Now that we are ending 2025, I wanted to recap where our elite status ended up with airlines and hotels. At the beginning of 2026, here is where we stand:

2026 Elite Status (Me):
Airlines:
Delta Platinum Medallion
British Airways Gold (until 2/26)
Hotels:
Hyatt Globalist
Marriott Platinum (Lifetime)
IHG Platinum
Hilton Gold

2026 Elite Status (Mrs.):
Delta Silver Medallion
Marriott Gold
Hilton Diamond (maybe?)

My British Airways Gold status came courtesy of a status match from Delta and a paid round-trip flight to extend the status until the end of February 2026 so this will actually drop off in a couple of months. I don’t expect BA to give me a soft landing to Silver or anything like that. I took advantage of this status a few times when flying AA to get Main Cabin Extra seats and lounge access on domestic flights, but in the end, I didn’t get much out of it. I do have one more domestic trip on AA in March where I’ve already been able to get us free Main Cabin Extra seats with this status so that’s something at least.

Delta Platinum continues to be the sweet spot as it’s not too hard to earn with a combination of flying and holding Delta Amex cards with a reasonable spend. We have a cash booking on Delta One returning from New Zealand in March that should give both of us a nice MQD boost early in the year. My wife will likely also fly enough again to maintain her Silver status so she at least gets some elite perks when flying for business without me. I will have to determine how much spend to put on the Delta Amex Reserve card, but will probably wait until later in the year when I have a better sense of all my Delta MQD earning from flying for 2026. I usually end up with 25-30 segments per year on Delta.

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. I booked a 10 night local stay at a 3500 point Category 1 Hyatt Place for December 2026 just in case I need those nights at the end of the year. I did something similar in 2025 and ended up not needing any of those nights so I canceled them. My Hilton status is just from holding an Amex Platinum card. We tend to focus on my wife’s Hilton account and I expect I’ll get her an Amex Hilton Aspire card at some point this year to allow her to continue as a Diamond if Hilton drops her to Gold at the beginning of 2026. I have seen data points where people just continue as Hilton Diamond without even holding the Aspire card for several years so fingers crossed. My IHG status and my wife’s Marriott status also come from simply holding specific credit cards and I don’t value the statuses all that much.

So what do our plans look like for 2027?

2027 Elite Status (Me):
Airlines:
Delta Platinum Medallion
Hotels:
Hyatt Globalist
Marriott Platinum (Lifetime)
IHG Platinum
Hilton Gold

2026 Elite Status (Mrs.):
Delta Silver Medallion
Marriott Gold
Hilton Diamond (maybe with Aspire card)

Of course, we have no idea what 2026 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 (95% of the time) and the other perks of Platinum status. When you combine that with our Delta SkyClub access from the Amex Platinum card and using credits for Clear/TSA Precheck, it makes for a more pleasant experience.

With the hotel credits from Amex Platinum and Chase Sapphire Reserve, you can essentially book yourself a high status level stay with FHR and The Edit so hotel status becomes less important on those stays. As for flights, we tend to book business and first class on all long-haul flights anyway, so again, status doesn’t really factor into those decisions.

What statuses are you chasing in 2026?

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. I also recommend using CardPointers to track your credit card spending discount offers.