tl;dr – Where I plan to chase status in 2026.
It’s the official ‘back to it’ week of 2026, and now’s the time to talk ‘planning.’ When it comes to elite status and loyalty, I value it a lot less than in past years. For airlines, I’m almost always looking to redeem for a premium cabin fare, which includes many of the benefits I care about (lounge access, extra baggage), and if I’m already receiving these benefits when I book on any carrier, I don’t see a lot of reason to chase loyalty with a specific carrier. With regards to hotels, it’s a similar story – I find myself wanting to check out more and more properties (independents, boutiques) that aren’t part of a major chain. While I’ll enter the year with meaningful elite status at two leading chains, I’m not sure whether I’ll focus on keeping both of them. Here are my status plans for 2026:
Hotels
Hilton Honors
My Current Status: Gold
My 2026 Status Plans: No Status.
I have Hilton Honors Gold courtesy of the hotelier’s partnership with American Express, where Business Platinum cardholders receive automatic Hilton Honors Gold. I cancelled my card last year, so I’ll lose that status. I don’t tend to stay at Hilton properties too often, so I’m pretty OK with this. This is especially because Hilton will revamp its loyalty tiers, making Diamond less valuable along.
IHG
My Current Status: None
My 2026 Status Plans: No Status.
IHG, for me, just doesn’t have too many exciting properties. If IHG fully integrated Six Senses, particularly with the top-tier luxury brand’s impending growth plans, I’d be more interested, but otherwise, there aren’t too many properties I’m eager to visit.
Additionally, IHG’s loyalty program has always been a bit cumbersome to me. Top-tier Diamond status requires 70 nights, which, in my book, is a steep commitment, particularly as there aren’t the same elite night credit boosts for being an IHG credit cardholder as there are for Marriott cardholders. While the IHG One Rewards Premier card comes with IHG Platinum status, this tier doesn’t guarantee members complimentary breakfast, and upgrades are prioritized in favor of Diamond elites. Thus, to really maximize your chances of room upgrades, early check-in/late checkout, and complimentary breakfast, you need either 70 nights or a targeted status match offer to enjoy IHG Diamond status.
Marriott Bonvoy
My Current Status: Titanium Elite
My 2026 Status Plans: Platinum Elite
I’m one year short of Lifetime Platinum Elite, so I figured I’ll stay the course. I didn’t chase Titanium Elite again in 2025 after qualifying in 2024, so my status will gracefully degrade to Platinum Elite. I’ll get 15 nights from my Ritz-Carlton Credit Card, so I just need another 35 to get to 50 for my 10th year of Platinum Elite and the Lifetime milestone. If I can strategically time my stays to when Marriott runs a double-elite nights promotion, that’ll mean I just need 18 nights.
Hyatt
My Current Status: Globalist
My 2026 Status Plans: Globalist
I’ve been a Hyatt Globalist for four years, and in 2025, I just grazed by to hit the milestone once more. I am of the opinion that because of Hyatt’s generous milestone award means Globalist isn’t worth it for most people. Whether you’re a frequent traveler who doesn’t want to be locked-in to ‘one chain’ or an infrequent traveler – if you want to have a top-notch experience at a Hyatt hotel, you’re better off trading for/seeing if someone will gift you a Suite Upgrade Award, Guest of Honor Award, Club Upgrade Award or even one of Hyatt’s three types of Free Nights Awards. It’s such a low barrier to entry, and all of those awards are 1) guaranteed benefits and 2) pretty generous in what they provide.
With all that said, if there is a chain where I’ll attain top-tier status in 2026, it’s probably going to be Hyatt once again. I imagine I’ll need to take advantage of a double-elite nights promotion (hopefully Hyatt offers one) to supercharge my progress. I do have the Chase World of Hyatt Visa credit card, which gives me a 5-night head start.
Leading Hotels of the World
My Current Status: None
My 2026 Status Plans: No Status
I dropped my Platinum Cards in 2025, so I didn’t receive the complimentary Leaders Club Silver status that is one of the Platinum Card benefits.
Accor (ALL)
My Current Status: None
My 2026 Status Plans: No Status
I’d love to spend more time at Accor properties, but I don’t love how redemptions work with the program. In Accor’s ALL program, you earn Reward Points for monetary value (where 2,000 points equal €40), which doesn’t leave as much room for finding ‘steals’. This monetary value redemption is similar to GHA Discovery (discussed below), but GHA Discovery has way more desirable properties on its platform.
GHA Discovery
My Current Status: Platinum
My 2026 Status Plans: No Status
My GHA Discovery Platinum status is a result of my status match to Rotana, which was then incorporated in GHA. While I hope to use the Platinum benefits at a few properties this year, I doubt I’ll make an effort to keep this status through consistent stays.
Airlines
I have one definitive plan for airline status in 2026, and that’s with Singapore Airlines. I took advantage of the Marriott-Singapore Airline partnership/challenge, that allows one to achieve Star Alliance Gold by flying just four flights on Singapore Airlines. I’ll try and get in four smaller hops later this year to secure Star Alliance Gold for a year plus.
American
I’ve written in the past about achieving meaningful American Airlines status (Platinum Pro or Executive Platinum) largely through AAdvantage Hotel stays. I plan to book several hotels through American’s white-labeled Agoda platform using my Citi Executive Card and to see how far I can get.
My Current Status: Gold
My 2026 Status Plans: No Status
Delta
My Current Status: None
My 2026 Status Plans: No Status
JetBlue
My Current Status: None
My 2026 Status Plans: No Status
United
My Current Status: None
My 2026 Status Plans: No Status
Alaska
My Current Status: None
My 2026 Status Plans: No Status
Southwest
My Current Status: None
My 2026 Status Plans: No Status
Conclusion
Nothing too exciting here when it comes to elite status plans. That said, I have some fun travel planned for this year that I look forward to sharing with you all.
