End of year checklist for 2025

Time is winding down to secure your elite status requirements, snag your Companion Pass, and to make the most of your credit card “coupon book” perks. Here’s a checklist of points & miles-related things that need to be done before it is too late . . .

Earn elite status

Most loyalty programs have calendar-year requirements for earning elite status. Airlines typically require either spending a certain amount of money on the airline or earning elite-qualifying points through a combination of flying and credit card spend (or, in some cases, both). Hotel programs usually require staying a set number of nights. In most cases, those requirements must be met in 2025 in order to have elite status in the 2026 elite year. One major exception: With American Airlines, you have until the end of February to reach your elite status goals.

Airline Elite Status

Here’s a selection of the top airline programs in the U.S., along with some hints for achieving status…

American Airlines

• You have until the end of February 2026 to achieve your 2026 elite goals. Keep in mind that credit card spend, portal rewards, AAHotels bookings, Simply Miles rewards, and more all deliver Loyalty Points towards status. Additional shortcuts:
  • Barclays AAdvantage Aviator Silver: Earn up to 15K bonus Loyalty Points — 5K at $20K spend, 5K at $40K spend, and 5K at $50K spend during the status qualification period (e.g. March 1 through end of Feb)
  • Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive: Earn 10K Loyalty Points when reaching 50K Loyalty Points during the status qualification period and another 10K when reaching 90K.

Alaska Airlines

• You have until December 31st to earn Alaska Atmos status. Keep in mind:
  • Spend on most Alaska Atmos and Hawaiian credit cards earns 1 status-qualifying point per $3 spent. Spend on the Alaska Summit card earns 1 status-qualifying point per $2 spend.
  • Award flights completed in 2025 earn status-qualifying points based on distance flown (beginning in 2026, you’ll be able to choose how you want to status-qualifying points).

Delta Air Lines

• Delta elite status is now earned entirely through Medallion Qualifying Dollars (MQDs).
  • MQD Shortcuts: MQDs are mostly earned based on the dollars or miles spent for flying Delta. However, there are a number of other ways to earn MQDs quickly (including simply applying and getting approved for certain Delta credit cards). Full details can be found here: Shortcuts to Delta Elite Status.

United Airlines

• Don’t forget that you can earn 25 PQPs towards elite status with each $500 of spend (subject to caps) on the United Gateway, Explorer, Quest or Club Infinite card.

Hotel Elite Status

Hilton Honors

• With Hilton, there’s no reason to go out of your way to earn more elite nights yet. Gold status is free for those with any of the following cards: Amex Platinum Card, Hilton Honors American Express Surpass Card, and the Hilton Honors American Express Business Card. Additionally, you’ll get top-tier Diamond status with the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card or with $40K spend on the Surpass or Business card. Hilton will soon introduce a new top-tier, Diamond Reserve, which will require 80 nights and $18,000 in spend at Hilton properties (there are no credit card shortcuts to Diamond Reserve). More details here: Hilton Diamond Reserve status coming in 2026: Here are the details. Also see Greg’s take: Hilton’s bright idea, dim execution: Diamond Reserve is out of reach.

IHG One Rewards

• It is possible to earn Diamond status by completing $40K spend (plus one additional purchase) on either the IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card or the IHG One Rewards Premier Business Credit Card. Also keep in mind that IHG offers Milestone Rewards with the choice of a confirmable suite upgrade at 20 nights (and even better rewards at 40 and 70 nights). So, if you’re close to 20 nights or 40 nights, consider booking last-minute stays to make up the difference.

Marriott Bonvoy

• There are many shortcuts to Bonvoy elite status, with the easiest being to simply open a Bonvoy Brilliant card, which gives you Platinum Elite status outright. Note that you can also stack elite nights with the right credit card combination, and when those credit card elite nights hit for me in 2026, I’ll reach Lifetime Platinum status. I look forward to no longer chasing status with Marriott once I reach that milestone, and the Brilliant card has helped me get there faster. For more shortcuts, see this post: Shortcuts to Marriott Elite status.

World of Hyatt

• Globalist status, which requires 60 nights, is the only elite level worth hunting, but Hyatt also offers Milestone Rewards, and there are some goodies to be had at 40 and 50 nights. Here are a few shortcuts to earning Hyatt elite nights:
  • Chase World of Hyatt Credit Card: Get 5 elite nights each year automatically.  Additionally, earn 2 elite nights for each $5K spend.
  • Chase World of Hyatt Business Credit Card: Earn 5 elite nights with each $10K spend.
  • Expiring free night awards: Don’t forget that all stays booked through Hyatt earn elite nights, including those booked with points or with free night certificates. So, if you have any free night certificates close to expiry, you might as well get something out of them by booking and completing a stay. Keep in mind that you have to complete the stay this year for the nights to count. Also, don’t forget that free night certificates can be gifted to others. If a friend or family member has an expiring free night certificate, they can gift it to you so that you can use it to earn an elite night.
  • Guest of Honor awards: Remember that if you have Guest of Honor awards and you gift them to others, you will earn 1 elite night when your friend or family member uses that certificate, so it may be worth seeking out friends or family members with upcoming Hyatt stays if you have a Guest of Honor certificate and you need the elite night credits in 2025.
  • For more tricks, see: Shortcuts to Hyatt elite status and Milestone Rewards

Choose elite choice benefits

Some elite statuses come with an annual choice benefit where you can select from among a few key benefit options. Be sure to make your choice selections ASAP.

Airlines Choice Benefits

Aeroplan Select Benefits

• You have until December 31, 2025 to pick your Select Benefits. You can pick them even if you only have temporary elite status due to a status match or free status thanks to having Marriott Titanium status. For tips on what to pick and why, see: About that Air Canada Aeroplan status match… [An interview with Prince of Travel].

Delta Choice Benefit

• You have until January 31, 2026 to select your choice benefit if you achieved Delta status last year for the 2025 elite year. If you achieved Delta status this year, you have until January 31, 2027 to make your selection. For details and recommendations, see: Delta’s Choice Benefits for Platinum and Diamond Elites.

Hotel Choice Benefits

Marriott Choice Benefit

• Annual Choice Benefit selection must be made by by 11:59 p.m. ET on February 1, 2026. Make your selection here. See: Marriott choice benefit valuations: Which to pick? for help deciding which to choose. Note: It’s a good idea to wait until January to make your 75 night selection. In the past, the 40K free night award has been given an extra year of validity when chosen in January rather than December.

World of Hyatt

• You have 90 days from the date you earn a Hyatt Milestone reward to choose your award. Note: If you can wait until after January 1st to choose your Milestone Reward, in some cases it will extend the expiration. For instance, if you choose a suite upgrade award in December 2025, that suite upgrade award will expire February 28, 2027. If you choose the award in January 2026, it will likely expire at the end of February 2028. In other words, if your 90 day selection window expands into January and you don’t need the associated award right away, it might make sense to wait to select until after January 1st (just don’t forget to select the benefit before the 90-day window ends or you will lose it!).

Begin your pursuit of a Southwest Companion Pass

It’s getting late in the game, but there’s still time to set the wheels in motion towards your Southwest Companion Pass. The end of the calendar year is the ideal time to apply for Southwest credit cards or to refer friends in order to earn huge numbers of qualifying points quickly and at the start of 2026. If you earn the Companion Pass early enough in the calendar year, it will be good for almost 2 full years: the rest of the year in which it is earned and all of the next.

For details, see these posts:

• Southwest Companion Pass Complete Guide
• 2 Southwest Companion Passes and a boatload of points with just 3 cards

Use free night certificates

Don’t let your free nights expire! Log into your account to see what certificates you have and when they expire. I use AwardWallet to alert me when free nights are close to expiry.

Hilton

• Hilton seems to have a flexible policy lately regarding extending free night certificates. If you need some more time to use your free night, it can’t hurt to call and ask! See: Got an expiring Hilton free night certificate? Maybe it can be extended (YMMV).

Hyatt

• If you can’t find a good use for your Hyatt free night, you may be able to get some points for the cert by inquiring about it after the certificate expires. This seems to be true only with certs provided by Hyatt, though. If your free night cert comes from Chase, you probably won’t get any points for it.  And, as far as I know, the only way to find out where the cert came from is to ask Hyatt. See also: Best Hyatt Category 1-4 Hotels & Resorts.

Marriott

• Marriott no longer extends the validity of free night certificates. Use them or lose them!

Holiday gifting

If you have free night certificates that you can’t use for yourself, consider gifting them to someone else. You didn’t know what to get for that special someone anyway, so how about a night or two in a mid-tier hotel? Hyatt allows gifting free nights directly; IHG doesn’t technically allow it, but people have reported success calling IHG to book a free night for someone else. Marriott does not allow gifting free night certificates, though you can use points to make a few gift reservations each year. More here: Gift hotel points, free night certificates, and award nights booked with points: Rules by program.

Use airline incidental credits

• Amex airline incidental credits, like those that come with the various flavors of Platinum cards are offered by the calendar year. These credits post based on the date that the charge is made on your card; even if you make a charge on 12/31 and the charge doesn’t post to your statement until a few days into 2026, it’ll count against your 2025 cap as long as the charge date shows December 31st or sooner — though beware that charges you make on 12/31 could show up on your account as 1/1/25. Don’t leave it until the very last minute. Also, make sure you know which airline you’ve chosen (or you might be able to get a chat rep to change your chosen airline, but YMMV, and you should wait until the next calendar day after changing airlines to make a qualifying charge). See: Amex airline fee reimbursements. What still works?
• Chase Ritz-Carlton incidental credits are also based on the calendar year and the date that the charge hits your statement. Be sure to charge any incidentals by December 31st and you should be able to apply your 2025 credit even if the charges don’t settle for a few days into 2026.
• Bank of America Premium Rewards and Premium Rewards Elite incidental credits work like Amex and Chase above in that the credit runs from January 1st to December 31st. Be sure to place qualifying charges by December 31st. As a data point, deposits to a United Travel Bank have worked in the past (the same has been true with Amex cards that offer airline fee credits).
• Citi Prestige $250 travel rebate also works based on calendar year spend (this is a change from pre-2020 when they based the spend on December to December statement close dates).

Make note of cardmember year credits..

The following travel credits are based on cardmember year rather than calendar year. So, with these, the deadline depends upon when you initially opened each card:

• Capital One Venture X and Venture X Business: Get up to $300 off annually for bookings made through Capital One Travel.
• Chase Sapphire Preferred: Earn up to $50 in statement credits annually for hotel stays booked through Chase.
• Chase Sapphire Reserve: Earn up to $300 in statement credits annually for all travel spend.
• US Bank Altitude Reserve: Earn up to $325 in statement credits annually for all travel and dining spend. Note: Starting on December 14, 2025, this benefit will change to become up to $325 in statement credits annually for bookings made through the US Bank Travel Center. If you want to make qualifying charges for all travel or dining, make sure to make your qualifying purchases before December 14th.

Use other annual / monthly credits

This is not a complete list of credits, but some that are top of mind are shown below. If you prefer a spreadsheet, check out my coupon tracker spreadsheet here.

Amex cards

• American Express Business Platinum:
  • Prepaid Fine Hotels + Resorts® or The Hotel Collection bookings: Use the July to December benefit (up to $300 in statement credits) for Fine Hotels + Resorts or The Hotel Collection bookings to prepay a booking before December 31st. Note that the stay can be completed next year, but the qualifying booking must be a prepaid booking and must be charged by December 31st. See: Searching for deals through Fine Hotels & Resorts, Find your own Fine Hotels & Resorts deals, and The Hotel Collection Mini Guide: Prepaid rates earn hotel points/perks, and more surprising finds.  No need to enroll.
  • Dell $150: Use the annual $150 Dell credit by December 31st. Be sure to enroll online for this benefit if you have not already done so. Note: Dell won’t charge your card until the item ships. If ordering near the end of the year, make sure to only buy items that ship immediately. Note also that this benefit changed in 2025 and that you are eligible for the $150 benefit even if you used the prior version of the benefit between January and June.
  • Wireless $10: Get up to $10 per month back when you use your card to pay for wireless telephone service. Make sure to visit the benefit page to enroll.
• American Express Platinum:
  • Prepaid Fine Hotels + Resorts® or The Hotel Collection bookings: Use the July to December benefit (up to $300 in statement credits) for Fine Hotels + Resorts or The Hotel Collection bookings to prepay a booking before December 31st. Note that the stay can be completed next year, but the qualifying booking must be a prepaid booking and must be charged by December 31st. See: Searching for deals through Fine Hotels & Resorts, Find your own Fine Hotels & Resorts deals, and The Hotel Collection Mini Guide: Prepaid rates earn hotel points/perks, and more surprising finds.  No need to enroll.
  • lululemon quarterly $75: Use the $75 quarterly lululemon credit (for the quarter spanning from October 1 to December 31st). Don’t forget to enroll in this benefit!
  • Resy quarterly $100: Use the $100 quarterly Resy credit (for the quarter spanning from October 1 to December 31st). Note that you do not need to make a reservation through Resy, you only need to pay at a Resy-affiliated restaurant. Don’t forget to enroll in this benefit!
  • Saks $50: Use the $50 semi-annual Sak’s Fifth Ave credit. Don’t forget to enroll in this benefit!
  • Uber / Uber Eats $35: Use the monthly Uber / Uber Eats credit. Remember that December’s Uber credit is $35 rather than the usual $15.  Enroll simply by adding your Amex card to your Uber wallet.
  • Digital Entertainment $25: Earn up to $25 per month in credits for subscriptions to Disney+, a Disney Bundle, ESPN+, Hulu, The New York Times, Peacock, and/or The Wall Street Journal . Enroll here and then setup the service to charge your Platinum card monthly. Note that the maximum rebate is $25 altogether — you do not get up to $25 per service.
• American Express Gold
  • $50 semi-annual Resy credit: Get up to $50 back when you use your card at a restaurant listed on Resy from January through June, and again from July through December. You do not have to use Resy at all to get this credit other than to find out which restaurants are listed there. Make sure to enroll!
  • Misc $10 Dining: Use monthly $10 credit valid at Goldbelly, Wine.com, Five Guys, Seamless/Grubhub, or The Cheesecake Factory. Make sure to enroll!
  • Uber / Uber Eats $10: Use the monthly $10 Uber / Uber Eats credit. Enroll simply by adding your Amex card to your Uber wallet.
  • $7 Monthly Dunkin credit: Easiest option here is to load $7 onto the Dunkin app each month. Make sure to enroll!
• American Express Business Gold Card
  • $20 FedEx, Grubhub, office supply: You can use your $20 per month credit by buying gift cards at an office supply store or online at Staples.com. Or, simply place a Grubhub order (enrollment required).
• American Express Bonvoy Brilliant
  • $25 monthly dining credit. Use your card at any restaurant, coffee shop, etc. to get up to $25 back each month.
• American Express Hilton Aspire
  • Up to $400 Hilton Resort Credit per calendar year ($200 semi-annually): Don’t let this expire unused! There are multiple creative ways to use this even if you don’t have a stay planned before the end of the year. See this post for one option.
  • $50 quarterly flight credit. Use your card to pay directly to an airline for airfare or other airline fees to get up to $50 back per quarter.
• American Express Hilton Surpass
  • $50 quarterly Hilton hotel credit: Get up to $50 back each quarter by using your card at any Hilton hotel.
• American Express Hilton Business
  • $60 quarterly Hilton hotel credit: Get up to $60 back each quarter by using your card at any Hilton hotel.

Citi cards

• Citi Strata Elite
  • $300 prepaid hotel credit: Get up to $300 back each calendar year by using your card for any prepaid stay of 2 or more nights booked through Citi Travel
  • $200 splurge credit: Get up to $200 back in statement credits for purchases at up to two merchants of your choice from the following list: 1stDibs, American Airlines, Best Buy®, Future Personal Training, or Live Nation.
  • $100 Blacklane credit: Get up to $100 in statement credits for purchases with private chauffeur company Blacklane using your July to December credit.
• Citi AAdvantage Executive World Elite MasterCard
  • $120 per calendar year rental car credit: Earn up to $120 back on eligible Avis or Budget car rental purchases, up to $120 every calendar year. Going forward it looks like this will be limited to prepaid rentals.

Chase cards

• Chase Sapphire Reserve
  • $250 The Edit credit: Up to $250 back for a hotel booking of 2 nights or more booked and prepaid through Chase’s The Edit by Chase Travel between July and December 2025.
  • $150 Sapphire Reserve Exclusive Tables credit: Get up to $150 in statement credits for purchases made at restaurants on the Sapphire Reserve Exclusive Tables list from July to December. More info and a list of qualifying restaurantss here.
  • $150 StubHub credit: Earn up to $150 in statement credits for purchases through StubHub between July and December.

Apply for Amex cards (and other triple dip opportunities)

December is the ideal time to apply for cards that come with annual calendar year credits. It is possible to open a card with calendar-year-based coupon credits now and potentially use that coupon credit for 2025 by December 31st and then receive a new coupon credit starting on January 1st, 2026. Since your next annual fee would not be scheduled to post until December 2026 or January 2027, it may be possible to use your coupon credits again in January 2027 and cancel the card within 30 days of the annual fee charge if you decide that you no longer wanted to keep it.

This used to mostly apply to Amex cards, but with more cards from other issuers now featuring annual, semi-annual, and quarterly credits, the same type of result is possible with many different cards. Listen to this podcast episode for more detail.

Transfer / pool points

Some programs limit how many points you can transfer between members within a calendar year. If you’re looking to pool points for a valuable award, consider making a transfer before December 31st so that you’ll have more capacity to transfer beginning next month.

• Citi ThankYou points: You can transfer up to 100,000 Citi ThankYou points per year and/or receive up to 100,000 Citi ThankYou points per calendar year. Keep in mind that points received through a transfer from another cardholder expire after 90 days. Only transfer points with an immediate use in mind. That said, if your chosen award will require sending over more than 100K points, you should be able to transfer up to 100K by December 31st and then a fresh 100K beginning on January 1st.
• Marriott Bonvoy Rewards: You can transfer up to 100,000 points per calendar year to another member, and you can receive up to 500,000 transferred points per calendar year. That will reset on January 1st, so make any necessary transfers now if you think you might need to move more points than those caps. This can be done online here.
• Hilton Honors: Each account can receive up to 2,000,000 Hilton Honors points in a calendar year and you are limited to six Hilton points pooling transactions per calendar year. Note that Hilton allows two methods for moving points: pooling or transferring. Neither method is consistently instant, so keep in mind that it may take a few days either way. See this post for more detail.
• Wyndham / Caesars: One way to prevent Wyndham points from expiring after 4 years is to transfer points back and forth from Wyndham to Caesars. One problem (besides the general slowness and bugginess of the process) is that Caesars has an annual limit on how many points can be moved to Wyndham. At the time of this writing, my account shows a 30K limit, but this seems to change at times. Anyway, if you’re trying to move more than the limited amount, you can move the maximum now before the end of 2025 and move the rest next year. For details see: How to prevent Wyndham points from expiring.

Make sure you’ve completed spend bonuses

Whether the quarterly category bonus on a card like the Chase Freedom Flex card or a big spend bonus that’s based on calendar year, you’ll want to run the numbers to be sure you’ve made it over the hump. For example, it would be a shame to end up just under the $15,000 spend required for a Hilton or Hyatt free night certificate.

Bottom line

The end of the year can be a stressful time for everyone. This list is intended to help a little bit by providing a checklist of things to get done before it is too late. That said, my advice is to try not to sweat it too much. If you’re feeling stressed, give yourself permission to forget about some of the smaller stuff. Didn’t take advantage of this or that deal? That’s OK!

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