New ways to earn AA status

Good morning, and welcome back to Daily Drop! We’ve got a full week of travel content to kick off the year, so let’s get right into it:

• ✈️ New ways to get AA status

• 🏨 IHG’s new 2025 promo

• 🌎 Join us at the D.I.Y. Trip Summit

✈️ New ways to get AA status

The new year is already off to an exciting start, with some big changes already dropping in some U.S. airline and hotel programs.

One of those big changes is between American Airlines and Hyatt, which is already live and usable, so let’s break it down.

In the past, Hyatt and AA had a relationship that involved reciprocal points/miles earning for elites.

Now, however, things are a little different.

The biggest change is that Hyatt now allows certain members to redeem Hyatt points for AA “status for a day.”

Here is how it works:

• Redeem 5,000 Hyatt points for Gold status for a day

• Redeem 8,000 Hyatt points for Platinum status for a day

• Redeem 12,000 Hyatt points for Platinum Pro status for a day

This is pretty cool… Even though there is no way to transfer points to AA, we can now transfer points to Hyatt and redeem them for special perks on AA.

Even AA Gold status includes perks like priority check-in, expedited security, a free checked bag, and extra points.

If you think about the cost of a checked bag alone, you’re paying very few points for the rest of the perks.

And although these statuses also include potential seat upgrades, I wouldn’t bank on it…

But there’s another even more exciting addition.

As you know, Hyatt offers milestone rewards for staying a certain number of nights in a year.

Now, MOST of these milestones include AA perks as reward options.

Here are the different AA milestone rewards:

• 20 and 30 nights: Two Preferred Seat coupons

• 40 and 50 nights: Two Main Cabin Extra Seat coupons

• 70, 80, and 90 nights: AA Gold Status for a year

• 100-150 nights: AA Platinum Status for a year

As you can see, you can earn full-blown AA status from NINE different milestones.

I love this because it means you can essentially turn one hard-earned status into two really valuable statuses.

If you already spend 60 nights at Hyatt to earn Globalist, just 10 more nights will get you a year of AA Gold, which is great.

Of course, this is only half of the big news… there are also benefits on the AA side.

As of January 2nd, you can now unlock Hyatt benefits at various AA milestone thresholds.

If you don’t know about how AA Loyalty Points work, check out this newsletter to get up to speed.

Basically, when you reach the 100,000 Loyalty Point milestone, you’ll be able to unlock Hyatt Discoverist status (which isn’t very exciting).

If you go beyond that level, the benefits get even better, though I doubt many of you will be racking up millions of Loyalty Points this year…

I think what’s slightly more accessible (and exciting) is the ability for AA elite members to redeem miles for Hyatt Free Night Awards, as follows:

• If you have Gold status, you can redeem 25,000 AA miles for a Hyatt Category 1-4 Free Night Certificate

• If you have Platinum status, you can redeem 60,000 AA miles for a Hyatt Category 1-7 Free Night Certificate

So here’s the bottom line:

AA and Hyatt have two of the best loyalty programs in the world.

The fact that you can pour your loyalty into this one airline and one hotel program and multiply the value you get is pretty awesome and exciting.

So as you look ahead to 2025, keep these benefits in mind.

🏨 IHG’s new 2025 promo

IHG is starting off the year strong, too, with a new global promotion that is available to everyone.

For the next few months, you’ll earn double points on all stays, which can actually add up.

Here are the details:

• You need to register for the promotion

• Valid for all stays between January 1st and March 31st

• The double points start on the second stay

• There is no cap to the number of points you can earn

To be clear, this means that all members will earn 20x points per dollar before any credit card points or elite bonuses.

But there are ways to stack this promotion and earn a TON of points…

For example, this credit card earns 10 additional bonus points on IHG spending. Because the card also gives you Platinum Elite status, you’ll get ANOTHER 6x points.

So just by having that one card, you’ll earn the following:

• 10x points for being a member

• 10x points from the promo

• 10x points from the credit card

• 6x points from Platinum status

In other words, you can easily earn 36 points per dollar on all stays for three months, which is excellent.

For example, last week, I spent the night at this hotel in New York City during my overnight layover:

Of course, the promotion only starts after your second stay, so I didn’t earn bonus points on this one…

But if I DID, I would’ve earned the following:

• 1,510 points for being a member

• 1,510 points from the promo

• 1,510 points from Diamond status

• 1,510 points from my IHG credit card

In total, I would’ve earned more than 6,000 points on my $151 hotel stay, which is not bad at all.

So here’s the bottom line:

This is a super simple promotion… just go register now so you don’t forget, then rack up some easy points for the next three months.

👀 Dreaming of planning an unforgettable European adventure?

You have to check out the D.I.Y. Trip Summit (it’s our favorite price… free!).

Our very own human sparkler of energy, Megan, is one of the speakers at this Summit.

She’ll be sharing SIX sweet spots to get yourself over to Europe for (almost) free. You’ll hear from her and other awesome travel experts to help you plan a European getaway!

 If any of these apply to you, definitely check it out:

• 🔍 Just starting to think about a European adventure

• ⭐️ Looking to get creative or luxurious with how you get across the pond

• 📝 Ready to dive into all of the trip planning details

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That’s all for today, folks! Make sure you tune in tomorrow for some more fun travel tips and strategies.

Take care,

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