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American Airlines & Hyatt status challenge
In case you didn’t know, American Airlines and Hyatt have a partnership whereby you earn points in both programs simultaneously on stays and flights. AA members earn a point for every dollar spent at Hyatt, and Hyatt members earn a point for every dollar they spend on AA flights.
They’ve decided to go after those of you who currently hold AA Gold or higher with a good opportunity to enjoy trial Hyatt elite status for 90 days and keep it through Feb 2026 if you meet certain challenge criteria. We have seen this promotion each year for the past 3.
American Elites
Hyatt Elites
In addition, American Airline is offering up some trial status as well. I currently have Hyatt Globalist and my account was offered an “Instant Status Pass.” Effectively, it yields American status for 4 months, and if you hit certain benchmarks, you can extend for another 4 months, and you’ll be required to hit benchmarks for another 4 months, until you hit the requirement for the year. More info below.
AAdvantage Instant Status pass for Hyatt Elites
When I fired up the AA app this morning I found a new promotions available in the promotion tab. I’m Hyatt Globalist, and a few days ago a trial status became available for AA elites to try out Hyatt Explorist status. Now, AA accounts have been targeted for a trial AA elite status period for those who keep Hyatt status. It looks like Globalists have been targeted first, but keep an eye out as I have a feeling more will be targeted.
- Register by Sept 05, 2024
- Get Status for 4 months
- Keep status for another 4 months by fulfilling the following requirements in 120 days
- Gold – 13,000 Loyalty Points
- Platinum – 25,000 Loyalty Points
- Platinum Pro – 42,000 Loyalty Points
- Executive Platinum – 67,000 Loyalty Points
The secret Loyalty Point weapon – AAdvantage Hotels
Aadvantage Hotels earns you AA Loyalty Points on bookings and they can be absolutely massive. In addition to the base rate, AA Elites and AA Credit Card holders earn even more
- Capped at 15k LP
- 5x bonus for AA credit card holders
- 5x bonus for AA Elites
- If you do a “check out” boost – those will only earn you AA miles, not Loyalty Points ( not worth it imo ).
Since I’ve been given a trial AA status, and I keep a Barclay Aviator Red Business Card, I’ll get a 10x boost on any hotel booking. This could be advantageous in the next 4 months if I’m looking to stay at a hotel that isn’t associated with any brands I have status with since I’d not only earn AA miles, but AA Loyalty Points that could secure status.
This is just a quick example, but for about $600 I could earn 13,600 AA mile and 13,600 Loyalty Points with a 4 night stay. Let’s say those AA miles are worth 1.5c – I’d be getting about $200 back in the form of AA miles, and securing Gold status for another 4 months. I won’t be doing this, but that’s about $400 net for an additional 4 months of Gold status.
AAdvantage Elites get Hyatt Explorist Trial Tier:
If you have AA Gold, Platinum, Platinum Pro, or Executive Platinum, you can get immediate Hyatt Explorist status for 90 days. Note that the status challenge starts the moment you register, so if you don’t have any Hyatt stays on the books, hold off and register as late as possible.
- Register by 10/31/24
- Complete your challenge within 90 days of registration to earn:
- AA Golds = Immediate Explorist status
- stay 10 qualifying nights (typically requires 30 in a calendar year)
- AA Plat Pros and Executive Platinums only…Immediate Explorist Status
- Keep Explorist
- stay 10 qualifying nights (typically requires 30 in a calendar year)
- Get Globalist
- stay 20 qualifying nights (typically requires 60 in a calendar year)
- Keep Explorist
- AA Golds = Immediate Explorist status
- Award Nights Count
What are some of my favorite Hyatt stays?
I have used points to stay at the following properties
- Thompson Hotels
- Park Hyatt Hotels
- Andaz Hotels
- Grand Hyatt Hotels
- Hyatt Centric Hotels
- Hyatt Regency
- Hyatt Regency Churchill London
- Hyatt Regency Blackfriars London
- Hyatt Regency Chicago O’Hare
- Hyatt Regency Dubai Creek
- Inclusive Collection Hotels
- Unbound Collection
- Great Scotland Yard London
- Alila Hotels
Overall
We’ve seen trial status in 2023 from this partnership as well as when Bilt Rewards did a similar trial status and challenge. I took part in Bilt challenge, and currently hold Globalist through 2/25. The big caveat here is that you need AA Gold or higher in order to qualify, and Globalist is really the status you want with Hyatt. Explorist, which I’ve had many times in the past, isn’t worth adding extra nights to your calendar if you aren’t going to hit the 10 anyways. If you have 15 or 16 nights on the books, it could be worth finding some 3500 point nights at Category 1 hotels to hit Globalist especially if you have a lot of travel planned while you’d have status.
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
Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 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, 2027.
- $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.
The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.