How to Get Elite Travel Perks Without Traveling Every Week or Overpaying

Megan, I know you have a lot of weddings to travel to this year. My question for you is,

will you have elite status in time? Yes, I actually already earned my elite status for

this year and I'm already using it for wedding travel. I just got back from the first bachelorette

party over the weekend in Austin and I flew American Airlines on the way there, which is

the one I have elite status in, but Southwest on the way back. Southwest? I thought I was the

Southwest stan here.

Well, you know, sometimes the flights are more convenient on Southwest and I could fly to a

smaller airport and take the same flight and the same Uber home as my friends. So listeners do as

I do and build a healthy relationship with your elite status, not a toxic one. And you know what

I say? I have no problem cheating on an airline with Southwest. Welcome to Smart Travel, a deep dive into the tips, tools, and tactics to maximize your travel dollars.
I'm Sally French. And I'm Megan Coyle.
And we're the travel nerds ready to help you plan your next big trip. Today we're talking about whether elite status is actually worth it.
But first, let's take a look at some of the news in travel this week. And just a heads up, in this episode, we'll talk about a few credit card companies that are NerdWallet partners, but that doesn't influence how we discuss them.
All right, let's dive into the news. Well, speaking of Southwest, our first news item is that Southwest flights are now available to book on Expedia.
That's as of last week. This is huge because it's the first time that Southwest flights are showing up in some search results in an online travel agency, which we call an OTA.
It's also showing up in some Expedia-owned OTAs like Travelocity, Hotwire, Orbitz, and Cheap Tickets. Yeah.
Remember when Southwest flights didn't even show up in Google flights? Oof. I know.
Dark times. That was tough, but that all changed in May of last year, and I'm

so glad they got the technology working for that. So glad.
Anytime you can do more comparison shopping,

that just means that travelers like us can make more informed decisions and, of course, book

cheaper flights. Just remember, booking with OTAs like Expedia does sometimes add some complexity to

your travel. Like if you need to change or cancel your reservation, you'll have to deal with that

middleman. At least on flights, though, you will still be able to earn Southwest points if you book

I don't know. to your travel.
Like if you need to change or cancel your reservation, you'll have to deal with that middleman. At least on flights though, you will still be able to earn Southwest points if you book a Southwest flight through an OTA.
That's not the case for hotels and it's usually better to just book directly for your hotel stays. In other hotel news, Hyatt just announced its annual award category changes.
Around this time of year, Hyatt will typically adjust the award category that some of its properties fall into. So low award categories cost less points per night and high award categories cost more points per night.
Yeah, Hyatt has this great award chart that lays out the peak, off-peak, and standard points you'll need for each category. Most hotels have gotten rid of their award charts and they now use dynamic pricing.
So it's really hard to estimate how many points you might need for a night. It depends on demand and all sorts of things.
But Hyatt actually tells you how many points you're going to need. This is really nice because it just makes it so much easier to plan in advance.
You know how many points each hotel is going to cost. Another nice thing about Hyatt is that they actually do this courtesy of telling you when they are going to change the category of their properties.
So we know which categories are changing now, but that won't kick in until later. Of course, the bad news is that although 33 properties are getting cheaper, 118 are actually going to get more expensive when you book on points.
Womp womp. Yeah, this happens every year.
Usually most hotels are moving up a category and especially this year, lots of Japan properties are moving up a category. They're getting more expensive to book on points, probably because the interest in Japan travel is still so high.
I know. I feel like everyone I know is in Japan right now.
Yeah. I'm glad I went way earlier.
I went a few years ago. I'm like, whew, all right, I'm good for a few years.
Yeah, but there is some good news here. For example, I love the ability to plan in advance.
One of my best friends from third grade is getting married in Napa this fall. So I was actually happy to see one of Hyatt's properties, the Calistoga Motor Lodge and Spa is going down from a category six to a category five.
I know you have tons of wedding travel yourself and I'm excited that this will make my wedding travel a little cheaper. That property goes from 25,000 to 20,000 points per night.
The other bright spot here is that these changes aren't going into effect until March 25th. So you still have some time to lock in those lower redemption rates before it officially goes up.
And you also don't have to wait to book the ones that are going down in price. You could book those now.
And if the redemption rate goes down, you'll actually get a refund of the points difference. Well, maybe we should plan that Tokyo trip and book it now before March 25th.
Another one before March 25th, it would be good if you could book any hotels that are going from category four to a category five if you still have a free night reward on your World of Hyatt credit card. Because the World of Hyatt credit card comes with a free night reward, that's only good on hotels up to category four.
So if you're planning on booking any of those that are moving to a five this year, book it before March 25th. We'll link to the NerdWallet story with the list of effective properties so you can see which properties you should book now before prices go up.
And finally, March 1st is actually the start of the year for American Airlines flyers like myself. I guess better late than never.
Yeah, you know, I'm okay with starting the year in March. My 2025 was off to a rough start.
So let's just, you know, reset the clock over the weekend. Okay, let's declare that 2025 actually starts in March, American Airlines style.
So now you have until February 2026 next year to earn the number of loyalty points you'll need to earn elite status on American Airlines. This is actually so timely because we're going to talk about elite status today.
Now, I know you're a huge American Airlines fan. Are you going to try to earn elite status again this year? Yeah, I've got to admit, I'm a little bit attached.
Oh, healthy relationships though. I know.
It is. It is.
Well, luckily, there are a few ways to start earning those points. One would be by applying for the Citi A Advantage Platinum Select World Elite MasterCard.
It has a higher signup bonus at the time we're recording this episode of 75,000 American Airlines miles after $3,500 in purchases within the first four months of account opening. And the annual fee is $99, but it's waived for the first 12 months.
So it's a great way to check it out and see if this card is for you. I do wanna point out that A, advantage miles are not the same as loyalty points.
You can use those 75,000 miles to book flights, but not to earn status because you can't actually earn loyalty points from the sign-up bonus. But every $1 you spend on the card does earn one loyalty point.
So you spend the $3,500 to meet the spending threshold and you will already have 3,500 loyalty points for the year. And you'll be able to keep earning loyalty points on the spending that you do on that card all year.
I should mention that American Airlines is also doing a promotion right now to earn 500 additional loyalty points for each flight segment you take in March, up to 5,000 loyalty points in total. So make sure you register for that in your A Advantage account to earn those

if you have any flights this month. Okay, great tips and great transition because in this episode,

we are talking about both airline and hotel elite status and whether it's actually worth

trying to get them. That's coming up in a moment, so stay with us.
Everyone assumes that the only way to earn elite status with airlines and hotels is by traveling all the time, being that person who flies multiple times a week or spends more time living in a hotel than their actual house. You know, I totally thought that was the case.
Before I got into travel, I would look at these requirements to earn elite status off of flying alone.

And I was like, who is actually getting this

unless they work in a job

that forces them to fly every week.

Even getting something like that measly silver status

felt completely unattainable.

But as you'll learn from today's episode,

that's hardly the case.

You don't have to be a road warrior

and stay 50 nights in hotels.

And I will say for myself, I know better now.

I actually have hotel elite status in three different programs.

And based on the number of videos I see you posting at the gym,

I know you're not actually spending that many nights away from home.

You are correct, Megan.

I definitely spend way more time in the gym than in any hotel room.

Yet weirdly, I do not have any elite status in the gym.

Weird.

You should.

My success size definitely correlates with gym elite status. Thank you.
Thank you. Okay, now I have two types of hotel elite statuses, and I think we might have some overlap.
So I'm excited to go into some of the different strategies people might not know about. And since we are slightly cynical about this, we'll dive into the situations where elite status is actually not all it's cracked up to be.
So before we get started, we should mention that we're going to talk about some specific terms and benefits and offers available on certain credit cards, but these can change. So make sure you check a credit card's current offer before you go applying for anything.
Especially future people who are listening to this way far away from now, of course, these offers can always change. Another thing to mention is that we will be talking about a few credit cards from companies that are NerdWallet partners.
I just want to let you know, the lawyers make me say this, but that does not influence how you and I, Megan, discuss them. Okay, so should we dive in? Let's do it.
Starting with elite status on airlines, back in the old days, you would have had to fly a lot to get airline elite status, like every week a lot. Okay.
So I'm just going to get this out of the way off the bat. I do not have any sort of airline elite status and it is for a good reason that probably will apply to a lot of people listening to this.
We're not even at the hot take part of the episode yet, Sally. No, no, no.
I promise. This is actually a common take.
I actually recommend many travelers don't try to overexert themselves to get elite status on an airline. For me, I just book whatever is the best deal, the best flight time, whether that's Southwest, Alaska, Delta, I do not care, even some random budget airline that I found on Google Flights.
And Megan, I will let you know, I am not above flying spirit or frontier. Well, you make a good point and it's that there are some trade-offs for loyalty and elite status can handcuff you to only flying with that airline.
Yes, handcuffed is it. Exactly.
That is why these elite status programs exist. And I am serious.
I see people who will book the more expensive flight just to get something like a free drink and free Wi-Fi, a small chance that they get a seat upgrade. They're conveniently forgetting that it would still just be cheaper to buy that champagne on their own with not even having elite status.
I need to meet these people because you definitely should not be doing any of this for free drinks. No, I'm serious.
My sister's like, I'm only going to fly United because I might get a seat upgrade. I have United Silver status.
Okay, we'll get into this, but I also kind of feel that way. Yeah, no, it's real.
So I have American Airlines gold status and I'm not married to it though. Like if I find a cheaper flight or something that's like more convenient, less layovers, whatever, I'll book that other airline.
But if American does offer some comparable options, I'll get some super valuable perks. I love those free preferred seats and even the occasional upgrade to business class.
I want to know, do you actually get upgraded? And I don't want this podcast to be all about me and my non-status. So since you do say you have American status, let's talk about it and then we'll get into some other airlines, maybe on a future episode.
Okay. So our team at NerdWallet wrote about some of the best airline elite statuses for 2025.
And we can link to that in the show notes so you guys can check it out. The most important thing to know about airline elite status in general is that there is a big range.
Like the lower tier elite statuses might get you like $10 worth of benefits, like those free drinks you were talking about. And top tier statuses can be worth thousands of dollars.
They could be worth over $4,000 if you have the very, very top status. Yes, but it even seems so hard to get those low tier statuses.
And then it's like, yes, I got like my one free drink that was worth $10. So Megan, tell me, how did you get elite status? Because I actually don't think you're traveling that much on American Airlines, right? I get it partly from flying, but also partly from credit card spending.
Okay, that makes sense. And this is an important strategy that most people don't realize.
Many airlines, including American, Delta, and United, let you earn elite status not just by flying, but by spending on a co-branded credit card. Yep.
So for American Airlines, you have to earn loyalty points to earn elite status and you earn them through flying, spending with their partners, shopping through the online portal, or spending on an American Airlines credit card. I hit gold status through a combination of sort of all of those, taking some American flights and also some flights on their partners, like their One World Alliance partner, Alaska Airlines.
Yes, that's nice. Yeah.
And putting a lot of my regular spending on my American Airlines card. Okay.
So gold status with American is pretty good. It gets you free upgrades when available, of course, priority check-in, slightly better boarding if you care about that.
Yeah. Let's not oversell it.
Like with elite status, I get to boarding group four and I get a free check bag. But I've had my American Airlines card for years, like even before I ever earned elite status.
And with just the card, I got to boarding group five and also get a free check bag. That is one way to go about getting, you know, some perks on the airline.
Okay. I'm rarely a checked bag person, but I know there are many people who are.
And it's perks like that where the free checked bags really do add up. You look at American Airlines, checked bag fees for flights within the US are $40 at the counter, $35 if you pay online in advance.
So at least there is some money savings there. And like maybe some other luggage benefits on some programs, United Airlines is the one I'm thinking of.
They actually let elite members bring heavier bags for free as well. So instead of that 50 pound weight limit for checked bags, if you have elite status on United, you can bring a checked bag up to 70 pounds.
Cool. I can bring my dumbbells.
Oh gosh. I feel really bad for the luggage handlers.
So I do want to like point out that I do have gold, which is the lowest elite status tier. Bottom of the barrel.
Megan, the lowest of the low.

Yeah, I know. And it takes a lot.
It really does to get to platinum, platinum pro, any of the fancy tiers. I will say with gold status, I am eligible for upgrades, but all those people that

have the higher statuses, they get priority. Right.
So they will get upgraded to business

class first, along with their companions, which like feels so unfair sometimes. Totally, totally.
The upgrades go first to the people with the highest amount of status. So even if you're gold, it's not guaranteed you're an upgrade, especially if you have all the platinums, the executive platinums in front of you.
Yeah. And I'll be honest, I get upgraded probably twice a year.
Okay. One is random long flight.
And I'm like, wow, this is amazing. This is such a lifesaver.
It always comes in right when I need it, like it's a red eye or something. And then the other upgrade I usually get once a year is like on a one hour flight to San Francisco.
Yep. So you get this big seat, but you're like, I literally, I don't need to sleep.
I don't really get any good food. They can't even pass out the champagne because they're like, the flight is too short.
We can't even do in-flight service. Yeah, exactly.
Basically the TLDR is if you have a lower status, like on American, that could be something like gold. It does technically come with free upgrades, but since platinum and above get the priority, just keep in mind, even upgrades are quite rare, even if you have that lower status here.
And that's the case with any airline, like not just American. This happens on every single one.
Right. I think you are proving my point, Megan.
This is why I don't try that hard to even chase elite status anyway, because sometimes elite status gives you nice perks, early boarding, check bag fees if, you know, that's something that you do is check bags. But the real perks, like that first class upgrade, are doled out to the people with the highest elite status levels first.
So sadly, in your case, Megan, gold status is good, but not great. I do want to point out one kind of underrated perk though of elite status.
And that's... Sell me.
You get to pick some of the preferred seats when you're booking for free. Okay.
These are seats like closer to the front of the main cabin, even a main cabin extra seat with more legroom. It depends on your level of status.
Like for me, I get to pick those extra legroom seats if there are any available 24 hours before departure. Do you care about legroom? I know you're also part of Club Petite like me.
I don't. I actually don't.
But it does pay to be friends with me because, you know, my boyfriend gets like the extra legroom seats and he loves it. Okay.
The tall people care. All right.
Airline elite status, you know, overall it has some perks and if you value things like those check bags or the extra legroom, then it might pay off for you. Okay.
Let's move on to hotel elite status. Another one we have written about on NerdWallet.
Yes. So I'm kind of an airline elite status hater, but I have elite status in three hotel programs.
And I know you mentioned that at the top of the segment that you have elite status in two. And as is the case with airlines, you did not have to spend a bajillion nights to earn this elite status? Absolutely right.
Okay. So my best level of elite status that I have is holding Hilton diamond status.
As you said, I did not get this by spending a million nights at Hilton's. I got it from holding the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire card.
This is Hilton's most premium card. It has an annual fee of $550.
And it gives you automatic diamond status, the top tier. I'm the top tier.
That's exactly right. So with diamond status, you get free upgrades, food and beverage credits, plus some other nice to haves like late checkout.
With the card, the real benefit is that you get an annual free night reward. And I know you use that free night reward and also got an upgrade at the Conrad Ponto de Mida.
Yes. We talked about that last episode, right? It was.
So go back and listen to that if

you didn't hear it already. Cash rates were close to $1,000 per night.
So that free night reward

covers standard rooms, which was still a super good deal. But here's where it gets wild.
Because

I have this card with automatic diamond status, then you're eligible for room upgrades. So I

technically booked like the standard room, which was still absurdly nice. But then from there,

they upgraded me to a full suite, had a private pool overlooking the ocean. Unbelievable.
Oh my gosh, that sounds amazing. That is why I would say hotel elite status can be worth it to get this unbelievable experience.
Yes. For a private pool, I feel like I'd do it.
Okay. So what are your other two statuses? I'm guessing those are the ones you have through your Amex Platinum card.
Good guess. So you have that card too.
So that was an easy, obvious guess. We are talking about the OG Premium card.
The Amex Platinum card has a $695 annual fee. So I just want to spell this out.
It is not a card for everyone, but if it is a card for you, know that it comes with lots of fancy perks like lounge access. And you can enroll in these complimentary hotel elite statuses.
So one of them's with Hilton. It's Hilton Honors Gold and Marriott Bonvoy Gold.
These are both the second elite status levels. And I found that there's still like plenty of value from that second level, like the occasional room on a higher floor or with a better view.
Yeah, especially with Hilton. So I have Hilton diamond status.
So I guess it just like supersedes that I also have Hilton gold status or the other card. But even if you just have Hilton gold status, because you don't want to have two super high annual fee credit cards, I think Hilton gold status is super solid.
It gives you still options for room upgrades, kind of like airlines. The priority goes to the diamond people first, but often you can still get it with gold.
And then you also get that daily food and beverage credit at most properties. And you know, I love that.
If there's one thing I know about you, it's that you love free food. Exactly.
I love free food. And what I really like about the Hilton food and beverage credit, it's awesome because it's not tied to just breakfast.
You can use it at any time of day. Oh, that good because i'm not really like a breakfast at the hotel type of person Me neither.
Although I will have to say there was a time I was at the art hotel denver It's part of the curio collection by hilton. I didn't even have time to do dinner So I was like, whatever i'll just spend it on the breakfast get some free food and I to this day I'm still dreaming about the hash brown casserole.
It's beautiful. I love hash browns.
Like loaded hash browns are an immediate order for me. Agree.
Agree. Even better when they're free.
Okay. So Hilton does have good free food perks.
I will say with Marriott, gold status is kind of meh. They give you some room upgrades.
They give you late checkout, but no free breakfast. Yeah.
Marriott gold is the definition of cool, I guess. You're totally right.
Do not start getting free breakfast with Marriott until you have platinum elite. This is tough to get.
You'll have to stay at least 50 nights per year. Certainly doable for some of the road warriors given Marriott's huge worldwide footprint, but that's like neither of us, sadly.
Neither of us. Okay.
So since we're dishing all the status we have, I guess I should also share I have Hyatt Discoverist status. This came as an automatic benefit with the world of Hyatt credit card.
I will say though, having Hyatt Discoverist status is not a flex. So what's your gripe with Discoverist? Yeah, it's just like the perks are not that sexy.
I think the sexiest of their perks is free water bottles. Okay, but you need those.
You work out. I guess.
You got to stay hydrated. Other benefits are like late checkout, sometimes an upgraded room, but even that's pending availability.
So basically nothing crazy with this. So why do you keep the card then? I do actually really like this card.
You get an annual free night certificate. It's good every year at any hotel up to a category four.
Now the card does have an annual fee of $95, but I say good luck booking any room period under $95. So I find that the room alone is worth way more than the card's annual fee.
That's why I keep it. Okay.
So yeah, it sounds like credit cards are a great way to get automatic elite status. We have an article about all of those credit cards ready for you linked up in the show notes.
But what are some other tips for people who aren't in the market for a credit card yet? What are some other ways they can get elite status? Yeah, I mean, sometimes you can just buy what you get with elite status anyway. Like if you want extra legroom seats, rather than pledging your allegiance to this airline, sometimes it's just cheaper to buy it for your round trip flight than it is to go to all this effort to earn elite status for an entire year.
Yeah, that's a good tip. We mentioned it at the top and yeah, it's worth saying again.
I would also look for promotions. Like the Built Rewards program has done a few promotions in the past where you get a 90-day trial period of elite status.
That's right, yeah. And it's really cool because then you can like do this challenge and try to keep it for the rest of the year.
There's also some promotions at hotel programs, for example, where you might be able to get double elite qualifying credits for your stays during a certain promotional period. So for example, like Hyatt had one recently, you had to register back in February, but you could earn two elite qualifying night credits for each eligible night you stay at their glamping brand under canvas, but you had to stay during the promotion period.
I love under canvas. I did a trip to Yellowstone with my family and we stayed at one right nearby.
It was great. I'll give another tip is status matching is another one.
If you have one type of elite status, often you can use that to match status with another airline or hotel for a limited period as well. Sometimes it depends on the terms of the status matching program, but sometimes they let you keep the status for the entire year.
Typically, you have to meet some sort of requirements, like a spending requirement or a minimum number of stay requirement. Some airlines and hotels even have partnerships so that elite members can have benefits at both.
So some of these partnerships are like American and Hyatt or United and Marriott. So we've got some articles about that on the NerdWallet website that we'll put in the show notes.
Bottom line, elite status can be super valuable. But I think the high-level overview is you do not need to be a travel addict to actually get it.
If you have credit cards that grant status, you can get upgrades and perks without crazy spending. For airline status, you can get it with some credit card spending and some flying or something else.
And of course, just remember, some statuses are worth way more than others. Yeah, Hilton Gold is better than Marriott Gold from your experience, and it sounds like Hyatt Discoverist is.
Ooh, I would say it's better than a poke in the eye. But free water bottle, Sally.
I do. I do love my free stuff.
All right. And this is the part of the show with hot takes or hot takeoffs.
Hot takeoffs. This is my favorite part.
I feel like this whole episode boiled down to the fact that chasing elite status can be overrated for many travelers. But let me make it a little spicier for you.
If it's not easy for you to earn elite status, you probably don't need it. What would you say is easy? If you can meet 80% of the requirements to earn elite status through the travel you already have planned for this year, through the credit cards you have or are planning on getting this year, then I think being strategic about earning that like 20% more of the requirements, that's doable.
Okay, that's fair. But if your normal travel and spending will only get you like 50% of the way to elite qualifying points or dollars, then maybe you don't travel enough to get that much use out of it.
Right. And then it's like, if you're not even traveling that much anyway, then you won't even get the benefits of having elite status.
So if you're 80% of the way there, how do you earn the extra 20%? Okay. Honestly, for my American Airlines status, I try to take advantage of the shopping portal.
That's like this online portal. It has a bunch of retailers you've already heard of and you shop at anyway.
So in the American Airlines program, you earn the same amount of loyalty points as miles when you shop through the portal. Right.
So whenever I want to buy something, I just go to the portal. Like recently, I needed contact lenses.
So I searched contact lenses, ordered my contact lenses from the portal. Nice.
And I just picked the one that had the most miles per dollar. And I got almost 1500 loyalty points.
How. And compare that to one of the last flights I took.
I got just 96 loyalty points flying to San Francisco from Los Angeles. So I got way more elite status qualifying points by buying contact lenses.
Wow. I see you there.
Good, good deal. And I can see you now that my new contacts have arrived.
See what we did there. Okay, do you have elite status? Have you scored an awesome upgrade? Let us know, listeners.
Email us at travel at nerdwallet.com or send us a voice memo. You might even hear your voice on the show.
And if you don't already, please make sure you follow us, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or iHeartRadio. Make sure you never miss an episode.
This episode was produced by Hilary Georgie and Tess Figlin. Claire Sosi helped with fact-checking,

and a big thank you to NerdWallet's editors for all their help.

And of course, here is our brief disclaimer. We are not financial or investment advisors.

This info is provided for general educational and entertainment purposes,

and it may not apply to your specific circumstances.

Thanks for listening. We

hope you're inspired to keep your passport full and your wallet even fuller. See you next episode.