free year runs and then upgrade to Platinum( another 20 K award points) in Summer next year, if none of the above upgrades work.
Needs updating, Hilton changes the status match T&C’s so you only get Gold while doing the challenge and you need more nights to match it up to Diamond now.
On the 15 August, Hilton changed the status matching scheme. You can no longer immediately match to Platinum and the goals have changed to nights, not stays, so may be harder to achieve for many.
As of 15 August, the Hilton status match only confers instant Gold status, regardless of the competitor’s tier you’re matching from. You are then required to have 18 STAYS in 90 days.