Most major hotel programs offer a way to earn lifetime elite status, which is a way for hotel groups to reward those who have been exceptionally loyal over the years. In this post I wanted to take a look at how you can earn lifetime status in the Hilton Honors program.
In this post:
Hilton Honors’ lifetime status program
While Hilton Honors has three elite tiers — Silver, Gold, and Diamond — the program only offers lifetime Diamond status, meaning there’s no way to earn lifetime Silver or Gold status. Lifetime status is still a relatively new concept to the Hilton Honors program, as it was only introduced back in 2015.
In order to earn Hilton Honors lifetime Diamond status:
- Members must have maintained Hilton Honors Diamond status for 10 years (the years don’t need to be consecutive)
- Members must have stayed a total of at least 1,000 nights (either paid or award) OR must have accumulated at least two million base points since joining the Hilton Honors program
As you can see, everyone needs to earn Diamond status for 10 years, and then complete one of the two other requirements. For some context on those requirements:
- Hilton Honors Diamond status ordinarily requires 60 elite nights per year, so 1,000 nights is the equivalent of earning Diamond status for over 16 years
- Hilton Honors members earn 10 base points per dollar spent at most hotel brands, meaning earning two million base points is the equivalent of $200,000 in eligible Hilton Honors spending; base points don’t include any sort of points earned through promotions
Hilton Honors Diamond status is Hilton’s top-tier status, and it includes perks like room upgrades subject to availability, complimentary breakfast and/or executive lounge access, bonus points, premium internet, and much more. Read my full guide to Hilton Honors Diamond status here.
Note that if you want to track your progress toward lifetime status with Hilton Honors, you’ll have to reach out to Hilton via phone or email. Hilton’s website doesn’t list progress toward this status.
Can you earn Hilton Honors lifetime status with credit cards?
One of the things that I love about the Hilton Honors program is how easy it is to earn status with credit cards, including top-tier Diamond status:
- The Hilton Honors Aspire Card from American Express (review) offers Hilton Honors Diamond status for as long as you have the card
- The Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card (review) and Hilton Honors American Express Business Card (review) offer Hilton Honors Gold status for as long as you have the card, and Hilton Honors Diamond status when you spend $40,000 on the card in a calendar year
The information and associated card details on this page for the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card has been collected independently by OMAAT and has not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
Can the Diamond status earned through co-branded credit cards count toward lifetime Diamond status? Yes and no:
- Diamond status earned through credit cards does count toward the 10 year Diamond status requirement for lifetime status
- However, on an ongoing basis, spending on Hilton’s co-branded credit cards doesn’t earn you base points; for a limited time in 2023, the program did award base points for credit card spending, but that’s no longer the case
So yes, credit cards can help with one metric of lifetime status. However, otherwise they can’t help with satisfying the base points or nights requirement.
Is Hilton Honors lifetime status worth it?
Yes, go check into a Hampton Inn for 1,000 nights, it’s totally worth it. 😉
In all honesty, the answer is much more nuanced than that:
- Generally speaking, I don’t think lifetime status is worth going out of your way for too much, given the extent to which loyalty programs are in control — they can change both the qualification requirements and benefits of status at will
- I don’t value the concept of lifetime Hilton Honors Diamond status that much, given how easy it is to earn Hilton Honors status otherwise; I can maintain this status every year just by holding onto a fantastic credit card, so there’s nothing I’m really missing out on
- In fairness, Hilton does prioritize upgrades for lifetime Diamond members over regular Diamond members, though it doesn’t change that Hilton’s suite upgrade policy is lackluster compared to the competition
- The lifetime hotel status that gets me most excited is lifetime World of Hyatt Globalist status, both due to the general perks associated with Globalist status, and also because benefits stack for lifetime Globalist members, which is to say they receive extra suite upgrade awards, free night awards, club access awards, Guest of Honor awards, etc.
- As a point of comparison, lifetime Marriott Bonvoy Platinum status is much easier to earn, and Marriott Platinum perks are roughly comparable to Hilton Diamond perks, in my opinion
If you happen to find yourself staying at Hiltons a lot then lifetime status is definitely worth keeping in the back of your mind, though it’s not worth doing anything too drastic to earn the lifetime status, in my opinion.
Bottom line
The Hilton Honors program gives members the opportunity to earn lifetime Diamond status by qualifying for Diamond status for 10 years, and then earning either 1,000 elite nights or two million base points (equivalent to at least $200,000 in spending at Hilton hotels).
Hilton has some fairly steep lifetime status requirements, especially given how attainable Diamond status is otherwise, and how the benefits aren’t that generous, compared to the competition.
What’s your take on Hilton Honors’ lifetime Diamond status? Are any OMAAT readers lifetime Diamond members?
I do have a rather specific question to Ben:
Does the Diamond status "granted/applied" through BA Executive Club Gold Guest List's status count toward the 10 year Diamond status requirement for lifetime status?
Hilton Diamond Lifetime is good, just like other Lifetime programs.
My wife's name is on our account, and she doesn't have a Red White & Blue American surname, also being female and ....
we were made to suffer a severe discrimination from a woman in Texas called Jennifer P. who handled the Lifetime program and thru many arguments, finally up to Chris Nasetta, to gain Lifetime at 11.5 years. It was sorrowful.
...
Hilton Diamond Lifetime is good, just like other Lifetime programs.
My wife's name is on our account, and she doesn't have a Red White & Blue American surname, also being female and ....
we were made to suffer a severe discrimination from a woman in Texas called Jennifer P. who handled the Lifetime program and thru many arguments, finally up to Chris Nasetta, to gain Lifetime at 11.5 years. It was sorrowful.
But at the end at least Chris got involved and solved it. Got give him credit for that being a busy CEO and all.
We received his call while we were staying at a Hilton hotel. Unfortunately champagne wasn't arranged which would have been a nice icing to very poor situation.
This is what women have to endure all around the world everyday.
I think it makes them stronger internally.
Have been a lifetime Diamond Honors member for 5 years. Have been recognized as such by 1 hotel since then. No special perks, no advantages over regular diamond. The only advantage is I don't need to annually stay or spend to maintain. I left Hilton right after achieving Lifetime Diamond. Hotels have gone downhill, elite benefits/recognition are mediocre and traveling to Italy/Greece yearly, I have greater choices with another brand.
What?! You didn’t have a coconut tree planted in your honor like DCS did?
Being Diamond seems to result in “eh” recognition in the U.S. I’m a bit surprised that you find elite recognition mediocre in Italy/Greece. I’ve had decent recognition in the U.K. and Germany. IMO, Diamond gets you treated extremely well in Asia.
It's luck of the draw honestly. Some properties in Europe do well to recognize loyalty others not so much. Hilton Brussels did upgrade me to a top floor one bedroom suite overlooking the main square and that was nice, but I was staying one night so it's easier to get upgrades if you don't have a lengthy stay. But to me the upgrades are just a bonus, if it happens it happens. If I don't...
It's luck of the draw honestly. Some properties in Europe do well to recognize loyalty others not so much. Hilton Brussels did upgrade me to a top floor one bedroom suite overlooking the main square and that was nice, but I was staying one night so it's easier to get upgrades if you don't have a lengthy stay. But to me the upgrades are just a bonus, if it happens it happens. If I don't get it I'm very c'est la vie. I'm not a fan of demanding an upgrade and being an asshole to front desk staff for something they don't always have control over.
Hello, please could you confirm how you know that spend on the card no longer increases base points? Has it been formally confirmed by Hilton or Amex?
I don't doubt your industry knowledge one bit, just that I'm curious because like me and anybody else who has the card, you probably wouldn't know just from looking at your HH account given how few days in to January we are.
@ Dave -- This was announced as a limited time perk until December 31, 2023, and nothing has been updated to indicate that it's continuing beyond that. I'd imagine that if Hilton intended to extent it beyond that, this would have been announced.
Thanks Ben, much appreciated. That's certainly a fair logical presumption, and you're probably right...but I have my fingers crossed that you turn out to be wrong. I suppose we'll only know for sure when a cardholder sees any of their points for January card spend post in their HH account.
Just hold the Aspire card for life. The statement credits and FNC outweigh the annual fee. Am I missing something?
Whatever happened to Hilton's promise to provide a lifetime status 'tracking bar' on the website. They promised this during Covid and we are still waiting. You have to email Hilton and ask for your stats. Marriott has one! Come on Hilton, get with it already.
The tracker showed up for me what I was at ~990 stays. So it was super helpful. I qualified just before covid hit so it showed "-1" for quite a few months and then it disappeared.
I received lifetime Diamond status last year (along with a pair of Bose earbuds and a thick metal membership card I'll never carry in a wallet) and while the domestic upgrades are barely worth the term upgrade (one such upgrade was going from a room with a view of the parking lot to a room on a higher floor with a view of the parking lot), the international properties are where they shine. Got bumped...
I received lifetime Diamond status last year (along with a pair of Bose earbuds and a thick metal membership card I'll never carry in a wallet) and while the domestic upgrades are barely worth the term upgrade (one such upgrade was going from a room with a view of the parking lot to a room on a higher floor with a view of the parking lot), the international properties are where they shine. Got bumped up to an overwater villa in the Maldives, a massive 'high roller' suite in Cairo and beautiful suite in Panama.
An overwater villa is a standard redemption at the Conrad Maldives and a slight improvement over the reef villas at the W.A Maldives...
So maybe you're referring to another property there, or maybe they bumped you up several categories to a better type of overwater villa?
Not to say it's nothing, but your description doesn't paint it as any better than having non-lifetime top-tier status.