💨 Fast-track to Hyatt & American elite status

Estimated read time: 4 minutes and 15 seconds

Howdy, folks. Welcome back to Daily Drop, where we teach you how to travel the world without breaking the bank (although it occasionally requires smashing your head against the wall to understand).

Thankfully, today’s tips are easy:

• ✈️ American Airlines & Hyatt dual status match 

• 💳 20% transfer bonus to Hawaiian

• 🎙️ Opportunity cost and the case for cashback

✈️ American Airlines & Hyatt dual status match

In case you didn’t know, American Airlines and Hyatt have a little relationship.

And unlike many relationships in life, this one is built to last.

For years, elite members of both programs have been able to link their accounts and earn points with both of them when staying/flying.

Right now, they’re taking their relationship to the next level by offering two different fast-track programs to earn elite status with either Hyatt or American.

Earn American Airlines elite status

If you currently have Hyatt elite status (Explorist or Globalist), you can earn automatic American Elite status up to Platinum Pro.

To find this offer, just log in to your AA account and click on the “Promotions” tab.

Anyway, you’ll receive the status instantly for four months, during which time you can earn AA Loyalty Points to extend your status.

Here is how many points you’ll need to do so:

• 13,000 Loyalty Points to retain Gold status

• 25,000 Loyalty Points to earn Platinum status

• 42,000 Loyalty Points to earn Platinum Pro status

• 67,000 Loyalty Points to earn Executive Platinum status

If you are successful, you’ll get that status for four months, during which time you’ll have the same opportunity to earn elite status.

If you do this for three four-month periods, you’ll get that status for the entire following elite year.

Yeah… they definitely don’t make it easy to understand. 🙄

Still, this is a fantastic opportunity to get easy elite status with one of the best programs in the world.

Don’t forget that there are tons of ways to earn Loyalty Points that don’t require flying on American Airlines.

Check out this newsletter for a summary of how Loyalty Points work and why I think American has one of the best loyalty programs in the biz.

Earn top-tier Hyatt status

That brings us to part two of the offer. And this one is not targeted, but open to anyone who currently holds AA elite status.

You can click this link to see if you’re eligible.

Non-eligible members will be promptly rejected, as I was (I already have Hyatt Globalist and no AA status).

Current AA elite members (with Platinum Pro status or higher) can register for the offer and fast-track their way to Hyatt status.

Specifically, you’ll need to complete the following requirements within a 90-day period:

• Stay ten nights to earn Explorist status

• Stay 20 nights to earn Globalist status

If you are successful, you’ll have Hyatt status through February 2026, which is AWESOME.

Globalist normally requires 60 nights to earn and comes with some valuable benefits, so this could be worth going out of your way for:

So here’s the bottom line:

American Airlines has one of the best airline elite programs for U.S. flyers, and Hyatt has one of the best hotel elite programs for… well, anyone.

This deal gives elite members in one program a chance to earn status in the other, which means more benefits, more points, and more travel.

Life is good. 🤘🏼

💳 20% transfer bonus to Hawaiian

Hawaii is maybe the single most popular tourist destination in the U.S., and for good reason.

I’ve never been, but it looks gorgeous.

Of course, getting there can cost you your first-born child - which is to say… It’s expensive AF.

Thankfully, there’s a new 20% transfer bonus from [[ american-express-gold-card.points-program-override.points-currency ]] [[ american-express-gold-card.points-program-override.points-currency-short ]] to Hawaiian Airlines, which can make getting there easy as pie. 🥧

Hawaiian flies from all over the mainland U.S., so this presents some solid options for travelers of any origin city to get out to the islands.

For example, you can fly from the West Coast to Honolulu for 20,000 Hawaiian miles one-way.

With this bonus, you only need to transfer 16,700 [[ american-express-gold-card.points-program-override.points-currency ]] [[ american-express-gold-card.points-program-override.points-currency-short ]] to book the flight.

It’s not a ton of savings, but saving close to 7,000 points round-trip is not bad at all.

Hawaiian also has lie-flat seats on many of their planes. 👇

As you can see from the previous screenshot, you could book this lie-flat seat for just 40,000 Hawaiian miles or just 33,000 MR Points, which is a great deal for six hours in a bed. 🛌

Hawaiian even flies to cities like Boston.

Booking this 11-hour nonstop flight will run you just 30,000 Hawaiian miles in economy or just 25,000 [[ american-express-gold-card.points-program-override.points-currency ]] with the transfer bonus.

That’s a great deal.

If you wanted to book this flight in business class, you could shell out…

*gulp*

…130,000 Hawaiian miles or 108,000 [[ american-express-gold-card.points-program-override.points-currency ]]. 😬

You know what? Never mind, don’t do that.

Still, this is a great chance to save money, save points, and fly in style to a place that many people are often looking for good deals to get to.

It should be no surprise to you all by now that we love our miles and points around here, but…

Is there ever a case for cashback?

In this week’s episode, Mike talks about the concept of opportunity cost, what that is, how it fits in with miles and points, and how there might be a case for cash-back earnings over points.

Feel free to listen here, or hop over to YouTube to watch it there.

That’s all for today, folks! Easy elite status, transfer bonuses, cheap flights to Hawaii - sounds like a good day of deals to me!

But for now, take care and have a wonderful rest of your day. ❤️

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