As I have already posted about, there are certain cards that offer elite status at hotels. You can obtain low to mid level elite status either automatically as a card holder, or after meeting spending requirements on your various cards. You can learn about these cards and the requirements here.
However, someone recently asked me whether is was possible to obtain top tier elite status with a specific loyalty program without flying (on the airline) or staying (at the hotel chain), i.e. via credit card spend. For some of us that don’t have the ability to travel many many times a year, spending on a credit card is something that we may be able to do to obtain that lofty status. Well, there are a couple of programs that do allow you to obtain top tier elite status, World Of Hyatt and IHG One Rewards.
World Of Hyatt
Before we delve into the way to obtain top tier status with the card, let’s review how to achieve World Of Hyatt Elite Status in general. You get status by 1. having a Chase World Of Hyatt credit card, 2. accumulating base points or 3. accumulating qualifying nights.
1. Having the Chase World Of Hyatt card or the Chase World Of Hyatt Business Card
You will receive Discoverist status (low tier status) as long as your Hyatt card is open.
With the personal card, you receive 5 qualifying night credits towards your next tier status every year.Same page link to Offer Details Plus, 2 additional qualifying night credits toward your next tier status every time you spend $5,000 on your card.
With the business card, You’ll earn 5 tier qualifying night credits for every $10K you spend in calendar year.
Qualifying nights are explained below.
2. Accumulating Base points-these are points that you earn from money that you spend during your Hyatt stays (room rate and incidentals). Remember, you earn 5 base points per $1 when you stay at a Hyatt or M life resort. However, if you are like me and can’t travel every other week, you won’t have the ability to spend enough at Hyatt to earn top tier status. Also, let’s hope you are using points for many of your stays and not paying for them! So these base points are irrelevant for those of us who are not constantly traveling and staying at a Hyatt.
3. Accumulating Qualifying Nights-A qualifying night is any night stayed at a participating hotel that you pay an eligible rate and associate your World Of Hyatt membership number with your reservation. An eligible rate includes nights in which you use points for your stay. Note, if you pay for more than one room during a particular stay, only one room will be eligible to earn Qualifying Nights.
So what are the requirements in terms of qualifying nights for each level of status?
Discoverist status-you must stay 10 qualifying nights-irrelevant, we get Discoverist status with the card.
Explorist status–you must stay 30 qualifying nights
Globalist status–you must stay 60 qualifying nights
So also, unless you are traveling a ton, earning 30 and 60 qualifying nights is near impossible.
BUT YOU HAVE THE ABILITY TO ACHIEVE WORLD OF HYATT TOP TIER ELITE STATUS strictly based on spending on your Chase World Of Hyatt Credit card…
For Explorist status you would need to earn 25 qualifying nights (because you get 5 already-see above). That would be $62,500 in spend on the card. (25/2*5,000).
For Globalist status you would need 55 nights. That would be $137,500 in spend. (55/2*5,000).
I realize that these are lofty goals, but at least it is a possibility. Also, it is a possibility that is not offered by many of the other hotel loyalty programs.
Caveat-before you start putting a crazy amount of spend on your Hyatt card to achieve this top tier elite status, make sure you will reap the benefits of the status. I would only go for this if I had a long Hyatt Resort stay coming up. Who knows, maybe I will book one in the future now that we have started to accumulate World Of Hyatt points and maybe I will go for that top tier status. TBD!
IHG One Rewards
To achieve IHG’s top tier Spire Status you must earn at least 75,000 Qualifying points during a calendar year or earned a minimum of 75 nights at Qualifying Rates during a calendar year.
Some examples of “Qualifying Points” are points earned on paid stays (at qualifying rates-see below), points earned on your Chase credit card spend, and points earned on certain partner activity.
So what follows is earning 75,000 points on one of your Chase IHG cards should get you to Spire. It has also been reported that transfers from Chase Ultimate Rewards to IHG One Rewards count as qualifying points, so a transfer of 75,000 Chase points could get you to Spire too.
Marriott Bonvoy
These are the status levels for Bonvoy…
Member-0-9 nights
Silver Elite-10-24 nights
Gold Elite-25-49 nights
Platinum Elite-50-74 nights
Titanium Elite-75-99 nights
Ambassador Elite-over 100 nights and $20,000 in qualifying spend.
Chase Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Card-You can earn 1 Elite Night Credit towards Elite Status for every $5,000 you spend so you have unlimited potential.
Caveat-before you start putting a crazy amount of spend on your Bonvoy card to achieve this top tier elite status, make sure you will reap the benefits of the status.