For each of the last two years, I shared the hotel observations of a reader who each year racked up more than 240 elite nights on the road, mostly with Marriott, Hyatt, and IHG hotels.
The anonymous correspondent had concluded that Hyatt is the best chain if you can stick to full service properties not owned or managed by bad actors, but they don’t have a big enough footprint and too many of their hotels in the U.S. are limited service. So he still earns Marriott Ambassador status – but he’s reduced the business he gives them by about 40%.
He keeps expecting his travel to slow down. He’s tired of all the travel, and the mistreatment on the road. But pulling back to no more than 150 nights didn’t happen. And he reports back after another year with his observations on where the chains stand, as well as on his status with Delta.
100 flights and 258 hotel nights later, my 2024 travel ends
I ended my 2024 in travel in a much better position than I thought I would finish, as this was the second consecutive year where I >forecast a decline in my work-related travel.
The decline didn’t happen even though my kind of work changed unexpectedly. Yet, I kept traveling and somehow managed to keep Marriott Bonvoy ambassador through 2025, Hyatt World of Hyatt Globalist through 2025, and Delta Air Lines diamond medallion. That works out to 100 flights and 258 nights in hotels, including a handful of independents and a bunch of stays at IHG. I’ve excluded a vacation rental at an Airbnb.
The significant change in work led to a complete revamp of where I go to work. I also think there’s a strong chance that my travel in 2025 will be reduced to minimal levels.
As things stand now, I only have two trips booked for all of 2025. Usually, I would be scheduled at least three months out by now. Then again, my travel forecasts for the last two years have been wrong.
Maybe this is for the good.
Part of me is just sick of traveling. It’s just not enjoyable anymore. And, of course, it’s no fun to fly an airline or stay at a hotel when the airline or hotel no longer values loyalty or sees loyalty as a two-way street.
The following is my take on the travel loyalty programs I use and the statuses I will keep for 2025.
Delta Air Lines
Like most readers, I’m not happy with the direction Delta is going.
Their move to end awarding status based on the number of flights flown or the distance traveled resulted in me booking more nonstop flights. Before, I would happily take an extra connection or go out of the way since that would make a difference with my status and goal of hitting 2 million miles flown. But with status solely based on spending, there’s no reason to fly more frequently.
I end 2024 with 100 individual segments on Delta or Delta partners (like Air France) and spending over $34,000. That’s about 50 fewer segments than I used to fly, as I was hitting 150 segments for several consecutive years.
Delta’s one-time allowance of a rollover bonus for MQMs from the old system means I will automatically keep top-tier diamond status through January 2030. That’s five more years of diamond, regardless of how often I fly Delta.
I don’t think Delta could put the genie back in the bottle, but I’m not sure this will work for Delta in the long run. It seems like quite a few automatic multi-year diamonds are now free agents who can cheat on Delta and still keep whatever perks continue to come with diamond status.
IHG
I have flirted with IHG for years. The former Priority Club was the first hotel loyalty program that I joined. That would have been in the early 2000s. I also fondly remember staying at Holiday Inn properties as a child when traveling with family.
Over the years, I’ve been platinum, diamond, spire, and Intercontinental ambassador.
With 2024 finished, I’m just three nights short of the 40 nights required to keep my lounge access membership for another year. I could have done a mattress run but didn’t. I’ll also let my Intercontinental ambassador status lapse. And that promo to buy top-tier diamond didn’t catch my fancy.
Chasing IHG status isn’t worth it since you can’t even count on an Intercontinental to have a club lounge anymore. One example of a property without a lounge is the franchised Intercontinental Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport. Or if they do have a lounge, like the Intercontinental Houston and Intercontinental San Francisco, they don’t consistently serve hot food every night or maybe they limit you to just two drinks.
For 2025, I’ll be second-tier platinum through the cobranded credit card and probably stay 15 or 20 nights at Holiday Inn Expresses at places in small-town America where sometimes a Holiday Inn Express is the only good hotel option. I might consider IHG in the future if they were serious about giving Marriott and Hyatt a run for the money by improving the overall standard of hotels.
Hyatt
Early this year, when it looked like I might not travel much, I decided to keep globalist as a backup to Marriott ambassador as I wanted top-tier hotel status without having to worry about the spending threshold that Marriott imposes.
By putting everyday spending on Hyatt’s cobranded credit card, I managed to keep globalist status for another year even though I stayed fewer than 30 actual nights.
For me, Hyatt is still a difficult choice because there are many markets I travel to without a Hyatt property. And if there is a Hyatt, it’s probably a Hyatt Place. Do I really want to do 65 nights a year in a Hyatt Place? All these resorts and all-inclusives are great — if that’s your thing — but they don’t do much for business travelers domestically.
And like IHG’s Intercontinental, I’ve been disappointed in the number of Hyatt Regencies without club lounges. I struggle to think of a single Hyatt Regency domestically that I’ve stayed at over the past year or two with an open lounge. Sure, I get a restaurant breakfast but that’s about it. Hyatts with a club lounges are now the exception, not the rule.
In 2025, I’ll continue using my Hyatt credit card for spending as I think having globalist as a backup hotel top-tier status continues to make the most sense. That hints at my relationship with Bonvoy.
Marriott
Let’s just be honest: Marriott is awful. Just awful.
And let’s also admit that Marriott is no longer a hotelier. Over 70 percent of Marriott properties across all brands are franchised or licensed.
Hotel owners view Marriott as a booking platform. We — the people who stay in the rooms — are merely the product that Marriott sells to its real customers, the hotel owners.
Unfortunately, I’m one of those people with no real alternative to Marriott. I’m too invested in the Bonvoy ecosystem to give up Marriott cold turkey.
I’ve been an ambassador, the top-tier excluding semi-secretive cobalt, since before Bonvoy launched. I requalified in 2024 with just under 100 actual nights (excluding bonus nights and credit card nights) and spending just a few dollars over and above the $23,000 threshold. That works out to a minimum 40% reduction in spending with Marriott. I didn’t want to stay and spend more because Marriott provides zero incentives once qualified or requalified.
As bad as Marriott is these days, there are still exceptional properties.
I now spend time researching a property before booking since problems at one cheating or dumpy hotel are often repeated across properties within that owner or management company’s portfolio. Sadly, you as a guest have to take time to find out the owner or operator of a property instead of just trusting Marriott to deliver the consistency that used to define the company.
What would you do in this reader’s shoes?
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