All statuses extended by a year.

Hilton Honors has finally announced its Covid-19 provisions for its loyalty members, with what is possibly one of the most generous extensions across any hotel chains.

Extensions for members with status in 2019

Hilton will be giving a one-year extension for members who had status through the whole of 2019 and were scheduled to be downgraded this month. They will instead hold on to their 2019 status for another year, up to March 2021.

This refers to the group of members who earned their status through stays in 2018, and enjoyed them in 2019. If this group of members didn’t requalify for their status in 2019, they would have been downgraded this month (i.e. March 2020).

Extensions for members with status in 2020

For members who have qualified for an elite status for the entire year of 2020 through stays in 2019, their status will be extended through March 2022, a year longer than it usually is.

Similar to Qantas’ policy, the extension of the status doesn’t mean that you get two years now to qualify for status in 2022 – your nights and stays you earn in 2020 will still be reset by 31 Dec 2020 and you start climbing the ladder again in 2021.

Points won’t expire before December 2020

On top of the status extensions, Hilton Honors will also pause all points expiration.

Hilton points usually expire 12 months after your last stay, so if you have had a chance to clock a stay during the 12-month window, your points will still stay active up to 31 Dec 2020.

Note that this means if you have not make any activity in 2020 by 1 Jan 2021, your points will expire then.

Final thoughts

This is probably one of the most generous extension policies laid out by any hotel loyalty programme, given that Hilton has not only extended current members with elite status, but also those who were scheduled to be downgraded this year (boo, Marriott Bonvoy).

This is an incredibly good gesture on Hilton’s part, on top of its very flexible booking policy during this global pandemic. I’m sure this will earn a lot more goodwill down the road for the chain, and I’m for one to keep supporting them.