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Yesterday, American Airlines and Hyatt announced a new partnership where Elite loyalists of both brands will be able to not only earn points for stays and flights within each loyalty program, but an additional point in the partner’s program alongside those base earnings. That’s a great deal and a win/win as long as you carry some sort of elite status. Let’s break down this new deal.
If you’re flying on American Airlines
- If you’re Discoverist, Explorist, or Globalist you’ll earn a bonus World of Hyatt point for every dollar spent on AA flights
If you’re staying at Hyatt hotels
- If you’re Gold, Platinum, Platinum Pro, Executive Platinum, or Concierge Key – you’ll earn a bonus Aavantage mile for every eligible dollar you spend at qualifying Hyatt hotels.
If you’re one of the uber elite AA Concierge Key members, congratulations, you’ll receive comped Globalist status.
This is huge. Globalists not only get free lounge access and breakfast, but upgrades to standard suites. As far as I can tell, its unknown as to whether this Globalist status will coincide with a full fledged, suite upgrade certificates and all, globalist status, or a watered down version. Regardless…it’s a monster perk for Concierge Key members.
Status challenges in both directions.
Each company will extend unique status challenges for their elite members, and the status you’re challenging for will be extended to you during the challenge window.
Unique to this collaboration, AAdvantage Platinum, Platinum Pro and Executive Platinum members, and Explorist and Globalist World of Hyatt members will also have the opportunity to participate in limited time status challenges. Upon registering, these elite members will be able to immediately enjoy their new loyalty benefits in the reciprocal program tier as they work to maintain that elite tier status. AAdvantage elite members will have access to World of Hyatt elite status benefits, including a dedicated check-in area, late check-out upon request, room upgrades and free premium internet. World of Hyatt elite members will have access to AAdvantage elite status benefits such as priority boarding, free checked bags, free preferred seats and more.
When does this happen?
The press release says sometime later this year.
Analysis
It’ll be interesting to see what status challenge parameters ultimately end up being. It would be a major win if Hyatt Elites were able to challenge for AA status without an EQD requirement. This is highly unlikely, but one thing it should be it richer than the status challenges AA usually extend for a price.
As a Hyatt Explorist ( matched from MGM ) this is welcome news. I don’t carry any status with AA anymore, but do travel on them domestically here and there. If I were able to do a challenge with minimal spend requirement to Platinum I’d be interested especially if it fell after July ( the status would last for nearly 20 months then).
No one really loses in this partnership. You can still earn your base currency for flight and stays, but also earn Hyatt or AA points concurrently.
How you could Quad earn
Booking a flight on AA:
- Earn AA miles ( Redeemable and Elite )
- Earn AA business Extra Miles
- 1 pt per $5 spent
- Earn Credit Card points
- 5x flights with Amex Platinum
- 3x ( any travel ) with Chase Ink Business Preferred, Sapphire Reserve
- Earn Hyatt Points
We’re all about juicing every ounce of return on flights and hotels. While we’ve stayed loyal to Alaska the last fews years, it’s become increasingly difficult to solely fly AS metal in the states from LA. With this new partnership, it may end up that we try and status match into AA to have a little bit of status for the times end up on AA flights.
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
60k Points after $4k spend in 3 months
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 60k points after $4k spend in 3 months
- Worth $750 in Chase Travel℠ and way more if you maximize transfer partners
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2024
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex℠and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
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