Relax: Your elite stuff will post

We’ve been receiving a lot of panicked questions / comments from readers via all of the various channels (email, comments, Facebook, etc) wondering why their elite [nights / rollover miles / etc] have not yet posted, so we wanted to write a quick post as a reminder to take a deep breath and be patient. Most of this stuff doesn’t turn over at the stroke of midnight on the first of the year, so give it a few days / couple of weeks before panicking about where your credits / miles have gone. Read on for some example timelines if you’re waiting on Hyatt credit card elite nights, Delta rollover miles, or Marriott credit card elite nights. Know that much of the same carries over for other similar situations in that the first few days of January are too early to be cause for concern if you’re missing something.

Where are my World of Hyatt credit card bonus elite nights?!?!???

If you find yourself asking the above question, it is likely because you opened the World of Hyatt card during the time when the new card welcome offer included 10 elite nights for 2020 and 10 elite nights for 2021. Breathe easy: Hyatt confirmed that the offer was valid for those who were approved by 12/31 and several readers dug into the terms and found mention of the 10 elite nights even though that bit was removed from the landing page before the end of 2020.

If you’re concerned because you applied recently and have only seen 5 elite nights post so far, just relax. The terms state that the bonus elite nights will post within 8 weeks of approval for 2020 and then within 8 weeks of January 1st for 2021. That means that Hyatt has until February 26th to post the 2021 bonus elite nights per the terms of the offer. January 2nd is way to early to be freaking out. Don’t worry, it is very unlikely that it will take 8 weeks. Multiple data points in our Frequent Miler Insiders Facebook group have indicated that members received 5 elite nights upon approval in 2020 and then the extra 5 elite nights around 2 weeks after approval. At least one member said that they received the bonus elite nights after the first statement cut. That makes sense to me since the 5 extra elite nights are really part of the welcome offer. You don’t need to meet the minimum spend to get those 5 extra nights, but it makes some sense to me that welcome offer-related bonuses will probably post no sooner than the first statement cut date.

One Mile at a Time reported that the annual 5 elite nights that are given to all credit cardholders posted on January 4, 2020 for the 2020 year. I saw that Gary Leff at View from the Wing posted that he received his 5 annual elite nights from the World of Hyatt credit card already for 2021 as of today (January 2nd), so I’d bet that even new cardholders will have likely received this year’s base 5 elite nights. I’d further bet that on some calendar day in the next week or two, all those cardholders who are waiting on 5 additional nights from the 10 elite night welcome bonus offer will see those five 2021 bonus nights post. I don’t know which day it will be; I’d bet that it will likely be within the first week or two of January (but again note that the terms indicate that those nights will post by February 26th, so there is still a lot of time).

The moral of the story here is to have a little patience. It’s not time to worry yet.

Where are my Delta rollover MQMs?!?!??

Delta announced last year that they would be rolling over all MQMs from 2020 into 2021, meaning that the miles you earned toward elite status last year will count this year toward earning status you can enjoy in 2022.

Again, don’t expect to see elite qualification information to show up from the start of the year. Greg told me that in his memory, Delta rollover miles haven’t typically posted until mid or late January (remember that Delta has long allowed the rollover of miles in excess of the status you earned, the difference this year is that they’re rolling over all of last year’s MQMs). This 2019 post from Points, Miles & Martinis indicates that the rollover process is manual and Delta begins processing it with Diamond members first, then Platinum, etc. Indeed, there is an entire Flyertalk thread maintaining the history of which date rollover miles have begun posting each year with the earliest being January 2nd (in 2013) and the latest start date for the process being January 14th (a couple of years). Keep in mind those are the start dates where Delta begins processing rollover miles for Diamond members — it takes 1-2 weeks from those start dates before all rollover miles have been processed. Given that Delta has a lot more miles to roll over this year than in years past, I recommend patience here. I doubt this year will be a January 2nd or January 3rd kind of year.

The miles are coming — they promised that. Delta didn’t make it up as part of an evil plot to foil your original plans to pursue Spirit Airlines FREE SPIRIT status. It just takes time to implement the elite credit stuff.

Where are my Marriott credit card elite nights?!??

Marriott credit card holders can earn 15 elite nights each year for having any of the Marriott credit cards.

You get 15 elite nights each year from having any number of Marriott consumer credit cards (i.e. whether you have 1 personal Marriott credit card or 4 of them you get 15 nights, no more). You get 15 elite nights from having any number of Marriott business credit cards. If you have at least 1 consumer card and 1 business card, you get 30 elite nights each year.

The terms indicate that those annual elite nights will post by March 1st. In reality, they usually post within the first week of January. I can confirm that the elite nights from Marriott credit cards have posted to my account already and the same is true for my wife’s account. I imagine these have probably posted for everyone at this point, but if you haven’t yet received the nights, I would wait at least a week or two before getting concerned.

Bonus question: When will the elite nights from my Hyatt mattress run post and when will my status be updated?

Given the Ludicrously easy path to Hyatt top-tier Globalist status that’s happening right now, many of us have been Justifying the Hyatt Globalist mattress run. Many of us are chomping at the bit to become newly-minted Globalist members. Elite nights typically post within a couple of days after checkout. As we gather data points on this, we will certainly post to alert readers as to what to expect. I imagine the nights will post within a couple days of completing your stay and elite status will get updated accordingly.

Bottom line

Many readers have been concerned as to the status of their elite status as the appearance of expected elite nights / miles has not been instant at the start of the new year, but this post is to remind everyone to be patient. I get it: we live in a time where instant access is the norm. Elite status is exciting; we’re chasing the rush of knowing that we won the game even if we have no flights / hotel stays planned in the foreseeable future. I definitely say “we” because I’m compulsively checking my accounts, too. But this stuff never happens immediately and this year there is likely a lot more activity to be processed regarding elite rollover nights/miles/bonuses. I trust that everything will post ahead of the deadlines dictated by the terms, but I should have made one of my 2021 predictions that these things will not post as fast as we all would like. That is a side effect of living in a time when so much happens immediately. Your rollover nights and miles are unfortunately not one of those things, but the good news is that good things are (at least very likely) coming to those of us who are waiting.

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