Hilton is one of the largest hotel groups in the world, and Gold status is Hilton’s mid-tier elite level in the Honors program. To me, Honors Gold is arguably the most valuable mid-tier status offered by any major hotel group. Best of all, it’s easy to earn.
I recently wrote a post about the benefits of Hilton Honors Diamond status, and in this post I wanted to take a closer look at the benefits of Hilton Honors Gold status.
In this post:
How to earn Hilton Honors Gold status
There are several pathways to earning Hilton Honors Gold status — you can earn it through stays, you can earn it just for having a credit card, and you can earn it by putting spending on a credit card.
Earning Hilton Gold status with hotel stays
If you want to achieve Hilton Honors Gold status through hotel stays, you ordinarily need to earn any of the following in a calendar year:
- 40 nights
- 20 stays (with each check-in and check-out counting as one stay)
- 75,000 base points (you typically earn 10 base points per dollar at most brands, so that’s like spending $7,500 per year)
Note that both award and revenue stays count toward the night and stay total. These requirements are on the high side for mid-tier hotel status, though fortunately there’s a much easier way to earn Honors Gold status with credit cards.
Earning Hilton Gold status with credit cards
Hilton has a suite of co-branded credit cards that can earn you status. Specifically, all of the following cards offer Hilton Honors Gold status for as long as you have them:
- Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card (review) — $95 annual fee (Rates & Fees)
- Hilton Honors American Express Business Card (review) — $95 annual fee (Rates & Fees)
- The Platinum Card® from American Express (review) — $695 annual fee (Rates & Fees), registration required
- The Business Platinum Card® from American Express (review) – $695 annual fee (Rates & Fees), registration required
On top of that, you can earn Hilton Honors Gold status if you spend $20,000 in a calendar year on the Hilton Honors American Express Card (review), which has no annual fee (Rates & Fees).
Lastly, just to be thorough, I should mention that the Hilton Honors Aspire Card from American Express (review) offers Hilton’s top-tier Diamond status for as long as you have the card.
That card has a $450 annual fee, but offers a slew of other amazing benefits, including an annual free night certificate, a $250 annual Hilton resort credit, a $250 annual airline fee credit, a Priority Pass membership, and more.
The information and associated card details on this page for the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card and Hilton Honors American Express Surpass Card has been collected independently by OMAAT and has not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
Hilton Honors Gold status benefits
With the requirements to earn status out of the way, what are the benefits of Hilton Honors Gold status? Below are the benefits, roughly in the order that I value them.
Complimentary continental breakfast or hotel credit
As far as I’m concerned, the single most valuable hotel elite benefit is free breakfast, and that’s something that Hilton Honors Gold offers… sort of. Across Hilton brands outside of the United States, Honors Gold members have the option of selecting breakfast as a benefit. While this benefit is technically only for continental breakfast, in practice many hotels will offer Gold members full breakfast.
For properties in the United States, Honors Gold members receive a hotel credit in lieu of complimentary breakfast.
The amount of the credit ranges from $10-25 per person per night, and depends on the brand and location. For full service and lifestyle brands, high-cost markets include Boston, Chicago, the District of Columbia, Key Largo, Key West, New York City, San Francisco, the county of Los Angeles, and the state of Hawaii.
Unfortunately realistically those credit amounts won’t cover a “reasonable” breakfast including tax and tip. However, some do appreciate the flexibility of these credits, as you can instead choose to use them toward something other than breakfast, like lunch or an evening cocktail.
Executive lounge access, subject to availability
The executive lounge access policy for Hilton Honors Gold members can be a bit confusing:
- Hilton Honors Gold members are entitled to room upgrades up to the executive level
- If a Hilton Honors Gold member receives a space-available upgrade to an executive-level room, they’ll also receive executive lounge access
- However, generally speaking if a Hilton Honors Gold member isn’t upgraded to an executive room, they won’t receive lounge access
This is a point of differentiation between Gold and Diamond status, because Diamond members receive lounge access even if they’re not otherwise upgraded to an executive room.
Executive lounges offer complimentary breakfast, evening snacks, and a place to grab a coffee or drink during the day. You can generally expect that executive lounges outside the United States (in particular in Asia) will be significantly better than domestic ones.
Upgrades to preferred rooms, subject to availability
Hilton Honors Gold members are entitled to room upgrades, though individual hotels have a lot of discretion. As the terms explain, Hilton Honors Gold members may receive upgrades to preferred rooms, and that may include upgrades all the way up to executive rooms.
Suite upgrades are technically excluded from the upgrade pool for Hilton Honors Gold members (they’re available for Diamond members), though I have sometimes received suite upgrades back when I had Gold status, so it’s not totally unheard of.
All of these upgrades are at the discretion of the hotel, and are officially granted on a space-available basis for the entire duration of the stay at the time of check-in. However, Hilton is nowadays sometimes processing upgrades in advance.
This language is a bit different than what you’ll find with Marriott Bonvoy and World of Hyatt, which promise certain types of upgrades subject to availability, rather than at the discretion of the hotel.
80% bonus points
Hilton Honors Gold members receive an 80% points bonus on Hilton stays. Members ordinarily earn 10 base points per dollar spent, so Gold members earn an additional eight points per dollar spent.
Hilton Honors also often has global promotions to earn more points, and Hilton’s co-branded credit cards offer an excellent rate of return for Hilton spending.
When you combine all of these factors, racking up Hilton Honors points for hotel stays is quite easy.
Hilton MyWay Benefits
Gold members receive what’s known as a “MyWay” benefit with each stay, which varies by brand. In some cases if you want continental breakfast you’ll have to select that as your choice. Here’s a breakdown of these benefits by brand:
- At Canopy by Hilton, choose 250 Honors bonus points or continental breakfast
- At Conrad, chose 1,000 Honors bonus points or continental breakfast
- At Curio Collection by Hilton, choose 1,000 Honors bonus points or continental breakfast
- At DoubleTree by Hilton, choose 1,000 Honors bonus points or continental breakfast
- At Embassy Suites, choose 500 Honors bonus points or two snacks/refreshments
- At Hampton by Hilton, choose 250 Honors bonus points or one bottle of water and one snack
- At Hilton, choose 1,000 Honors bonus points or continental breakfast
- At Home2 Suites by Hilton, choose 100 Honors bonus points or one bottle of water and one snack item
- At Homewood Suites by Hilton, choose 250 Honors bonus points or two bottles of water and a snack
- At LXR, choose 1,000 Honors bonus points or continental breakfast
- At Motto by Hilton, choose 500 Honors bonus points or a daily food & beverage credit
- At Signia by Hilton, choose 1,000 Honors bonus points or continental breakfast
- At Tapestry Collection by Hilton, choose 1,000 Honors bonus points or continental breakfast
- At Tru by Hilton, choose 250 Honors bonus points or a bottle of water and a snack
- At Waldorf Astoria, choose 1,000 Honors bonus points or continental breakfast
Note that in each of the above cases where continental breakfast is listed, the benefit would actually be the food & beverage credit at properties in the United States.
Fifth night free on awards stays
While this is a perk for all Hilton Honors elite tiers, I still consider it to be extremely valuable. Hilton Honors elite members receive a fifth night free on award redemptions, which can stretch your Hilton Honors points further.
Late check-out, subject to availability
This is an area where Hilton Honors lags. Technically all Hilton Honors members receive late check-out subject to availability. However, this is entirely at the hotel’s discretion. Unlike at Hyatt and Marriott, no Hilton elite members receive guaranteed late check-out.
Milestone Bonuses
This will only be of value if you stay with Hilton a lot, but the program offers 10,000 bonus points every 10 nights after you’ve stayed 40 nights in a calendar year.
Differences between Hilton Gold & Diamond status
In helping people decide what status to go for, I think it’s worth just briefly comparing Hilton Honors Gold and Diamond status. Diamond status is Hilton’s top-tier status, and is also offered just for having the Hilton Honors Aspire Card from American Express.
The most significant differences between the status levels are as follows:
- Gold members receive 80% bonus points, Diamond members receive 100% bonus points
- Gold upgrades explicitly exclude suites, while Diamond upgrades include suites (though still only at the discretion of the hotel)
- Gold members only get executive lounge access when upgraded to an executive room, while Diamond members get executive lounge access even if not upgraded to an executive room
- Gold members receive standard Wi-Fi, while Diamond members receive premium Wi-Fi
Both elite tiers offer free breakfast (or food & beverage credit) and some sort of room upgrades, so both can be worth having. However, you will definitely notice a difference in treatment at some properties, especially outside the United States.
If you stay at Hiltons frequently, I do think it’s worth trying to attain Diamond status, at least if it’s easy to do so.
Bottom line
Hilton Honors Gold status is in my opinion the most useful mid-tier hotel status, given that it consistently offers complimentary continental breakfast (or a hotel credit in the United States). Other perks include things like room upgrades, executive lounge access (sometimes), and bonus points.
Given how easy Hilton Honors Gold status is to earn, I think this is a great elite tier. Both the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card and Hilton Honors American Express Business Card offer Honors Gold status for as long as you have the card, so that’s great.
For the more frequent Hilton guest, I absolutely think it’s worth getting the Hilton Honors Aspire Card from American Express in order to earn Hilton Honors Diamond status. This could lead to better room upgrades, more consistent lounge access, and more bonus points.
Hilton Honors Gold status compares pretty favorably to other mid-tier hotel statuses, including IHG One Rewards Platinum status and World of Hyatt Explorist status.
If you’re a Hilton Gold member, what has your experience been like?
The information and associated card details on this page for the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card and Hilton Honors American Express Surpass Card has been collected independently by OMAAT and has not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
The following links will direct you to the rates and fees for mentioned American Express Cards. These include: Hilton Honors American Express Card (Rates & Fees), The Business Platinum® Card from American Express (Rates & Fees), The Hilton Honors American Express Business Card (Rates & Fees), The Platinum Card® from American Express (Rates & Fees), and Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card (Rates & Fees).
Parting Shot
The one who goes by UA-NYC is desperate and it shows!
...Parting Shot
The one who goes by UA-NYC is desperate and it shows!
Hey, you have been deprived of the line about how Hilton Honors gives away its top elite status for free, and are desperate because that has completely screwed up your little pitiful ecosystem. An "Aspire" Diamond has lower priority than a LT Diamond on every perk, but especially on the program's new global automated upgrades.
More to the point is that you do not get to decide what a program chooses to call its top elite status. Hilton could have created another elite level above Diamond and given it a cool name like Adamantium (akin Bonvoy creating 'Titanium' above Platinum), but the program is quite 'economical' in how it does things: it kept the existing elite structure and simply made LT Diamond the program's top elite status, while leaving its steep qualification requirements in place so that the status will forever remain exclusive and clearly differentiated. Maybe LT HH Diamond should be called Adamantium, for indestructible, like "Wolverine" !
The email that welcomes members to LT Diamond is utterly clear about what the status is:
See that? Our most elite status, Lifetime Diamond. That is what it is and it is not even subtle. Deal with it.
Italics off!
Hmmmm.... the site needs to be fixed so that html tags are contained within a comment!!!
Did you just 'pastarized' the whole comment section?
Huh?! What the hell is 'pastarized'?
I just put an end to a fantasy, and then tried to fix a 'hanging' HTML tag that the site should automatically take care of to avoid precisely what you are seeing: propagation to other comments.
Agreed. Lucky, time to ban this dogmatic a-hole who apparently is now affecting the format of your site?
As someone who doesn't play the hotel loyalty game, I often chuckle when I see things like Free breakfast and wifi as perks, isn't that standard for most hotels?
“As someone who doesn't stay in mid/high end hotels”
Corrected that for you.
I've got 20+ consecutive years of being either HH Gold or HH Diamond and quite honestly I don't find much of a difference.
The good properties will upgrade the HH Gold to the best available room including suites, and the bad properties will try to nicke-and-dime the HH Diamond as well.
Well, all it means is that you simply weren't doing the most of your Diamond status.HH Gold is fine, but to claim it's the same as HH Diamond is just silly. Now you'll have to be a Lifetime Diamond to be at the top of the queue...
G'day.
Reminds me of those memes: He didn't say that, and if he did, he didn't mean it, and if he did, you didn't understand it.
Along the Hilton lines: Hilton is the best, and if it isn't, you weren't making the most of it, and if you were, you were doing it wrong, and if you weren't doing it wrong, you didn't understand the program.
@DCS - I don't usually go out of my way to "make the most" of my status. I book hotels because I inevitably need somewhere to stay when I'm traveling. I book Hilton hotels when available because the brand as a whole has a long history of treating me very well and rewarding me for my loyalty. If anything, I'm saying that Hilton actually treats mid-tier Golds as valued customers, which many other brands don't....
@DCS - I don't usually go out of my way to "make the most" of my status. I book hotels because I inevitably need somewhere to stay when I'm traveling. I book Hilton hotels when available because the brand as a whole has a long history of treating me very well and rewarding me for my loyalty. If anything, I'm saying that Hilton actually treats mid-tier Golds as valued customers, which many other brands don't. Sure, you may get a better suite or a later checkout as a Diamond, but I've never been denied a request as a Gold that I might have received as a Diamond. And my poor experiences as a Diamond would probably have happened even if I was Gold at the time.
@Seam M. - Fair enough. Different people have different experiences. Programs play games, so my approach is to know as much about a program as I can so that I can make the most of it within its own terms and conditions.
No. Hilton Gold and IHG Diamond and even Platinum are much better than Hyatt’s Explorist and Discoverist. Hyatt only cares about Globalist. There is no point to have anything but Globalist with Hyatt. You get pretty much nothing as a low tier Hyatt member. Discoverist and Explorist are treated exactly the same in the US and abroad. At least with IHG Diamond including Platinum and Hilton Gold you can get upgraded and it never happens...
No. Hilton Gold and IHG Diamond and even Platinum are much better than Hyatt’s Explorist and Discoverist. Hyatt only cares about Globalist. There is no point to have anything but Globalist with Hyatt. You get pretty much nothing as a low tier Hyatt member. Discoverist and Explorist are treated exactly the same in the US and abroad. At least with IHG Diamond including Platinum and Hilton Gold you can get upgraded and it never happens at the peasant level of Hyatt. Also, Hilton Gold and IHG Diamond get free breakfast unlike at Hyatt. Though, I must say comparing apples to apples Hyatt’s rooms tend to be better.
Mighty WoH as a one-trick pony? Come on!
I've been Gold (and sometimes higher) for probably 20 years. We used to take advantage of it in college when one could get a full flag Hilton in a non-touristy part of Orlando for $65, and it was empty on the weekends and always got upgraded to the executive floor. Nice escape from the dorms with free breakfast and this property had food in the lounge at least on Friday nights.
Most of my...
I've been Gold (and sometimes higher) for probably 20 years. We used to take advantage of it in college when one could get a full flag Hilton in a non-touristy part of Orlando for $65, and it was empty on the weekends and always got upgraded to the executive floor. Nice escape from the dorms with free breakfast and this property had food in the lounge at least on Friday nights.
Most of my hotel stays are in mid-tier properties - a lot of small towns (or find them convenient in some larger markets - quick in/out with free parking, usually convenient to necessities). Hampton Inn is my most stayed Hilton brand (followed by HGI). I like the fact they are usually very clean, consistent, and I get my two bottles of water and a snack. I have gotten some pretty good upgrades... like last year in Vicksburg, MS where I was given a room that was just obscenely large and stocked with snacks/drinks I was welcome to free of charge - and I had just missed their evening reception so the front desk told me I was free to grab a beer or two from the cooler if I wanted.
I find the extra points useful because most of the time when traveling for work, I am rarely at the hotel during free breakfast hours (my day starts too early). This causes me all kinds of fun with Concur because when travel department clicks that the hotel has breakfast included, it makes me submit an exception for expensing the meal otherwise (my "I do not concur with Concur..." emails to accounting).
Bonvoy gets me upgrades to the "& Suites" portion of their similar properties, which is usually like above just a really big room with little utility, but they don't give their Golds any sort of amenity at check in. Yes, when it comes down to it I prefer the one that gives me my bottled waters because it saves me time and hassle otherwise.
Gold is useless these days, everyone and their dogs are diamond because of Aspire.
Don’t say that especially because @DCS
is right with Hilton Gold being the best mid tier hotel status
Right about HH Gold being best mid-tier status, but in actuality, everyone gets it backwards. It is usually self-anointed "travel gurus" who feed us a steady diet of how anything SPG (R.I.P) was or Hyatt is "best" and same from all other programs is just garbage.
What I do is simply to provide a counter point by drawing on a much-maligned program (HH) that I happen to know more about than even most of...
Right about HH Gold being best mid-tier status, but in actuality, everyone gets it backwards. It is usually self-anointed "travel gurus" who feed us a steady diet of how anything SPG (R.I.P) was or Hyatt is "best" and same from all other programs is just garbage.
What I do is simply to provide a counter point by drawing on a much-maligned program (HH) that I happen to know more about than even most of the chain's employees.
Got now where I usually come from? (I doubt it, considering that it took a decade to get it through thick skulls that all hotel loyalty points currencies are "worth" exactly the same).
Claims travel expert is self-annointed, annoints self as expert in the same paragraph.
Simply amazing
Albeit, I'm wondering if we're supposed to be impressed.
I wonder if DCS realizes he can self-proclaim his expertise without disparaging the knowledge of other people. Along the lines of "drawing on a much-maligned program (HH) that I've spent the last decade pouring over in detail and gaining expertise in".
@Mikey -- Just go away.
"I wonder if DCS realizes he can self-proclaim his expertise without disparaging the knowledge of other people. Along the lines of "drawing on a much-maligned program (HH) that I've spent the last decade pouring over in detail and gaining expertise in"."
"@Mikey -- Just go away."
As I thought, the answer was no. Anyone with a shred of reasoning ability would at least take that into consideration, but no, almighty DCS is irreproachable.
Also, I'm...
"I wonder if DCS realizes he can self-proclaim his expertise without disparaging the knowledge of other people. Along the lines of "drawing on a much-maligned program (HH) that I've spent the last decade pouring over in detail and gaining expertise in"."
"@Mikey -- Just go away."
As I thought, the answer was no. Anyone with a shred of reasoning ability would at least take that into consideration, but no, almighty DCS is irreproachable.
Also, I'm confident the consensus has long been for YOU to go away. (Lest we want you here just for the sheer purpose of killing time/entertaining ourselves)
And really, you don't feel superior enough to what I've written already, you have to tie it in with what some person named Mikey wrote to give yourself that extra boost? Insecurity on full display.
Amaze me with a further response.
How deep your hole goes is certainly a spectacle.
Idk about that?
Not everyone can get USA credit cards
@Jill -- Quite true. Also, just 'cause folks and their dogs have a status does not mean that they make the most of it. Folks with the HH Gold status tend to do more with it than those who can afford the 'Aspire Diamond' (now downgraded), who would usually go with their primary program.
Funny how DCS is now parroting the "downgraded!" line for the Aspire card - don't be mistaken, it's still top tier with Hilton (net free with a credit card!), with all the same benefits as something he spent over 1K nights and probably 6 figures spend on (save for mildly early upgrade clearing on the few Europe/Asia properties worth staying at)
"Don't be mistaken"... I mean, to be fair, none of us will be mistaken. Rational people already understand that discussions of "top" status, in the traditional sense, have typically excluded Lifetime versions of status.
DCS has suddenly revealed he can arbitrarily decide for the rest of us how we refer to a program's status. Or is it that Hilton T&C controls our speech?
But rest assured, in travel forums across the land, 95%+ of the...
"Don't be mistaken"... I mean, to be fair, none of us will be mistaken. Rational people already understand that discussions of "top" status, in the traditional sense, have typically excluded Lifetime versions of status.
DCS has suddenly revealed he can arbitrarily decide for the rest of us how we refer to a program's status. Or is it that Hilton T&C controls our speech?
But rest assured, in travel forums across the land, 95%+ of the discussion will be about Hilton's top tier of Diamond and how it compares to the top tier of other chains.
DCS can lash out about it in those forums all he wants, but one man can't cover all the ground, and even if he could, there's plenty of people who'd do a far better job of ignoring him than you or I.
Gold status saved me a boat load of money in Bora Bora. Free breakfast was a game changer.
Would be nice if they had a Lifetime Gold status category (like Marriott does.)
I was butt-in-bed HH Diamond for 9 years + Gold in other years, before my travel patterns changed... ;(
I’ve only received lounge access once. At Hilton Milan and it was nice there was food and wine. That hotel is a short walk to Milan centrale train station.
I think Diamond status would go a lot further at a luxury property ie Waldorf Astoria.
Maybe its just me, but the lounge at Hilton Milan was the most miserable one I've ever visited in the Hilton system. That includes stays in 2003 and 2018. Maybe it was different at other times!
I enjoy Hilton Honors Gold. I get 2 bottles of water at checkin. The breakfast credit is nice at doubletree and full service Hilton. I get suite upgrades on occasion especially on one night stays. Pleased with AMEX Hilton surpass. Might go for Aspire or AMEX platinum later this year or next. Redeeming points at JFK is great for a stopover because the two properties close by are always $200+ Taxes a night.