(EXPIRED) Hyatt & American Airlines Offering Reciprocal Fast Tracks To Elite Status

Last year, Hyatt and American Airlines announced that they’d be launching a partnership that would allow reciprocal earning, status challenges and more. That partnership went live a couple of months later in May, while late last year some World of Hyatt members with Globalist status gained Executive Platinum status with American Airlines without any kind of flying requirements.

Hyatt and American Airlines have now launched a new opportunity to fast track to elite status if you already have elite status with one of their loyalty programs.

You can find details about the status challenge on Hyatt’s website here and in the Promotions tab in your American Airlines AAdvantage account here. Here’s a summary of how it works depending on which status you already have.

Explorist Status With World of Hyatt

Existing Explorist members can register to earn Gold status with American Airlines. You have to register by September 30, 2020 and must complete the following requirements within three months of registering:

• 1,000 Elite Qualifying Dollars (EQDs) and
• 7,000 Elite Qualifying Miles (EQMs) or 8 Elite Qualifying Segments (EQSs)

Eligible flights are those marketed and operated by American Airlines. You normally have to earn 3,000 EQDs and 25,000 EQMs or 30 EQSs, so you’re looking at having to earn at a similar kind of rate, except that you only have to earn at that rate for three months rather than over the full year. If you complete the requirements, you’ll earn Gold status through January 2022.

Globalist Status With World of Hyatt

Existing Globalist members can register to earn Gold, Platinum or Platinum Pro status with American Airlines. Similar to Explorist members, you have to register by September 30, 2020. The requirements for the different status levels are as follows:

• Gold
  • 1,000 Elite Qualifying Dollars (EQDs) and
  • 7,000 Elite Qualifying Miles (EQMs) or 8 Elite Qualifying Segments (EQSs)
• Platinum
  • 2,000 Elite Qualifying Dollars (EQDs) and
  • 12,500 Elite Qualifying Miles (EQMs) or 16 Elite Qualifying Segments (EQSs)
• Platinum Pro
  • 3,000 Elite Qualifying Dollars (EQDs) and
  • 20,000 Elite Qualifying Miles (EQMs) or 24 Elite Qualifying Segments (EQSs)

For comparison, here are the normal earning requirements:

• Gold
  • 3,000 Elite Qualifying Dollars (EQDs) and
  • 25,000 Elite Qualifying Miles (EQMs) or 30 Elite Qualifying Segments (EQSs)
• Platinum
  • 6,000 Elite Qualifying Dollars (EQDs) and
  • 50,000 Elite Qualifying Miles (EQMs) or 60 Elite Qualifying Segments (EQSs)
• Platinum Pro
  • 9,000 Elite Qualifying Dollars (EQDs) and
  • 75,000 Elite Qualifying Miles (EQMs) or 90 Elite Qualifying Segments (EQSs)

Again, you have to earn at a fairly similar rate to normal, but only for three months rather than twelve.

Platinum Or Platinum Pro Status With American Airlines

AAdvantage members that currently have Platinum or Platinum Pro status can register for a fast track to Explorist status with Hyatt. Registration is required by October 2, 2020 (rather than September 30) and stay requirements have to be met within 90 days.

For the purpose of this challenge, you have to earn 10 elite nights, whereas the standard requirement for Explorist status is usually 30 elite nights. One of the nice features of this status challenge is that award stays are eligible elite nights. I’m not sure if the two elite nights you earn for every $5,000 of spend on the World of Hyatt credit card are eligible for the purpose of this challenge; if they are, spending $25,000 on the card after registering will earn you Explorist status.

Executive Platinum Status With American Airlines

AAdvantage members that currently have Executive Platinum status can register to earn Explorist or Globalist status with Hyatt. Again, registration is required by October 2, 2020 and you have to meet the stay requirements within 90 days of registration:

• Explorist – 10 elite nights (usually 30 elite nights)
• Globalist – 20 elite nights (usually 60 elite nights)

20 elite nights to earn Globalist status is a great opportunity if you can meet that requirement within 90 days. This will be mattress run-worthy for some people, especially if you have a category 1 property nearby seeing as those only cost 5,000 points per night. Hyatt’s latest promotion can also help, as World of Hyatt credit cardholders whose stay includes a Friday, Saturday or Sunday night earn 1,500 bonus points. That includes award stays, so your net cost could be 3,500 per night.

Things To Note

There are a couple of important things to note regarding the status challenges.

You don’t have to register straight away

A lot of people’s travel plans are currently on hold due to the Coronavirus. Thankfully you don’t have to register for a status challenge immediately. The latest you can register is September 30 if you currently have Hyatt status or October 2 if you currently have status with American Airlines. It’s therefore best to wait until you know you’ll be able to meet the flight or stay requirements before registering.

You won’t receive all Hyatt benefits

At the start of 2019, World of Hyatt introduced Milestone Rewards. This was a largely positive development as it rewards members with certain benefits (e.g. Club Lounge passes and Suite Upgrade Awards) sooner than they might otherwise have earned them.

The thing is, Milestone Rewards separated those two aforementioned benefits from Explorist and Globalist status respectively. That means that if you gain status through a status match or, as with this American Airlines partnership, through a fast track status challenge, you’ll miss out on the passes and upgrades.

If you’re an Executive Platinum who earns Globalist status, the lack of Club Lounge passes isn’t an issue as the status automatically entitles you to Club Lounge access. You’ll still be eligible for suite upgrades, but you won’t be apply to apply Suite Upgrade Awards to your stay to lock in a suite ahead of time unless you subsequently stay an additional 30 nights for the first set of two Suite Upgrade Awards (i.e. 50 nights total) and an additional 10 nights for the second set (i.e. 60 nights total).

Final Thoughts

Overall, this is a positive next step in the partnership between Hyatt and American Airlines, with reasonable earning requirements that can earn you status through to the beginning of 2022.

h/t One Mile At A Time

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