157. Shifting My Strategy: Why I'm Pursuing Status in Multiple Programs This Year
Point Me To First Class
Devon Gimbel MD
4.9 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 2 March 2026
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
For the first time in over a decade, I'm actively chasing status in multiple loyalty programs—and it's a major shift from my usual points strategy.
Historically, status hasn't been a focus for me beyond Hyatt Globalist. But this year, I'm pursuing top-tier or near top-tier status in four programs: Hyatt Globalist, Bilt Platinum, Air France Flying Blue Platinum, and American Airlines Platinum Pro. Listen in as I walk through why these specific statuses suddenly jumped to the top of my priority list, what benefits justify the effort required to earn them, and my exact plan for qualifying for each one.
I also share the four key questions to ask yourself before chasing any status, because the reality is that you don't need status to have a successful award travel experience. From understanding opportunity costs to accessing status benefits through credit cards instead, this episode covers how to evaluate whether pursuing status actually makes sense for your travel style and goals.
Whether you're considering your own status strategy for the year or feeling confident about not chasing status at all, this episode will help you think strategically about how loyalty program status fits into your points plan.
Get full show notes and transcript: https://pointmetofirstclass.com/2026-loyalty-status-strategy
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Point Me to First Class, the only show for employed professionals, entrepreneurs, and business owners who are looking to optimize their higher than average expenses to travel the world. |
| 0:10.7 | I'm your host, Devin Gimble, and I believe that your expenses are your greatest untapped asset, if you know how to leverage them. |
| 0:17.8 | Ready to dive into the world of credit card points and miles so you can travel more, travel better, and travel often. Let's get started. |
| 0:29.7 | Hey, everyone, welcome back to the podcast. There are a couple of things I do every year in January |
| 0:35.5 | or February related to organization and strategizing |
| 0:39.2 | for the upcoming year in terms of my rewards, credit cards, travel plans, and overall goals |
| 0:45.1 | within the award travel space. And I'm not going to go into the granular details of each of those |
| 0:50.0 | processes today, but instead I want to talk to you all about one major shift in my usual |
| 0:56.1 | points plan that came out of my recent beginning of the year points and award travel strategizing |
| 1:01.2 | session. Today, we're going to talk about what is becoming a big focus of mine, really for the |
| 1:06.3 | first time this year, and spend some time describing what this shift is, where it's coming from, |
| 1:12.4 | and how it's impacting some major decisions around which credit cards I open, where I predominantly |
| 1:18.5 | plan to allocate spend this year, and how this aligns with my award travel goals and priorities. |
| 1:23.7 | And I'm talking about status, something that historically hasn't really been a focus of mine beyond one specific hotel loyalty program. |
| 1:31.7 | But that is changing in a big way for me this year. |
| 1:35.2 | I want to dive into what loyalty programs I'm intent on getting status with this year. |
| 1:39.9 | Why those suddenly jumped to the top of my points priority list when chasing status is something |
| 1:45.5 | that I have largely ignored up until now and my exact plan for how I intend to earn those |
| 1:51.7 | statuses. But first, I want to touch on what airline and hotel loyalty status acquisition |
| 1:56.2 | has typically looked like for me just to give you some context. So I started seriously learning about |
| 2:01.8 | award travel many years ago, as many of you know, back in around 2013. And actually, when I first |
| 2:06.9 | began earning and using points, I was almost entirely focused on using points for international |
... |
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