Hyatt and American Airlines have had a partnership for several years, providing the ability to earn World of Hyatt points on American flights and AAdvantage miles on Hyatt stays. They’ve also run a number of status match/challenge opportunities for those with elite status in one of those programs.
The two companies have announced today a deepening of their relationship, giving even more opportunities to receive reciprocal benefits, status, free night certificates and more. Perhaps the most intriguing development will be the ability to earn status in both programs on an ongoing basis with spending on just one credit card. It’s not all good news though because earning Hyatt points on flights and American Airlines miles on stays will be ending at the end of this year, while some of the reciprocal earning opportunities represent poor value.
Hyatt benefits for those with American Airlines AAdvantage elite status
Starting on January 2, 2025, those who have earned enough Loyalty Points or have high enough status will be able to redeem AAdvantage miles for Hyatt certificates:
- 40,000 Loyalty Points or Gold status: redeem 25,000 AAdvantage miles for a category 1-4 Hyatt certificate
- 125,000 Loyalty Points or Gold status: redeem 60,000 AAdvantage miles for a category 1-7 Hyatt certificate
Redeeming 25,000 or 60,000 miles for category 1-4 or 1-7 certificates respectively is poor value, so this isn’t something that we’d recommend.
From March 1, 2005, there’ll be additional earning options added:
- 100,000 Loyalty Points: select Hyatt Discoverist status
- 175,000 & 250,000 Loyalty Points: select Hyatt Explorist status
- 400,000, 550,000 & 750,000 Loyalty Points: select category 1-4 Hyatt certificate
- 1 million, 3 million & 5 million Loyalty Points: select category 1-7 Hyatt certificate
While the benefits at the 40,000 and 125,000 Loyalty Point levels require the redemption of miles for the free night certificates, that won’t be the case for the options being added from March 1. Instead, those will be options you can select as your reward for hitting that Loyalty Points Rewards level without needing to redeem miles. Whether that’ll be worth doing is another matter though. Neither Discoverist nor Explorist status provide any meaningful benefits with Hyatt, especially because you won’t have been earning Milestone Rewards along the way such as Club Access Awards.
The free night certificates at those levels aren’t particularly appealing options either. For example, at the 400,000 Loyalty Points level you’d likely be better off selecting a benefit like 25,000 bonus AAdvantage miles or a Systemwide Upgrade. At the 1 million Loyalty Points level, a category 1-7 certificate might be tempting, but it would mean forgoing four Systemwide Upgrades, up to 100,000 miles back on award redemptions and more.
OK, so the Hyatt benefits for those earning sufficient American Airlines Loyalty Points aren’t thrilling. It’s the benefits in the other direction that could provide more value.
American Airlines benefits for those with World of Hyatt elite status
From January 1, 2025, there’ll be additional World of Hyatt Milestone Rewards benefit options for travel with American Airlines by earning enough elite night credits or for those earning sufficient base points with Hyatt:
- 20 & 30 elite nights or 35,000 & 50,000 base points: Choose two Preferred seat coupons for American Airlines flights
- 40 & 50 elite nights or 65,000 & 80,000 base points: Choose two Main Cabin Extra seat coupons for American Airlines flights
- 70, 80 & 90 elite nights: Choose American Airlines AAdvantage Gold status, valid for the full status membership year
- 100 nights: Choose American Airlines AAdvantage Platinum status, valid for the full status membership year
In addition to those benefits that’ll be selectable as Milestone Rewards options, those with Hyatt Explorist or Globalist status will have the opportunity to redeem points to obtain AAdvantage Status for a Day:
- 5,000 points: AAdvantage Gold Status for a Day
- 8,000 points: AAdvantage Platinum Status for a Day
- 12,000 points: AAdvantage Platinum Pro Status for a Day
Reciprocal point/mile earning ending
As mentioned earlier, these changes aren’t all good news. Up until now, it’s been possible to earn Hyatt points on paid American Airlines flights and AAdvantage miles on paid Hyatt stays. Those earning opportunities will be curtailed from December 31, 2024. That’s disappointing as it’s been nice earning bonus miles and points for the last few years simply by linking my accounts, but these new reward options do help assuage that loss. Quite how much these new options make up for that loss of points/miles earning though will depend on your travel habits.
Quick Thoughts
As I mentioned earlier, the Hyatt benefits you can obtain with American Airlines status and Loyalty Points are fairly lackluster considering how many miles you’ll have to redeem or other choice benefits you’ll have to give up.
The American Airlines benefits you can obtain from Hyatt status and Milestone Rewards are much more interesting. The Preferred and Main Cabin Extra seat coupons will have limited appeal considering you’d be potentially giving up on Suite Upgrade Awards (SUAs), but if you have upcoming flights with American Airlines and no hotel plans where SUAs could come in handy, that might be more attractive than 5,000 Hyatt points as an alternative.
It’s at the 70+ elite night levels where this partnership shines. Being able to select Gold or Platinum status with American Airlines could provide excellent value in lieu of 10,000 bonus points or a Suite Upgrade Award, especially if you reach those Milestone Rewards earlier in the year. That’s because those status levels will be valid for a full membership year. That means that if, say, you reach 70 elite night credits by April 1, 2025, you could select AAdvantage Gold status which would then be valid through February 28, 2027.
Being able to redeem Hyatt points for AAdvantage Status for a Day could provide some good value too. While 5,000 Hyatt points might seem a little steep for one day of AAdvantage Gold status, if it gets you a free checked bag, preferred seating, bonus miles on paid flights, etc., it has the potential to be worthwhile. The Status for a Day options are valid on international flights in addition to domestic flights, plus you can gift Status for a Day to a family member of friend even if you don’t need to utilize it yourself.
Earn Hotel & Airlines Status With One Credit Card
What’s particularly interesting about this enhanced partnership is the ability to earn status with both Hyatt and American Airlines on an ongoing basis through credit card spend on just a single card.
One option would be to do that via an American Airlines credit card. That would allow you to rack up Loyalty Points and potentially earn Executive Platinum status in the AAdvantage program and Explorist with Hyatt. The downside with that approach is that Globalist status isn’t an option.
The more appealing approach for many will be to put significant spend on a Hyatt personal and/or business card seeing as both cards let you earn elite night credits through spend in addition to World of Hyatt points. That way you can spend your way to Globalist status if you like, picking up Milestone Rewards along the way. Then when you reach 70 or 100 nights, you can pick Gold or Platinum status respectively with American Airlines too. That approach could be worthwhile for someone who travels frequently enough with American Airlines to get some decent value from the free checked bags, upgraded seating, etc. without having to dedicate credit card spending to both Hyatt and American Airlines, and who doesn’t care about AAdvantage status as high as Platinum Pro or Executive Platinum.
Your Thoughts
What do you make of these changes? Will you like try to earn Loyalty Points with American in order to get Hyatt benefits, or are you more likely to focus on Hyatt status and elite night credits in order to get benefits and status with American Airlines too? Or do these changes not appeal to you at all? Let us know in the comments.
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