It's been quite a roller coaster of a year in the world of points and miles.
Delta Air Lines, for example, unveiled some pretty extreme changes to its SkyMiles loyalty program before softening some of those changes. Still, it's becoming much harder to earn Delta status next year. While I qualified for Diamond Medallion status for next year, the huge spending requirements for 2025 mean I will likely enjoy Diamond Medallion status in 2024 but give it up in the long term.
That's just one example of the big changes to the status landscape this year.
My elite status journey has been erratic over the past several years, to say the least. I've done several status challenges, gotten some big wins and been forced to cut my losses in a few programs. This year was no different.
There were also some incredible opportunities to take shortcuts to top-tier status in several programs, including World of Hyatt and American Airlines AAdvantage. Those status hacks got me fully invested once again in programs I had said goodbye to last year.
Hopefully, you'll be able to create your own path forward, and maybe my journey can teach you a few things, too.
I held AAdvantage Executive Platinum status for many years, but in 2018, American started making it more difficult (and expensive) to achieve top-tier status.
That's when I decided to try some new programs. I did status challenges for both Delta and Alaska Airlines, and I mostly stopped flying with American. Still, I managed to hit AAdvantage Platinum Pro in 2019, and that status was then extended for multiple years during the COVID-19 pandemic. My Platinum Pro status finally expired at the end of January 2022, though, and I dropped to the dreaded entry-level member status.
However, something interesting happened during that period. Alaska and American became Oneworld partners, and because I had top-tier Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan MVP Gold 100K status, I ended up with perks when flying American. I even wrote about how I'd been upgraded a ton as an Alaska elite member flying on American Airlines.
So, flying Alaska sent me back into the arms of American AAdvantage.
Related: What is American Airlines elite status worth?
Fast forward to 2022, and I wasn't able to requalify for Alaska MVP Gold 100K status, dropping down two levels to MVP Gold. But then, American did something to lure me back into the Oneworld fold.
American unveiled a new Instant Status Pass, which granted me Platinum Pro status until the end of March and the opportunity to extend it in rolling phases. If I earned 67,000 Loyalty Points, I could get boosted to Executive Platinum.
I did just that. Playing the Loyalty Points game has been wildly fun, and I've requalified for Executive Platinum status for the
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