AAdvantage and Hyatt Are Ending Their Years-Long Partnership: Another Airline Program Might Be the Ultimate Winner

For years, frequent flyers and luxury hotel hotel enthusiasts found a home between flying on American Airlines and staying in Hyatt Hotels. 

When the two announced a partnership in 2019, travelers scored ‘reciprocal earnings.’ Hyatt elites would earn AAdvantage miles for stays, while AAdvantage elites would earn Hyatt points for stays. 

By 2025, that ‘travel glitch’ ended in a massive devaluation, leaving a structure that conferred benefits for hitting certain milestones. But starting next year, there will be nothing left.

That ‘double dipping’ ended in 2025 in a massive devaluation, but it was at least replaced by a structure that conferred benefits for hitting certain milestones (nights stayed, loyalty points earned) to unlock status on the partners faster. Unfortunately, after an 8 year partnership, this massive travel glitch has only been downhill and will finally end this next year.

End of an era: Since 2025, the Hyatt and American partnership has been worse, but there was still a path to earn free elite status, flights, or hotel stays if you were already getting special treatment from one of the two brands. There were also status match challenges to accelerate your status chase. But now, even that is going away. Last week, Hyatt and American announced they would wind down their partnership next year.

• The real loser is American: The network effects of having the Hyatt partnership was huge for this middling US carrier, but worse… Hyatt’s new partner will be Delta (and some expect it will take after the new program it has built with Aeroplan.)
• But the secret is out with Hyatt: Travelers have loved Hyatt for its fantastic value, but after its own devaluation and nerfs by Chase and Bilt, the equation is getting harder.
• Hyatt’s premium card is coming: For now, you can still earn 1:1 redemptions of Chase to Hyatt points if you have the Sapphire Reserve, but recent changes foreshadow Hyatt introducing a premium credit card of its own.

Atmos picks up the slack

It’s hard to see how this won’t reduce the attractiveness of AAdvantage, which counted on Hyatt as a massive ancillary reason to earn status (mostly through spending). Combined with a massive new change to a competing airline ecosystem, I suspect a lot of travelers could change directions.

• Starting in 2027, eligible American Airlines flights will be able to earn points and status points in Alaska/Hawaiian’s Atmos Rewards program — even when you book on AA.
• AA earnings can be directed to Atmos, where they’ll be able to unlock status far quicker from pure flying alone (thanks to mile-based earnings) and unlock AA benefits, too. 

One big asterisk: Unlocking the highest levels of Atmos status will put you ahead of American elites on the flight upgrade list, but still behind AAdvantage’s Executive Platinum and Platinum Pro members. So if you were already in the upper tranches of AA’s ecosystem before (likely due to spending), there is a ceiling for AA mainstays within the Atmos ecosystem. However, that might be okay — unless you are really an AA elite earning from spending velocity alone.