Hilton Honors extends status for all members by one year

With the world of travel coming to a standstill, hotels and airlines have no option to work towards retaining their most loyal members. Different airlines and hotel groups will have their different approach to this, but Hilton Honors is first off the bat, taking some vital decisions last night to help their Hilton Honors members.
Hilton Hotel

Hilton

Hilton Honors will extend your 2019 status

Hilton Honors says that they wanted to show their appreciation to Hilton Honors, and hence they are going to extend benefits. The steps taken by Hilton include an extension of status, pausing expiration of points and extension of the free night certificates.

Hilton Honors will be extending the status of everyone who had a status for the 2019 year, which usually should have downgraded as of March 31, 2020. Those members will now have their current status, whether Gold, Diamond or Silver till March 31, 2021.

One needs to give credit to Hilton for this move given this is generous and intended to tell customers to come back to Hilton once the outbreak is over and people are back on the roads. Here is the announcement on the Hilton Hotels website.

a screenshot of a phone

Hilton Honors will extend your 2020 status

If you had qualified for a specific tier basis your 2019 activity (tier valid during 2020 and through March 2021), Hilton Honors would be extending your status through March 31, 2022. So, you get an extra year for those who were loyal last year.

Hilton Honors Pauses Points expiration through rest of 2020

If you have no activity in the programme for 12 months, usually all your Hilton points expire. However, Hilton Honors is pausing the expiration of points through December 31, 2020, for the moment. This move will help customers who are not very active with Hilton Honors.

Hilton Honors weekend night rewards

Although not relevant for members around the world except in the USA, those earning weekend night rewards through a Hilton Honors credit card will be able to receive an extension of anywhere between 12-18 months. Certificates due to expire between March 11 and August 30, 2020, will now expire on August 31, 2021.

Flexible cancellation and rebooking policies

Apart from the announcements that came in overnight, Hilton is also offering generous cancellation and rebooking policies at the moment. Here is the policy updated as of March 25, 2020:

  • Existing Reservations. All reservations—even those described as “non-cancellable” (“Advanced Purchase”)—that are scheduled for arrival on or before June 30, 2020, can be changed or cancelled at no charge, up to 24 hours before your scheduled arrival day.
  • New Reservations. Any reservations you make—even those described as “non-cancellable” (“Advanced Purchase”)—that are booked between today and June 30, 2020, for any future arrival date can be changed or cancelled at no charge, up to 24 hours before your scheduled arrival day.

How does this help Hilton?

By moving first and doing perhaps the most generous thing in the book, Hilton will sure get the goodwill of the travelling folk when they get out the next time and will swing the business to itself.

To counter this, perhaps the other hotel chains will also fall in line and match soon?

This is nothing short of a very generous gesture from Hilton Honors. Will you consider this move when you do business with a hotel chain next?

Hilton Hotels


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About Ajay

Ajay Awtaney is the Founder and Editor of Live From A Lounge (LFAL), a pioneering digital platform renowned for publishing news and views about aviation, hotels, passenger experience, loyalty programs, travel trends and frequent travel tips for the Global Indian. He is considered the Indian authority on business travel, luxury travel, frequent flyer miles, loyalty credit cards and travel for Indians around the globe. Ajay is a frequent contributor and commentator on the media as well, including ET Now, BBC, CNBC TV18, NDTV, Conde Nast Traveller and many other outlets.

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