Hilton Honors Status Match Challenge

Looking for a fast-track to elite status with Hilton Hotels? If you already hold status with another hotel chain, you could take advantage of Hilton Honors’ excellent status match offer in 2023 to easily earn Gold or Diamond status with Hilton for up to two years!

This grants you all the benefits of Hilton Honors Gold status for 90 days, including free breakfast and room upgrades. You can also complete a challenge to easily extend your Gold status or upgrade to Hilton Diamond status until the end of March 2025.

This new offer, with status earned through this challenge valid until up to March 2025, launched in April 2023.

How to get a Hilton Honors status match

If you already have the equivalent of Gold or Diamond status with another hotel loyalty program – such as Marriott Bonvoy, IHG One Rewards, World of Hyatt, Choice Privileges or Best Western Rewards – you’re eligible for a Hilton Honors status match.

To request your status match, simply fill in the form on the Hilton Honors website.

When requesting a status match online, you’ll need to upload proof of your existing status with a competing program and proof of a stay with that hotel chain during the past 12 months.

Note that Hilton is quite strict about what is accepted and may request more information if the proof you send does not meet their criteria. Here’s what it says under the offer terms & conditions on Hilton’s website:

Acceptable forms of status validation include a screenshot of your current and active account status. Acceptable forms of stay validation include a screenshot of your recent reservations or hotel receipt, redacting any personal information other than your name and membership number. We accept .jpg files only. Please do NOT send us any personal information (including your phone number, address, social security number, date of birth, user name, passwords, or credit card information). Only elite statuses from another hotel loyalty program that are listed in the status dropdown menu are eligible for status matching.

Only Hilton Honors members who have not previously completed a status match challenge are eligible for this offer.

You’ll generally be notified within a few business days if your status match request has been approved, although Hilton advises to allow 7-12 business days. You’ll then be able to enjoy the benefits of Hilton Honors Gold status for 90 days from the approval date.

Hilton Honors status challenge

If your Hilton status match request is accepted, you’ll then have the opportunity to extend your newly-minted Gold status until 31 March 2025. To do so, you would need to stay at least 8 nights at Hilton properties within 90 days. Alternatively, if you stay at least 14 nights within those 90 days you’ll get a free upgrade to Hilton Honors Diamond status until March 2025.

These challenge requirements have changed over the years…

• In 2019, you would have needed to stay either 10 or 18 nights within 90 days to lock in Gold or Diamond status respectively
• In 2021, the Gold challenge required 5 nights and Diamond upgrade challenge needed 9 nights to complete
• In 2022, the requirements changed to 7 nights for the Gold challenge or 12 nights for a Diamond upgrade

Hilton property brands include Conrad, DoubleTree, Waldorf Astoria, Hampton Inn, Curio Collection and Hilton hotels.

Reward nights booked using Hilton Honors points normally count towards status qualification with Hilton Honors. However, they do not count towards achieving the status match requirements of this particular promotion.

Also note that stays booked through third-party websites, such as Expedia or Qantas Hotels, generally do not count towards elite status qualification. You need to book directly through Hilton or the hotel, or with a “real” (bricks-and-mortar, not online) travel agent.

Here are the additional status match and challenge terms & conditions from the Hilton website:

Hilton reserves the right to decline any application at any time for any reason. Please allow 7 – 12 business days for Hilton Honors to process your request. Hilton may require additional validation in its complete discretion which may take an additional 7 – 12 business days. The 90 day status match trial period starts once approved. Only members who have not previously completed a status match challenge are eligible. Reward stays do not count toward achieving the status match requirements.

Existing Hilton Honors Gold & Diamond members were given complimentary status extensions until March 2023 due to COVID-19, but these automatic extensions have now expired.

Benefits of Hilton Honors status

The benefits of elite status pack quite a punch, making Hilton Honors quite a competitive hotel loyalty program.

Key Hilton Honors Gold status benefits include:

• All Silver benefits including free bottled water, elite rollover nights and the fifth night free on reward stays
• 80% bonus points on stays
• Free daily continental breakfast (non-US hotels) or a daily food & beverage credit (US hotels)
• Complimentary space-available room upgrades at selected brands

Hilton Honors Diamond members also receive perks including:

• 100% bonus points on stays
• Executive lounge access, where available
• Premium wifi
• 48-hour room guarantee

What are the usual requirements for earning Hilton Honors status?

To earn Hilton status from scratch – or to renew your status in the following year after getting a Hilton Honors status match – you would normally need to complete a minimum number of stays, nights or earn a minimum amount of base points at Hilton hotels.

The usual requirements to earn Hilton Honors status are as follows:

Hilton Honors status match via Virgin Australia

Don’t forget that there’s another way to obtain Hilton Honors status without staying at a Hilton hotel! If you have Virgin Australia Gold or Platinum status, you can leverage this to acquire a status match with your choice of the Hilton Honors or IHG One Rewards loyalty programs.

Velocity Gold status will match to Hilton Gold, and Velocity Platinum is equivalent to Hilton Diamond. Once matched, your Hilton Honors status will be valid for at least a year.

The Velocity status match is only available once per Velocity tier, per lifetime. After receiving a one-off Velocity status match, you would still need to stay earn a minimum number of annual stays, nights or points to retain your Hilton Honors status beyond the following year.

Hilton Honors Gold status with an American Express Platinum card

You can also get complimentary Hilton Honors Gold status (as well as elite status with various other hotel chains) if you hold an American Express Platinum card.

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 70 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include economics, aviation & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.