Considerable Travel Points And Loyalty Benefits Realized In 2025

It was always great to look back at the travel points and loyalty benefits realized in a year.  On our busy travel year for 2025 we regained loyalty status with Marriott Bonvoy and Air Canada Aeroplan.  When cruising, we took advantage of our cruising status loyalty with Oceania Cruises but checked out other cruise companies as well.  We definitely got some travel perks from our travel loyalty status.

Regained Status For Hotel Stays

On our 2025 travel year, we were away from home more than 163 days and maintained our Marriott Bonvoy brand loyalty.  The vast majority of our hotel stays were at Marriott properties.

We entered the year with over 2 million Marriott points and we knew that travel points always devalued over time.  So in 2025, we planned some great travel on Marriott Bonvoy points.  But the downside of using points for some of our very expensive stays meant we did not accumulate dollars towards status.  We got enough stays to achieve Titanium status with Marriott but lost our Ambassador status.  The travel perks are almost the same for Titanium and Ambassador levels. We will see if we get less premium room upgrades as Titanium members.  But I know we will miss our Ambassador representative we used a lot in 2025.

In 2025, we continued to have a few stays at IHG Rewards hotels to maintain currency and not lose the points saved for a special vacation.  At the end of the year, we actually bought Ambassador status as we planned our visit to Paris.  We booked a stay at the Intercontinental Paris Le Grande and felt the Ambassador status provided a nice upgrade.  Unfortunately a travel “oops” on my part meant we cancelled this stay.  But we still had other Intercontinental stays anticipated for 2026 travel.

We loved the travel perks we got with loyalty status for hotel programs.  And we had our travel points and loyalty benefits realized this year.

Loyalty Status Maintained With Air Canada

We flew over 39,081 mi ( 62,895 km ) in 2025 and virtually all of our air travel was with Air Canada.  This meant we retained our 50K status with Air Canada Aeroplan.  We actually crossed the 60K level which provided a points benefit for the 2026 travel year.  

But in 2025, Air Canada announced a major change in how loyalty status was achieved starting in 2026. Rather than based on mileage flown, status was achieved based on dollars spent. And the multiplier for dollars spent was our loyalty status.  Since we often flew longer distances, we often booked Premium Economy or Business Class tickets at a higher cost. And starting the year with 50K status gave us a high multiplier.  But we will see how the new rules work for us regaining Air Canada Aeroplan status in 2026.

Differences In Loyalty Programs For Cruising

Loyalty status for cruising was very different than for hotels or airlines. The cruising loyalty status was a lifetime status and this was not reset annually.  We obtained Platinum status with Oceania Cruises a few years ago.  This level of status gave us some nice perks with Oceania Cruises.  

We were excited when the parent company Norwegian Cruise lines made the decision to share loyalty status across its cruise brands.  While we would likely never cruise on the bigger Norwegian ships, we planned a cruise to Turkey for 2026 on Norwegian’s ultra luxury brand Regent Seven Sea Cruises. Although since most travel perks were part of the base fare for Regent Seven Sea Cruises, our Platinum status did not give us much benefit.

On our travels in 2025, we tried 3 new ships on 3 different cruise lines on our quest to compare the cruise experiences.  We had Platinum loyalty status with Oceania Cruises for our Caribbean cruise which came with lots of travel perks – shipboard credits, spa credits and prepaid gratuities.  But we sadly did not feel any special recognition for our higher loyalty status. 

Cruising with Viking Cruises in Norway for Northern Lights, we had no loyalty status.  We found it a bit of a change to have no onboard benefits and to pay the gratuities when we checked out.  Our cruise from Lisbon to Barcelona with  Silversea Cruises included so much in the base fare that often came with cruise line status.  We missed having free laundry.  But we delighted in customer service that was excellent regardless of loyalty status or cabin purchased.  

We found travel points and loyalty benefits realized at sea in 2025.

Points For Great Stays And Amazing Upgrades Too

We used a lot of Marriott Bonvoy points in 2025.  In some cases we used the points stays to reduce the cost of our trip.  But in some cases we used the points for luxury stays.  

When we travelled to Toronto for a family wedding, we used points on our Toronto stay.  We always loved returning to the Ritz-Carlton Toronto on stays in downtown Toronto.

We headed to Kingston for the weekend and we stayed on points at the newly renovated Marriott Kingston.  When cousins visited us in the Fall, we used points for a fun weekend escape to Vancouver.  The Westin Bayshore was ideally located for our family adventures around Vancouver.

On our 2 week visit to Sardinia, we booked the lovely Cala di Volpe Luxury Resort for 5 nights on the Costa Smerelda.  Using points, we paid for 4 nights and got 5 nights!  And using a Night Upgrade Certificate we upgraded to one of the best suites in the entire resort!  This was probably the best of the points and loyalty benefits realized in 2025!

Loyalty status and loyalty to certain hotels brought extra benefits.  Since we moved to the west coast in BC, we now spend a night in Vancouver before our travels.  The ferry service from the Sunshine Coast was just not reliable enough to consider leaving home the same day we flew.  We loved returning to the Westin Wall Airport hotel and delighted in the great room upgrades we often got.

Great hotel stays on points was a definite benefit of building loyalty points.  And special upgrade perks that came as we earned higher status provided enhanced experiences too.

Eating Well On Hotel Loyalty Status

Ambassador status with Marriott Bonvoy provided free breakfast at virtually all hotels we stayed in 2025.  The breakfast varied by the brand of hotel.  But we always loved not having to search for a breakfast spot every day! This was certainly reinforced when we stayed at a Hyatt Place hotel on our visit to the Yukon. This brand no longer includes free breakfast and this cost us about $60 per day!

We also received many hotel amenities on check-in.  It was always a treat when the amenity was personalized or provided local treats.

Another great benefit of Marriott Bonvoy status was access at hotels that offered Concierge Lounges.  Sometimes we got our free breakfast in the lounge.  Every night there were appetizers and dessert at dinner time.  And the international lounges even offered complimentary wine and beer!

We definitely ate well with hotel loyalty status.  And we found tasty travel points and loyalty benefits realized in 2025.

Great Stays With No Travel Points And Loyalty Benefits Realized

When possible, we tried to stay at hotels we had loyalty status with.  But in many places there were no options to do this.  

On our 2 week visit to Sardinia, we booked a few nights with IHG Rewards and found an amazing points stay with Marriott Bonvoy.  But for our 3rd stay on the island, there were no brand hotels.  So we enjoyed a few days with a sea view at the El Faro Hotel and Spa on our stay outside of Alghero.

When we headed north in Canada to the Yukon, we spent 3 nights at the Inn on the Lake on Marsh Lake outside of Whitehorse.  The package we booked included all meals and some winter outdoor fun.  With the added bonus of Northern Lights!

Sometimes we were delighted when we chose non-brand hotel options without travel points and loyalty benefits realized.

Air Canada Status Got Us Upgrades

Having 50K status with Air Canada meant we realized some travel benefits in 2025.  We got free baggage for 2 bags each up to 32kg.  Since we are not light packers, this helped for some of our travels.  And when we moved a fair amount of stuff from Toronto to the west coast, the extra baggage limits let us take some stuff on an early visit before we officially moved.

Lounge access was a nice treat.  We always got to the airport early and enjoyed a little quiet and a snack in the lounge.  Although we found more line-ups for lounge entry this year.  We even tried the new Air Canada Cafe as a snack option before we flew.

We always felt pampered when we visited the Signature Lounges when we had Air Canada Business Class tickets for international travel.

The 50K status with Air Canada gave us Star Alliance Gold status.  And this provided access to the great Lufthansa Senator Lounges at the Munich and Frankfurt airports in Germany.  This was useful as many of the international flights from Canada connected through the German airports.

With our 50K Air Canada Aeroplane status we got eUpgrade certificates that could be used to try for upgraded seats.  Several times we were successful with upgrades from Premium Economy to Business Class travelling between Toronto and Vancouver.  

At the year end we had several Priority Rewards that gave us a 50% discount on Economy or Premium Economy points flights.  We planned to use the Priority Rewards for points flights for our week in the Yukon.  But ended up using points for Business Class seats instead at a really good point value!

We did a lot of air travel with Air Canada and got travel points and loyalty benefits realized in 2025.

Travel Points And Loyalty Benefits Realized In 2025 Got Us Some Travel Perks

We definitely got travel points and loyalty benefits realized in 2025.  Upgraded rooms, free food, better seats, spa credits and more were just some of the ways our travel experiences were enhanced on our travel in 2025.  We will see what changes in travel loyalty programs mean for us in the next year.

Did you find your travel points and loyalty benefits realized this year?  Are there things you might have done differently?

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