It would be awesome to be selected...What's it going to take? Shameless groveling? Here's my attempt:

Hi Erin! It's me...I hope I've given some great feedback in our exchanges! :) I enjoy rainbows, walks on the beach and staying at HH properties above all others, when possible. ;)

Exciting news indeed! So what's the speculation on requirements? Invitation only first..... then 10 years Diamond? Maybe 500 nights?

Interesting news indeed, and I am sure it will be widely discussed ;) Wonder if it will be years qualifying? Number of nights in total stayed? Spend? Combination of all?

I don't know, but the fact that I got the email about lifetime status asking for my confirmation of the mailing address makes me wonder how ever I would qualify for lifetime Diamond status with Hilton. I don't have the years, nights, expenditures or years of Diamond status such that I'd expect to even be close. If it was for lifetime Gold or Silver, then maybe.

Or is this a sign of Hilton giving lifetime diamond status on some sort of lifetime airline elite status basis? The "invitation" aspect makes me think it may be like that.

Maybe they will just be giving lifetime Diamond status to all of us who contribute regularly here on the FT hhonors forum, as a means of piloting the program and rewarding our helpful feedback to the brand.

Ah, I do crack even myself up sometimes. But yes, I did see the comment about "most tenured". Hopefully they'll be doing it in a manner that doesn't distinguish based on stays/nights/spend, just as individual year qualification doesn't.

Also a bit surprised that it's a jump right to lifetime Diamond, not gold. It's could get crowded at the top - and "lifetime" is a long time. Unless they're thinking of rolling out a new highest tier with features to match the competition (confirmed suites, etc.) and making diamond the 2nd tier.

Almost ashamed to ask this question, but:
 

I'm not sure of the exact number of years I've been a Diamond. It's close to 10 as best I can tell.

Does anyone know of a way to get this info?

(and I can hear it now - "If you don't know this then you don't deserve to be a lifetime Diamond!" LOL)

There was a post on this board a few months ago that gave an address at hilton.com that would have given this information, but it only gave historical points, and only for a few years back at that.

Any guidance would be appreciated.

I just called honors
 

Just call the diamond desk and ask...

I'm surprised as well, or at least roll out lifetime gold at the same time. Unless they figure gold is easy enough to obtain without stays, but that isn't the case outside the US

I'd rather they copy the SPG or Marriott model than have an unpublished way of earning Lifetime status. Also, Lifetime Gold would be a nice option as well.

So is the conjecture that only people who got this email are going to get some sort of lifetime status. Have been HH for probably 15 years and have been Diamond the last 8 at least. I got the verify my email address email and just verified it but don't remember seeing anything about lifetime status, maybe I wasn't paying attention or maybe it wasn't there?

Lifetime gold I feel not the best idea, partly because there could be so many with lifetime status (depending on criteria we don't know yet of course, and may never know), and because a lifetime status should reward those guests that have done most with the brand, so it would have to be top tier.
I would hope the status would be something that is a real reward and something to be proud of, would be trickier to achieve if too many achieved it.

So out of curiosity what sort of stays would put you in the higher echelons. I've been diamond for 7 years and reckon I've clocked up c320 stays.
How's that compare to others on this forum ?

Okay, this should be interesting! I called the Diamond Desk and was told that I have spent around 920 nights during 300 stays at Hilton properties. I've been a Diamond for 7 years and was Gold for a few years before that. I suppose that spending around 2.5 years of my life on the road (not counting several more months at non-Hilton properties) in the past 10 or so years might be seen as more depressing than as an accomplishment.

well since we are all guessing, my bet is that it will be in the order of 500 stays or 1000 nights or 1 million earned points (with a minimum 10 years as Diamond). Don't think I am quite there yet despite being Diamond for 15 years or so.

Marriott has lifetime at all levels and it's a combinations of both nights stayed and points earned. That prevents either an all-credit-card or all-cheap-stays backdoor. From the LT thread over there, most FT'ers seem to hit the points threshold first, then the nights requirement second.

I hope eventually HH publishes something similar.