The Milestone Rewards program offers perks for passing certain thresholds each calendar year with World of Hyatt. There’s one Milestone Rewards perk that tends to cause confusion among Globalist members, so in this post I wanted to shed some light on that.
In this post:
World of Hyatt Milestone Rewards basics
World of Hyatt’s elite tier thresholds are usually as follows:
- Discoverist status: 10 qualifying nights or 25,000 base points (equivalent to $5,000 of spending)
- Explorist status: 30 qualifying nights or 50,000 base points (equivalent to $10,000 of spending)
- Globalist status: 60 qualifying nights or 100,000 base points (equivalent to $20,000 of spending)
Separate from qualifying for status, there are Milestone Rewards at the following thresholds, which get you additional perks:
- 10 qualifying nights or 25,000 base points — earn Discoverist status
- 20 qualifying nights or 35,000 base points — earn two club lounge access awards
- 30 qualifying nights or 50,000 base points — earn Explorist status, plus earn two club lounge access awards, plus a Category 1-4 free night award
- 40 qualifying nights or 65,000 base points — earn 5,000 bonus points or a $100 Hyatt gift card
- 50 qualifying nights or 80,000 base points — earn two suite upgrade awards
- 60 qualifying nights or 100,000 base points — earn Globalist status, plus two suite upgrade awards, plus a Category 1-7 free night award, plus access to My Hyatt Concierge
- 70 qualifying nights — 10,000 bonus points or a suite upgrade award
- 80 qualifying nights — 10,000 bonus points or a suite upgrade award
- 90 qualifying nights — 10,000 bonus points or a suite upgrade award
- 100 qualifying nights — 10,000 bonus points or a suite upgrade award
World of Hyatt club access awards basics
While most World of Hyatt Milestone Rewards perks are pretty straightforward, club access awards can cause some confusion. Each club access award can be used to access a hotel’s club lounge for a stay of up to seven consecutive nights.
Club access awards are valid on eligible paid rates (including Hyatt Privé rates), as well as free night awards, and Points + Cash bookings. They’re not eligible on bookings with free night certificates or non-eligible paid rates, though. You can apply these in advance of your stay by contacting Hyatt reservations, as there’s no way to redeem these through your online World of Hyatt account.
How can Globalist members use club access awards?
World of Hyatt Globalist members can earn four club access awards per year through the Milestone Rewards program, which can cause some confusion.
Why? Because Globalist members already receive guaranteed club lounge access. On top of that, these club lounge access awards aren’t transferable, so you can’t use these for a stay in someone else’s name.
Contrast that to suite upgrade awards, which are valuable, since they allow you to confirm a suite upgrade in advance, when as a Globalist member you’d otherwise only get room upgrades subject to availability at check-in.
What value are club access awards even supposed to have for Globalist members? Well, there are two circumstances under which they could come in handy:
- When a Globalist member books two rooms, a club lounge access award can be used to secure lounge access for the second room; so you can use this for friends and family, but only if they’re traveling with you
- Globalist members can use club lounge access awards to secure lounge access for themselves in the event they don’t requalify for status, and they have some club lounge access awards that are valid for longer than their status
Like I said, club access awards can’t just be given to friends and family traveling alone, so they do have fairly limited value.
Lastly, keep in mind that as a Globalist member you can make a Guest of Honor booking for others using your points, and then they receive Globalist benefits. So this is only potentially valuable when someone is traveling with you on a paid stay, and not a points stay.
Bottom line
The World of Hyatt Milestone Rewards program offers valuable perks like suite upgrade awards, bonus points, and free night certificates. The perk that tends to cause the most confusion for Globalist members is the club access awards, since Globalist members are already guaranteed club access.
Obviously these are valuable for other elite members who wouldn’t otherwise get club lounge access, while they’re less valuable for Globalist members. I know I have 12 of these sitting in my account right now.
Hopefully the above explains the relatively few circumstances under which you can get value out of them as a Globalist member.
Typically when traveling with others and staying at Hyatt I’ll make a Guest of Honor booking for the second room, but on a paid stay I could also see myself using a club access award for the second room, so my friends and family can get access as well.
If you’ve used World of Hyatt club access awards, what was your experience like?
I have tried contacting Hyatt through the live chat and FB messenger to trade my awards that expired on 12/31 for points with no success. On chat I just never connected to anybody and after one FB response it has been crickets. I also just had my first stay with Globalist status and couldn't have been more disappointed.
Yes, thanks for the headsup too. I was given 3k per cert for a total of 12,000 points. The rep thanked me for staying 129 nights this year so that was "her"/Hyatt's way of thanking me. This policy was just instituted this week.
So, does the second room need to be booked in the name of the Globalist member or the guest without status?
Thank you, Ben!
I haven't stayed at a single Hyatt hotel that had a lounge open in the last 18 months. OK, technically there was Grand Hyatt Seattle, but it was like a coffee machine and bottled water only.
These things are worthless.
In Seattle, the Hyatt Regency club lounge is better; had cereal out in morning and snacks throughout out day in addition to coffee machine (great hot cocoa). The club in the Grand Hyatt in Hawaii is only one I have found open in the past 18 months even though it is slightly modified (you point, they plate it for you.)
These are worthless
Can we exchange them for World of Hyatt points
Yes, 500 points per certificate.
Wow, never heard this before. Just exchanged 4 expiring next week for 2k points via live chat.
I just was given 2k per cert (8k total)! Not sure if because Globalist but thanks for the heads up, everyone!
This is interesting to know! I'm globalist, reached out and was told that I should contact again closer to the expiration date (February 2022) :|
I will reach out to them
Also I have suite nights expiring next week
That I won’t be able to use
Securing a future reservation when not re-qualifying for Globalist seems to be a good usage. But looking at my account, it seems my lounge awards have same expiry date as my Globalist status.
Or do lounge awards not have to be used before expiration, only booked? (Which is almost never the case for free night certificates.
@ Lucky,
"Club access awards are valid on eligible paid rates (including Hyatt Privé rates), as well as free night awards, and Points + Cash bookings. They’re not eligible on bookings with free night certificates or non-eligible paid rates, though."
What is the difference between a free night award and a free night certificate?
Hi Paul,
I agree not award would be using points while a certificate would be from a credit card or a brand explorer. Good for just one night.
Sorry, typing too fast.
A free night award would be points compared to a certificate
A useless 'benefit' as most (all?) US Clubs have been closed for nearly 2 years. I was hoping you'd tell us that Hyatt is giving some other perk for these certs.
I recently tried to apply one Club Access Award for a second paid room under my name at a GH. Hyatt Concierge answered that this is not possible as the second room has to be booked by points or Free Night Award. As the booking was originally for two rooms with one person each the problem was solved by changing the reservation for one room to two persons. I just took the guest with me to the lounge.
I also tried using a Club Access Award on my second paid room under my name at the Hyatt Regency Cologne. I was told at check-in that I could not use it in this scenario and also confirmed after the stay in an email from the manager that this was correct. They offered that I could only pay extra for the access for the other room.
Thank you, @Ben. This brings up one question: As a Globalist, do I get club lounge access on free night certificate stays?
With thanks,
@ Tom -- You sure do!
Thank you!