Originally Posted by phbl

you're prob sol for earning airline status in december, but that's not a big deal because earning status in january will give you almost 2 years status.

if you're stuck to ihg, you're also kinda sol for december as status is based on nights and not stays.

if you can go over to spg, you can get plat with 25 stays (ie one night at a different hotel), but you can also get gold with 10 stays, which would suffice moving forward into january, where you can knock off your 25 stays. i do not know about hhonors or marriott

just be sure to break up your stays, as iirc with spg, a single stay over 90 nights (need to check the exact number) would result in no elite status earning...at least with spg. read and understand the ts and cs.

so maybe you should go for low-tier elite with 2 hotel programs and do what you can to get low tier elite with 1 airline program. or maybe even just fly with various airlines and see which one you want to put all eggs in the basket with for 2016 onwards.