Why Hyatt Globalist Is My Favorite Hotel Elite Status

Over the past few years we’ve seen some significant changes to hotel loyalty programs. Some hotel loyalty programs have upped their game, while others have gotten worse. In this post, I want to share why World of Hyatt Globalist is my favorite top tier hotel status, but first let me share my current overall hotel strategy.

My current hotel loyalty program strategy

There are four hotel loyalty programs I’m pretty actively engaged in, so let me share my overall thoughts on them, roughly in order:

• World of Hyatt is my all around favorite hotel loyalty program; I have lifetime Globalist status, so technically I don’t have to worry about requalifying, if I don’t want to (though there’s still an incentive to do so)
• Marriott Bonvoy is my backup program, even though I earned Ambassador status for this year; beyond that, I have lifetime Platinum status, and I always earn at least 50 elite nights per year in the program in order to get access to the Choice Benefits program, and that’s easy enough to do since I have both the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express® Card (review) and Marriott Bonvoy Business® American Express® Card (review), earning me 40 elite nights per year
• I love Hilton Honors thanks to the incredible Hilton Honors Aspire Card from American Express (review), which earns me Diamond status for as long as I have the card; Hilton’s luxury portfolio has also been growing nicely in recent years
• IHG One Rewards is my very last backup chain; the IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card (review) earns me Platinum status for as long as I have the card Platinum status; I stay at IHG properties when I have a certificate to redeem, or when the location is the best

The information and associated card details on this page for the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card has been collected independently by OMAAT and has not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

World of Hyatt Globalist benefits

With the above out of the way, Hyatt has some things working for and against it. In particular, Hyatt’s footprint isn’t nearly as large as that of Hilton, IHG, or Marriott (though it has been growing impressively). However, Hyatt has a very compelling loyalty program, to the point that I think it’s worth pursuing top tier status with the program.

What I appreciate about Hyatt is the emphasis placed on consistently delivering benefits. While no loyalty program is perfect (especially when you consider that hotels are mostly individually owned), Hyatt does the best job in this regard, in my opinion.

So, why do I like World of Hyatt Globalist status so much?

Unlimited complimentary suite upgrades

World of Hyatt offers Globalist members unlimited suite upgrades subject to availability. While execution isn’t perfect, I’ve found that Hyatt is the most consistent of any hotel group when it comes to delivering on this benefit. That’s to say that most Hyatt properties make an effort to proactively upgrade Globalist members as much as possible.

Of course it’s important to be realistic. Some hotels don’t have many suites, some hotels get a lot of Globalist members, and some hotels have a lot of paid demand for suites. Don’t expect that you’ll receive a complimentary suite upgrade at the Andaz Maui or Park Hyatt Paris, for example. Meanwhile at some other properties, suite upgrades for Globalist members are a near sure bet.

The ability to earn suite upgrade awards

The area where Hyatt’s upgrade policy really shines is with the suite upgrade awards that are offered as part of the Milestone Rewards program. With Milestone Rewards, you can select different perks in 10 night increments. A Globalist member earning 60 elite nights per year could select five suite upgrade awards.

Each suite upgrade award can be used to confirm a suite upgrade at the time of booking for a stay of up to seven consecutive nights.

The reason I love this benefit so much is because it allows me to upgrade those stays that matter the most to me, where I really value a suite. There’s not another major hotel loyalty program that offers suite upgrades at the time of booking with so few limitations.

The ability to earn Guest of Honor awards

Also as part of the Milestone Rewards program, World of Hyatt offers members Guest of Honor awards. With this benefit, eligible members can gift Globalist perks to others. Each Guest of Honor award is valid for a stay of up to seven nights, and can be used on a cash or award stay.

Best of all, for each Guest of Honor stay that you gift to someone else, you’ll automatically receive one extra elite night toward status, which is an awesome benefit.

Anyone who spends a lot of time on the road wants their family to travel comfortably as well, which is why I love this perk so much. I use this all the time when traveling with family and friends, and when I’m looking to book multiple rooms.

Best of all, Guest of Honor awards aren’t even the only rewards that you can gift others. You can also earn club access awards, which can be used to grant lounge access to friends and family, regardless of whether or not they’re traveling with you.

The best status breakfast benefit

As far as I’m concerned, Hyatt offers the best top tier elite breakfast benefit of any hotel group, given that full breakfast is offered at all hotels, including gratuity. To compare that to my two backup hotel groups, Marriott has excluded brands, while Hilton offers continental breakfast or a food & beverage credit.

With Hyatt you get access to the club lounge when there is one. For those hotels without a club lounge you get a full, hot breakfast in the restaurant. The way this is executed varies by hotel. At some hotels you have access to the buffet, at other hotels you can get room service, and at other hotels you can order anything off the menu.

Guaranteed 4PM check-out

Globalist members receive guaranteed 4PM check-out. This benefit is subject to availability at resorts, but it’s guaranteed at other hotels. A benefit is most valuable when guaranteed, so being able to stay four to five hours beyond the typical check-out time is great. Marriott offers this as well, while Hilton and IHG don’t guarantee this.

Waived resort fees on all stays

Resort fees (or destination fees, or facility fees) are one of the most annoying trends in the hotel industry. We’ve seen these added at so many hotels. The good thing is that as a Hyatt Globalist member you never have to worry about these, as you’re exempt from them, regardless of whether on a cash or points booking. World of Hyatt is the only loyalty program to waive these fees for elites on all stays.

Waived parking fees on award stays

For those cases where you do redeem points, Globalist members don’t have to pay for on-property parking. This even applies if you’re parking in New York or San Francisco, where it might otherwise cost $50+. While I don’t use this benefit much, when I do, it saves me a lot of money.

Sometimes this is also the deciding factor for me when trying to choose between paying cash or redeeming points for a stay. World of Hyatt is the only program offering a perk like this.

Two free night awards annually

For earning 60 elite nights in a year (which is ordinarily required for Globalist status) you receive two free night awards annually:

• You get a Category 1-4 free night award when you pass 30 elite nights
• You get a Category 1-7 free night award when you pass 60 elite nights

Stays at those hotels could cost up to 18,000 and 35,000 points, respectively, so that’s potentially a value of up to 53,000 points per year.

The ability to transfer points from Chase

Globalist status comes with so many great perks, but one of the issues is often that you wish you had more points you could redeem so you could enjoy these perks.

The good news is that World of Hyatt is a 1:1 Chase Ultimate Rewards transfer partner, so you have several additional ways of earning points. For example, you can transfer points from:

• The Chase Sapphire Reserve® Card (review), which offers 3x points on dining and travel
• The Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card (review), which offers 3x points on the first $150,000 spent annually on travel, shipping purchases, internet, cable and phone services, and advertising purchases made with social media sites and search engines
• The Chase Freedom Unlimited® (review), which in conjunction with one of the above cards offers 3x points on dining and drugstores, and 1.5x points on all purchases

The way I see, World of Hyatt is the only hotel program that allows efficient transfers from a major transferable points currencies (where you don’t lose a lot of value in the process). There’s something to be said for that.

Combine points between Hyatt accounts

While this isn’t specifically a Globalist benefit, one other great thing about World of Hyatt is how easily you can combine points between accounts.

Sometimes you don’t have enough points for a redemption, and in those cases you have the opportunity to transfer an unlimited number of points to another member at no cost. There are two restrictions to be aware of, though:

• You can only transfer points to another member “in order to have a sufficient number of points to redeem a particular award”
• You can only combine points (regardless of whether you’re sending or receiving) once every 30 days

The Hyatt Privé program

While not limited to Globalist members, this is something that adds significant value to my Hyatt stays, and which makes me choose Hyatt over competitors. With the Hyatt Privé program you can receive extra perks when booking select Hyatt properties through an eligible travel agent.

In many cases this gets me a confirmed upgrade at booking, a $100 credit, and more.

What I don’t love about World of Hyatt

The above are the biggest reasons I love World of Hyatt Globalist status, though let me also share a few of the things I don’t love about the program:

• Actual points earning rates for hotels are ordinarily pretty weak — as a Globalist member you earn 6.5x points per dollar spent, which isn’t that great (I value Hyatt points at ~1.5 cents each, so that’s like a return of just under 10%); however, World of Hyatt does sometimes have valuable global promotions, but they’re not as consistent as you may find with Hilton Honors, for example
• While Hyatt has made huge strides when it comes to its global footprint, especially with luxury properties, Hyatt still can’t compete with the sheer number of properties belonging to Hilton, IHG, and Marriott, and Hyatt’s focus lately overwhelmingly seems to be on all-inclusive resorts, which don’t appeal to me as much
• As Hyatt has grown, I think the loyalty program isn’t quite as good as it used to be with preventing hotels from playing games with award availability, upgrades, etc.

World of Hyatt’s credit cards

There are lots of great hotel credit cards out there, and Hyatt has two of those — specifically, the World of Hyatt Credit Card (review) and World of Hyatt Business Credit Card (review).

While there are some great aspects to the business card, personally I think it’s the personal card that shines, given that it has a lower annual fee, offers an anniversary free night certificate, offers elite nights just for being a cardmember (without spending), and more. The good news is that both cards make it easier to earn Globalist status. You could even earn Globalist status entirely through credit card spending, if you wanted to (though that’s not what I’d recommend doing).

Personally, I think the ideal strategy is to earn Globalist status through a combination of credit card spending and actual stays. After all, if you’re not actually staying at Hyatts much, what’s the point of earning status?

Earning Globalist status with Hyatt’s credit cards

World of Hyatt requires 60 elite nights to earn Globalist status. Even award stays count toward status, so it’s awesome that redeeming points will get you closer to Globalist status.

Fortunately Hyatt’s credit cards can help you earn elite nights:

• With the World of Hyatt Credit Card you receive five elite nights toward status annually just for having the card, plus an additional two elite nights for every $5,000 you spend on the card
• With the World of Hyatt Business Credit Card you receive five elite nights toward status for every $10,000 spent on the card in a calendar year

This means that if you wanted to, you could spend your way all the way to Globalist status, through a combination of the elite nights earned on both cards. In reality I don’t recommend completely doing that. Rather I think some combination of credit card spending and actual stays is the best strategy.

Bottom line

I find World of Hyatt Globalist status to be the most compelling top tier hotel status out there. To me that comes down to the program offering strong perks to begin with, and on top of that, doing a better job than competitors with delivering on what’s promised.

I appreciate that Globalist members get a full breakfast (including tip), guaranteed late check-out, waived resort fees, waived parking fees on award stays, etc. Personally I don’t count on complimentary suite upgrades, but that’s the beauty of confirmed suite upgrades, which let you lock in a suite upgrade for the stays that matter most to you.

Of course, I understand for a lot of people it’s just not practical to be loyal to Hyatt, given the group’s relatively small global footprint, though a lot of progress has been made there in recent years.

What do you consider to be the most valuable top tier hotel status?