If your hotel loyalty lives with Marriott and your travel dreams point toward Japan, today brought some excellent news. Marriott Bonvoy and Japan Airlines have launched a new Preferred Partnership, with status matches in both directions and free elite-qualifying points every single year.

Announced on July 14, 2026, this is Marriott’s first full-scale partnership with a Japanese airline, and the first strategic tie-up with a global hotel group for Japan Airlines.

All you need to do is link your Marriott Bonvoy and JAL Mileage Bank (JMB) accounts on Marriott’s dedicated partnership page, which takes a few minutes and is free.

Free FLY ON Points for Marriott Bonvoy Elites

Once your accounts are linked, you’ll receive JAL FLY ON Points every year based on your Marriott Bonvoy status, without setting foot on a plane.

FLY ON Points are the status currency of JAL Mileage Bank, entirely separate from the miles you’d redeem for flights. They normally come only from flying, so a recurring annual grant like this is remarkable.

Marriott Bonvoy Status	FLY ON Points per Year	JAL Mileage Bank Status
Member	2,000	–
Silver Elite	5,000	–
Gold Elite	10,000	–
Platinum Elite	20,000	–
Titanium Elite	30,000	Crystal or above
Ambassador Elite	40,000	Crystal or above

To put those numbers in context, JMB Crystal status normally requires 30,000 FLY ON Points in a calendar year, Sapphire requires 50,000, and Diamond requires 100,000, in each case with a minimum portion earned on JAL Group flights.

Titanium Elite and Ambassador Elite members get more than points. Link your accounts, and you’ll receive complimentary JMB Crystal status at a minimum, with a higher tier possible depending on the FLY ON Points you already have.

Better yet, JMB status comes with oneworld recognition. Crystal maps to oneworld Ruby, Sapphire to oneworld Sapphire, and JGC Premier and Diamond to oneworld Emerald.

In other words, a Marriott Bonvoy Titanium Elite who links accounts becomes a oneworld Ruby member at a minimum. Ruby gets you business class check-in counters, preferred seating, and priority on waitlists and standby across Japan Airlines, American Airlines, Cathay Pacific, and the rest of the alliance, though no lounge access just yet.

The real benefits start at oneworld Sapphire, which is the tier worth dreaming about. Sapphire members can use business class lounges before any oneworld flight, even when booked in economy.

Sapphire also brings priority boarding, priority baggage handling, and an extra checked bag of up to 23 kg (50 lb) on top of the fare’s usual allowance, though a few carriers apply exceptions on basic fares.

It’s reachable, too. Marriott’s own worked example shows a Platinum Elite member who’s also a JMB Crystal member with 30,000 FLY ON Points receiving 20,000 more upon registering, vaulting them straight to Sapphire.

Where you land is determined by JAL at registration based on the FLY ON Points already in your account, so results will vary from member to member.

Status Matches and Challenges for JAL Mileage Bank Members

Benefits flow the other way, too. JAL elites can pick up Marriott Bonvoy status outright, and every member gets a shot at a fast-track challenge.

JMB Sapphire members receive Marriott Bonvoy Silver Elite status just for registering. JGC Premier, Diamond, and Diamond Metal members do better, with complimentary Gold Elite status each year.

JAL Mileage Bank Status	Automatic Marriott Bonvoy Status	Accelerator Challenge
Member	–	Silver Elite after 6 qualifying nights
Crystal	–	Silver Elite after 4 qualifying nights
Sapphire	Silver Elite	Gold Elite after 10 qualifying nights
JGC Premier	Gold Elite	10,000 Bonvoy points after 16 qualifying nights
Diamond	Gold Elite	Platinum Elite after 10 qualifying nights, plus 15,000 Bonvoy points after 16 nights
Diamond Metal	Gold Elite	Platinum Elite after 10 qualifying nights, plus 15,000 Bonvoy points after 16 nights

Each challenge runs for six months from the date of registration, and stays must be at qualifying rates. Note that the Platinum Elite challenge for Diamond members applies in the first year of the program, per the official terms.

One caveat worth flagging. Elite night credits from credit cards or promotions don’t count toward these challenges, so only nights you actually sleep in a Marriott bed will move the needle.

Points Transfers in Both Directions

The partnership also layers on flexibility with your balances. On eligible stays at Marriott Bonvoy properties, you can choose to earn either Bonvoy points or JAL miles.

Typically, you’re better off just earning Bonvoy points on your Marriott stays. They’re the more flexible currency, and you can always convert them to JAL miles later if the right award opens up.

Marriott Bonvoy points continue to transfer to JAL Mileage Bank at a 3:1 ratio, with a bonus when you move them in 60,000-point blocks.

In the reverse direction, JAL miles transfer to Marriott Bonvoy points at a 4:3 ratio. Airline miles rarely convert into hotel points at rates this reasonable, though I’d still keep JAL miles for JAL’s excellent premium cabin awards in most cases.

Why JAL Mileage Bank Is Worth a Look

If you’ve never given JAL Mileage Bank serious thought, this partnership is a good excuse to start. It’s one of the few remaining programs with fixed, published award charts, and the Miles & Points community often calls it the most useful oneworld program out there.

On JAL’s own flights, business class between North America and Japan starts at 55,000 miles one-way at the saver level. Here’s what that looks like from Tokyo Haneda to Chicago, though you’ll pay around $680 (CAD) in taxes and fuel surcharges on top.

Partner awards price off a distance-based chart, which is where the real fun begins. Short oneworld hops in business class start at just 12,000 miles, you can build in up to three stopovers on a partner award, and the booking window opens 360 days out.

The partner list reaches beyond oneworld, too. JAL Mileage Bank books Air France, Korean Air, JetBlue, and even Emirates business class, an option few other programs offer at sane prices.

For example, Emirates flies a fifth-freedom route between New York (EWR) and Athens (ATH), and JAL Mileage Bank prices it at 60,000 miles in business class with barely ¥16,510 in taxes, which converts to about $144 (CAD).

Quirks exist, as with any Japanese program. Award tickets can only be booked for yourself and family members, new accounts must be 60 days old before they can book, and miles expire a hard 36 months after you earn them.

Marriott Bonvoy Status Keeps Getting More Useful

Zoom out, and this partnership fits a pattern. Titanium Elite status now unlocks Aeroplan 25K status, United MileagePlus Premier Silver, and complimentary JMB Crystal, which makes Bonvoy status a master key for airline perks.

I’ve leaned into this myself. Last year, I earned Star Alliance Gold with Marriott Bonvoy Platinum status and a single round-trip flight, and this partnership sets up a oneworld version of the same play.

The irony is that the points themselves keep getting harder to spend on Marriott stays, with dynamic pricing pushing award nights ever higher.

When I wrote about transferring Marriott Bonvoy points to airline miles earlier this year, I caught a fair bit of criticism for suggesting the points are often better spent outside the program. I’d say JAL and Marriott just backed me up. 😉

For Canadians, the easiest way in is the American Express Platinum Card, which comes with complimentary Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite status. Enrol, link your accounts, and that’s 10,000 FLY ON Points landing in your JAL Mileage Bank account every year, a third of the way to Crystal status.

If you’re chasing a higher Bonvoy tier, the Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card adds 15 elite night credits each year to shortcut your way toward Platinum Elite and beyond.

You can top up your Bonvoy balance with Amex MR points as well, which transfer at a 5:6 ratio, or 1,000 MR points to 1,200 Bonvoy points.

Is It Worth Registering?

Honestly, it’s hard to find a downside. Registration is free, the benefits repeat every program year, and linking takes a few minutes.

I linked my own accounts this morning, and the page laid out exactly what my Titanium Elite status earns me, a deposit of 30,000 FLY ON Points.

Timing deserves some thought if you’re chasing JAL status, though. FLY ON Points granted through the partnership count within the calendar year they’re deposited, so they won’t stack with points you earned from flying in a previous year.

Keep in mind that you can only link one Marriott Bonvoy account with one JAL Mileage Bank account, and an individual can only register once.

The points move faster than the six-week window in the terms, at least in my case. My 30,000 FLY ON Points hit my JAL Mileage Bank account the same day I registered.

The complimentary status itself is a separate grant, and that one does take time.

My points may have posted instantly, but my JMB status and oneworld tier still show blank in the JAL app. It seems the oneworld recognition isn’t granted instantaneously.

Budget the full six weeks the terms allow before Crystal, and the oneworld Ruby that comes with it, appear on your account.

Conclusion

Marriott clearly wants Bonvoy status to be a passport for your entire trip, not just the hotel portion, and top-tier status keeps gaining value outside hotel lobbies.

My accounts are linked and the FLY ON Points have already landed. If Japan is anywhere on your travel map for the next year, you should do the same.

The bigger question is whether other hotel programs follow. World of Hyatt already dabbles in this space with American Airlines, offering AAdvantage perks and even status through its Milestone Rewards, and partnerships like this tend to come in pairs. I wouldn’t be surprised to see ANA and a rival hotel group answer back before the year is out.

ALL Accor+ is Accor’s family of paid subscriptions, a set of models that hand you fixed discounts and instant elite status the moment you pay, rather than making you earn them over a year of stays.

It’s one of the more misunderstood corners of the hotel loyalty world, partly because Accor keeps renaming things and partly because the benefits shift depending on where you are.

I subscribed to the Explorer model to work out how the whole lineup actually fits together. This guide walks through all four models plus the separate program in China, who each one suits, and how to buy in without overpaying.

What a Paid Hotel Subscription Actually Buys You

The idea is simple. Instead of earning perks slowly through stays, you pay one flat annual fee and the perks show up the same day, whether you stay three nights this year or 30.

This isn’t a new gimmick, either. Accor has run the model in Asia-Pacific for about 30 years under the Accor Plus name, so it’s well past the proof-of-concept stage.

The exact package depends on the model, but they’re all built from the same ingredients.

• A flat 15% discount: off public rates at participating hotels, replacing the 2 to 10% member discount that free ALL members get.
• Instant elite status: each model deposits 10 to 30 Status Nights the day you subscribe, enough for Silver or Gold without a single stay.
• Model-specific extras: free nights, dining discounts, flash sales, or a monthly points drip, depending on which one you pick.

Everything sits on top of the free ALL program. You keep every point and Status Night you’ve already banked, and you keep earning both on your stays as usual.

One quick thing I’d like to mention is that Accor’s footprint in Canada is very thin, so these really earn their keep on trips to Europe and Asia, where the brands are almost everywhere.

The Four ALL Accor+ Models at a Glance

Accor is unifying its regional paid programs under the ALL Accor+ name in stages. Asia-Pacific’s Accor Plus became ALL Accor+ Explorer on October 1, 2025. Europe’s ALL Plus Voyageur rolled into Voyager from January 2026, and Brazil’s ALL Signature is being rebranded into the family through 2026.

There are four models to choose from, plus a separate program in China that I’ll come to shortly. All euro prices below are converted to Canadian dollars at 1.62, as of July 13, 2026.

Model	Annual Fee	Best For	Core Benefit
ALL Accor+ ibis	€99 (C$160)	Budget stays, Europe-led	15% off the ibis family, instant Silver
ALL Accor+ Voyager	€179 (C$290)	Global all-rounder	15% off 30+ brands, instant Silver
ALL Accor+ Explorer	€215 (C$348)	Asia-Pacific and the UAE	Two free nights, dining discounts, instant Gold
ALL Signature	from €135 (C$219)	South America, points collectors	Monthly points drip

Each model fits a different kind of traveller, so it’s worth walking through them one at a time.

ALL Accor+ ibis – The Budget Specialist (€99 / C$160)

This is the entry point. You get a flat 15% off the best public rate across ibis, ibis Styles, and the wider economy family. The discount runs all year, on one or two rooms per stay, for business or leisure.

Put a number on it. A typical ibis night in Europe runs around €75 (C$122), so the 15% is roughly €11 off. Stay nine or ten nights a year and the €99 fee is already covered.

It also throws in 10 Status Nights on signup, enough for instant Silver. That level brings a welcome drink and late checkout at participating hotels.

Two smaller perks round it out. Guaranteed availability holds a room for you up to two days before arrival even when the hotel is sold out, though you can’t pair it with the discount. You also get a direct line to priority support for bookings and changes.

Honestly, unless you’re making lots of business trips where your options always narrow down to ibis hotels for budget reasons, this one is hard to get excited about. The discount never stretches past the economy tier, and the Silver status it comes with is the thinnest in the program.

For that specific commuter, though, the math works with room to spare. For everyone else, Voyager is the smarter buy.

ALL Accor+ Voyager – The Global All-Rounder (€179 / C$290)

Voyager stretches the same 15% discount across 30-plus brands and 4,500-plus hotels, from Sofitel at the top to ibis budget at the bottom. It applies to one or two rooms per stay.

The upside scales with how much you spend. Fifteen percent off a €250 (C$405) Sofitel night is nearly €38, so a single week in Europe can clear the €179 fee on its own.

You get 20 Status Nights on signup, which lands you at Silver and two-thirds of the way to Gold before your first stay. Like ibis, it includes guaranteed availability up to two days before arrival at sold-out hotels.

Raffles and Fairmont were excluded at launch, but they joined the discount in January 2026, so the luxury end is now firmly in play.

There’s a business angle as well. Order subscriptions for a team and you unlock volume pricing plus dedicated account support. If you mix brands and regions and spend north of C$1,900 a year with Accor, this is the workhorse.

The fee gap to Explorer is small, so the real decision is geography, not price. If Asia-Pacific isn’t on your calendar, Voyager is the one to hold. If you only ever book ibis, save the money and take the cheaper ibis subscription instead.

ALL Accor+ Explorer – The Asia-Pacific Powerhouse (€215 / C$348)

This is the one I subscribed to, and it’s the most interesting model in the lineup, with one big asterisk. Its headline perks are locked to 22 Asia-Pacific countries plus the UAE.

The centrepiece is Stay Plus, which gives you two free nights a year at more than 1,300 hotels across Asia-Pacific. The mechanic is buy-one-get-one. You book two consecutive nights, and the pricier night comes free, so it works out to a two-night minimum.

The important part is that there’s no obvious value cap. It works at premium properties, not just budget hotels.

Take a two-night stay at Fairmont Tokyo from our full Explorer guide. The member rate runs C$2,457, but Stay Plus makes the second night free and drops the total to C$1,116. That’s a saving of over C$1,300 on a single booking.

I haven’t redeemed mine yet, but on paper one good redemption pays for the whole subscription several times over. The screenshots below show the same room with and without Stay Plus.

You also get 30% off dining and 15% off drinks at participating Asia-Pacific restaurants and bars. I put this to use at El Santo, the Mexican restaurant at Novotel Living Bangkok Sukhumvit, during the same stay where I tested whether Aeroplan HotelSavers is worth it. The 30% came straight off the bill with no fuss.

That dining break adds up faster than you’d expect. Thirty percent off a proper dinner for two in Bangkok or Singapore can be C$40 or C$50 back in one sitting, and it stacks across a whole trip.

Then there’s Red Hot Rooms, an Explorer-only flash-sale channel with member rates up to 50% off across Asia-Pacific. It’s the perk I’m most curious to test on a longer trip.

The 15% stay discount itself now applies worldwide, so the subscription isn’t dead weight once you leave the region. Make no mistake, though, the reason to buy Explorer is Asia-Pacific.

The best part for me was the status. The 30 Status Nights hit my account the moment I paid, and I was Gold instantly, with no stays required. Since then, a room upgrade and late checkout have been routine whenever I ask for them.

Those 30 nights also leave you halfway to Platinum, which adds free breakfast and lounge access at Asia-Pacific hotels. One more detail worth knowing is that the fee can be paid with 14,000 ALL Reward points instead of cash. Run the numbers first, though, since those points carry about €280 of face value against a €215 fee, so cash is usually the better way to pay.

My honest take is simple. If Asia-Pacific or the UAE is anywhere on your travel map, Explorer is one you should definitely consider signing up for. The free nights and dining discounts alone can outrun the fee on a single trip.

ALL Signature – The Points Collector’s Play (from €135 / C$219)

Signature is the odd one out. It’s a Brazil-based points subscription billed in Brazilian reais, with no residency requirement to sign up. Instead of a discount, it pays you in points.

It’s sold in four plans that scale from a light points trickle to a serious earning engine. For the value column, ALL points redeem at a fixed 2,000 points for €40, which works out to 2 euro cents apiece, or about 3.2 Canadian cents at current exchange rates.

Plan	Yearly Price	Monthly Points	Points per Year	Points Value	Status Nights
Essential	R$912 (C$237)	+500	7,500	~C$243	1 every 2 months
Discover	R$1,740 (C$452)	+1,000	15,000	~C$486	1 per month
Explorer	R$5,040 (C$1,310)	+3,000	45,000	~C$1,458	1 per month
Absolute	R$9,120 (C$2,371)	+5,000	75,000	~C$2,430	5 per month

The earning works as a drip. Each plan credits its monthly points automatically, then adds a matching bonus every fourth month. That’s how Essential’s 500 a month lands at 7,500 for the year, and Absolute’s 5,000 a month reaches 75,000.

The Status Nights drip in the same way, but watch the ceiling. Bonus Status Nights are capped at 30 per account per year across every subscription you hold. Absolute grants five a month, so it maxes out that cap by mid-year and the rest simply don’t count.

Each plan also credits Status Points on top, from 1,200 a year on Essential up to 12,000 on Absolute. Those push you toward status directly, and Absolute’s 12,000 is the only subscription route that chips away at Diamond, since Diamond is points-only.

Timing matters, too. Status Points reset every December 31, so starting a plan in January banks a full year’s worth inside one status year. Sign up mid-year and the drip splits across two, which blunts any run at status.

The value math is sobering. Each plan’s yearly points are worth almost exactly what the plan costs, so you’re buying ALL points at close to face value. The real upside sits on top of the points, in the Status Points on every plan and the streaming and São Paulo lounge perks on the pricier ones.

Points never expire and redeem worldwide, and you get a 10% bonus on points transferred in from partners like Livelo, Smiles, TudoAzul, and LATAM Pass.

One quick warning. Signature’s “Explorer” plan has nothing to do with the Explorer subscription above. Accor reused the name, which is needlessly confusing.

Yearly billing is exactly 12 times the monthly price, so the value comes from the recurring 15% to 30% annual-plan promos.

Don’t let the Brazil framing put you off, though. I think Signature is worth it in its own right. The points drip alone covers the fee, and the Status Points, the transfer bonus, and the extras all ride along on top of that.

It’s also the only model to go for if you see yourself reaching all the way to Diamond. That tier is earned purely through Status Points, and Signature is the one subscription that generates them.

Accor Plus 2.0: China’s Separate Subscription Program

China is the one market Accor keeps walled off. Instead of the global models, mainland China runs a program called Accor Plus 2.0, sold through WeChat and Taobao rather than Accor’s homepage.

It works differently, too. Rather than an always-on 15% discount, it hands you a book of single-use vouchers, which makes it strong for planned trips and weaker for spontaneous ones.

There are three tiers, and the room and dining benefits are valid across mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau. Yuan prices are converted to Canadian dollars at 0.20, as of July 13, 2026.

Tier	Price	Status Nights	Highlights
Basic	¥499 (C$100)	5	40% and 30% off room vouchers, buffet vouchers up to 50% off
Premium	¥1,288 (C$258)	20 (Silver)	One free night, room upgrades, lounge and spa vouchers
Supreme	¥2,288 (C$458)	30 (Gold)	Two free nights, breakfast vouchers, year-round buffet discount

Premium and Supreme show promotional prices here. The list prices are ¥1,488 (C$298) and ¥2,688 (C$538), so the promos are worth catching.

The detail that travels well is that the Status Nights count toward your global ALL status. The Gold you unlock through the Supreme tier is valid worldwide, not just in China.

How Status Nights Fast-Track Your Elite Status

The discounts get the marketing, but the instant elite status is the part I’d actually pay for.

Each model front-loads elite nights the day you subscribe. ibis grants 10, Voyager 20, and Explorer 30. Explorer’s 30 nights clear the Gold bar outright, which normally takes around €2,800 (C$4,536) of eligible spend to reach the hard way.

Those nights stack with the nights you earn from real stays, so you can subscribe and then keep climbing toward Platinum from an elevated starting line.

There are two limits worth knowing before you get too excited.

First, bonus Status Nights are capped at 30 per account per year. The cap pools every subscription together with Accor’s co-branded bank credit cards, which exist in a few countries but not in Canada. You can’t stack Explorer plus a second subscription to reach 60 and shortcut your way to Platinum.

Second, Diamond is points-only. It’s earned through Status Points rather than Status Nights, so none of these night lump-sums move you toward it. The only subscription that helps is Signature’s top Absolute plan, which drips 12,000 Status Points a year, and even that covers less than half of what Diamond requires.

When a Subscription Pays Off, and How to Buy Smart

The quick test for your wallet is simple. Take your expected annual Accor spend, multiply it by 15%, and if that beats the fee, the subscription pays for itself on discounts alone.

Taken at the full 15%, the three discount models break even at these levels.

Model	Annual Fee	Break-Even Spend
ibis	€99 (C$160)	€660 (C$1,069) in ibis-family stays
Voyager	€179 (C$290)	€1,193 (C$1,933) across any brand
Explorer	€215 (C$348)	€1,433 (C$2,322), or one Asia-Pacific trip

Explorer bends that math, because the two free nights and the dining discounts can clear the fee in a single Asia-Pacific trip, long before the 15% matters. Just remember to measure everything against the free member rate you’d already get, not the public rate.

There’s also a buying tip that saves real money. Accor almost always has a signup promotion running, and the recurring one worth waiting for grants around 2,000 bonus ALL points, worth roughly €40 (C$65).

Refer-a-friend offers also pop up occasionally, though they tend to pay out in dining vouchers, so they’re weaker for most people than the points promo. Unless you need the benefits within weeks, waiting for a points offer is close to free money, because the subscription is identical either way.

One last thing for Canadians. You’re paying the fee in euros or reais, so put it on a credit card with no foreign transaction fees to keep a 2.5% surcharge from eating into the value.

Which ALL Accor+ Model Fits Which Traveller?

Once you strip away the marketing, the decision comes down to geography and how you travel. This is where I’d point each type of person.

• The budget commuter: ibis, if your work or weekend stays live in the ibis family across Europe.
• The global all-rounder: Voyager, if you mix brands and regions and spend C$1,900 or more a year with Accor.
• The Asia-Pacific regular: Explorer, if you take at least one trip a year to the region or the UAE and enjoy eating out.
• The points collector or Diamond chaser: Signature, whether you’re travelling around South America or building Status Points toward Diamond.
• The China-based traveller: Accor Plus 2.0, for domestic stays and dining across mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau.

For most Canadians reading this, the honest shortlist is two models. Explorer if Asia-Pacific is anywhere on your calendar, and Signature if you’d rather collect points and Status Points that pay off no matter where you travel.

Conclusion

ALL Accor+ is one of the few hotel programs where paying upfront can beat earning perks the slow way, as long as you actually stay at Accor hotels.

The decision really comes down to geography. Explorer is the clear pick for Asia-Pacific and the UAE, Voyager is the flexible global option, and ibis is the budget specialist. Signature is the quiet sleeper of the group, and the only path worth taking if Diamond is the summit you’re aiming for.

If you travel to Europe or Asia with any regularity, work out your expected Accor spend, wait for a points promo, and pick the model that matches your map. If you rarely stay with Accor, the free ALL program is all you need.

American Express has tightened the guest and layover rules at its Centurion Lounges, and the changes went live on July 8, 2026.

Two things are different now. Your guests have to be booked on the same flight as you, and if you’re connecting, you can only get in within five hours of your onward departure.

Honestly, this won’t change much for most people. It matters a little more for us Canadians, and it closes off a good-samaritan move that used to be fair game.

The Kind of Moment This Rule Just Ended

Say you’re waiting in line at a Centurion Lounge, and the family of four in front of you is one pass short.

Mom, Dad, and one of the kids can get in, but the other is about to spend the layover sitting on the terminal floor.

You’re travelling solo, sitting on two guest privileges you aren’t going to use. So you offer to bring her in on your pass, and a couple of minutes later she’s inside with a plate of food while you find your own corner of the lounge.

Under the new same-flight rule, you couldn’t do that today. That small favour is now against the rules, and it’s worth understanding exactly what Amex changed and why.

What Actually Changed

Both changes are aimed squarely at guests and connections.

The first is the same-flight rule. Until now, a guest just had to be flying somewhere that day. Now they have to be on your specific flight.

The second is a five-hour cap on layovers. Connecting passengers used to face no time limit, but now the door only opens within five hours of your departing flight.

Nothing changed for origin departures, which were already held to the existing three-hour window. The new rules apply at Centurion Lounges across the United States, plus London Heathrow (LHR), Tokyo Haneda (HND), Hong Kong (HKG), Sydney (SYD), and Melbourne (MEL).

They cover the Platinum Card, Business Platinum, Corporate Platinum, and Delta SkyMiles Reserve.

Why This Affects Canadians Slightly More

Start with the fact that shapes everything for us. There isn’t a single Centurion Lounge in Canada.

Not in Toronto (YYZ), not in Vancouver (YVR), not in Montreal (YUL). Every Centurion Lounge a Canadian will ever set foot in sits on the far side of a border, usually at a connecting hub like Las Vegas (LAS), Dallas (DFW), or Seattle (SEA).

That geography decides which half of this policy actually touches us. We almost never begin a trip at a Centurion Lounge, because there isn’t one to begin at, so we reach them on the way through, as connecting passengers.

The connecting passenger is exactly who the layover cap targets. Origin departures were always held to a three-hour window, so that part is old news. The connection with no time limit was what made a long layover comfortable, and it’s what just disappeared.

To be fair, most connections run one to four hours, and those still fit inside the new five-hour window. The travellers who lose out are the ones with long layovers, the six- and eight-hour waits where settling into a lounge was the entire plan.

That’s a smaller group, but it’s a disproportionately Canadian one, because the long haul through a hub is a routing we live with far more than most.

Is This to Fix the Crowding Issue?

Amex is framing this as a crowding fix. I’m not sure it’ll work out that way.

Think about who actually brings guests into a lounge. The overwhelming majority are families and couples travelling together on one booking, on the same flight. This rule doesn’t touch them at all.

What the same-flight rule kills isn’t crowding. It’s the social side of guest access, the part that let you help someone outside your own itinerary.

That includes the good-samaritan scenario I opened with. It also includes something more common than you’d think, which is groups travelling together on separate tickets.

I once went on a festival trip where our group booked our flights independently, departing within an hour of each other, and covered one another into lounges along the way. We really were travelling together. Under the new rule, we’re strangers.

The behaviour Amex is actually responding to is far more visible than any of this. Over the past year a wave of social media creators turned lounge access into content, walking up to strangers at the gate and inviting them in to film the moment for their followers.

In raw numbers that’s almost certainly a rounding error against total traffic. Yet visibility forces policy, and a viral video of strangers piling into a Centurion Lounge is exactly the kind of thing that gets a rule written.

There’s an irony in all of this. Some of those strangers probably loved it and walked out to sign up for a Platinum of their own.

That’s how a couple of my friends got theirs. I brought them into a lounge years back, their jaws dropped, and they applied before we’d even left. The lounges were more impressive then, I’ll admit, but the behaviour Amex is clamping down on used to double as its best sales pitch.

The trouble is that the sympathetic cases and the abusive ones now get treated as one thing. That raises a more interesting question, which is why Amex reached for the tool it did.

A Rule the Front Desk Can Actually Enforce

What’s telling is that Amex could’ve left some options open.

The company already runs a paid-guest system. At most US lounges, extra guests can come in for US$50 a head, so the machinery to charge for access is already there.

Amex could have simply priced different-flight guests at a reasonable fee and let people pay for the privilege. It chose not to, and the reason comes down to what a desk agent can verify in real time.

A gate agent can confirm that two people are on the same flight number in about two seconds. What they can’t do is judge whether two travellers on different tickets are really together or total strangers.

Bright-line rules survive at the podium. Fuzzy ones don’t, because a policy that depends on a tired agent making a judgment call at 6am is a policy that falls apart in practice.

So Amex picked the rule it could actually enforce, even though that rule can’t tell a good-samaritan gesture apart from a stunt staged for social media. At the door, the two look identical, and that’s why both had to go.

This is the part I keep coming back to. A rule written to be read by a machine doesn’t need a person to interpret it, and as AI and automation spread through every service counter, the human at the desk starts to look like a cost worth automating away.

A few years from now, I wouldn’t be surprised to find no agent at an airport lounge front desk at all, just a gate that scans your boarding pass and decides. The trouble is that the agent was also the one who could bend the rule a little, and automating the door locks the bright line in for good.

Too Many Cardholders, Not Enough Lounges

Let’s step back a bit, and this fits a pattern that’s been building for years.

The Platinum Card isn’t an elite product anymore. Just by looking around me, the number of people holding one has clearly shot up over the last few years, and that’s exactly what Amex was going for.

The problem is that cardholder growth compounds while lounge square footage grows in a straight line, if it grows at all. You can add members far faster than you can build lounges, so the ratio of eligible travellers to available seats only moves one way.

When the math stops working you ration, and that’s what Amex has been doing for years, one turn of the screw at a time.

First came tighter entry windows. Then guest fees, then spend thresholds to unlock complimentary guests in the US.

Each step is individually defensible. Together they trace a clear direction, and it isn’t toward more access.

So let me plant a flag. The next turn is visit caps or spend-tiered entry on the Centurion Lounges themselves, a set number of free visits a year with unlimited access reserved for whoever spends enough to earn it.

If that sounds far-fetched, look at what Amex Canada has already announced. Starting January 1, 2027, Canadian Platinum cardholders get just six Priority Pass visits and six Plaza Premium visits a year, unless they spend $20,000 (CAD) to buy back unlimited access.

Centurion access stays unlimited for now, but the mechanism is already written into the Canadian terms. Count your visits, or spend your way past the cap. Applying that to Centurion would be a copy-paste job, not a leap.

This Is Partly an Airport Problem, Not an Amex One

Now for the part I’ll defend even though it lets Amex partly off the hook. A lot of this is really about the airports.

Fly through Seoul (ICN), Singapore (SIN), or Tokyo Haneda (HND) and the terminal itself gives you somewhere to be. There are food halls, gardens, showers, quiet zones, and comfortable public seating that doesn’t cost a thing.

The lounge is one option among many, so demand spreads out across the building on its own.

Now picture a typical US terminal. The public seating is a row of hard chairs bolted to the floor, the food is a news-stand sandwich, and the only civilized place to sit is behind the lounge door.

When the lounge is the single tolerable space in the building, every eligible traveller funnels toward the same entrance. No guest rule fixes that, because it’s a terminal-quality problem, and Amex doesn’t own the terminals.

None of that excuses the change. It does explain why the crowding is worst in exactly the markets where these rules are landing.

Conclusion

The crowding won’t ease much. Most of the people filling the Centurion Lounges were always on the same flight as their guests, and they still are.

What actually changed is smaller and sadder. Amex drew a line that a desk agent can enforce in two seconds, and in doing so it ended the version of lounge access where you could do a stranger a good turn.

That family in the queue would still get stopped today, one pass short, and you’d have no way to help. The rule that stops the social-media stunt stops that too.

That’s the trade Amex made. Whether it feels worth it probably depends on how often you were the person in line who needed someone else’s second guest pass, or the person with a spare one to give.

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Air Canada and Landline have quietly launched a new way to get between downtown Montreal and the airport, and it’s built for anyone who hates dragging luggage onto a packed metro at rush hour. The Air Canada City Shuttle runs up to 37 times a day on a dedicated route to Montreal-Trudeau International Airport (YUL), and a one-way ticket is $9 plus tax.

There’s been no formal announcement that I’ve seen, but the booking site already seems to be live.

What caught my eye isn’t the price. It’s the convenience for anyone travelling with real luggage. This shuttle is open only to travellers flying Air Canada that same day, and it works like an airport express built around your departure, bags and all.

There’s a catch, though, and it’s worth understanding before you book. This is a standalone ticket with no Aeroplan points, and none of the flight protection you get from Air Canada’s other Landline service out of Toronto.

The short answer is that it’s well worth it for the right traveller, and easy to skip for everyone else.

How the Air Canada City Shuttle Works

The shuttle connects the Palais des congrès in downtown Montreal with Montreal-Trudeau International Airport (YUL), running non-stop in both directions. Landline operates it on Air Canada’s behalf, using its own booking site rather than aircanada.com.

Service is frequent. There are up to 37 trips a day, every 15 to 30 minutes in each direction. The earliest downtown departures leave before 5am, and the last shuttle from the airport goes at 10pm.

The coaches are a step up from a typical airport bus. Landline uses Prevost motorcoaches built in Quebec, with 48 reclining leather seats, extra legroom, a power outlet at every seat, and an onboard washroom.

Speed is part of the pitch. The shuttle uses a dedicated bus lane that can save up to 25 minutes versus regular airport roads at peak times. Heading to the airport, it drops you at Departures, Door 7, right beside the Air Canada check-in counters.

Booking happens at montreal.landline.com or at self-service kiosks at either end. Tickets are $9 one way plus tax, children under 15 ride free with an adult, and you can change your booking for free up to two minutes before departure. One thing to note is that tickets are non-refundable, so a change is your only option if plans shift.

Who’s Eligible to Ride

Eligibility comes down to one question. Is your flight operated by Air Canada? The shuttle is open to anyone travelling to or from Montreal-Trudeau (YUL) on a flight operated by Air Canada, Air Canada Rouge, or Air Canada Express, which covers the regional flights flown by Jazz Aviation and PAL Airlines.

The key word is operated. A codeshare booked as a United or Lufthansa flight number still counts if Air Canada is the airline flying the plane. The reverse is also true. An Air Canada flight number that’s actually operated by a partner won’t qualify you.

Star Alliance membership or status on its own doesn’t get you a seat either. It’s strictly about who operates your flight.

Where you booked makes no difference. You’re eligible whether you bought through Air Canada, a travel agent, an online site like Expedia, an Air Canada Vacations package, or an Aeroplan points redemption. You’ll need a same-day flight confirmation and government photo identification to board, and you have to be 18 or older to make a booking.

How It’s Different from Landline at Pearson

If you’ve followed Air Canada’s Landline partnership, you might assume this is the same product coming to Montreal. It isn’t, and the differences matter.

Air Canada’s original Landline service connects Ontario towns like Hamilton, Waterloo, and Kingston to Toronto Pearson as a true replacement for a connecting flight. Those motorcoach segments carry an Air Canada flight number, get booked into your itinerary on aircanada.com, earn Aeroplan points, and come with the same delay protection as any flight. It has since expanded to Niagara, Muskoka, and Sarnia.

The Montreal City Shuttle is a different product altogether. It’s a standalone ticket that you book and pay for separately from your flight, and it doesn’t earn or redeem Aeroplan points at all. Air Canada’s reservations team can’t even touch it, since it lives entirely on Landline’s side.

That also means no safety net. If you miss your shuttle, the booking is forfeited and you’re limited to standby on a later departure if space allows. There’s no rebooking onto the next flight the way a missed connection would be handled.

Baggage works differently too. You bring your bags onto the shuttle, where they ride in the luggage hold, then check them with Air Canada once you reach the airport. You can’t check bags or check in for your flight downtown, so plan to check in online before you arrive.

Is It Worth Booking?

For the right traveller, this is an easy yes. If you live in or near downtown Montreal and you’re flying Air Canada with a couple of full-sized bags, this is close to the ideal way to reach the airport.

The draw isn’t really the fare. Public transit to the airport costs about the same, so this was never going to win on price. What it wins on is convenience. You throw your bags into the luggage hold, settle into a reclining seat, and skip the awkward job of wrestling a suitcase and a stuffed backpack through a rush-hour metro car.

For me, that’s an easy trade. I’ll take an airport coach over the metro or a city bus any day when I’m carrying luggage, and getting dropped right at the Air Canada check-in counters seals it.

The trade-offs are worth knowing. You won’t earn a single Aeroplan point, the ticket is non-refundable, and there’s no protection if you miss your ride. This is a convenience play, not a points play.

My honest take is that I wish it were complimentary for Air Canada passengers, or at least for those in premium economy and higher cabins.

But I understand the logic. Unlike a coach that links an outlying town to the airport, this shuttle starts downtown, where travellers already have plenty of ways to reach the terminal.

A free ride was never going to convince enough people to pick Air Canada over a competitor, so charging a few dollars makes sense.

Conclusion

Landline has quietly handed Air Canada flyers in Montreal a useful perk, even if it’s a narrower one than the Pearson motorcoaches. A frequent, comfortable ride that carries your bags straight to the terminal solves a real problem for anyone flying out of downtown.

If I were flying out of Montreal and starting downtown, I’d book it without much thought. If I were connecting through Trudeau or chasing every last Aeroplan point, I’d skip it and stick with my usual routine.

The more interesting question is what comes next. If this standalone shuttle model works in Montreal, it’s easy to imagine Air Canada rolling the same idea out to other city centres, and that would be a welcome trend for anyone who’d rather skip the taxi line.

A few weeks ago, I checked into a Crystal Orange hotel in Shenzhen to see what China’s biggest domestic hotel chain was all about. As it turns out, Accor and H World Group were about to make that corner of the hotel world much more relevant to Canadian travellers.

On June 29, 2026, the two groups announced a major expansion of their long-term partnership. Members on each side will soon be able to book, earn points, and enjoy status recognition across the other’s hotels in China, Europe, and the Middle East.

A Reciprocal Loyalty Tie-Up Across Three Regions

Accor and H World have worked together since 2014, when H World (then known as Huazhu) took on the master franchise for Accor’s economy and midscale brands in China. The new agreement takes that relationship well beyond franchising.

Under the expanded deal, the two groups will integrate their direct booking channels and loyalty programs in phases throughout 2026.

Accor Live Limitless members will be able to book H World International hotels in Europe and the Middle East directly through Accor’s own website and app. In the other direction, H Rewards members will get access to Accor’s premium and luxury brands in mainland China through H World’s platforms.

Members on both sides can expect select status recognition, member-only rates, hotel-level perks, and the ability to earn points on partner bookings.

The combined numbers are hard to ignore. Between ALL’s roughly 120 million members and H Rewards’ more than 310 million, the partnership connects around 430 million members across nearly two million rooms.

Both programs will keep operating independently, so think of this as a partnership rather than a merger of currencies.

Who Is H World, Exactly?

If you haven’t heard of H World Group, you’re not alone. I hadn’t given them much thought either until I stayed at one of their Crystal Orange hotels in Shenzhen earlier this year.

H World, formerly known as Huazhu, is essentially the Marriott of China. However, the group is really two businesses in one, and it helps to understand both halves to see why Accor wants closer ties.

The Chinese domestic engine

At home, H World runs a standardized, tech-forward operation across a wide ladder of brands. HanTing anchors the budget tier, Ji Hotel and Starway cover midscale, and lifestyle names like Orange, Crystal Orange, and Joya fill out the upper-midscale rungs.

Rather than chasing global acquisitions the way Marriott and Hilton have, H World built its scale on domestic dominance. The booking experience is deeply embedded in WeChat, Alipay, and the group’s own app, which works brilliantly for locals and poorly for everyone else.

From my one stay, the appeal was easy to see. I got a modern, high-floor room in one of Shenzhen’s best neighbourhoods for a fraction of what the familiar international names were charging nearby.

It also suited the trip I was actually taking, a quick solo visit built around catching up with a friend over drinks. I didn’t need in-room dining or a fancy pool, just a good location, a complimentary laundry room, and food delivery arriving right at my door.

That’s the quiet advantage of a brand ladder this wide. You can match the hotel to the trip instead of paying for facilities you’ll never touch.

H World International in Europe and the Middle East

The group’s Western arm has a very different flavour. H World acquired Germany’s Deutsche Hospitality in 2019, and rebranded it as H World International in 2024.

This side of the business leans premium and lifestyle. Steigenberger brings more than a century of upscale German hotel heritage, IntercityHotel specializes in properties beside major rail stations, and Jaz in the City and Zleep Hotels cover the lifestyle and economy niches.

All told, H World International runs more than 100 hotels across Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. It’s this collection that ALL members will soon be able to book through Accor’s channels.

One loyalty program with two faces

Both halves sit under the same loyalty umbrella, H Rewards, which claims more than 310 million members. That’s the same league as the biggest international chains by sheer member count.

In practice, though, the program splits along the same lines as the hotels themselves.

Feature	H World in China	H World International
Hotel footprint	Thousands of budget and midscale urban properties	More than 100 premium and lifestyle hotels in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East
Primary brands	HanTing, Ji Hotel, Starway, Orange, Crystal Orange, Joya	Steigenberger, IntercityHotel, Jaz in the City, Zleep Hotels
Booking ecosystem	WeChat, Alipay, and the Huazhu app	Traditional web booking and the international H Rewards app

The English-facing H Rewards site only covers the European brands, while the Chinese-facing Huazhu app covers Crystal Orange and most of the domestic portfolio.

I’ve run into this split first-hand. My Huazhu app credentials don’t work on the international H Rewards site, since the two platforms run on separate account systems, and there’s no self-serve way to link them.

How the two sets of tiers compare

Even the elite tiers are defined differently on each side. The Chinese program hands out free breakfast at Gold, while the international program saves daily breakfast for Platinum, a tier that takes 35 nights to reach.

Tier	HuaZhu Rewards (China)	H Rewards (International)
Star	Free to join, rate discounts, 1x points	Free to join, member rates, 8 points per €1
Silver	3 nights to qualify, 1.5x points	3 nights or €350 spend, 1pm late checkout
Gold	12% off retail rates, free breakfast for one, 2pm late checkout	22 nights or €2,150 spend, room upgrades, 10% dining discount, 2pm late checkout
Platinum	15% off retail rates, breakfast for two, 36 free room upgrades a year, 2pm late checkout	35 nights or €3,500 spend, daily breakfast, 3pm late checkout

Earning doesn’t line up either. The Chinese side works on room-rate multipliers, while the international side pays a flat 8 base points per euro with tier bonuses layered on top.

Night requirements are also murkier on the Chinese side, where the app only shows how far you personally have left to climb rather than a published ladder.

None of this is a problem when the programs stay in their own lanes. It becomes one the moment a traveller tries to straddle both, which is exactly the gap the Accor deal starts to close.

What ALL Accor Members Stand to Gain

For Canadians, the practical upside starts in Europe. Steigenberger is a storied upscale brand with flagship properties in cities like Frankfurt, Berlin, and Hamburg, plus a strong resort presence in Egypt, while IntercityHotel covers the reliable midscale segment across Germany and beyond.

Once the integration goes live, you’ll be able to book these hotels through Accor’s app, earn ALL Reward points on your stays, and receive some level of elite status recognition.

What caught my eye is what the announcement doesn’t say. There’s no mention of ALL members earning or redeeming at H World’s enormous domestic Chinese network, at least not in this first phase.

The China side of the deal flows the other way. H Rewards members will be pointed toward Accor’s premium and luxury hotels in mainland China, where Accor has been investing in better member benefits this year.

A points conversion already exists

One wrinkle the press release doesn’t mention is that Accor and HuaZhu Rewards have quietly offered a points conversion for years. The terms are still listed on Accor’s own site.

ALL members can convert 2,000 ALL Reward points into 6,000 HuaZhu Rewards points. Going the other way, it takes 12,600 HuaZhu Rewards points to get 1,000 ALL points, and either direction can take up to six weeks to process. You’ll also need accounts in both programs under the same name.

The lopsided rates make this strictly a one-way street. Round-tripping 2,000 ALL points through HuaZhu and back would leave you with fewer than 500, so only convert with a specific redemption in mind.

The Real Prize Is Easier Booking

All of this brings me back to why I care about this deal as a traveller rather than an industry watcher. My Crystal Orange stay was one of my favourite hotel finds this year, and the hardest part of the whole experience was booking it.

H World’s domestic booking flow lives inside a Chinese-language ecosystem. Even checking what Gold status would get me means running my phone’s translation tools over the Huazhu app’s tier pages.

The app will tell me how many nights I have left to climb toward each tier, though how it counts them isn’t obvious from a single stay. For most Canadians, the practical workaround today is a third-party site like Trip.com rather than H World’s own channels.

That’s why the direct booking half of this announcement matters more to me than the loyalty half. Every phase that moves H World inventory onto a platform with real English support chips away at that barrier.

The loyalty half isn’t far behind, though. My Shenzhen stay counted for nothing in any program I can use globally, with no points, no elite night credits, and no way to stack the stay with the double-elite-night or bonus-point promotions that points collectors plan around.

It didn’t bother me this time, since I wasn’t chasing status. On a longer trip, those foregone credits add up, and bridging that gap is exactly what this partnership could do.

The first phase starts at the easy end, sending the European and Middle Eastern hotels to Accor’s channels. The bigger prize would be the reverse flow, with Crystal Orange, Ji Hotel, and the rest of the Chinese portfolio showing up somewhere a Canadian can comfortably book.

Even landing those hotels on the English-facing H Rewards platform would lower the barrier considerably. Making them bookable through Accor with ALL status recognition attached would change how I plan China trips entirely.

Is This Good News for Canadian Travellers?

Mostly, yes, though the fine print will decide how good.

“Select status recognition” is doing a lot of heavy lifting in the press release. We don’t yet know how ALL tiers will map onto H World properties, which hotels will participate first, or what the earning rates will look like.

The phasing is already visible. When I checked this week, flagship properties like the Steigenberger Frankfurter Hof weren’t bookable through Accor’s channels yet.

However, Accor has a solid track record with partnerships. It’s already one of the more interesting alternatives to the big four hotel programs for Canadians, with airline transfer partners and a footprint the others can’t match in Europe and Asia.

If the rollout delivers real earning and recognition, this fills a gap for anyone whose travels lean toward Germany, the Middle East, or China rather than the usual Marriott and Hilton strongholds.

Conclusion

Hotel loyalty keeps inching toward the airline alliance model, with mid-sized programs linking up instead of fighting alone. Accor has been the most aggressive player on that front, and plugging into H World’s 310 million members makes it the centre of gravity for hotel partnerships outside the big American chains.

I’ll be watching for the participating hotel list and the status mapping as the phases roll out this year. If the benefits turn out to be more than token, I’d happily route a future stay in Germany or the Middle East through a Steigenberger or an IntercityHotel to put it to the test.

The day a Crystal Orange shows up as bookable through my ALL account, I’ll have my excuse to plan another trip to China.

If you’ve got a summer trip that pairs a United flight with a Marriott stay, this one is an easy way to pick up extra points and miles, as long as you clear the fine print.

Marriott Bonvoy and United MileagePlus dust off their dual-currency promotion every so often, and the 2026 version is back under the name “Stay, Fly, Earn.” Book a paid hotel stay and a paid United flight, and you’ll earn a bonus in both programs at the same time.

Register first, then earn 2,000 Marriott Bonvoy points and 1,500 United MileagePlus miles every time you pair a stay with a flight.

One thing to note is that the two sides have to come in equal numbers. A flight only pays out if there’s a stay to match it, and a stay only pays out if there’s a flight. No spare halves.

It’s counted per stay and per flight, by the way, not per hotel night or per connecting segment. Anything you’ve already booked still counts too, as long as you register in time and travel by September 30, 2026.

Registration is open now through August 31, 2026. The points and miles can take up to 12 weeks to show up after the promotion ends, so don’t panic if they’re slow to land.

You sign up at marriottbonvoy.com/stayflyearn. If your two accounts aren’t linked yet, you’ll need to join the RewardsPlus partnership first, over on Marriott’s travel partner page.

Who Can Earn the Bonus

One thing worth knowing upfront is that the promotion isn’t open to everyone with linked accounts.

To take part, you need to be enrolled in the RewardsPlus partnership, and that enrollment is limited to top-tier elites. On the hotel side, you need Marriott Bonvoy Titanium or Ambassador Elite. On the airline side, you need United MileagePlus Premier Gold, Platinum, or 1K.

If you’re sitting just below one of those tiers, there’s unfortunately no buy-in or workaround to get in.

A Few Things to Keep in Mind

A handful of rules decide whether the bonus actually lands, and they’re the easy kind to miss.

• You only earn on matched pairs. Marriott’s own example has someone with four flights and seven stays walking away with just four pairs, so the three extra stays count for nothing.
• It has to be paid travel. Award nights, award flights, and “money plus points” bookings are all out.
• Your Bonvoy account has to be set to earn points, not airline miles. Get this wrong and you’ll earn zero, even if everything else checks out. Worth a quick look before you travel.
• You get one dual-currency campaign a year, so signing up for this burns your 2026 slot.

How Much Is It Really Worth?

Let’s not oversell it. This is a nice top-up, not a jackpot.

Using our valuations of 1.6 cents (CAD) a United mile and 0.8 cents a Marriott Bonvoy point, each pair is worth about $40 (CAD), and that’s on top of the points and miles the stay and flight already earn you.

Do three trips and you’re looking at 6,000 points and 4,500 miles. Handy, but not enough to book much on its own.

The whole thing only makes sense if you were already flying United and staying at Marriott this summer. If you’re booking trips just to trigger it, you’ve missed the point.

One note for Canadians. Bonvoy points transfer to United at a rough 3:1, which is poor. The upside here is that you skip that entirely, since you’re earning both currencies straight up rather than converting one into the other.

Conclusion

My honest take is that this is worth it for a narrow group. If you’re a top-tier Bonvoy or United member with summer travel already booked, take two minutes to register and make sure your Bonvoy account is set to earn points. Easy value.

Everyone else can let it slide. If you’re not already deep in both programs, a few thousand points and miles isn’t worth reshuffling your travel for, and you’ll probably want to save your one yearly slot for a bigger trip.