You’re not seeing things—this post is not late. As early as 2-3 years ago, AMEX had already started enforcing a name-matching policy for elite status enrollments, especially for Marriott on primary cards and all status registrations on authorized user cards. However, for a long time, AMEX still had not fixed the restriction around enrolling Hilton Gold on the primary card account. The generous Hilton Gold benefit includes free breakfast for two at many Hilton hotels.

As recently as the end of last year, I helped a family member register for Gold status. All you had to do was enter a valid Hilton Gold membership number in the primary card’s online account, and it did not have to be your own. Recently, even this last bug has been fixed. A few days ago, I tried helping a friend add a membership, and it returned an error.

Any memberships you previously added for family or friends are not affected, and no changes are needed. The restriction only applies to new enrollments.

Even if you contact online chat and ask customer service to handle it manually, it will still return an error. The representative said you would need to contact Hilton to verify the relevant information.

Previously, the Marriott status loophole had already been abused to death, and now Hilton Gold is gone too. R.I.P.

If you now want to help family or friends get status, your only options are the following:

  • Add them as an authorized user on a Platinum card. In most cases there is a fee, though it is not expensive; the MS Platinum includes one free authorized user for life. Then call in and have status added for that authorized user.
  • Register a second account for yourself, then change the name with Hilton afterward (are you sure you want to do that?)
  • Help a family member apply for their own primary card: AMEX Platinum, Hilton Surpass, or go straight for top-tier Diamond with the Hilton Aspire
  • Get it through a status match or challenge offer

It’s actually not that hard. But buying and selling elite status or authorized user spots is something you should avoid whenever possible. If you do it too much, you might get shut down outright without even getting an FR first.