American AAdvantage and Hyatt launch reciprocal instant status match / challenge

Update 9/5/24: Just a reminder that today is the last for Hyatt elite members who were targeted for AA status to apply for that status. If you were targeted and were holding off applying in order to get more “mileage” out of the initial timeframe, don’t forget to sign-up today.

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Hyatt and American Airlines have offered reciprocal benefits for elite members in one or both of the programs for several years, involving points-earning and promotions such as earning 1,000 bonus AAdvantage miles when staying 2+ nights with Hyatt.

Yesterday, the companies launched a reciprocal fast track status challenge that is effectively the same as the one that they ran last year. On the AA side, AAdvantage members with Gold status or higher can get a 90-day trial of World of Hyatt Explorist status with the opportunity to extend that status through February 2026 by staying 10 nights during the trial period. (Platinum Pro and Executive Platinum get the chance to get upgraded to Globalist status by staying 20 nights).

At the same time, there is also a targeted offer for Hyatt elite members, where World of Hyatt Explorist and Globalist members who have linked their World of Hyatt and AAdvantage accounts can get complimentary American AAdvantage elite status when they register for an American Airlines “Instant Status Pass.” They can then extend that status for additional four month periods by completing qualifying Loyalty Point activity.

The Deals

AAdvantage Instant Status Pass for Hyatt elite members

• World of Hyatt Explorist and Globalist members who link their World of Hyatt and AAdvantage® accounts can now get complimentary American AAdvantage status by registering for an American Airlines Instant Status Pass.
  • Members must link their accounts and register for the offer by September 5, 2024.
  • Explorist members will be given complimentary AAdvantage Platinum status
  • Globalist members will be given complimentary AAdvantage Platinum Pro status
• Members will have complimentary elite status for four months after registration, during which time the status can be extended or upgraded for an additional four months through the following activity:
  • Earn at least 25,000 Loyalty Points to maintain AAdvantage Platinum or at least 42,000 Loyalty Points to maintain AAdvantage Platinum Pro
  • Earn at least 67,000 Loyalty Points to get AAdvantage Executive Platinum status
• After completing three consecutive four-month “qualifying phases,” the status will be extended through the remainder of the 2025 membership year (3/1/2025 – 2/28/2026).

Here is the page to link your Hyatt account to your AAdvantage account

• If your accounts are already linked, and you are targeted, the registration info can be found in the “Promotions” tab of your AAdvantage account:

Hyatt status match and fast track for AAdvantage elite members

• Match American Airlines Gold, Platinum, Platinum Pro or Executive Platinum status to Hyatt to get Explorist status instantly for 90 days. You can then extend or upgrade that status by completing the following requirements:
  • Stay 10 tier-qualifying nights to extend Explorist status through February 2026
  • Platinum Pro & Executive Platinum members only: Stay 20 tier-qualifying nights to earn Globalist status valid through February 2026.
• You must register by October 31, 2024.

Direct link to offer (must log-in to Hyatt account)

Terms and Conditions

Hyatt offer for AA elites

• To qualify for this offer, you must be an AAdvantage® Gold, Platinum, Platinum Pro or Executive Platinum member who has already successfully linked your AAdvantage® account to your World of Hyatt® account.

• Eligible Members must register between August 6 and October 31, 2024, through the dedicated offer registration page provided by Hyatt. 

• Upon registration, the Eligible Member will receive a trial upgrade to Explorist status for 90 days.

• To maintain Explorist status through February 2026, the member must complete ten (10) Tier-Qualifying Nights (as defined in the World of Hyatt program terms) at any participating Hyatt hotels and resorts worldwide and participating Mr & Mrs Smith hotels and resorts.  

• If a Platinum Pro or Executive Platinum member completes at least twenty (20) Tier-Qualifying Nights at any participating Hyatt hotels and resorts worldwide, and participating Mr & Mrs Smith hotels and resorts, member will receive Globalist status through February 2026. 

• Only Tier-Qualifying Nights completed by the member during the member’s Trial Period will count toward this offer.

• In order for Tier-Qualifying Nights completed during the member’s Explorist Trial Period to count toward this offer, the member must check out of their reservation during their Trial Period. If member checks into a reservation during their Explorist Period, but does not check out until after the Explorist Trial Period has ended, no nights stayed as part of that reservation will count toward this offer.

• Explorist Trial Period begins at registration and may not be extended.
  

• World of Hyatt Credit Card night credits do not qualify as Tier-Qualifying Nights. 

• If the member earns Explorist status through February, 2026 by completing the criteria above, their new status will be applied within 7 business days of checkout of the stay during which they complete the applicable requirement. 

• Limit one such offer each calendar year per Eligible Member except as otherwise provided.

AA offer for Hyatt elite members

• This promotion is only open to select American Airlines AAdvantage® members
• Registration is required during the registration window.
• Your complimentary AAdvantage® status will be valid within 24 hours of registering.  It may take up to an additional 24 hours for your new benefits to apply to existing bookings.
• Loyalty Points accrued before registration do not count toward the requirements for this promotion.
• Only flights that earn Loyalty Points will count towards Instant Status Pass™ qualification.
• Please review the AAdvantage® terms and conditions for AAdvantage® miles that do not count towards earning Loyalty Points.
• Eligible purchases, defined as:
  • purchases, including those made by authorized users on your account, less credits, return and adjustments, made with your AAdvantage® credit card(s) that post as base miles to your AAdvantage® account during the relevant measurement period will count toward your qualifying spend.
• Where applicable, for Citi® / AAdvantage Business™ Mastercard® or other Citi® / AAdvantage® small business credit card cardmembers:
  • Loyalty Points earned by the primary credit cardmember will be posted to the primary credit cardmember’s AAdvantage® account and Loyalty Points earned by an Authorized User will be posted to the Authorized User’s AAdvantage® account.
• You must complete the applicable phase of this Instant Status Pass™ promotion every 4 months to continue with this promotion and keep your complimentary AAdvantage® status for the remainder of this promotion.
• Failing to complete any phase of this Instant Status Pass™ promotion will result in the withdrawal of your complimentary AAdvantage® status provided by this promotion.
• Once you complete all 3 phases of this Instant Status Pass™ promotion by their respective deadlines, you will have successfully completed the Instant Status Pass™.
• If you began the Instant Status Pass™ promotion between March 1 and October 31, you will receive AAdvantage® status for the remainder of the current membership year following the completion of the three phases.

• Promotion code:WCPP1

Quick Thoughts

AAdvantage Instant Status Pass promo

The AAdvantage status pass promo gives you four months to complete the Loyalty Points requirements at which point you get the status for…another four months.

American has effectively divided the Loyalty Points requirements for each level of status by 3 and that’s the requirement for each four month period. You then have to hit that qualification level every four months in order to maintain status. If you don’t, you lose it. While the terms say that your status will be “extended” after meeting three successive four month qualification periods, it will only be to the end of the 2025 membership year – so through February 2026.

This promo is probably best-suited for two groups of people: those that only want status for a short period and those who don’t currently have status, but plan on qualifying next year via some combination of flying and Loyalty Point gaming as they’d have the status in the meantime while qualifying. It will require some organization, though, as it effectively removes thinking about the qualifying requirements as a yearly goal and turns it into a goal that has to be achieved every four months.

This could also be useful for folks that are currently pursuing AAdvantage status, but want to get something higher (ie, Platinum to Platinum Pro or Platinum Pro to Exec Platinum). You could effectively give up on trying to earn points for this year and immediately get a status upgrade while being able to start working on the goal for next year. Doing this would come with two caveats, though.

First, you can only register once every 24 months, so it would put another status pass challenge off limits for 2025 and a good chunk of 2026.

Second, although you’d be earning points towards the status challenge qualification, the actual membership year goes from 3/1-2/28. This means that all of the points earned between now and March of 2025 would not count towards qualifying for 2026 membership year status, even though they would count towards the status match’s four month period.

The match only gives you status through the remainder of the membership year in which you complete the three periods, not for the following year (you have to begin the promo between November 1 and February 28 to get that). So, even though you’d get status for the remainder of the membership year, you’d still have to earn the full amount of points necessary to qualify for 2026 status between 3/1/2025 and 2/28/2026.

Overall, I’ve never been a huge fan of this promo, primarily because I think its needlessly complex with the three, four month periods overlapping the membership year. That said, it will be useful to some folks and the one “AAdvantage” that it does have is that it offers a meaningful status while you’re trying qualify. Both Platinum and Platinum Pro provide complimentary first class upgrades (good luck getting them on longer flights, though), complimentary main cabin extra seating, free checked bags and mileage bonuses (60% for Platinum, 80% for Platinum Pro).

Hyatt elite status promo

This promo could be a good opportunity to earn elite status with Hyatt, as the initial status match is open to anyone who has Gold or higher status with American Airlines and gets you Hyatt Explorist status for 90 days.

It’s worth noting that Explorist status isn’t very rewarding. You’ll be eligible for non-suite room upgrades, get a 20% bonus points on paid stays and little else. If you don’t currently have Explorist status, it certainly doesn’t do any harm obtaining it – but don’t expect too much. I don’t think I’d make much of an effort to earn 10 tier-qualifying nights in order to extend that status unless I was already planning on staying close to 10 nights anyway.

Where the challenge gets interesting is for those with Platinum Pro or Executive Platinum status. They have the same ability to extend Explorist status with 10 nights, but with the added opportunity to earn Hyatt’s top-tier Globalist status when earning 20 tier-qualifying nights within the trial period. That could make it worth at least considering a mattress run, although you’d need to do your own analysis as to whether it’s worth it for you, especially if you didn’t have many Hyatt stays planned in the next few months.

Award nights count towards qualification, so that provides the opportunity to potentially earn tier-qualifying night credits for only 3,500 points per night if you have a category 1 property near you with off-peak award availability. However, elite night credits earned through credit card spend (from the World of Hyatt personal and Business credit cards) doesn’t count.

One thing to note is that, if you earn Globalist status by staying 20 nights, you won’t earn all the Milestone Rewards along the way that you’d normally receive when staying 60 nights: a category 1-4 free night certificate, a category 1-7 free night certificate, suite upgrade awards, a concierge and more.

You’ll will be eligible for suite upgrades at check-in; you just won’t be able to confirm a suite ahead of time using one of those suite upgrade awards unless you book directly into a suite using a higher number of points. You’ll also receive all other Globalist benefits like free breakfast, lounge access, free parking on award stays, etc.

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