Hilton extending status, free night certificates and more due to Coronavirus

In an extremely customer-friendly move, Hilton just announced some flexibility for their members. Due to the Coronavirus situation, Hilton is extending status, pausing point expirations, extending free night certificates and allowing customers to cancel new and existing reservations. This is a great update as it will hopefully keep loyal Hilton customers in tact and give them the opportunity to use benefits at a later point.

Status Extension

All members whose 2019 status was scheduled to be downgraded on March 21, 2020 will receive an automatic extension through March 31, 2021. This will give you another year of the status you earned last year, even if you were not going to earn it this year regardless.

For those of you who earned status for 2020 will also receive an extension on your status through March 31, 2022. This will give you 24 months to enjoy your status, even if you are house bound right now. This is extremely courteous as you then do not need to worry about earning status this year at all.

Point Extension

All points that were scheduled to expire between now and December 31, 2020 will be paused. This means you do not need to currently worry about keeping your account active.

Weekend Night Reward Certificates

All unexpired Weekend Night Reward certificates as of March 11, 2020 will not expire until August 31, 2021. Additionally, new certificates issued through August 30, 2020 will also receive the same extension. That gives you more than a year to use them!

Flexible Cancelation Policies

Hilton is making sure that all reservations — both refundable and advanced purchase without the option to cancel, can be canceled or change with no fee.

Existing Reservations: Existing reservations that are scheduled for arrival on or before June 30, 2020 can be changed or canceled at no charge, up to 24 hours before your scheduled arrival day.

New Reservations: Any reservations you make that are booked between now and June 30, 2020, for any future arrival date, can be changed or canceled at no charge, up to 24 hours before your scheduled arrival day.

Overall

I am extremely pleased to see Hilton releasing these updates as it makes an already stressful time less stressful for members. Many travelers work hard for status and for those free night certificates, so to see them extended quite a bit is extremely thoughtful. Also, allowing members to book reservations worry free will also help out members and the individual hotels. Many travelers are reluctant to make non-refundable reservations now, so hopefully this can allow people to plan vacations worry free. Thanks Hilton!