Hyatt & American Airlines Now Offering Select Elite Members Fast Track Challenges To Status

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At the beginning of March the World of Hyatt Hyatt and American Airlines AAdvantage announced they would be launching a partnership that would offer members of both loyalty programs reciprocal points earning, status challenges and, for American’s very top-tier elites, complimentary World of Hyatt Globalist status.

At the time of the announcement there weren’t too many solid details available but now we’re starting to see progress.

American Airlines AAdvantage and World of Hyatt have been sending out emails to their members encouraging them to link their accounts to the other’s program, confirming reciprocal points earning and offering members the opportunity to earn status at an accelerated rate.

I’m an American Airlines Platinum Elite (I have Lifetime Platinum status and have not credited a single flight to the AAdvantage program this year) and I have no status at all with Hyatt so I’ve only received an email from American asking me to link my accounts (but there are details of the offers being made to Hyatt elites later on in this post).

By following the link within the email from American I can access a landing page designed to allow AAdvantage members to link their accounts to the World of Hyatt:

On this page American confirms the following:

• Earn 1 AAdvantage bonus mile for every eligible $1 you spend on qualifying Hyatt stays and experiences.
• ConciergeKey℠ members can receive World of Hyatt Globalist status.
• AAdvantage Executive Platinum, Platinum Pro and Platinum members can earn World of Hyatt elite status at an accelerated rate.
• You must link your AAdvantage account to your Hyatt account to receive these benefits.
• The name in your AAdvantage account must match the name in your World of Hyatt account.
• Program participation is subject to the terms and conditions.

There’s also a link to World of Hyatt elite status offers.

Fast Track Offers To World of Hyatt Status

As promised back in March, select American Airlines Executive Platinum, Platinum Pro and Platinum members can earn World of Hyatt status at an accelerated rate.

Here’s a link to see if you’ve been targeted for a fast track status offer (you will need to have linked your AAdvantage and World of Hyatt accounts first)

I can only see the offer that I’ve been sent (as an American Airlines Platinum member) and this is what it is:

In case the image isn’t showing in some people’s browsers here are the details of my fast track offer:

• Resgister by 1 October 2019 to get Explorist status for 90 days
• Stay 10 qualifying nights at any Hyatt hotel or resort within 90 days of registration to extend Exporist status through 28 February 2021 and earn 4 Club Lounge Access Awards.

This is actually a pretty generous offer.

To earn World of Hyatt Explorist status in the regular way a guest would need to stay 30 qualifying nights in a year (or earn 50,000 base points) and, although the requirement to stay 10 nights in 90 days would actually pro-rate up to 40 nights in a year, most people will probably find it easier to stay 10 nights in 90 days than 30 nights in a year.

Here are the terms and conditions of my offer:

To qualify for this offer, you must be an AAdvantage® Platinum or Platinum Pro member who has already successfully linked your AAdvantage® account to your World of Hyatt® account (“Eligible Member”). To participate in this offer, Eligible Members must register by October 1, 2019, through the dedicated offer registration page provided by Hyatt or American Airlines.

Upon registration, the Eligible Member will receive a trial upgrade to Explorist status for 90 days (“Explorist Trial Period”). The trial will provide the member with the benefits of Explorist status, as set forth in the World of Hyatt program terms, provided that the member isn’t already a higher tier in the World of Hyatt program. To maintain Explorist status through February 2021, the member must complete at least ten (10) Tier-Qualifying Nights (as defined in the World of Hyatt program terms) during his or her Explorist Trial Period. If the member completes the 10 Tier-Qualifying Nights, (s)he will also receive four (4) Club Lounge Access Awards (which are subject to the World of Hyatt program terms).

Only Tier-Qualifying Nights completed by the member during the Explorist Trial Period will count toward this offer. Stays completed by the member prior to the start of his/her Explorist Trial Period will not count towards this offer (even if any night stayed otherwise qualifies as a Tier-Qualifying Night). Further, in order for Tier-Qualifying Nights completed during the member’s Explorist Trial Period to count toward this offer, the member must check out of his or her reservation during his or her Explorist Trial Period. If member checks into a reservation during his or her Explorist Trial Period or Qualification Period, but does not check out until after the Explorist Trial Period or Qualification Period has ended, no nights stayed as part of that reservation will count toward this offer. Explorist Trial Period begins at registration and may not be extended. World of Hyatt Credit Card nights do not qualify as Tier-Qualifying Nights.

If the member earns Explorist status through February 28, 2021 by completing the criteria above, his/her new status will be applied within 7 business days of checkout of the stay during which (s)he completes the applicable requirement.

Limit one Explorist status offer each calendar year per Eligible Member except as otherwise provided. Hyatt reserves the right to alter or withdraw this offer at any time without notice. This offer is subject to the complete terms and conditions of the World of Hyatt program, available at worldofhyatt.com/terms.  Additional American Airlines terms and conditions apply, including the AAdvantage^® terms and conditions and American Airlines’ terms and conditions relating to the AAdvantage^® and World of Hyatt promotion.

There are a number of points to take away from the terms and conditions:

1. AAdvantage Platinum and Platinum Pro members are being targeted for Hyatt Explorist status challenges so it’s probably safe to assume that Executive Platinum members are being targeted for Globalist challenges.
2. All nights which would ordinarily count towards Explorist status will count towards the challenge….and that means that award night bookings will count towards the 10-night requirement.
3. The date you register for this promotion is key as you only have 90 days in which to complete the 10 nights from the moment registration is complete – I shall be delaying registration until the very last minute as I have an 8-night stay booked at a Hyatt property for December.
4. A stay that starts during the 90 challenge period but which ends after the 90 days is up will not count towards the challenge. If it looks like you’re going to be making such a stay it may be a good idea to move hotels on day 90 (assuming you need some of the nights to count).

American Airlines Status Challenges

Hyatt elites can earn 1 World of Hyatt point per dollar spent with American Airlines…and there are status challenges to be had too.

I have no Hyatt status whatsoever so I haven’t been sent a challenge for American Airlines status but reports of the challenges available are filtering in on Flyertalk.

Here’s what some Hyatt Globalists are being offered:

Take your World of Hyatt Globalist status to the next level and enjoy free AAdvantage® Platinum status for 3 months after you register.

Elevate your AAdvantage® status through January 31, 2021, by earning the required Elite Qualifying Dollars (EQDs) and either the required Elite Qualifying Miles (EQMs) or Elite Qualifying Segments (EQSs) between the date you register and the date 3 months after you register:

• • $1,000 EQDs and either 7,000 EQMs or 8 EQSs for Gold
  • $2,000 EQDs and either 12,500 EQMs or 16 EQSs for Platinum
  • $3,000 EQDs and either 20,000 EQMs or 24 EQSs for Platinum Pro
  • $5,000 EQDs and either 35,000 EQMs or 40 EQSs for Executive Platinum

Here’s what some Hyatt Explorists are being offered:

Take your World of Hyatt Explorist status to the next level and enjoy free AAdvantage® Gold status for 3 months after you register.

Keep your AAdvantage® Gold status through January 31, 2021 by earning the required Elite Qualifying Dollars (EQDs) and either the required Elite Qualifying Miles (EQMs) or Elite Qualifying Segments (EQSs) between the date you register and the date 3 months after you register:

• • $1,000 EQDs and either 7,000 EQMs or 8 EQSs

Rules:

Qualifying EQDs, EQMs and EQSs to extend status are earned when you fly on eligible tickets for flights operated by American Airlines or marketed by American, American Eagle®, British Airways, Finnair, Iberia and Japan Airlines.

There may be other offers available out there but these are the two I’m seeing reported for now.

The offer for Hyatt Explorists looks very poor (AAdvantage Gold status has very few benefits that you can’t already get courtesy of a $95/year credit card) and I’m surprised that Hyatt’s top-tier elites aren’t being given Platinum Pro status as their starting point. Platinum status seems mean.

From what I’ve seen so far it looks like AAdvantage Elites are getting a better deal than Hyatt’s elites.

Bottom Line

When the emails first started dropping into people’s inboxes yesterday a lot of the status challneges were not yet available…but that seems to have changed now.

If you’re an AAdvantage or World of Hyatt elite the important thing as this point is to make sure that your accounts are linked so that you can start earning AAdvantage Miles AND World of Hyatt points concurrently.

The next thing to do is to work out if the status challenge you’ve been offered (assuming you’ve been offered one) is worth taking and, if it is, to carefully choose when to register for the challenge.

Overall, it looks like the World of Hyatt/AAdvantage partnership will be a useful one for a lot of travelers but, from what I’m seeing right now, it looks like AAdvantage elites are doing better out of this than their Hyatt counterparts.

That suits me just fine but I expect there will be quite a few disgruntled World of Hyatt elites out there.

What challenge(s) were you targeted for and what do you think of this partnership?