Beginners Guide - Airline Elite Status and Hotel Elite Status

You’ve probably heard the term “elite status,” even if you don’t know what it is. So we’re going to do an introduction to the concept of airline elite status and hotel elite status, to be followed eventually by in-depth pieces about the various program.

Simply put, elite status is a set of rewards given to a company’s best customers. It may include both “hard benefits,” such as cash back or something else with a monetary value; and “soft benefits,” like a dedicated check-in line or pre-boarding on your flight.

You’re Valuable to the Company (Sort of)

If you have elite status with a company, you’re more valuable to them than the average customer. And the more business you do, the higher your status level. It’s a virtuous circle: You do business with them, they give you elite status, you take advantage of the benefits and do more business, they give you even more benefits, etc.

They don’t love you. But they love your money.

How Do I Know if They Really Love Me?

Here’s a hint: They don’t love you. But they love your money, and are happy to give you a few extra goodies if it gets you to fork over more green.

Here’s How You Get Elite Status

Every company, whether it’s Southwest or Starbucks, has a different way of offering you status, but they all revolve around the amount of business you give them. Here’s how the airlines and hotels do it. Note that this is a very general overview. Each individual program has its idiosyncrasies.

Airline Elite Status

Delta airlines elite status miles — Delta Medallion Airline Elite Status

For most major carriers and airline elite status, your status is based on how many miles you fly, combined with how much you spend. For example, if you fly 25,000 miles with Delta and spend $3,000 in a year, you will earn Silver Elite (Silver Medallion) status. Some airlines will also give you benefits based on how many segments you fly (one take off and landing), but most people earn status through spending.

Beginner’s Hint: The miles you earn toward elite status are different than the ones you can redeem for free flights (redeemable miles). Elite miles are generally based on how far you fly, with a potential kicker for the type of ticket you buy. Airlines track the two separately. In other words, if you spend $300 to fly 1,000 miles, you’ll earn 1,500 redeemable miles (since Delta gives you five miles per dollar) but only 1,000 toward your elite level. It may sound confusing but the airlines do a pretty good job of differentiating between the two.

The low costs carriers like Southwest and JetBlue operate differently. Their airline elite status is based entirely on spending (again, with separate credit for segments). How far you fly is generally meaningless.

Typical airline perks include:

Free checked baggage
Priority boarding and customer service phone numbers
Upgrades to better seats and/or first class
Bonus miles
Lounge access (or lounge access for international flights)

Note: Airline credit cards will often give you a boost to your elite miles and/or waive spending requirements.

Airlines have as many as four different elite levels, so be sure to keep track of where you stand. If you’re on the bubble of a tier at the end of the year, it may even make sense to take an inexpensive flight just to push yourself over the top!

Hotel Elite Status

The requirements to earn elite status at Hyatt. I have no idea who came up with those ridiculous names for the different levels.

Fortunately, hotel elite status programs are simpler than the ones from the airlines. There aren’t a lot of differentiators between the programs to worry about, and keeping track of your points is easy. The more you spend, the more base points you earn. And the more base points you earn, the higher your elite level.

Like airlines, hotels often have multiple levels for their elite programs. The higher, the better. Some programs, like Hilton, have a carryover policy. Any nights above the highest level you earned are carried over to the following year. For instance, Hilton Elite Status requires 40 nights per year for Gold status and 60 for Diamond status. So staying, say, 50 nights, gets you nothing extra, right? Nope. You earned 10 excess nights toward your elite status, so they’ll count those 10 nights toward next year. That’s a powerful tool.

Typical hotel perks include: