How To Earn Hilton Honors Lifetime Diamond Status: It’s Not Easy

Most major hotel programs offer a way to earn lifetime elite status, which is a way for hotel groups to reward those who have been exceptionally loyal over the years. In this post, I want to take a look at how you can earn lifetime status in the Hilton Honors program.

Hilton Honors’ lifetime status program

While Hilton Honors has three elite tiers — Silver, Gold, and Diamond — the program only offers lifetime Diamond status, meaning there’s no way to earn lifetime Silver or Gold status. Lifetime status is still a relatively new concept to the Hilton Honors program, as it was only introduced back in 2015.

In order to earn Hilton Honors lifetime Diamond status:

• Members must have maintained Hilton Honors Diamond status for 10 years (the years don’t need to be consecutive)
• Members must have stayed a total of at least 1,000 nights (either paid or award) OR must have accumulated at least two million base points since joining the Hilton Honors program

As you can see, everyone needs to earn Diamond status for 10 years, and then complete one of the two other requirements. For some context on those requirements:

• Hilton Honors Diamond status ordinarily requires 60 elite nights per year, so 1,000 nights is the equivalent of earning Diamond status for over 16 years
• Hilton Honors members earn 10 base points per dollar spent at most hotel brands, meaning earning two million base points is the equivalent of $200,000 in eligible Hilton Honors spending; base points don’t include any sort of points earned through promotions

Hilton Honors Diamond status is Hilton’s top-tier status, and it includes perks like room upgrades subject to availability, complimentary breakfast (food & beverage credits in the United States) and/or executive lounge access, bonus points, premium internet, and much more. Read my full guide to Hilton Honors Diamond status here.

Note that if you want to track your progress toward lifetime status with Hilton Honors, you’ll have to reach out to Hilton via phone or email. Hilton’s website doesn’t list progress toward this status.

Can you earn Hilton Honors lifetime status with credit cards?

One of the things that I love about the Hilton Honors program is how easy it is to earn status with credit cards, including top-tier Diamond status:

• The Hilton Honors Aspire Card from American Express (review) offers Hilton Honors Diamond status for as long as you have the card
• The Hilton Honors American Express Surpass^® Card (review) and Hilton Honors American Express Business Card (review) offer Hilton Honors Gold status for as long as you have the card, and Hilton Honors Diamond status when you spend $40,000 on the card in a calendar year

The information and associated card details on this page for the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card has been collected independently by OMAAT and has not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

Can the Diamond status earned through co-branded credit cards count toward lifetime Diamond status? Yes and no:

• Diamond status earned through credit cards does count toward the 10 year Diamond status requirement for lifetime status
• However, on an ongoing basis, spending on Hilton’s co-branded credit cards doesn’t earn you base points; for a limited time in 2023, the program did award base points for credit card spending, but that’s no longer the case

So yes, credit cards can help with one metric of lifetime status. However, otherwise they can’t help with satisfying the base points or nights requirement.

Is Hilton Honors lifetime status worth it?

Yes, go check into a Hampton Inn for 1,000 nights, it’s totally worth it.