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How to Get Airline Elite Status on Delta, Hilton, and Marriot Without Flying and Booking a Room

(Some of the offers/products mentioned below are no longer available.)

The Old way of getting points towards elite status.

Face it, everyone wants higher status in life, especially when it comes to your airline accommodations and hotel stays. But getting the points towards that status entails a lot of work, time, and most of all, a lot of spending. It sure is going to take quite some time to gather flight miles and book enough rooms so you can achieve that position you are currently aiming at.

But what if I tell you that you don’t have to do this to get closer to that goal? What if I told you that you can earn points without the actual flying or booking of rooms? Interested aren’t we? Well let me tell you how we can do that.

The new way of getting points towards elite status.

As the title says, we are trying to find a way to achieve elite status in the 3 different brand names, Delta airlines, Hilton Hotels, and Marriott hotels. To explain my points easier, I shall break it down the process of earning points to 3 parts, one for each brand.

Delta Airlines Elite Status

How to Get airline StatusPhoto courtesy of deltapoints.boardingarea.com

To get Delta Airline Platinum status, one must reach at least 75,000 airline miles, which is the old fashioned way. But if you look hard enough and wait for promos being offered you can get the Platinum status without flying a single mile.

Here’s how you can do it.

1.) Apply for affiliate credit cards that with promos that would give you bonus points upon application.

  • Platinum Skymiles Business Credit Card – Offers 5,000 miles after first purchase
  • Delta Reserve Card – offers 10,000 miles after first purchase

2.) Initial spending using credit cards and earn points.

  • Platinum Skymiles Business credit card – Check the Card Page for current bonus and terms.
  • Delta Reserve Card –  Check the Card Page for current bonus and terms.

3.) Continued spending using your credit cards.

As you continue spending using your credit card you are bound to reach up to 30,000 miles within a year. Roll over this points to other cards so you can easily go beyond the limits necessary to achieve elite status.

How to Get airline StatusPhoto courtesy of deltapoints.boardingarea.com

Delta Airlines 3Photo courtesy of theluxeinsider.com

Delta_Airlines_5Photo courtesy of deltapoints.boardingarea.com

Hilton Gold Status

Hilton Gold Status 1Photo courtesy of multimedia.hiltongrandvacations.com

Moving on to becoming Hilton gold status without having to stay the required nights. Usually Hilton Gold status would require you to have at least 75,000 points or an equivalent of 20 stays and 40 nights.

Just like Delta Airlines, all you need to do to get the status without having to actually stay the nights is by applying to credit cards and using them wisely to gather its points. Below are a list of cards with the points you can be rewarded with continual use after applying.

1.) Citi Hilton Hhonor Visa Signature Card

  • 40,000 Hhonor points after spending $1,000 within the first year
  • 3 Hhonor points for every $1 spent on supermarket, gas station, and drugstores.
  • 2 Hhonor points for every $1 spent on other purchases

Another card to apply to aside from Citi Hilton Hhonor visa Signature card is the Amtrak credit card that will enable you to transfer points to Hilton Hhonor points. Amtrak has the following promo features to gain you points.

2.) Amtrak Guests rewards Mastercard – 32,000 points sign up bonus and 1 point per dollar spent on various purchases. You can transfer a maximum of 25,000 points within a year.

Hilton Gold Status 2Photo courtesy of hiltongrandvacations.com

Hilton Gold Status 3Photo courtesy of hiltongrandvacations.com

Hilton Gold Status 4Photo courtesy of exp.cdn-hotels.com

Hilton Gold Status 5Photo courtesy of tug2.com

Marriott Gold status

MarriotPhoto courtesy of worldpropertyjournal.com

Becoming a Gold status member for Marriott is a bit simpler compared to the previous two. The old way of getting the status would be for you to stay several nights collectively in Marriott hotels before you get the status. Gold would need 50 nights while Platinum would need 75 nights.

To get status without staying the nights all you need to is the following.

  • Apply for a Marriott Rewards Premier Card, after applying for this card you will automatically get 15 nights credits.
  • Next step is getting gold status; It is as simple as applying for a Ritz Carlton rewards Visa (they both share the same rewards program). Once you finish applying for one you can then put your Marriott account number in the space asking for your Ritz Carlton number. The points will now automatically go to your Marriott account.
  • You can keep your Ritz carlton card active just by spending $10,000 using the card per year.

How to Get airline StatusPhoto courtesy of origin.mqa.cntraveler.com

How to Get airline StatusPhoto courtesy of hospitalitynet.org

How to Get airline StatusPhoto courtesy of origin.mqa.cntraveler.com

How to Get airline StatusPhoto courtesy of rwmanila.com

How to Get airline StatusPhoto courtesy of businessdestinations.com

So you see? It isn’t that hard to gather points to reach elite status. You don’t even have to spend the nights and flights to accomplish this. It’s as simple as applying.

Editorial Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airlines or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities. Lifetailored has partnered with Creditcards.com for our coverage of credit card products. Lifetailored and Creditcards.com may receive a commission from card issuers Additional Disclosure: This site has affiliate links. We may be compensated when users make a purchase or register to a third party website. For more details read our privacy policy.

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