Hyatt's Big Breakup, Bilt Authorized User "Trick" & A Card Refresh Nobody Asked For

Shawn Coomer (0:00)

Aeroplan has a card refresh, a big partnership in the airline and hotel space, Lululemon continues to crack down. All of that and more coming up right now on MTM Travel.

Mark Ostermann (0:10)

Partnership most of us probably ignore, right? No?

Shawn Coomer (0:20)

So happy Thursday, everyone. And the big news of the week is this new partnership between Delta and Hyatt. Mark, why do we have to announce these partnerships once before we have any details to give anybody? But for people following along, Hyatt and American Airlines were previously partnered, so they are dumping American Airlines in favor of Delta. It does seem like there will be some reciprocal elite benefits, also reciprocal earning, earning both places, which is super interesting. But no other details, they said, in the coming months.

I guess as a Hyatt globalist, I'm excited about this, maybe a status match. I mean, I got executive platinum with American for years because of that partnership.

Mark Ostermann (0:56)

Yeah, that's the biggest thing. I think that we were excited about was the status match. But at least that's what I used this partnership for over the years. You used to be able to earn airline miles and hotel points between American and Hyatt up until, I think, like a year ago, they ended that. And I'm guessing that's what's going to roll out with Delta, something similar where you can earn both. And that's cool and all. I just don't spend a lot of money on travel. I'm usually booking with miles or with Hyatt points. So it doesn't really benefit me all that much. I'll never get excited. Now, if you have work travel and work's paying for it, then that's a great benefit.

And then we saw them add these little perks. I know you used one for the seed upgrade and cash in some Hyatt points for it. And it ended up working out really well for you. But for most people, it's just kind of like a one-off thing. I don't know that there's anything that's going to be long-term super exciting unless there's a status match, which we did see often, like once a year between the two programs with American. So hopefully, that happens with Delta, except for I have silver status with Delta. I have nothing with Hyatt, so it's not probably going to help me much at all.

Shawn Coomer (2:00)

Is Delta still upgrading elites to middle seats in Comfort Plus? Is that still a thing that happens? I haven't seen that in a while, but I know that they used to do that.

Mark Ostermann (2:09)

I mean, you can select like, do not upgrade me to a middle seat and they'll leave you in the back or at least they're supposed to. But yeah, I'm sure some people don't check that box and get moved to the middle.

Shawn Coomer (2:20)

Yeah, the downgrade, upgrade. I've heard anecdotally, again, I'm not a big Delta flyer. Being in Las Vegas, it just isn't a great option for me.

Flying into their hubs like Detroit, Mark, the prices are always insane. Well, you know all about Detroit to Las Vegas, but I mean, I guess this is good. I hope that they come out strong like they did with the American partnership. American offered a bunch of status to Hyatt people. So if they do that, it really could be good for people who are already in it. But yeah, it's more for the big spend business people. And we are not that.

Mark Ostermann (2:51)

And then if you're a Delta, if you have Delta status, you're probably going to be upset if they give a whole bunch of Hyatt globalists like Platinum status. I would guess it would be Gold status.

So not that good of a status. I think you need to be Delta Platinum to get anything of real use. I don't mind having Delta Silver because I get to pick those pay for seats, like exit row seats and stuff I get to pick for free at booking. So it kind of works out. And I just end up hitting it just from booking mileage flights and stuff like that each year and holding one credit card. And plus that usually gets me there. So I've had that. But yeah, I don't know that anything super great will come out of this. We'll have to wait and see. Maybe there will be some cool perks that you can redeem points one way or the other.

But yeah, they all want to be married up for some reason. I don't know how this is super beneficial to them though.

Shawn Coomer (3:41)

I will say that Delta and Hyatt is probably a better partnership than American and Hyatt, just customer service wise. It does seem like American's reputation for customer service doesn't match up to what Hyatt. I don't know. Maybe Delta still seems like they have that.