2025 Year in Review
2025 was a super busy year, even moreso than 2024. I hadn't planned on flying as much as I did, but between feeling a little down in Denver and the Jetblue Challenge, I broke all sorts of records.
Ok well, I still trail behind Taylor Swift in net carbon emissions by a longshot. But I definitely surpassed all my friends! Heck, I wasn't home for 90% of October!
Click to see my stats in 2023 and 2024.
My FlightRadar24 Stats
Here's where I landed (pun intended) for 2025:
106 flights!!! And I literally flew halfway to the moon! Still a year with heavy domestic travel, but the DEL-SFO flight definitely helped with the distance traveled (7700 miles alone on one flight).
Elite Status in 2025
A majority of my status remains the same as the previous year, but with some improvements.
American Airlines Platinum
I requalified for AA Platinum status this year, mostly through credit card spend. I'm on track to get about 100k Loyalty Points by the end of the membership cycle in October. Though it's not enough to get to Platinum Pro, I'm just trying my hardest to earn as many AA miles as I can for future redemptions.
Southwest Airlines A-List
I fell short again renewing my A-List automatically. But luckily, the status challenge program can be repeated once every 12 months. So I simply matched my AA status with Southwest, and got A-List again! Now I don't think I'll be flying Southwest much, but having A-List is still a large step above average. I can't get the credit card (above 5/24 for Chase), so this is the next best thing.
Southwest has recently gone through some really significant changes. They're no longer in a league of their own, but I'd argue they're now just like any other airline. Southwest just isn't that competitive when it comes to transcontinental travel, both in fare and in product. Now that I've moved out of Denver I have even fewer reasons to fly Southwest.
So for me, it's time to burn my miles, then officially break up.
United Airlines Silver
My United Silver status renewed as a benefit for achieving Marriott Titanium status in 2025. I highlighted the benefits of Silver and why it's so strong in last year's post.
Hypothetically, my automatic Silver status is good until the end of 2026, so we'll see what happens next year!
Jetblue Mosaic 1
By completing the Jetblue 25 for 25 Challenge, I now have Mosaic 1 until the end of 2050. And soon, with the new Blue Sky partnership, this will translate to the equivalent of United Silver for 25 years!
Free checked bags, free same-day changes, priority boarding, free upgrades to Even More Space, etc. All without having to fly much at all.
Marriott Titanium
Thanks in big part to the Q1 double nights promo, I got Marriott Titanium way back in April. I earned 30 nights from having the credit cards, 21 nights from the double nights promo, and stayed just 24 nights to get the 75 required for Titanium.
In total, I stayed 41 nights, which brought my overall total to 92 for the year. Funny enough, I'm just 23 nights and 1 year away from lifetime Silver status.
Hyatt Globalist
This one came out of left field! I used a corporate challenge to get trial status of Hyatt Explorist and stayed the necessary nights to get upgraded to Globalist! Most in the points and miles community love Hyatt for their cheap rates, but Globalist status is actually a strong contender.
Most describe Hyatt Globalist to be similar to how Marriott Ambassador was "back in the good days". Great customer service, amazing breakfast benefits, but most importantly, a consistent experience. No need to navigate super complicated benefits pages or fight for a bottle of water.
I stayed at a lot of Hyatts during my Jetblue Challenge, so this really did pay off big time! My parents even got to experience it with our free lobster benedict and waffles at the Hyatt Regency Boston Harbor (we ended up eating about $100 worth of food).
Hilton Gold
I got Hilton Gold as a default benefit of my AmEx Platinum card. I don't anticipate using Hilton at all, but still good to have in my back pocket!
This seems overly complicated...
Yes yes, I know. This seems to be way too much. Why should I pursue status across 15 different programs when I can get super top tier secret elite status with 1 program? Well, I have a whole separate post discussing that very topic here.