How I am looking at my travel loyalty in 2025 – Live From A Lounge

I am not a sucker for doing year-end recaps or new year posts, and I’ve been swamped over the past few weeks with some family stuff (explaining my having halted posting in an unplanned fashion); one of the most asked questions over the past few days has been about my loyalty plans with airlines and hotel chains in 2025.

Airline loyalty and my thoughts on the same in 2025

Airline loyalty is going away in many parts of the world, and it simply comes from the fact that most people no longer wait for upgrades on board, but rather buy the cabin they want to fly in. For me as well, this has been a strategy over the past couple of years. Anything over and above is a bonus. With the elimination of most airline options in India, we are down to having Air India and IndiGo as the most reliable options.

Air India’s loyalty programme, while still a work in progress, given it has errors and omissions, is high on the list of loyalty programmes I want to maintain elite status in. Now that IndiGo has launched its loyalty programme, they are also weighing higher in my consideration set. It also helps that IndiGo flies to places I must fly to for work and personal travel, where Air India does not have operations.

What my 2025 air travel will look like

While I have no full scope of the travel I expect for 2025, I will be doing a lot of travel with Air India than in the past. The reason is two-fold. Now that Vistara has merged into Air India, only one full-service option is available in India. I am based in Delhi NCR, which means a lot of flying for me is from the Indira Gandhi International Airport (DEL).  I am already an Air India Gold, which also gives me Star Alliance Gold status.

With the one-year complementary extension due to the merger of Vistara accounts into Air India, I can hold on to Air India status till 2026 for now. And with Air India being a part of Star Alliance, it helps that I can credit revenue flights on other carriers with Air India as well. However, Air India is only crediting 50% of the loyalty points as tier points, and that sucks.

Coming to IndiGo. I use them a lot. IndiGo launched its BluChip programme in 2024, and I’m already more than half the way from being a Tier 3 to a Tier 2 member. I’m not fully committed to the programme, but IndiGo has always been my reliable choice. I am not fully engaged with IndiGo BluChip for now because the programme is ironing out its kinks and bugs, and hopefully, there will be a more reliable version of the programme in 2025 on the IT side.

Since Jet Airways went under, I’ve consolidated much of my business with Emirates on international airlines. I have half a year to move 40% of the needle to requalify for Gold Tier, which will keep me with the airline as Gold for another year. Despite the seven across Business Class on the 777, which is the only thing to fly out of Delhi, the airline still does a much better job recognising loyalty than many other airlines and takes me to most destinations, even where Air India does not have a presence.

For the rest, I don’t know for now. I was a big oneworld elite member for a long time, but last year, I gave up. And with British Airways Executive Club dropping the bomb on loyalty as they see it, I am glad I did. I like flying with Etihad and Qatar Airways, but I don’t know if I want to start building status on these airlines for now. I sometimes credit flights on carriers who don’t feature in my usual scheme of things to one of the more interesting carriers with useful point currencies such as Air Canada Aeroplan and Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan.

Hotel loyalty and my thoughts on the same in 2025

While airline options are time-dependent during the day, non-stop v/s stops are involved, and so on in terms of choices, hotel stays are slightly different. I end up travelling quite a bit over the year, a mix of work-related travel and personal stays. I prefer chain hotels because of their network and the fact that one can find a hotel at various price points without overthinking. Of course, all sorts of luxury hotels are involved in the mix, and these sometimes end up at the Taj and Oberoi chains. But there is hardly any value in status at Taj Hotels, and Oberoi does not have a programme, so to speak. So I end up booking via my luxury hotel booking.

While travelling in the West means that status is mainly useless, in India, the rest of Asia and the Middle East, I can come in handy, and hence, I like to keep up with the chase for status.

What my 2025 hotel stays will look like

I’m mostly aligned with Marriott Hotels in terms of hotels, and what helps is that they are the largest hotel chain in India and globally. So, most of the time, I find a luxury or not-so-luxurious hotel at my price point without thinking much. What also helps is that with the Marriott HDFC Bank co-brand credit card, one can reach the target sooner, with ten elite nights being credited to the account every year. Moreover, in Asia and the Middle East, one can get decent mileage from the programmes in terms of perks and benefits.

Regarding the other hotel chains, I have Hilton Honors Gold Status via the American Express Platinum Card, Radisson VIP Status, Hyatt Explorist Status, ITC Platinum and Accor Silver via Accor Plus membership.  But I’ve only stepped foot in a Hyatt hotel rarely last year; my ITC hotel stays get credited to Marriott Bonvoy for now, and Accor comes in handy when I have to stay at Accor hotels in a one-off fashion.

The status helps me get perks and benefits I wouldn’t usually receive, but Hyatt is the real gem here, and I will try to do more business with them in the future again.

Bottomline

As you can see, both airline and hotel status still drive value for me, so I am still not entirely a free agent in terms of hotel and airline status. For airlines, I would prefer to head to a Star Alliance carrier or with Emirates internationally and IndiGo domestically. For hotels, I’d head to a Marriott hotel over anything else for now. But then, as British Airways showed us recently, loyalty is a one-way street that airlines or hotel chains can strike out on in the stroke of a pen, so, I’d sure hope to make the most of it while it lasts.

What’s your travel loyalty strategy for 2025? Does it differ from earlier years?

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