Nick’s end-of-year status push strategy

Earlier this week, Greg published a post as a form of self-therapy in deciding which credit cards to open next. Today, I’m going to use that same technique of taking you on the journey as I consider how to “finish strong” and end the year with the elite statuses I want or need to push toward.

World of Hyatt Globalist

For me, 2023 has been a year with more hotel nights than is typical, though my Hyatt Globalist status was fueled by the temporary Bilt fast track to Globalist status along with an unexpectedly long stay in Las Vegas when my kids got sick en route to a planned trip to Fiji and the prevalence of very cheap MGM stays made possible by my MGM Gold status (and thanks to the partnership with World of Hyatt, which ended on 9/30/23).

As I write this sentence, I have 43 elite nights this year, with a 3-night stay at a Hyatt property planned this week and 2 more nights at a Hyatt later this month. Then I have 4 more Hyatt nights planned later this year where plans are firm. That will put me at 53 nights. I expect to get one more: I had several spring and summer MGM stays that didn’t post automatically on the Hyatt side (it was inconsistent: some posted, others didn’t). Over the summer, I ran across a Flyertalk thread where people noted that calling or emailing MGM had worked in getting manually credited for missing stays.

I tested that over the summer by sending an email to memberservices at mgmresorts dot com. Here’s the basic template:

Hello!

I am writing about my stay from [MMM X-Y, 2023] under confirmation number [XXXXXX] at [Property]. I never received World of Hyatt credit or points for the stay despite my accounts being linked. Can you assist me in getting this reported to the Hyatt side?

I very much appreciate your time and assistance!

Sincerely,

Much to my surprise, I got an email a few days later indicating that they submitted a request for manual credit! And sure enough, at some point reasonably soon thereafter, I did indeed get the retroactive credit. Even more surprisingly, I got automatic retroactive credit for a Hyatt promotion at the time whereby one could have earned 3K bonus points for every 2 nights! Even though the promotion had been long over by the time I reached out to MGM for the Hyatt credit, Hyatt still correctly and automatically recognized that the stay had taken place during a promotion and gave me the points. That was awesome!

I sent one final missing stay request right at the end of September. Given MGM’s technological meltdown of late, I wasn’t confident that anyone would be able to handle that request (and I knew it would take a few days for a response, so I knew that by the time I got a response it would already be October, after the end of the partnership). Much to my surprise again, I have already received confirmation that they would submit the stay for manual credit.

I expect to only get one more elite night out of that last stay, so that will put me at a total 54 expected nights this year. That’s six nights short of full Globalist with a My Hyatt Concierge and the milestone rewards earned at 60 nights (which include both two suite upgrades which can each be used for a stay of up to 7 nights and a Category 1-7 free night certificate).

I already have a six-night mattress run booked late in the year at a Category 1 off-peak hotel, so in the worst case it will cost me 21,000 points to get to Globalist. I’ll gladly trade 21K points for the two suite upgrades and a Cat 1-7 free night cert (which can be used up to Category 7 and even during peak times, so it could save me as many as 35K points). I will have no trouble getting at least ~25K points worth of value out of the certificate since I tend to stay at Category 6 properties that cost 25K points per night several times per year. That alone represents a small win over the 21K points it will cost me to pursue 60 nights — the My Hyatt Concierge and suite upgrades are sort of the cherries on top.

But then there’s my wife: She currently has 35 elite nights with Hyatt. I messed up her Bilt challenge and she ended up 1 night short of Globalist at that time (big mistake on my part as I simply forgot to Guest of Honor her for a booking where I meant to do so!). She will also have 3 nights this week (we’re traveling for a family event so we have rooms for a couple of family members, one of which is in her name) and she has 4 more during the rest of the year (times when we’re on a family trip and need 2 rooms so we’ll have a room in each of our names). That will put her at 42 nights. She is also a few hundred dollars short of $15K spend on her World of Hyatt credit card, which will give her a free night certificate — and two more elite night credits (for completing $5K spend). That will put her at 44 nights. Is it worth a 6-night mattress run for two suite upgrades that she could get as a 50-night milestone? I could book her a mattress run at the same hotel as my mattress run, which would cost us 21,000 points.

However, I don’t think I’m going to mattress run her to the 50-night milestone benefits. While we do highly value Hyatt suite upgrades, the problem is that my wife won’t make it to Globalist status, so we would not have Globalist benefits on stays we booked with her suite upgrade awards. Furthermore, suite upgrade awards can not be applied to Guest of Honor bookings. Sure, she could book us a suite, but we wouldn’t get free breakfast or free parking. For her to be able to take advantage of those benefits, I would have to book her stay as a Guest of Honor stay. Since we can’t apply the upgrades to a Guest of Honor booking, I won’t have her mattress run to 50 nights and she’ll just end the year at 44 nights (taking the 5,000 points for her 40-night milestone benefit).

Marriott Bonvoy Platinum

I currently have 42 Marriott elite nights in 2023. That puts me 8 nights short of Platinum status for next year…..and that’s a problem. Hyatt is definitely my preferred hotel chain, but they aren’t everywhere I want to be. Furthermore, I have a Ritz card and another Chase Marriott Rewards card and an Amex Marriott Business card, so I get a few free night certificates each year and would like to have Platinum benefits when I use them.

Further complicating things is that I currently have 8 years as Platinum elite or higher and 451 nights stayed with Marriott. That puts me just 2 years and 149 nights short of Lifetime Platinum status. Given that I get 30 nights per year for having one business and one consumer Marriott card, I’ll inch 30 nights closer each of the next couple of years without even stepping foot in a hotel at all, but I do need to get two more years of Platinum status (which means that I’ll need to get myself to 50 nights this year and next year).

If I can close out this year’s qualification for Platinum status, and I can requalify with 50 nights again next year (30 from credit cards and 20 from actual stays), I’ll have met the 10 year requirement. By the end of 2024, I’ll just be 100 nights short of Lifetime Platinum status. In that scenario, I’d still have Platinum status in 2025 and I’d get 30 nights automatically from the credit cards again, so I’ll be Platinum and just 70 nights short of Lifetime status from the get-go in 2025. I should therefore hit Lifetime status by 2027 at the latest (and perhaps sooner if I end up with more Marriott stays than expected). Maybe the new Marriott-MGM partnership will make it even easier to get there quicker.

At any rate, I don’t think I can afford not to get myself to 50, but neither do I have any holes that I can fill with Marriott stays right now. I could book an 8-night mattress run for about 80K points, but I don’t feel good about that. Alternatively, I have plans to visit and stay with family at the holidays and I guess we could stay in a hotel. As I type this paragraph, it occurs to me that maybe I could find a timeshare presentation offer where we could earn points that help offset the cost of picking up a few elite nights. I think I’ve seen some Marriott timeshare offers that include 4 nights and some points for a greatly-reduced rate. That might be better than paying for all 8 nights….we’ll see what I can find. Earlier this year, I was able to do a Bluegreen Vacations timeshare presentation through Choice Privileges where I got them to put me up in a Marriott and I earned the elite night credit, so I won’t limit myself to a Marriott timeshare deal.

IHG One Rewards: dropping to Platinum

I currently have IHG One Rewards Diamond status. I got my status last year via a short-term opportunity for a status fast track and then I bought IHG Ambassador status, which automatically extended my IHG Diamond status to the end of this year. There have been multiple recent data points indicating that renewing IHG Ambassador has not extended IHG status again, though we have had at least one contrary data point in our Facebook group.

My guess is that the old IHG Ambassador renewal trick may still work for folks who qualified for IHG Diamond status on stays at some point, whereas those of us freeloading off of a status fast track promo may be coming to the end of the road.

I think that IHG has made great improvements to its program overall, but I’m not interested in chasing IHG status mostly because I’m generally not excited about IHG hotels. I’ll maintain IHG Platinum status thanks to my IHG credit card and I’ll be happy with my annual free night certificate and buying IHG points on sale now and then to leverage toward good redemptions.

American Airlines Platinum Pro

Say hello to a Platinum Pro! I intended to wait a few more days to take up American Airlines on the Instant Status Pass being offered to World of Hyatt elites, but I needed to make a purchase where the American Airlines shopping portal would get me 1,000 points, so I figured that I might as well register for the Instant Status Pass and let those Loyalty Points count toward the 42K I need to keep Platinum Pro status for four months beyond the trial.

I’ve already written about how I intend to pull this one off and I am officially off to the races with it.

Next up is my wife. She doesn’t have American Airlines elite status and doesn’t care about American Airlines elite status. However, we have a trip booked on United next year that I booked with Turkish Miles & Smiles. I’d love to be able to get my wife United Gold status so that we could get extra legroom seats on United! I know this can work because I participated in a United status match earlier this year and was able to get us extra legroom seating on a United flight booked with Turkish miles thanks to my status.

The problem is that my wife has no airline elite status to match to United. She does, however, have Hyatt Explorist status.

Some Hyatt Explorists currently have a targeted promotion if they have their Hyatt and American Airlines accounts linked whereby Explorists can get an Instant Status Pass to American Airlines Platinum. United offers a status match challenge where they match American Airlines Platinum members to United Gold.

I don’t know whether United would match the Instant Status Pass Platinum status, but I imagine that if my wife qualifies to extend her American Airlines Platinum status (or is able to bump it up to Platinum Pro status), maybe they will.

The problem is that I hadn’t previously linked her American Airlines and World of Hyatt accounts, so I helped her do that in the American Airlines app a couple of days ago. She hasn’t yet received the Instant Status Pass offer, but I’m hoping that it will show up at some point soon so we can set that plan in motion. If we near the expiration date of the offer and she hasn’t been automatically targeted, I might have her call and see if she can get fast tracked.

I would also love to get matched to JetBlue because we have a trip booked on JetBlue next year and I’d love the free bags and Even More Space seats that I used to enjoy with American Airlines elite status. Until recently, JetBlue hadn’t offered a status match. However, with the launch of the match for disgruntled Delta elites, I’m hopeful that they may at some point offer a more broadly available status match.

Southwest Airlines: Companion Pass secured through 2024

We don’t ever chase elite status with Southwest Airlines, but we already have a Companion Pass secured for 2024. My wife picked up a number of referrals earlier this year and completed some spend on her Southwest cards to top things off and ended up with a Companion Pass valid through the end of 2024, so we’re all set on this front for now. I may consider a Southwest credit card of my own to double up with two Companion Passes since we have a family of four, but I haven’t yet pursued that strategy.

Plenty of other elite statuses are automatic

Between my wife and I, we have plenty of other elite statuses that are automatic and ongoing, like:

• Hilton Diamond status courtesy of the Amex Hilton Aspire card
• IHG Platinum (courtesy of the IHG Rewards Classic card)
• National Executive Elite (we get “Executive” status from Visa Infinite cards, but got Executive Elite through Amex years ago and it just keeps getting extended)
• Hertz President’s Circle (courtesy of our Venture X card)
• Wyndham Diamond (from the Wyndham Earner Business credit card)
• Caesars Diamond (from Wyndham Diamond)

We’ll likely maintain all of the above because none of it requires any effort and/or the benefits come with credit cards that we are already very likely to keep because of other, more valuable benefits.

Bottom Line

In 2024, between my wife and I, we should have a mid-tier airline elite status each and several hotel elite statuses. On our most recent podcast episode, Greg and I came to the conclusion that most people don’t need hotel elite status (and on the episode before that, we more or less determined the same for airline elite status). If those things are true, how do I justify this chase for elite status?

In my case, it is a matter of benefits (mostly) outweighing the costs incurred at the margins. That is to say that I would have naturally been close to Hyatt and Marriott elite status this year based on natural stay activity, so I’ll be bridging relatively small gaps where I expect to get outsized value. On the Hyatt side, I’ll reap most of that value from suite upgrades. With Marriott, I expect the very near-term to be a net loss. Much of the value of chasing Marriott status for me is expected to be reaped in future years spent with Lifetime Platinum status. The chase for Marriott status is definitely the piece of the puzzle about which I am least confident, but it’s a long-game play. I don’t love that it relies on Marriott continuing to make the Platinum tier valuable, but here’s hoping that they do.

My chase after American Airlines elite status is 100% frivolous and for the thrill of the game. That said, I am earning valuable American Airlines miles in the pursuit of status. I’ve found myself using AA miles more and more over the past couple of years, so I am happy to accumulate miles and entertain myself with the game toward elite status at the same time. And if I’m able to parlay the game into United Gold status for my wife, that could become very useful for our trip next year.

I feel pretty confident about my plans apart from the need for the Marriott mattress runs. What do you think? Should I mattress sun those eight nights? Which statuses are you pursuing for 2024?

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