Author: Matthew
December 11, 2024
The Hyatt hotel chain has a loyalty track that provides a lot of value; from free breakfast to even free whole nights at expensive hotels. There are four tiers; Member, Discoverist, Explorist, and Globalist. At the top, Globalist status provides the most perks and benefits for Hyatt loyalists.
Free breakfast on all hotel stays - while the lower hotel tiers offer an already complimentary continental breakfast, even the higher end Park Hyatts and such, will provide free breakfast at their lounge or restaurant.
Club lounge access - some Hyatts have lounges where they provide free drinks and snacks throughout the day or during happy hour. Globalists get automatic access to the lounge.
Free parking on award stays - while using points, you get free valet or self-parking - as long as the parking garage/lot is owned by the hotel.
4pm late checkout - this is a great benefit for staying almost another day in your destination.
Complimentary upgrade to suites - if there is availability at check-in, you can get upgraded to a higher-tier room.
In addition to the perks you get at each status, by climbing the loyalty track, you also gain several awards along the way.
Club Lounge Access Awards - Allow you to access the Hyatt lounges when available
Free Night Award - Free night stay at any of Hyatt's hotels, as long as it fits the category stated (usually there are Category 1-4 Free Night Awards and Category 1-7)
Bonus Points - Additional Hyatt points to add to your arsenal
Guest of Honor Awards - Previously you could book points for others and grant them Globalist benefits. Now this is a limited feature performed by these awards. Each time you gift these for a stay, you get a qualifying night.
Suite Upgrade Awards - Apply these to reservation to get an automatic suite upgrade
My Hyatt Concierge - a personal concierge to help with bookings
Gift cards/experience credit - $100 Hyatt gift card or $150 FIND experience credit
For every 10 qualifying nights starting 70 up to 150, you can choose between 10000 bonus points, a miraval extra night award, or a suite upgrade award. Additionally each milestone earns another Guest of Honor Award, except 100 and 150 where you earn a Category 1-7 Free Night Award or All Category night award, respectively.
Our favorite Hyatt club lounge is at Hyatt Regency Paris Étoile. For breakfast they had a wide assortment of fresh French pastries, prosciutto, salmon crudo, fruits, and more. During happy hour, they had unlimited beer and wine along with a variety of hot food and snacks. Finally the view at the top was so clear; you could see so much of Paris from up there, Eiffel Tower included.
To achieve Globalist status in a year, one needs to either stay 60 nights at Hyatt hotels, spend $20,000 , or host 20 meetings. For the average person, they're going to go the nights stayed route. So in one year, I was able to "stay" at 60 nights worth of Hyatts, granting me Globalist status for the remainder of 2024, all of 2025, and through February 2026. I'm going to breakdown the two ways I achieved the 60 night benchmark. See how I achieved this last year.
If you check out my other post on free hotel stays, you can see that I stayed at 34 Hyatt nights in 2024. These were actual stays (all paid with points) that counted towards status. So how did I get the other 24 needed?
As mentioned above, Guest of Honor awards now provide the gifter a qualifying night after the recipient has made their stay. At the start of 2024, as a legacy Globalist, I received 5 awards to use automatically, which I did. That gave me 5 qualifying nights, bringing the total nights to 39. Note, this will not be repeated for 2025 and beyond.
There are two Hyatt credit cards that each provide different perks, and I had gotten both specifically to help me achieve Globalist status.
Personal Hyatt Credit Card
This card automatically provides 5 nights towards status at the beginning of the year. Additionally, every $5k spent on the card gives an addition two nights towards status. I aim to hit this reward 3 times a year, for a total of $15k/year so I also get a Category 1-4 Free Night Award to use on future trips. So with the personal card I received 11 nights towards status, bringing the total up to 50.
Business Hyatt Credit Card
Unlike the personal version, the business card does not give any automatic nights towards status. However, the spend for nights earns at a much better ate of 5 qualifying nights towards status for every $10k spent. This means for the $20k I put on the card this year, I received 10 nights, bringing my total to 60 nights.