Now that we are in 2025, I wanted to recap where we ended up with our elite status for this year and some early thoughts on what will stick beyond this year and what may only be temporary. At the beginning of 2025, here is where we stand:

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

2025 Elite Status (Mrs.):
Delta Silver Medallion
Marriott Gold
Hilton Diamond

My British Airways Gold status came courtesy of a status match from Delta and a paid round-trip flight to extend the status all the way until the end of February 2026. I hope to take advantage of the OneWorld Emerald status that it confers at least a few times when flying OneWorld airlines like American Airlines this year.

Delta Platinum seems to be the sweet spot as it’s not too hard to earn with a combination of flying and holding a Delta Reserve card with a reasonable spend. I do have some large bills to pay in the first quarter so I will take advantage of that and put some of that spend on the Reserve to get ahead of renewing my Delta status for another year. My wife should fly enough to maintain her Silver status so she at least gets some elite perks when flying for business without me.

As for hotels, I should be able to continue as a Hyatt Globalist with a combination of stays plus some spend on the World of Hyatt Business credit card. My Hilton Diamond status came as a surprise as Delta granted me a six-month status match which was nice. We tend to focus on my wife’s Hilton account and I expect I’ll get her an Amex Aspire card at some point this year to allow her to continue as a Diamond.

My IHG status and my wife’s Marriott status came from simply holding specific credit cards and I don’t value the statuses all that much. With Accor, I did the status match from Bilt on January 1st, but I’m not really seeing much value in the status or the program, although we have a trip to France and Belgium this year so perhaps we will try and stay at one of their properties. That one won’t get extended unless they offer an extension for free.

So what do our plans look like for 2026?

2026 Elite Status (Me):
Airlines:
Delta Platinum Medallion
Hotels:
Hyatt Globalist
Marriott Platinum (Lifetime)
IHG Platinum
Hilton?

2026 Elite Status (Mrs.):
Delta Silver Medallion

Marriott Gold
Hilton Diamond (Aspire card)

Of course, we have no idea what 2025 will bring as far as status matches or other ways to earn status. Hyatt’s partnership with American Airlines has gifted us status a few times in the past so we might see that again. At this point, most of the domestic airlines sell their first-class seats rather than save them for upgrades, so there isn’t a strong likelihood of upgrading often on Delta, especially in a fortress hub like Atlanta. That’s OK though. I do enjoy the automatic comfort plus upgrades at booking (90% of the time) and the other perks of Platinum status.

I’m not sure if I will bother to extend my Hilton Diamond status with an Aspire card because as long as one of us has it, that’s good enough. The same goes for Hyatt where I will maintain status assuming it makes sense based on our travel plans. It is nice to have Marriott Lifetime Platinum status, so I never have to worry about meeting any requirements to enjoy the perks there for the few times a year we stay at those properties.

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.