World of Hyatt’s Milestone Rewards program offers perks for every 10 elite qualifying nights you earn in a calendar year, all the way from 10 nights to 150 nights. The Milestone Rewards perk that has historically been the least valuable is club access awards. However, thanks to World of Hyatt’s 2024 program changes, there’s finally some value to these, so let’s go over all the details.
In this post:
World of Hyatt Milestone Rewards basics
World of Hyatt’s elite tier thresholds are 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, the Milestone Rewards program offers rewards for every 10 elite nights, all the way from 10 elite nights to 150 elite nights. It doesn’t matter how you earn those elite nights — even elite nights earned through the World of Hyatt Credit Card (review) and the World of Hyatt Business Credit Card (review) would qualify toward this.
It’s possible to earn up to four club access awards per year:
- At 20 elite nights or 35,000 base points, you can select two club access awards
- At 30 elite nights or 50,000 base points, you can select two club access awards
There’s an opportunity cost to selecting these awards, so be sure to read my guide to the Milestone Rewards program.
World of Hyatt club access awards basics
Let’s go over the basics of World of Hyatt club access awards:
- 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 club access awards in advance of your stay by contacting Hyatt reservations, as there’s no way to redeem these through your online World of Hyatt account
- Club access awards are valid for the year in which they’re earned, plus an additional 14 months; in other words, if you earned club access awards in January 2024, they’d be valid through February 2026, and you need to actually stay by the expiration date
- Club access awards can either be redeemed by the World of Hyatt member who earned them, or can be transfered to a friend or family member
How to gift World of Hyatt club access awards to others
The ability to transfer club access awards to others is new as of 2024, and is a huge value-add, given that these have historically been of limited value to Globalist members (since they get club access anyway).
How do you go about transferring your club access awards to others? Just log into your World of Hyatt account, click on the “Awards” section, and then you’ll see your club access awards listed.
If you want to transfer your award to someone else, click the three dots next to the award you want to transfer, and click “Gift Your Award.” Then enter the last name and World of Hyatt number of the person you want to transfer the award to, and then it’ll be instantly deposited in their account.
World of Hyatt club access awards best strategy
Two major things have changed about World of Hyatt club access awards as of 2024:
- You can now gift these to other World of Hyatt members, which offers a lot more flexibility
- You no longer automatically receive club access awards, but rather they’re an option you can select at two Milestone Rewards thresholds
Both of these are great updates, because historically World of Hyatt Globalist members have earned four club access awards per year through the Milestone Rewards program, with no practical use.
That’s because Globalist members already receive guaranteed club lounge access as a perk, so there’s no incremental value. 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.
With that in mind, assuming you do select club access awards with the Milestone Rewards program, what’s the best strategy?
If you’re a World of Hyatt Globalist member, you have a couple of options. You could gift club access awards to family or friends to make their Hyatt stays better. However, keep in mind that you also get Guest of Honor awards, and if you gift those to others, they’ll also automatically get club access. As an alternative, if you often travel as a group and book multiple rooms, use the club access awards to ensure club access for the additional rooms.
If you’re a World of Hyatt Explorist or Discoverist member, use club access awards to get club access for the stays that are most valuable to you, since you don’t otherwise receive complimentary club access. Use them on the stays that are the longest, and in places with the best lounges (you’ll generally find that Asia has the best club lounges, while the United States has the worst).
Now, I think the other logical question is whether you should bother selecting the club access awards or not. At the 20 and 30 elite night thresholds, the two alternative choices are as follows:
- A 2K Next Stay award, offering 2,000 bonus points on your next stay at a Hyatt Place, Hyatt House, Caption by Hyatt, or UrCove Hotel, within 180 days
- A $25 FIND Experience credit, which can be used for $25 off a FIND experience
Personally I value the 2,000 points at ~$30, while the FIND experience credit is worth at most $25. So really, the maximum opportunity cost of each club access award is around $15, which is really low. Therefore my advice is that if you can find literally any use for a club access award, that’s the best option to select. Meanwhile if you can’t, you should instead choose one of the other options.
Bottom line
The World of Hyatt Milestone Rewards program offers a variety of valuable perks, including suite upgrade awards, club access awards, Guest of Honor awards, and more. Club access awards are perhaps the most improved perk of 2024, given that they can be transfered to others.
Each club access award can be used to confirm club access for a stay of up to seven nights. While this is of limited value to Globalist members, being able to gift this to friends and family is awesome. Now if only more hotels had club lounges that were actually open…
What’s your take on Hyatt club access awards? Do you plan on selecting them with the Milestone Rewards program?
I have a question regarding the temporary Globalist status once you complete 40nights. So do I need to stay for 7 nights with 1 booking or can spread the 7 nights with multiple bookings within the expiration date?
HYATT customer service seems to be hit and miss even with a conceige as Globalist. I have had suite upgrades supposed to be confirmed and then when arrive told they are not even when the conceige has said no problem! Same problem with the club awards. I wish these could be online.
I find it interesting that you wrote an article about club certs without going into what to expect from a club cert.
I have found very few Hyatt Properties have the club access. Hyatt does not allow you to search their properties by this feature so it is very difficult to put these awards to use. Hyatt should at least let you search for hotels that have club access
Can’t imagine ever selecting these as my award choice.
Lucky - can you make a reservation on-line first (assuming an eligible paid stay reservation) and then call Hyatt to apply a Club Access award - or - do you have to make the reservation and apply the Club Access award at the same time by calling Hyatt?
I have two lounge access awards on my Discoverist account. I contacted the Grand Hyatt hotel directly and was told the award can only be applied by contacting World of Hyatt. I did so via the chat function in the Hyatt app and received an emailed transcript stating they'd applied the award to my reservation. I checked back with the hotel to confirm a couple weeks later (today) for my stay tomorrow and they see...
I have two lounge access awards on my Discoverist account. I contacted the Grand Hyatt hotel directly and was told the award can only be applied by contacting World of Hyatt. I did so via the chat function in the Hyatt app and received an emailed transcript stating they'd applied the award to my reservation. I checked back with the hotel to confirm a couple weeks later (today) for my stay tomorrow and they see no award. I got on chat again and again they said they reapplied the award. Still nothing. So my experience thus far is YMMV.
Is there a list of Hyatt hotels which have lounge access? It seemed like after Covid a number of Hyatt hotels did not open their lounges again..
World of Hyatt universe has it. They say "out of 115 Hyatt Regency and Grand Hyatt properties in US and Canada, 20 have a club lounge that is currently open, and this is not a typo." Most clubs are located in east and west coast cities, with a handful of exceptions.
I have a milestone reward that I have to choose by end of January. Any reason to wait until after the new year to choose it? Is "earning" it when I achieve the milestone or is "earning" it when I chose the reward then it's good for the rest of next year plus 14 months instead of good for rest of this year plus 14 months?