American Airlines launches a fast track to status for Hyatt Elite Members

Hyatt and American Airlines offer a number of perks for elite members, including points-earning and promotions, such as earning 1,000 bonus AAdvantage miles when staying with Hyatt.

AAdvantage members with Gold status or higher can get a 90 day trial of World of Hyatt Explorist status with the chance to extend that status through February 2024. Platinum Pro and Executive Platinum can be upgraded to globalist status.

Today the programs announced a limited-time offer for Hyatt elite members, where World of Hyatt Explorist and Globalist members who have linked their World of Hyatt and AAdvantage accounts get complimentary American AAdvantage elite status when they register for an American Airlines instant status pass. They can extend that status by completing loyalty point activities.

The Deals

AAdvantage Instant Status Pass

• World of Hyatt Explorist and Globalist members who link their World of Hyatt and AAdvantage® accounts can now get complimentary American AAdvantagestatus when by registering for an American Airlines Instant Status Pass.
  • Members must link their accounts by December 12, 2022 and register for the offer by December 28, 2022.
  • Explorist members will be given complimentary AAdvantage Platinum status
  • Globalist members will be given complimentary AAdvantage Platinum Pro status
• Members will have complimentary elite status for four months after registration, during which time the status can be extended an additional four months through the following activity:
  • Explorist must earn at least 25,000 Loyalty Points to maintain AAdvantage Platinum^®
  • Globalist members must earn at least 42,000 Loyalty Points to maintain AAdvantage Platinum Pro^®
  • Both Explorist or Globalist members can earn AAdvantage Executive Platinum^® status  by earning at least 67,000 Loyalty Points
• After completing three consecutive four month “qualifying phases,” the status will be extended through the remainder of the 2023 membership year (3/1/2023-2/28/2024).

There is a link to your Hyatt account here.

Hyatt Fast Track for AAdvantage Elite Members

• American Airlines AAdvantage members with Gold, Platinum, Platinum Pro or Executive Platinum status can register for a 90 day trial of Explorist status with World of Hyatt.
• They can then extend/upgrade that status by completing the following requirements:
  • Stay 10 Tier-Qualifying Nights within 90 days of registration to maintain Explorist status through February 2024
  • Stay 20 Tier-Qualifying Nights within 90 days of registration to earn Globalist status through February 2024 (Platinum Pro and Executive Platinum members only)

There is a direct link to register.

Term and Conditions

AAdvantage Instant Status Pass

• Registration ends November 30, 2022.
• Stay requirements must be completed within 90 days of registration.
• Qualifying activity is earned when a World of Hyatt member books an eligible rate or award night through Hyatt channels.

There are significant differences between these promotions.

The member needs to fulfill the initial requirements within 90 days of registration. You are free and clear with a full year of whichever status you qualified for after that.

Each four month period, American divides the Loyalty Points requirements for each level of status by three. To maintain status, you have to hit that qualification level every four months. You lose it if you don't. After meeting three successive four month qualification periods, your status will be extended, but only until the end of the year in which you joined.

The Hyatt promo is simple and easy to use. The AA promo is best suited for two groups of people: those who only want status for a short period and those who don't currently have status, but plan on getting status next year via some combination of flying and loyalty point gaming It will require some organization, though, as it effectively removes thinking about the qualifications as a yearly goal and turns it into a goal that has to be accomplished every four months.

See Greg’s guide to earning AAdvantage Loyalty Points without flying here

It could be useful for people who are pursuing AAdvantage status, but want to get higher up. If you give up on trying to earn points for this year and get a status upgrade, you can start working on your goal for next year. There are two things that would make doing this difficult.

You can only register once every 24 months, so you can't have another status pass challenge in the foreseeable future.

The actual membership year is from 3/1-2/28. All of the points earned between now and March would not count towards the status match, even though they would count towards the match. Status is only given through the rest of the membership year. If you want Platinum status, you need to earn 25,000 Loyalty Points between now and March 23rd to extend your status for another four months.

I don't like the promo because it's too complex and it overlaps the membership year. It will be useful to many people and the one advantage that it has over the Hyatt promo is that it gives a meaningful status while you are trying to qualify. Platinum and Platinum Pro give away complimentary first class upgrades, complimentary main cabin extra seating, free checked bags and mileage bonuses, but you have to get them on longer flights.

Explorist status isn't a status level to write about. It doesn't have breakfast or club access, it doesn't have free parking, and it doesn't have a suite upgrade. Being able to upgrade to Globalist status with Hyatt after staying 20 nights is a good chance for someone with Platinum Pro or Executive Platinum status. Being able to earn only 1/3 of the required nights for globalist status could be a good thing. You only get 90 nights to do that, which is less than the required365 nights.

Some of the benefits in the World of Hyatt program come from the Milestone rewards program. An Executive Platinum member who stays 20 nights will be eligible for suite upgrades at check-in, but they won't receive any Suite Upgrade Awards that can be redeemed ahead of their stay to lock in a suite until they've stayed 50 A person who stays 10 nights will not be eligible for two Club Access Awards until they have earned 20 elite night credits in the same year. This could be a useful challenge for current AAdvantage elite members since some status with Hyatt is better than no status.