As a Hilton Diamond, especially outside of the US, i was, frankly, treated like a golden god. KEYWORD: WAS...

The past couple of months, basically coinciding with Hilton eagerly giving Diamond away to anyone who can spell the name of a competing hotel, I have noticed a marked change. From no acknowledgement of status @ check-in, to quality of upgrades, to denied late checkout, to even comments like, 'we have a lot of Diamond members staying with us'.

My sister, who has the prestigious (ahem) IHG Platinum status thru the credit card (she's never had a stay), got HH Diamond thru 3.2018 in a heartbeat... like everyone else.

Giving out Gold easily is one thing, giving out Diamond like candy on halloween, which is exactly what Hilton is doing, is offensive and completely and utterly dilutes the status down to nothing.

Previously, I had never not gotten an automatic suite upgrade at check-in (in asia). I haven't seen a suite in my past 10 asia stays (all short 1-2 nights). Previously, I had never been declined for late checkout at 4pm, and often got as late as i needed if I had a late flight. I've been denied 3/4pm the past 4 stays; with one explaining that the hotel is nearly full and I had to checkout by 1 but was given a 'courtesy' to 1.30! And the phone literally rang at 1.30 to make sure I was on my way. Seriously, whiskey tango foxtrot...

You cannot give away your top status to anyone and everyone without severely degrading the value of the status. It's one thing to give a challenge to people with Hyatt, SPG, or Marriott top status with documentation of actual stays they made to achieve said status. Doing what Hilton is doing now is a slap in the face to every Diamond who 'earned it the hard way'. It does the inverse of promoting loyalty. A HH Diamond would be way better off right now with no status- as anyone with zero HH loyalty (and zero loyalty to any other program, for that matter) can get Diamond thru 3.2018, whilst a Diamond who falls a few nights short of 60 this year will see their status downgraded a year before them!

I've been a big defender of the HH program here on FT. No more.
/rant