It’s one of the holy grails of a loyalty program – achieving a Lifetime status. Not all programs have them, and those that do often make them out of reach to all but the most dedicated.
Hilton HHonors first introduced a Lifetime DIamond status back in 2015. At the time, they set the requirements at 10 years of Diamond status, and 1,000 eligible paid nights. This clearly required some significant dedication to the Honors program to achieve.
They have now made some changes which will make it slightly easier to achieve. They have slightly relaxed the 1,000 nights rule, and introduced a new path requiring an earn of 2 million points. Either way, you will still need to have held Diamond for ten years.
There are therefore, two paths:
- 10 years at Diamond with Hilton HHonors + 1,000 nights (including paid and reward)
- 10 years at Diamond + 2 million cumulative Base Points
1,000 Nights
The first path to Lifetime Diamond is by holding Diamond for 10 years, and accumulating 1,000 nights in total throughout your membership. When Hilton first introduced Lifetime Diamond they only counted eligible paid nights toward the total. In the latest set of changes, this has been relaxed and they will now also count Rewards nights in the total.
This still requires spending 1,000 nights in Hilton HHonors hotels, however, the change to allow Reward nights brings it into line with the criteria for earning Diamond.
2 million points
There is now a second path to achieving Lifetime Diamond. Instead of the 1,000 nights requirement, you can qualify based on earning two million base points across your membership life.
This only counts base points, so the sometime lucrative bonus points won’t count. Base on this, you will need to be spending $200,000 US Dollars during your membership to qualify.
Hilton are planning to tally up people histories as at December 31, 2016. Any members that have achieved Lifetime Status should then receive an email in February advising them of their new found status.
Overall, this seems a positive change. While it makes it slightly easier, it is still something of a long term undertaking.