GHA DISCOVERY extends all elite status for 2023

If you’re a GHA DISCOVERY member who failed to requalify for his or her current tier in 2022, you might have noticed that your account still reflects the same status. 

It was initially thought this was either a bug or a time lag issue — some hotel loyalty programmes process status downgrades at the end of February to account for members who have stays spanning the current and previous years — but I’ve reached out to GHA who have confirmed some good news:

Unlike other programmes which did renewal challenges or downgrades, we chose to be generous and proactively extended Platinum and Titanium members’ as well as active Gold members’ status through the end of 2023

-GHA spokesperson

In short, all GHA elite status has been extended till 31 December 2023, regardless of qualifying activity in 2022.

GHA DISCOVERY extends elite status

As a reminder, GHA DISCOVERY elite status normally requires members to meet the following thresholds. 

However, GHA has extended status for all its 2022 elite members. They should already see a revised expiry date of 31 December 2023 on the GHA app and desktop portal. 

I personally am one of the beneficiaries, having failed to meet the requalification criteria for Titanium in 2022. I stayed at only one GHA brand (Kempinski) the whole year, and kept telling myself it’d be easy to hop to Bangkok to status run two cheap stays at an Avani and PARKROYAL Suites. Naturally, I never got round to doing it. 

While I’m glad that GHA has done this, I’m also a little surprised they didn’t send out an eDM or anything. If you’re doing something good for your members, wouldn’t you want as many people as possible to know about it?

What are the benefits of GHA DISCOVERY status?

As a reminder, here’s the benefits that DISCOVERY elites can look forward to.

GHA really opened the floodgates on elite status back in December 2021, when they made it possible to qualify for top-tier Titanium status with just three nights (provided you stayed at three different brands). That’s not to mention the instant Titanium or Platinum status offered to Mastercard members throughout most of 2022. 

Because of this, there were concerns that elite benefits (most of which were subject to availability) would be diluted. After all, the hotel can’t be giving everyone room upgrades and late check-out if everyone’s an elite member.

I didn’t do enough GHA stays in 2022 to say for sure, but based on my one experience at Sindhorn Kempinski in March, I still enjoyed all the published Titanium benefits including a two-category room upgrade and late check-out. I’d be interested to hear what other Titaniums have to say, but from what I can see in the Telegram Group, GHA hotels are still doing a good job of honouring benefits. 

Conclusion

If you were a GHA DISCOVERY elite member in 2022, you’ll retain that status till the end of 2023 at least, thanks to GHA’s extension.

But with borders reopened and travel back to normal, I think it’s safest to assume there’ll be no such freebie next year- work towards requalification accordingly!