Merry Elite-mas (& Happy Holidays)

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Good morning and happy holidays!

I might be in my early 30s, but I still ask my mom for a children’s chocolate advent calendar every December… 🍫 And I’m sad that I’m nearing the end of it.

And even though we are nearing the end of December (and the year), there are still a few travel things to take note of!

✅ Alaska Airlines is launching a new, premium credit card in 2025.

✅ Earn 4,000 Virgin miles in no time with no effort.

✅ Should you buy top-tier IHG Diamond Elite status right now??

✅ How to climb the credit card ladder—from starter cards to premium ones!

🏆 Favorite pick of the week: Don’t forget your end-of-the-year miles and points checklist!

Holy 💩

It’s already the end of December……..

And that means it’s time to hunker down and run through your end-of-the-year miles and points checklist to ensure you aren’t letting anything travel-related expire or go to waste.

Some of the most important things to look at before January 1st include:

Using up any annual credits that will expire after December 31st
Finishing any mileage or mattress runs to unlock elite status or other milestones for 2025
Transferring or buying points (if needed) to max out your annual limits

Instead of me listing all the specifics and examples of this checklist, just head over to our OG newsletter section, which will get the job done.

🏃🏻‍♀️ Runner-Ups

🥇Delta and Hilton’s duel status matches

Delta and Hilton have both launched a way to status-match to each others’ programs if you activate the match by December 31st, which is cool.

But… it’s not open to everyone. How Grinch of them…

To check if you’re eligible, you can do so for Delta here and for Hilton here.

So what are they offering?

Delta SkyMiles members can get Hilton Honors Gold or top-tier Diamond status, and Hilton Honors members can get Delta Silver or Gold Medallion status.

You’ll be given this status for a six-month “trial” period, but you’ll have the option to extend either one through January or March 2026 if you meet some (reduced) requirements 🙌

If you’ve deemed that you ARE eligible and want to learn all the details and perks of these status matches, you can check out that info here.

🥈 Buy Southwest elite status before the end of the year

If I’m being honest with you… I’ve never flown Southwest 😯

I rarely fly domestically, and well, yeah… it just hasn’t happened. But I know that MANY of you fly Southwest and love the airline for its cheap cash and points fares.

And we all love the idea of having elite status—whether it’s with an airline or a hotel.

So, right now, you might be able to buy yourself Southwest elite status by buying the Tier Qualifying Points needed to reach said status.

Just know this isn’t an option for everyone (including me 🙃), but it has the potential to be good.

Here are the deets:

You need to have earned at least 3,000 TQPs this year to be eligible to purchase
You can only buy a maximum of 35,000 TQPs with this promo

So, in theory, if you have at least 3,000 TQPs, you have the ability to buy yourself A-List status which comes with some minimal (but nice) perks like priority boarding, 25% points-earning bonus, and same-day change/stand-by.

But…

If you’re only sitting at the minimum qualifying amount of 3,000 TQPs, you’d need to buy the remaining 32,000 to reach the 35,000 threshold for A-List status… which would be well over $1,000… and not worth it, in my opinion.

So I’d say if you’re only a few thousand TQPs away from either A-List or A-List Preferred, then buying what you need could be beneficial for the coming year.

Oh, and you’ll need to purchase your points by December 30th.