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Hilton Honors has brought in 2018 with a slew of changes to their reward program. While in 2017 Hilton brought in some valuable changes (the ability to pool points), and some which were pretty worthless (using Hilton points to shop at Amazon), the changes in 2018 are more sweeping and add value to those loyal to the program.
Changes To Earning
Hilton Honors has implemented several changes to how you earn points; the key changes are as follows:
- The status earning bonus has been increased
- Points + Points & Points + Miles earning options have been eliminated
Although Hilton has not specified the exact date, starting in April 2018 you will receive the following Elite tier bonuses:
- Silver will earn a 20% bonus
- Gold will receive a 80% bonus
- Diamond will receive a 100% bonus
Before you get excited about the bonus, remember that Hilton just eliminated its Points + Points earning option. With this option you would earn a 5-point bonus per dollar for choosing Points & Points. This means that depending on your status you may have taken a hit to your earning after the change. The effective change to earnings is as follows:
- Blue
- Old (15 points/dollar)
- New (10 points/dollar)
- Silver
- Old (16.5 points/dollar)
- New (12 points/dollar)
- Gold
- Old (17.5 points/dollar)
- New (18 points/dollar)
- Diamond
- Old (20 points/dollar)
- New (20 points/dollar)
If you hold Blue or Silver status, these changes are negative. Diamond members are not affected by the change, while Gold members earn an extra 0.5 points per dollar, which is hardly worth writing home about. Clearly, Hilton is focused on rewarding their most loyal members.
Milestone Stay Bonuses
Hilton has introduced milestone bonuses depending on the number of nights you stay. The new milestone kicks in after you have stayed 40 nights. You will earn the following bonuses:
- 10,000 bonus points every 10 nights starting from the 40th night
- 30,000 bonus points for staying 60 nights
With this new bonus system if you stay 60 nights you will pick up an additional 60,000 bonus points: 30,000 for staying 60 nights, plus 10,000 on your 40th, 50th, and 60th night. While 60,000 points are not earth-shattering for a program that can easily charge 90,000 points for a night at a top-tier property, it is at least a motivating factor to stay loyal.
Elite Rollover Nights
As of 2018, Silver, Gold, and Diamond members are eligible to rollover elite night credit earned beyond what is needed to qualify for their tier to the following year. So a Silver member who stays 25 nights (10 are needed to requalify), will be able to rollover 15 nights to the following year. One important note about rollover nights is that they do not apply if you hold your status via a credit card.
So if you hold Hilton Honors Gold status via The Platinum Card® from American Express (Terms Apply), you will not be able to roll over any nights regardless of how many you stay. The only possible exception is if you stay more than 60 nights and achieve Diamond status. In that case, you may be able to roll your extra nights since you would have achieved Diamond status via stays, not via a credit card.
Gifting Elite Status
In 2018 you may be able to gift either Gold or Diamond status to a friend or loved one.
- Stay 60 nights or more, and you will be able to gift Gold status to someone
- Stay 100 nights or more, and you will be able to gift Diamond status to someone
Free Breakfast At Waldorf Astoria For Elites
Gold and Diamond members staying at Waldorf Astoria properties will now benefit from free (or discounted) breakfast during their stay, which is a nice addition for elites, who previously received no breakfast benefits at Waldorf properties.
Our Take
Hilton Honors has undergone a lot of changes over the last year or so. The newly announced changes along with 4 new Hilton credit cards hitting the market on January 18, 2018, are a welcome change, and add a ton of to the program.
While the changes are generally positive, with elites (Gold & Diamond) gaining an enhanced benefits package, lower tiers have taken a hit to their points earnings. The changes effectively add value to holding Gold or Diamond status with Hilton Honors, which in turn adds value to The Platinum Card® from American Express, and the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card, which provide complimentary Gold and Diamond Status respectively.
The changes have enhanced the positives of Hilton Honors, quite welcome when most program changes tend to be around devaluations and cuts to elite benefits.
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The loss of the opportunities to earn airline miles is very much missed.
Good information.
It looks like minimum to no impact for gold and diamond status, respectively.
I guess they need to make these changes becuase of the new cards coming..? Hilton has been headed toward major devaluations of the pts system the past few years. It was really great years ago.
Thanks for all the changes. Hilton I should one I use a lot.
These changes are quite a mixed bag!
Thanks, for the heads up!
The Hilton changes are interesting, more attractive.
Losing the ability to earn significant amount of airline miles is a big loss to me…this is too bad.
As a gold member no significant changes.
The worst would be more points for redemption and no free brekfast for gold members.
Having a card generating Diamond status is a win for me. 🙂
Hmm, not very happy with the changes honestly. Currently I have AMEX PLAT so I get automatic gold status but I am thinking of getting rid of the card this year which would mean I would earn less points with blue or silver. Boooo! Thanks for making this clear and making my decision easier.
As a Diamond achieved through stays rather than nights , these changes are slightly negative for me, due to losing the option of choosing points and miles. Having said that the majority of the time I chose points and points, and this change is neutral for that for me.
As a Gold member, I welcome those changes!
Sadly, all of our Hilton points expired not too long ago. Thanks for updating us on the changes going forward, though!
The mileage earning was one of the most unique parts of this program. Without bonus mileage promos I will be booking Hilton a lot less.
A bit of a mixed bag really. A good time to assess if I want to continue with status.
I think that these changes are an example of why I never get anything much from hotel reward programs.
waiting for their new credit card offers
helpful info- thanks so much. is the Hilton no annual fee card still staying around?
Yes, indeed.
Sad to see the ability to earn airline miles go, as that has always been my preferred earn method, rather than points+points. Still, on the up-side, at least it’s not an out-and-out loss since the upper-elite earn bonuses are being tweaked to the positive.
Some positive and some negative changes. I like the points and miles scheme.
I think the stay freshold needs to be lowered to retain top tier status especially when you only need 4 x stays and an equivalent status match in another chain.
Still can’t tell if it’s going to be beneficial in the long run
Don’t think this moves the needle much either direction.
Points and Miles is toast… say it ain’t so.
My conference schedule will take me to several Hilton’s this year. I will need to pay attention to these changes as they might actually apply to me. Thanks for the great synopsis.
I really liked the double dip! It was really a positive with Hilton. I’ll still value Hilton but I’ll miss getting miles into my account. Oh well.
I wonder now if they’ll intro a way to buy a points boost when you book a stay?
Definitely less incentive to book direct but I must admit we have been treated very well in the past thanks to the Gold status offered by our credit card so will still consider Hilton.
Looks like avoiding Hilton has been a good decision
Thanks for the heads up
I have gold through my credit card, so I’m not really affected by this. If I didn’t have the gold, this might finish me with the program.
Sad to see points + miles go away.
May benefit some but as I’m only Silver not beneficial for me.
I agree. Diamonds come out ahead. Golds break even. Everyone else loses.
It will be interesting to see what type of breakfast you receive at WA properties. What I’m hearing on Flyertalk is that the term “breakfast” is being determined by each property and some are being very stingy with their interpretation. A benefit needs to be uniform across the the entire line of properties in order for it to be valuable to the customer.
I’m I going to receive a Continental breakfast, which might be defined as a muffin and coffee at some properties, a $10.00 discount voucher on an overpriced breakfast or an actual free continental sit down breakfast in the hotels restaurant?
Hilton needs to step up and redifine this benefit at all WA properties much like they do at their other hotel brands.
Hopefully decent status matches are in store for us in 2018.
Not as fun anymore without being able to double dip
There go my airline miles.
ouch, there go my airline miles and low member points.
hope this is not a race to the bottom for hotel chains to keep cutting elite benefits
I’d say the opposite.
I agree. This is giving more to elite members and cutting back for lower tier members.
I will be losing my diamond status this year, I may have to get a credit card which gifts me gold status.
Thanks for the guide.. I’ll have to keep an eye on my status.
I’ll miss being able to earn airline points.
Sometimes there would be good bonuses too on the airline miles e.g 500 AAdvantage miles per night. These were icing on the top of whatever other promotions were being offered on the Hilton Honors points.
Stay 100 nights and get enough bonus points for one free night at a nice hotel. Gift Diamond to somebody (instead of getting something for yourself).
If Honors truly want to make it worthwhile to reach status the hard way, they’ll have to do better than that! I can do SPG Platinum and Hyatt Globalist in 110 nights and get 3 bonus nights at hotels better than almost all that Honors has to offer…