How (and why) I have status with 58 airlines

Good morning from 27,000 feet on my tenth Garuda Indonesia flight of the year!

Flying this airline is such a pleasure… I might just do it again tomorrow for fun - especially since I have elite status with them. 😏

Speaking of fun and elite status:

• 🔧 Quick correction from last week

• ✈️ How (and why) I have elite status with 58 airlines

• 🎁 I’m giving away more Hyatt awards (plus a special tip)

🔧 Quick correction from last week

Before we get into the “meat” of the newsletter, I just want to make a quick correction from Friday’s Daily Drop.

I referenced IHG free night awards and how you can top them up with points. As it turns out, the awards being offered with the credit card in question can NOT be topped up… 😭

The offer is still ridiculously good and still the best offer in history for this card.

Here are a few quick examples of amazing ways you could still use those 60k FNAs:

Five nights at the Intercontinental Times Square would be worth over $2,000, but bookable with your five free nights.

Five nights at this Kimpton hotel in London (also bookable with your five nights from this card) could be worth around $2,500.

Five nights at the brand-new Kimpton in Tokyo’s Shinjuku neighborhood would normally run you over $1,700… but, you guessed it, you can book it with this card’s welcome offer.

All of these are bookable for five nights with this $99 card… So hopefully you’re still as excited as I am about the offer.

Okay, now onto the good stuff. 👇

✈️ How (and why) I have elite status with 58 airlines

In the intro of this email, I mentioned that I have elite status with Garuda Indonesia.

And despite the fact that I’ve flown them so much this year, I actually don’t have elite status with them.

So what gives? Why would I lie to you like that?

The truth is that while I don’t have elite status with that airline specifically, I DO have an elite status that gets me elite perks when flying with Garuda… and 57 other airlines around the world.

So first, let’s talk about the “how” of it all.

Essentially, I have one high-tier level of elite status for each of the three major airline alliances: Star Alliance, lneworld, and SkyTeam.

When you have elite status with an airline in an alliance, you get elite-like benefits with all of the other airlines in the same alliance (see this newsletter for more on that topic).

If you have status with all three alliances, that’s a whopping 58 airlines that you can get benefits with when traveling.

But I only had to earn status with ONE airline in order to get all of them. For me, that was Aeroplan 75k status.

From here, I simply took advantage of two VERY GOOD status matches to leverage that status into two other top-tier statuses.

First, I matched to British Airways Gold Status back in April.

Now, I get elite perks when traveling with any oneworld airline, since BA Gold means I have oneworld Emerald status.

I recently flew on Qatar Airways, where I got some nice perks along my journey, despite only flying in economy.

I also have flights planned with Malaysia Airlines, Cathay Pacific, and Iberia later this year.

When flying with ALL of them, I’ll get extra benefits like lounge access, priority boarding, free extra checked bags (not that I’d ever check a bag 😉), and more.

Next, I matched my Aeroplan status to Flying Blue Platinum Status thanks to a special status match for Canadians (the same is still available to Americans, but only up to Gold status).

This is how I get elite perks with SkyTeam airlines like Garuda Indonesia.

This is the match that I had to pay a few bucks to get (as discussed in this newsletter).

But here’s why I did it anyway:

I currently have flights booked with the following airlines:

• KLM

• Air Europa

• Aerolineas Argentinas

• Garuda Indonesia

• Xiamen Airlines

During my round-the-world trip that will take me through Argentina, I’ll get to access Aerolineas Argentinas’ business-class lounges, even on my cheap cash economy flights.

I also fly with Garuda Indonesia all the time, so having benefits with them is nice.

During my long layover in Madrid while flying on Air Europa, I’ll get lounge access despite only booking cheap economy fares.

Speaking of cash fares…

Having elite status will earn me more points on cash flights since larger point multipliers are a common perk of status.

As it turns out, nearly all of my SkyTeam flights are booked with cash:

So here’s the bottom line…

If you get elite status with just ONE airline, you can take opportunities like the ones I’ve told you about here in Daily Drop to get status with a cornucopia of other airlines.

(Side note - nailed the use of “cornucopia” back there)

By having these statuses, you’ll get sweet perks when flying with dozens of the most popular airlines around the world.

Of course, you still get all of these same benefits whether booking with cash or points - just make sure you use the frequent flier number of the airline with which you have status (which I wrote about in detail in this newsletter).

🎁 I’m giving away more Hyatt awards (plus a special tip)

A few months ago, I gave away some Hyatt Guest of Honor awards in exchange for funny jokes.

I think I was the winner in that transaction…

…but not because of the jokes (although they were amazing).

You see, there’s a secret perk that many people don’t know about when it comes to Guest of Honor awards. 😏

To refresh your memory, Hyatt now allows anyone to gift awards to any Hyatt member, including:

• Free night awards

• Suite upgrade awards

• Club access awards

• Guest of Honor Awards

It’s very simple, but I explained the process in detail back in this newsletter.

But here’s where things get more interesting…

When you gift a Guest of Honor award to someone (and they use it), you (the one who gifted the award) will get one elite night credit.

To be clear, the “gift-ee” can use the award for a stay of up to seven nights. But whether they use it for a one-night stay or a seven-night stay, the “gift-er” will get an elite night credit.

Almost every Hyatt Milestone Award includes a Guest of Honor award, allowing you to earn up to TEN of them per year.

This means that each year, anyone can earn as many as ten elite nights simply by gifting these awards to friends, family, and… YOU.

Since I’ve been racking up ridiculous numbers of Hyatt nights, I already have more awards to gift, and I want to give them to you… again.

I just have one favor to ask…

Please ONLY attempt to win one of these awards if you have a Hyatt stay planned where you could use a Guest of Honor award.

To win, just fill out this poll - no jokes required this time:

And if you have a lot of Hyatt elite nights and awards sitting in your account, make sure you put them to use to unlock even more milestone awards through this method of racking up extra elite nights.

Want to help Daily Drop take over the world? Share our newsletter with your friends/family/pets/colleagues/enemies and win some rewards in the process!

You currently have 0 referrals, only 1 away from receiving the Daily Drop Travel Toolkit.

Or copy your unique referral URL to share with others: https://newsletter.dailydrop.com/subscribe?ref=PLACEHOLDER

…or you can just buy these prizes from our website if you want to keep us all to yourself. 😉

That’s all for today, amigos! Travel tips like these go to show why so many of us love playing the loyalty game.

If you can save money AND earn tons of extra benefits when flying and staying at hotels, then why not?

Anyway… take care, and see you bright and early tomorrow 🌞

7.5695° S, 110.8250° E