Should you buy hotel or airline elite status?

Hotel and airline elite status is serious business for frequent travelers — especially late this year and early next. And it makes sense — if you spend a lot of time on the road, why not make sure you’re as comfortable as possible?

Elite status of hotels and airlines can put you at the front of the plane, give you more leg room, protect you from fees, open up better customer service, provide free breakfastincluding snacks, bigger rooms, shorter lines, etc. But it’s not always easy to earn elite status the old-fashioned way.

To give you an example, in addition to accumulating 15,000 Dollars qualify for medalstop earn Delta Air Lines Diamond Elite Status request increase to 125,000 Medal Qualifying Miles each year. If you earn 1 MQM per mile flown, that’s the equivalent of traveling halfway around the world or around the world five times. That’s a ton of flying.

So you might be wondering if buying elite status makes more sense. Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to secure top-elite positions without having to fly those miles every year. And in some cases, it may be worth buying the status you need instead of spending weeks or weeks on the road.

Do mathematics

To determine if you should buy your way to the top (or middle) of the elite status pack, you’ll need to do a little math.

First you will have to calculate how much it will cost to buy the status — more on that in a minute. Then consider how much the perks are worth. Perks are worth almost nothing if you don’t use them, so you should at least have a general idea of ​​your travel plans for next year.

For example, if you’re chasing elite status with two confirmable first-class upgrades, you need to know how much it’s worth. Is the domestic upgrade worth $150? What about $300? You are the judge. If the upgrade is an international long-haul upgrade, that number could be much higher, but pricing is up to your situation. Please refer to these guides for our assessment of these benefits.

If it costs you $500 to buy up to elite status, this level will give you $1,500 in perks, you should open your wallet and lock it. You should also consider how much it will cost to make one mileage or running mattress. This can sometimes be less expensive than an outright purchase state.

Related: Earn elite airline status with these credit cards

How to buy elite status

There are a few different ways to purchase elite status, so we’ll break down each one.

Credit

The easiest (and sometimes cheapest) way to achieve elite status is most likely through a credit card.

Some credit cards come with automatic elite status. Others require a certain amount of spending on the card to gain status. In either case, factor in the annual fee for the card, plus the potential opportunity cost of any spending you’ll transfer to the card to gain status.

A pretty straightforward example, if you want to get the top spot of Hilton Diamond, you can get it just by having Hilton honors American Express Aspire card. This card has an annual fee of $450 (see rates and fees), but as long as you open the card, you get it right away Hilton Diamond Status, can get you free breakfast or dining credits at most Hilton properties, lounge access, upgradeability, bonus points, etc. I wouldn’t say it costs you. $450 for Diamond status as the card also comes with other valuable perks, including up to $250 annual airline fee credit, up to $250 Hilton resort credit dollars, 150,000 bonus points after spending $4,000 on purchases for the first three months or more. But there is certainly an annual cost to having the card.

Information about the Hilton Aspire Amex card has been independently collected by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

The Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express® Card is another great example of a credit card that offers valuable hotel status just by holding the card. Cardholders enjoy Marriott Bonvoy Platinum Elite Statusincludes benefits such as Annual selection benefitsadvanced room upgrades (including suites), dedicated phone lines and Free breakfast at some properties. This card has an annual fee of $650 (see rates and fees), but with an annual meal credit of $300 ($25 per month), one free night worth 85,000 points and many other perks, this card could be worthy of travelers who want Marriott Bonvoy status from day one.

Plenty of credit cards can dramatically shorten your path to hotel elite status or provide the status you’re after purely just by having the card.

While airlines typically don’t offer status just for holding a certain credit card, some airline cards can help you qualify for status without having to fly.

For example, you may be eligible for all published articles A Advantage status tier (including top-tier Executive Platinum) through spend with a co-branded American Airlines credit card alone. All US co-branded credit cards earn 1 Loyalty Point per dollar, minus the free annual fee AAdvantage® Aviator® Mastercard®Earn half of Loyalty Points for every dollar spent.

Information about the AAdvantage® Aviator® card has been independently collected by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

Most United credit card earns 500 Premier qualifying points for every $12,000 spent, up to 1,000, 2,000 or 4,000 PQPs per year. In 2023, United will increase PQP credit card maximums.

Related: Compare the top 4 hotel elite status levels — and how to achieve them in 2022

Buy your way closer to elite status

United Airlines will immediately sell you your PQP through the Premier Accelerator program if you currently have a reservation. Your PQP offer will be unique to the upcoming trip(s) you have booked. Below is an example of the PQP that TPG employee Kyle Olsen was provided with on an upcoming economy class trip from San Francisco International Airport (SFO) to Dulles International Airport (IAD).

This is an expensive way to guarantee status, but it gets you the mileage you need.

In 2019, I used United’s Premier Accelerator to Close the gap with Premier Gold status because I don’t want to add any flights to my year-end schedule.

Fully purchased status

Some airline programs allow certain members to purchase their elite status outright. Usually, these offers appear after you miss the January status. But if airline status is important to you, don’t just sit there and expect deals to pop up next year. You should do your best to qualify for status before resetting the eligibility period. All major program eligibility periods run from January 1 to December 31, with the exception of AAdvantage, which runs from March 1 to February 28.

We’ve seen overpriced New Year’s Eve status offers from airline programs like AAdvantage, Delta SkyMiles and United MileagePlus.

If you’re racing against time to secure your elite status before the end of the year, use these guidelines as inspiration:

Some say you should get off the bus elite status hamster wheel. They will tell you that you shouldn’t spend real money pursuing benefits that aren’t always achievable. Instead, they argue, you should use that money to buy the perks you need when you need it. They’re not exactly wrong, but in addition to well-known perks like upgrades and free food, status can come with little known benefits that can add up and make a difference.

Every plan has a status tier for the benefits to kick in. For example, status tiers like United Premier Gold and Marriott Bonvoy Platinum Elite offer many of the same benefits as top-tier Premier 1K and Ambassador Elite status.

If you don’t want to get on a different plane or stay in a different hotel, it could be worth it to dramatically change your purchase or spend with a credit card. However, buying your way into the club can be very expensive, especially when airlines send buy-back offers. While there’s no one-size-fits-all recommendation, consider the benefits and decide if it’s worth it.

And while status is important to many travelers, don’t stress too much about making the right decision. Unless lifetime elite status Now that you’re online, you’ll have the opportunity to make all of these same decisions about elite status again next year, admittedly at higher spending thresholds on some programs.

Additional reporting by Kyle Olsen.

For Hilton Honors Amex Aspire card rates and fees, click here.
For Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Amex card prices and fees, click here.