✈️ Planning your 2026 travel strategy

Estimated read time: 5 minutes and 52 seconds

🥳 Happy 2026, y’all – and welcome back to Daily Drop! How was your holiday break?

I spent my Christmas getting high in Amsterdam, shoving stroopwafels in my face, and binge-watching Sex & The City (all at the same time, obviously).

Anyway, the new year is the best time to start planning your travel, points strategies, and elite status.

Today, we’ll talk about the latter.👇

✈️ Elite status planning for 2026

It’s a new year, folks. And with a new year comes new possibilities for maximizing your points, miles, and travel.

But most importantly, it’s time to think about your elite status goals – since most programs tie this to the calendar year.

So in the first newsletter of 2026, I’m going to tell you about my own elite status plans and reasoning – with the hope that you, too, might start planning for your own status.

Alaska Airlines Atmos Rewards Titanium

In 2025, I earned 104,000 status points with Atmos Rewards, putting me at Titanium status.

Alaska has increased the requirements for elite status in 2026, sadly… BUT they are offering current Titanium elites a head start of 20,000 status points, which is a nice boost.

Here is why Atmos status is important to me:

1. I can access business and first-class lounges even when flying economy

2. Atmos points are valuable, so earning those in addition to status is great

3. You can earn status from flying award flights, which makes it easier to reach

4. Atmos has some incredible milestone rewards along the way

5. I mostly fly oneworld airlines like Qatar and Cathay Pacific, so it fits my travel habits nicely

Even if you’re a fan of American Airlines, Atmos status might be worth considering.

Last year, I flew American Airlines in the U.S. five times and was upgraded to first class on four of those flights thanks to my Atmos status.

Even with the more stringent requirements in 2026, I still think Atmos status is one of the best-value options out there.

Hyatt Globalist

In 2025, I spent 105 nights at Hyatt hotels… Needless to say, Hyatt Globalist status (which can be unlocked with 60 elite nights) is very important to me.

Anywho, Hyatt Globalist status offers some insane benefits:

• Guaranteed 4 p.m. late checkout

• Free breakfast

• Lounge access

• Suite upgrades

When you multiply those benefits by over 100 nights a year, the value is obvious for someone like me.

But even if you don’t spend 60 nights a year at hotels, Hyatt Globalist has some shortcuts:

• Earn 5 elite nights for holding a Hyatt co-branded credit card

• Earn elite nights from spending on Hyatt cards

• Earn elite nights when gifting Guest of Honor awards

Given the value of the milestone rewards, Globalist might be worth pursuing even for less-frequent travelers.

SkyTeam Elite Plus

I randomly earned SkyTeam Elite Plus status this year, though I wasn’t really aiming for it.

You see, I live in Indonesia and fly with Garuda Indonesia about 15 times a year. I also travel around China often, which has SkyTeam airlines like China Eastern and Xiamen.

So I just organically earned SkyTeam status from my normal travel habits, crediting tons of flights to Garuda.👇

The cool thing here is that after you earn Garuda status once, subsequent years have lower requirements.

It took 30,000 Tier Miles to earn Platinum, but next year will only require 25,000. Since I can earn Tier Miles with any SkyTeam airline (and even partners like Emirates), I think I might shoot for it again.

SkyTeam Elite Plus unlocks business-class lounge access, free checked bags, seat selection, and more when flying airlines like KLM, Air France, Korean Air, and more – even in economy.

Plus, now I have a bunch of GarudaMiles, which are solid for upgrading flights to business or first class (Garuda’s business class is quite cozy, too).

If you fly a lot of SkyTeam flights, look into Garuda’s program – it actually might make sense for you to credit flights here and earn status in order to get benefits with airlines like Delta.

Marriott Titanium Status

I’ve earned Marriott Titanium status for the last five years, but 2025 was a slog where I almost didn’t make it.

Right toward the end of the year, I opened two Marriott cards (this one and this one), which stack to give 40 elite night credits every year – which is what put me up to my total of 93 elite nights for 2025.👇

It’s worth noting that this premium credit card offers Platinum status as a benefit, which gives the “big boy” perks like free breakfast, suite upgrades, and more.

But here’s why I like Titanium status:

Platinum status is so easy to earn that being Platinum is like not having any status at all… Having Titanium means I get better upgrades, which is nice.

Plus, I earn more bonus points and get a free night certificate every year, worth up to 40,000 Marriott Bonvoy points.

That’s enough to book a night at a super nice hotel like this Ritz property in Oman, where I stayed a few years ago:

Maybe most importantly, Marriott partners with Aeroplan and United Airlines to offer low-tier elite status with both programs – if you earn Titanium status.

This isn’t anything crazy, but I do like the extra Star Alliance benefits and Aeroplan upgrade credits.

So while Marriott status isn’t necessarily worth a mattress running, it’s something I’d like to continue to have.

IHG Diamond Status

IHG One Rewards was, without a doubt, the most rewarding program of 2025 for me.

I spent 80 nights at IHG hotels all over the world, which unlocked Diamond status for all of this year.

My Diamond status basically gave me a flat earning rate of 30 points per dollar when combined with my IHG co-branded card, before any promotions (which they had tons of).

I found that I also got more value for my IHG points than in past years when using the 4th night free perk of the aforementioned card.

Even in places like Australia and New Zealand, IHG was always the best deal in town.

Through taking advantage of those promos and my co-branded card, I racked up quite the stash of IHG points… almost 900,000, in fact. 😬

Because of that, I suspect I’ll have plenty of IHG stays in 2026 – and probably get status again.

If you want an easier path to IHG benefits, you can unlock an Annual Lounge Membership at just 40 nights. 

At hotels (like Intercontinental, Crowne Plaza, etc) that have lounges, this also often includes breakfast, which is a cool workaround.

Accor Live Limitless Status Shortcut

A few weeks ago, I told you about how I bought an Accor+ Explorer membership.

Basically, I paid a net $170 to unlock two free night awards that are easily worth triple that (read more about that whole thing in this newsletter).

Anyway, the other perk of that membership is automatic Accor Gold status (by way of 30 elite nights).

Bear with me for a sec…

If you have Accor’s top-tier status (Diamond), you can get free breakfast… on weekends.

But…

If you have Accor Platinum status (one tier LOWER than Diamond), you can get free breakfast on ALL stays… in Asia Pacific (including Australia, New Zealand, etc).

Since Platinum only takes 60 nights to earn, I think I’m going to go for it this year.

I already have a handful of stays booked, but here’s the kicker:

Accor has properties all over the world for as little as $12 to $15 per night.👇

So, even if I stay 20 nights and come up ten nights short of Platinum, I can book a mattress run at a cheap property, spend less than $200, and unlock free breakfast on all my Asia Pacific stays for 2027.

This one is pretty unique to my situation, but it’s a good reminder of how you can take your own travel habits and find the right program (and loopholes) for yourself.

Honorable Mention: Hilton Diamond

Since I have this Hilton co-branded card, I get Diamond status automatically every year.

I spent 10 nights at Hilton hotels this year. Normally, I’d say it’s not worth going for status or holding such an expensive card for so few nights.

But this Hilton card is different. And I’ll be telling you more about why on Monday. 😉

That’s gonna do it for today, folks. I hope you got some inspiration for planning your 2026 travels.

But before I let you go, tell me:

Have a good weekend, my friends!

6.9175° S, 107.6191° E

With contributions by McKay Moffitt