As I reported on Wednesday, calendar year loyalty counters for all the hotel programs have been reset to zero, BUT one light on the horizon is the annual credit of credit card elite nights posting to the hotel loyalty accounts.
It only took the credit card issuers and loyalty programs a day into 2025 to post the elite nights and provide a nice cushion for members to start off the new year.
Not every program provides credit cards that come with an annual credit of free nights, and of course, it all depends on the market as well, with most of them being available in North America.
The first credit that hit the accounts was Marriott based on Amex Bonvoy Brilliant card:
While about 18 months ago I decided to downgrade the card I eventually got it back last year as the Brilliant Card is still rather attractive as a hotel card compared to what else is out there.
You can also look up the individual stats, including nights that were credited for 2023:
As far as reconciling data goes, Marriott has come a long way to at least make key numbers visible. My Lifetime year counter didn’t change yet though but that’s irrelevant at this point because there is no new status beyond Lifetime Platinum that can be achieved right now anyway.
Another card that’s eligible for extra free nights is the World of Hyatt Visa card by Chase.
These elite nights usually they show up right in the first few days of January. It’s not tied to when the account statement closes, only the extra elite nights you earn based on spend are.
The transaction doesn’t show up properly in the account activity. Instead it just displays “Rewards Bonus – Points Earned: 0” on January 1st and the five nights counted up in the general balance of YTD qualifying nights:
Hyatt cardmembers receive 5 qualifying night credits toward your next tier status every year.
Programs where account status is conferred entirely by holding the credit card such as Hilton Gold or Diamond via various Amex cards are usually renewed automatically and you don’t have to look out anything.
Conclusion
We usually get many requests from members regarding when the credit card nights will be posted. This year, Amex/Marriott was very fast to post the Elite Nights to members’ accounts. Chase should be right behind. In fact, I never had significant problems with Chase or Amex as far as the posting of my annual elite nights is concerned.
In case some people are still missing the credit for their Hyatt or Marriott nights. I’d wait a little bit, maybe they process in batches and in any case, they will eventually show up. There’s no need to lose sleep over it since we’ve got 12 months to go in order to collect our required nights.
On the other hand, if you were planning to cancel one of these cards and just wait until the annual elite nights close, you can do so; these nights won’t be clawed back. Since they post per calendar year, it’s actually a pretty good deal if you plan to drop or downgrade it after the first year.
