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Hilton Status Match
Hilton has a great Status Match opportunity that could result you in you hitting Hilton Diamond status ( their top tier ) in just 14 nights. This is particularly fantastic since it would give you status through March of 2025, and you can leverage a lower tier status to achieve this. There are several exclusions like if you’ve done in it in the past, highlighting prior stays, etc that you need to pay attention to – let’s take a look! H/T YHBU
Go here to sign up if you’re interested!
What is a Hilton Status Match?
Hotels and Airlines will often allow you to match the status you maintain in a competitors program to a commensurate level of status in their program. Often times these come with stipulations that you must complete a certain number of flights, nights, or stays in order to keep that matched status after the qualification period.
Usually, as is the case in this Status Match, the period is 90 days. Hilton is looking to lure travelers to their brand by granting them a higher level of status, and the benefits that come along with it.
Can you break down what I need to do?
You’ll need to show elite status in another chain, proof of a stay in the last 24 months, and if approved, you’ll get Hilton Gold Status for 90 days. In order to maintain Hilton Gold until March of 2025, you’ll need to complete 8 paid, qualifying stays during the 90 day trial.
Want an even better bump up? If you stay just 6 more nights ( 14 total ) in 90 days, they will upgrade your status to Hilton Diamond.
Who qualifies?
- Only Paid stays…Reward nights do not count
- If you have Hilton Gold or Diamond cannot participate
- I’m not saying you couldn’t create another account but your lifetime nights, etc wouldn’t count; however, you could probably merge your points since they point pooling. Haven’t tried this, but I’d imagine it’s possible.
How do you do it?
- Submit the hotel status you’re matching from
- Submit a stay from that hotel in the past 24 months
- After you’re approved you’ll have Gold Status for 90 days
- Stay 8 nights and keep Gold through March of 2025
- Stay 14 nights an keep Diamond through March of 2025
You should be aware that you aren’t eligible if you already hold Hilton Gold or Diamond status, or if you have status matched in the past. The coolest part about Hilton Diamond status, in my opinion, is guaranteed Club Access, F/B credit ( breakfast internationally shown below ), and fingers crossed, a suite upgrade. We had absolutely great luck with Hilton Diamond status in 2019 quite a few suite upgrades, like the Waldorf Astoria Dubai, and if we didn’t hold a Hilton Aspire I’d be looking to do this status match myself. We also were upgraded to a suite in 2022 at the Conrad NYC
It looks as though this status match opportunity goes at least goes through the end of April, so if you’re interested you have some time to potentially meet the stay requirements if you earned your status from a credit card. In other words, if you’re an Amex Platinum cardholder with Marriott Gold status and haven’t stayed in the past two years, I believe you could stay before enrolling in this status match challenge expires and you’d fulfill that requirement.
Diamond status is the reason to match…especially if you’re traveling internationally
The main reason I would consider pursuing this is the fact that Hilton has opened up top tier diamond status to those who keep a lower status in other hotel groups.
If you’re Hyatt Explorist, which is mid tier, you could status match into Hilton with this promo, and if you just stay 14 nights you’ll end up with Hilton Diamond status. If you participated in the Bilt Rewards Status Hyatt Trial and Challenge, you could potentially use Explorist to match to Gold and go for Diamond ( I would stagger it tho since it requires so many nights ). I’m not seeing any explicit language that prohibits using a trial status to match, just that you need to show a stay in the prior 24 months. That’s amazing.
If you’re debating this vs the Hyatt challenge… the Hyatt Globalist is a no brainer and a much better status than Hilton Diamond.
How to get Hilton Status without a challenge…
By far the easiest is with a credit card.
- Amex Platinum
- Hilton Gold as a benefit
- Amex Business Platinum
- Hilton Gold as a benefit
- Amex Hilton Business Card
- Hilton Gold as a benefit
- Amex Hilton Surpass
- HIlton Gold as a benefit
- Amex Hilton Aspire
- Hilton Diamond as a benefit
Personally, dollar for dollar, the best hotel credit card out there is the Amex Hilton Aspire…Diamond status, $250 Hilton resort credit, $250 Amex incidental travel credit, etc. $450 ain’t cheap, but to get top tier status and benefits that easily offset the fee makes this a valuable card for those who love Hilton.
Hilton Honors Aspire Credit card from American Express
Diamond status, annual night anywhere in the world, $250 Hilton resort credit, $250 airline incidental credit, Priority Pass select… this is one bad mamma jamma of a card
Welcome Offer
150k Hilton Honors after $4k spend in 3 months
Annual Fee
$450 rates and fees
Points Earned
Hilton Honors
This is hands down the best hotel card available.
Not only do you get top tier Hilton Diamond status, but you get an free night certificate that you can use anywhere in the world, $250 Hilton Resort credit, $250 airline incidental credit, the list goes on.
If you’re at all thinking of staying at International Hilton properties, get this card ahead of time to enjoy the executive lounge access and free breakfast that comes along with Diamond Status.
This is a card we’ve had since it debuted and we get a lot from the annual night cert and top tier status to recoup the $450 annual fee.
- Free Annual weekend night on your account anniversary
- Diamond status, top tier, as long as you maintain the card
- $250 resort credit ( not good on prepaid rates)
- $250 annual airline incidental credit
- Priority Pass select
- 14x points at Hilton Hotels
- 7x points US restaurants, airfare booked directly with the airline/Amex travel, select car rental agencies
- $450 rates and fees
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists what the highest offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
Further terms and conditions
You can read the full terms and conditions here:
- You need to have elite status with another hotel chain to qualify and submit proof of that elite status with a screen shot
- This needs to include your current membership of your existing loyalty program and summary page – must be a jpg
- No personal information: phone, address, social security number, DOB, username, password, credit card info, etc
- Proof of a stay in the hotel group you’re matching from in the last 24 months is also required
- You must be a Hilton Honors Silver or Base member and not enrolled in a status match in the past
- If you’re already Gold or Diamond…you can’t enroll
- You should hear in 7 to 12 days if you’ve been matched
- Reward nights don’t count
- You need to complete your stays within a 90 period to extend your status
- 8 nights to keep Gold
- 14 nights to bump up to Diamond
Overall
This is a pretty fantastic deal if you have any trips coming up in the short term that you could leverage to extract amazing benefits on a trip further out in the future.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
The Chase Sapphire Preferred is a great starter card that earns Premium Ultimate Rewards that can be transferred into over a dozen partners many of which are US based.
Welcome Offer
60k Points after $4k spend in 3 months
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex℠and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash , Ink Business Unlimited you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
- 3x on dining
- including eligible delivery services for takeout
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards – Chase Travel Portal
- $50 Annual Credit on hotel stays purchased via Ultimate Rewards/Chase Travel
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred® continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel Portal and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including primary rental car insurance, purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 13 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in the Chase Travel center for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Primary rental car coverage is my favorite
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.