By Larry Olmsted

Reaching higher tiers of airline loyalty programs has traditionally required flying a couple of times each month – but right now hardly anyone is flying anywhere. Hotel programs are similar, and for example, to reach Hilton’s highest tier Diamond status usually requires 30 separate stays totaling 60 or more nights each year – that’s an average of more than a night each week.

With conventions canceled across the globe, and other business and leisure travel pretty much shut down, accumulating such numbers in 2020 seems unlikely even in a best-case scenario of things starting to return to normal sometime in May. Whenever the pandemic does subside, the return towards previous behaviors is likely to be a slow road.

Yet everyone is hoping that 2021 will be business and pleasure as usual …

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Award-winning travel journalist Larry Olmsted is the author of “Real Food, Fake Food.” He is a Contributing Editor to US Airways Magazine and Cigar Aficionado Magazine and “The Great Life” columnist for Forbes.com.