TravelingForMiles.com may receive commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on TravelingForMiles.com are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. TravelingForMiles.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers.
Some links to products and travel providers on this website will earn Traveling For Miles a commission which helps contribute to the running of the site – I’m very grateful to anyone who uses these links but their use is entirely optional. The compensation does not impact how and where products appear on this site and does not impact reviews that are published. For more details please see the advertising disclosure found at the bottom of every page.
I have been a Marriott loyalist for as long as I can remember and I recently earned the highest level of lifetime status that Marriott has on offer….but I’m seriously considering a move across to Hilton.
I don’t have all that much experience with the Hilton Honors program but what experience I’ve had has been mostly positive.
I hold Hilton Honors Gold status courtesy of my Amex Platinum Card (although that may not be for much longer) and, overall, I’ve been more than happy with the treatment I’ve received, the rooms I’ve been allocated and the general level of service I’ve encountered….and not just at properties in Asia where service levels are generally better than anywhere else anyway.
Marriott’s merger with Starwood has been anything but plain sailing for most members but I can’t really complain – my accounts were merged ok and I made my elite choice selections before that turned into a fiasco – but something has got me wondering if life may be better over at Hilton.
Hilton Honors awards aren’t exactly cheap but we’re soon going to see Marriott’s award costs rise to the point where they’re not all that different from Hilton’s…and Hilton Honors points are easier to earn.
Add to that the fact that I can guarantee myself top-tier Hilton status (Hilton Diamond) just by applying for the Hilton Honors Aspire credit card from American Express and the fact that Hilton’s footprint works for me almost as well as Marriott’s and the reasons to stick with Marriott slowly seem to disappear.
So far I’ve only pointed out how similarly both programs would work for me so you may be questioning why I’d bother abandoning Marriott to move over to Hilton…and that would be a very valid question.
The key to my potential defection is the new guaranteed suite upgrade benefit that Hilton is currently trialing.
Hilton’s Suite Upgrade Awards
On 21 January Hilton launched a pilot program in which it gave select high-value Hilton Honors members one suite upgrade certificate valid for one stay of up to seven nights [HT: TPG].
The certificate has to be redeemed by 31 March but it can be applied to any reservation through the end of the bookable period and, critically, the certificate allows a member to confirm an upgrade to a suite at the time of booking – there’s no ambiguity and no need to wait to see if your luck holds when you check in.
This is how Hyatt’s top-tier upgrade certificates work and, when I had Hyatt top-tier status, I loved them.
Marriott also offers suite upgrades to its elite members but they work differently to the way Hilton’s pilot is running.
With Marriott you can earn a maximum of 10 suite night awards (useable for up to 10 nights in a year) and these cannot be confirmed at the time of booking – you have to hope you get upgraded in the days leading up to check-in and a number of hotels appear to be exempt from having to offer the upgrades at all.
The suite upgrades that Hilton is piloting are far superior to what Marriott offers.
The Problem
The suite upgrades Hilton is piloting sound great but there is one small problem – there’s no guarantee that Hilton will roll out its suite upgrades in their current guise.
The word from Hilton is that it may yet follow the same route that Marriott has taken….or it may not.
It’s possible that suite night awards will be available to anyone staying 60 nights at Hilton properties (the threshold for top-tier status) or a different threshold may be introduced….there’s too much ambiguity and uncertainty right now.
It has been suggested that we will see what the final Hilton suite upgrades look like by the end of the year and that nights stayed in 2019 will count towards whatever the qualification criteria are…. but that’s not really good enough right now.
I’m not in the mood to desert Marriott in the hope that Hilton will offer something better at some point in the future – I’d like a bit of certainty.
Bottom Line
I was pretty excited when I found out that Marriott was planning to introduce suite night awards but, now that I’ve seen how they work and discovered that not all properties will honor them, I’m more than a little underwhelmed.
During my brief stint as a top-tier status holder with Hyatt I couldn’t believe how great the suite upgrades were (they saved me a lot of money) so if Hilton was to introduce something similar it would be a HUGE incentive for me to give Hilton Honors a proper try.
If you compare both loyalty programs and the benefits they offer (at this point in time) there really isn’t all that much to separate them.
If anything Hilton Honors may be marginally better because its points are easier to earn and top-tier status is easier to achieve but Marriott has its positives too…but a Hyatt-esque suite upgrade policy from Hilton would be a game changer.
If Hilton introduces suite upgrades to match those that Hyatt offers I can’t think of a benefit that Marriott offers which would stop me from giving Hilton a try….I just need Hilton to give me a bit of certainty sooner rather than later so I can start earning my way to the upgrades.
Any other Marriott elites considering defecting? Can anyone think of any reasons why not to give Hilton a try?
Another non-post.
If you already have lifetime status you are not trying to earn status on Marriott anymore. So how are you defecting? You have nothing else to gain with them
Presumably you mean I have nothing to gain with Marriott other than the biggest benefit they offer – the 10 suite night awards.
For one so confident in his criticism I’m sure you must know that lifetime elites still have to earn suite night awards by staying the required nights….right?
Yup.
Obviously you are one who finds the SNA relatively useless, just like me.
And good luck trying to get late checkout or any value for your Hilton points.
If you calculate them, without promotions Hilton and Marriott earn about the same. But finding a redemption for Hilton worth more than half a cent each?
I guess if you live in Asia …
As I may have mentioned, pre-Marriwood, my hotel loyalty ran like this: 1) SPG; 2) Hilton; 3) Marriott. Now, I am semi-retired and don’t have “lifetime status” with *any* hotel chain. So now it’s Hilton first…
How are you finding it? And what status level do you maintain? Thx.
I agree Marriott is seemingly trying to annoy and upset its members ,where Hilton seems to be trying to do the opposite, I consider them almost equal at this point where at one time I considered Marriott to be far superior.
[…] I Have Lifetime Status With Marriott But I May Defect To Hilton – Traveling For Miles […]
[…] night awards cannot be confirmed at the time of booking (unlike Hyatt’s suite upgrades and unlike the upgrades Hilton is currently trialing) so they don’t actually guarantee anything at all – they may or may not […]
Yes, I agree. Marriott’s customer service has taken a nose dive. I’m Titanium lifetime and my main reason for never doing Hilton was they didn’t have a lifetime program. I discovered a few months ago that they started doing that a couple of years ago, so I immediately status matched and now I’m staying at Hilton exclusively. Marriott keeps sending me megabonuses that are not relevant to me (i.e. double nights). I have all the nights I’ll ever need. I call Hilton and I’m treated like a superstar. Smart move on Hilton’s part… I travel every week so they’ve won my business. Hilton’s rewards cost more, but you earn a lot more points and their promotions are pretty solid. It’s easier to just give my business to someone who wants it.