By Shawn Gallagher
Today, American Airlines AAdvantage and World of Hyatt elite status members can earn bonus points when using each other’s loyalty program. AAdvantage elite members can earn 1 bonus mile per dollar spent on Hyatt purchases, and World of Hyatt elite members can earn 1 bonus point per dollar spent on American.
Unfortunately, this is coming to an end in 2025, and the overall changes do not seem to be good.
Let’s look at what will change, and what to expect from this partnership moving forward.
The Upcoming Changes
The current reciprocal points system, where you earn points with the other loyalty program, will end. Instead, elite members will have the ability to choose a perk based on how many loyalty points or tier-qualifying nights they’ve earned.
The system itself works the same way for both loyalty programs, but the perks are a bit different.
AAdvantage Elite Members And Hyatt Perks
AAdvantage members can redeem miles for free Hyatt nights or select a World of Hyatt award as a perk upon reaching Loyalty Point thresholds.
The free nights begin on January 2nd, 2025 and are as follows:
- 40,000 Loyalty Points: Redeem miles for a free night at a category 1-4 property
- 125,000 Loyalty Points: Redeem miles for a free night at a category 1-7 property
World of Hyatt awards begin on March 1, 2025 and are as follows:
- 100,000 Loyalty Points: Discoverist status
- 175,000 and 250,000 Loyalty Points: Explorist status
- 400,000, 550,000, and 750,000 Loyalty Points: Free night at a category 1-4 property
- 1M, 3M, and 5M Loyalty Points: Free night at a category 1-7 property
Related: World of Hyatt Credit Card Review
World of Hyatt Elite Members And AAdvantage Perks
Similarly, World of Hyatt members can redeem points and select awards for perks on American Airlines. These begin on January 1st, 2025.
American Airlines perks are as follows:
- 20 and 30 nights: 2 preferred seat coupons
- 40 and 50 nights: 2 Main Cabin Extra seat coupons
- 70, 80, and 90 nights: AAdvantage Gold status, valid for the full status membership year
- 100 nights: AAdvantage Platinum status, valid for the full status membership year
In addition to these perks, World of Hyatt Explorist and Globalists members can redeem Hyatt points to get AAdvantage status for 1 day.
- Gold status for a day for 5,000 points
- Platinum status for a day for 8,000 points
- Platinum Pro status for a day 12,000 points
Bottom Line
Man, this is quite the turnaround. This unfortunately seems like a big devaluation, especially considering there are better options out there to earn free Hyatt nights and American Airlines perks. Many might not find this partnership to be useful anymore.
I still think World of Hyatt and AAdvantage are great loyalty programs. It is sad, however, to see this extra opportunity to earn bonus points go away.
Featured image by Hyatt.