We’re halfway through 2024 already and my thoughts have turned to 2025, at least in terms of figuring out which airline and hotel elite statuses I would like to keep or work towards. I’ll run through what I currently have and what I am aiming for in 2025, both for me and Mrs. EmptyNesterMiles. Perhaps this will help you decide your own status goals for 2025. For simplicity’s sake, I’m ignoring rental car status here as they are easy to get just from holding various credit cards.

2024 Elite Status (Me):
Airlines:
Delta Platinum Medallion
British Airways Gold (through November 8, 2024)
Jet Blue Mosaic 3
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Elite Silver
Hotels:
Hyatt Globalist
Marriott Platinum (Lifetime)
IHG Gold
Hilton Silver

2024 Elite Status (Mrs.):
Delta Silver Medallion
Hilton Diamond

For Delta status, I should easily requalify for Delta Platinum for one more year before I have to start worrying about spending a lot on a Delta Reserve card. I had about 77,000 rollover MQMs last year that I can turn into $7700 MQDs which will get me over the line for Platinum again when I eventually convert them.

For my wife’s Delta status, she was gifted Silver Medallion status from Delta in May of this year. Delta seems to have granted the status to members who have held it in the past (she had it in 2015) in an effort to get them to try and requalify again for next year through holding a Delta Amex credit card. Their efforts may have paid off. I realized that my wife will be close enough to Silver for 2025 that just getting a Delta Platinum or Reserve card would achieve the status for her for another year. As she may have more business travel coming up (without me), the status will at least get her preferred seats and earlier boarding.

I status matched to JetBlue and Singapore this year when they offered temporary status matches. I will definitely let the JetBlue status expire as they now only offer three non-stop destinations from Atlanta (JFK, LGA, Boston) and it’s easy enough to book those on other airlines (or JetBlue if the price works) without worrying about status. I’ll only end up flying on JetBlue a couple of times this year anyway even with the status. I’ll let the Singapore status expire as well, but I may see if I can leverage either of these for other status matches with Star Alliance.

British Airways is a bit more interesting. I status matched to BA Gold from Delta in May. In order to keep the status for another year, I have to fly a paid BA business or first class round-trip by November 8th. While I wouldn’t book an extra trip just to do this, I will likely have a trip to the UK in late October/early November that should just get me requalified by the deadline if I book a paid business class ticket. The good news on this is that if I book this ticket using Amex points through Amex Travel while holding a Business Platinum card, I can receive 35% of the points rebated, which makes the net points cost reasonable enough to consider this option. I’ll write a detailed post about this if I decide to take the plunge.

BA Gold status gives me OneWorld Emerald status which provides a lot of great benefits even on domestic OneWorld flights on American and Alaska, including lounge access. If I can get this status extended on a trip I was taking anyway, I might as well try and make it happen. We usually fly American a couple of times a year and may start doing it more frequently now that our daughter lives in Washington, DC and American’s prices are usually much lower than Delta. I can also use my Alaska miles (thanks Bilt!) to book very inexpensive tickets on American (as low as 4500 miles). It will be nice to have lounge access and other benefits on those flights.

For hotels, I am on track to requalify for Hyatt Globalist with a combination of hotel stays and spending on the World of Hyatt business credit card. With Lifetime Platinum status, I don’t worry about Marriott qualification anymore although I do have some Marriott Nightly Upgrade Awards to try and use this year as I hit 50 elite nights last year. As for IHG, we generally don’t stay at premium IHG properties where I would make their status a priority.

As you can see based on our respective status, the only bookings we are making through my wife’s account right now are Hilton bookings. She does not have the Hilton Aspire Amex card (which confers automatic Diamond status), but we spent enough on her Hilton Business Amex card last year to qualify her for Diamond status and will requalify that way again. Neither of us currently have the Aspire, but one of us will probably get the card next year so that we will have Diamond status for beyond 2025. The card is definitely worth holding just for the annual free night certificate and its other benefits that make it a money-maker. We’ve just been working through some Chase cards and avoiding increasing our 5/24 count this year so we have not got around to getting the Aspire.

So what do our plans look like for 2025?

2025 Elite Status (Me):
Airlines:
Delta Platinum Medallion
British Airways Gold (possibly)
Hotels:
Hyatt Globalist
Marriott Platinum (Lifetime)
IHG Gold
Hilton Silver

2025 Elite Status (Mrs.):
Delta Silver Medallion
Hilton Diamond (Aspire card)

Yup, they basically look the same, minus the superfluous JetBlue and Singapore statuses. Of course, there could be some new status match opportunities that come up this year. I also have in the back of my mind the possibility of using that BA Gold status (if I extend it into 2025) to match back to Delta Platinum status for 2026 in case I don’t re-qualify or don’t want to spend a ton on my Delta Reserve card. I’ll revisit this post in December and see where we stand for 2025.

If you have questions about this post, let me know in the comments or send me an email at emptynestermiles@gmail.com. If you are thinking about opening a new credit card, please use one of my links.