Introduction

Despite its small but growing footprint, Hyatt contains some amazing properties from around the world and are easily bookable with their points. Given its reasonable rates and the ability to reach their top status through stays or spending, Hyatt has a fantastic platform for those interested. Currently, World of Hyatt points hold the most value among hotel reward program and thus continues to provide the most value for travelers. Ultimately, it’s a great program that emphasizes strong point values and its top tier status as pros against its competitors.

Advantages

Often offers lower award prices per point than its competitors
Award stays means no resort of destination fees, which is incredible savings
Hyatt footprint continues to grow in unique geolocations, which makes redeeming certain hotels an incredible value
Hyatt’s Globalist status continues to be the most elite program compared to any of its rivals

Disadvantages

The footprint of its properties pales in comparison to that of its competitors
Their Discoverist and Explorist status are okay, but not great
It is quite difficult to book certain aspirational properties due to the explosive demand of travelers following the points journey

Hyatt’s Portfolio

With over 20+ brands and 1.1K properties in 70 different countries, Hyatt isn’t a small brand. However, when compared to Marriott or Hilton, it becomes somewhat smaller in size. In alphabetical order, here’s the list of their hotel brands:

Alilia
Alua
Andaz
Breathless
Caption by Hyatt
Destination by Hyat
Dream
Dreams
Grand Hyatt
Hyatt
Hyatt Centric
Hyatt House
Hyatt Place
Hyatt Regency
Hyatt Residence Club
Hyatt Studios
Hyatt Vivid
Hyatt Zilara
Hyatt Ziva
Impression by Secrets
JdV by Hyatt
Miraval
Park Hyatt
Secrets
Sunscape
The Unbound Collection by Hyatt
Thompson Hotels
Zoëtry

Redemption | World of Hyatt

There are multiple ways to redeem World of Hyatt points, but I’ll demonstrate a few of my favorite ways and strategies that I have been doing these last few years. I’ll be writing an article on what I think are my best redemptions, but on a high level basis, here are my thoughts:

Stacking Hyatt Free Night Certificates (Category 1-4)

There are multiple ways to earn these valuable certificates, from credit cards to spend to staying at different hotel brands in the Hyatt portfolio. Examples include:

Stay at 5 different Hyatt brands
30 nights or 50,000 base points
World of Hyatt Credit Card anniversary
Spending $15,000 on the World of Hyatt Card

I mention these because if you and your spouse both have the same credit card or are pursuing the Hyatt status, it compounds in usefulness as you can easily build a strong vacation across the world. From the Andaz Savannah to the Grand Hyatt Manchester San Diego to Park Hyatt Mendoza and the Grand Hyatt Taipei,

Category 1 Hotels

These hotels in the Hyatt brand cost only 3,500 points and at times you can easily find some amazing hotels from around the world that may very well be absolute worth it. Even at the peak, it only costs 6,500 points and with a 60,000 bonus offer or a Chase card offer of 80,000 to 100,000 points, suddenly you can easily get anything from 16 to 20 free nights! Getting upwards to a month of lodging is quite nice for those that are planning to traveling or working remotely.

Low Season for Category 7-8 Hotels

Ranging from 25,000 to 35,000 points, these top-tier hotels such as the Alila Ventana Big Sur, Alila Napa Valley, the Park Hyatt New York, or Carmel Valley Ranch are absolutely worth looking into during the off-peak season. Ultimately, the reason why I became so enamored in this hobby is because of these aspirational redemptions. Just as airline miles are best redeemed for first or business class travel, hotel points are often best redeemed at aspirational properties that would cost a lot in cash. The three examples given are easily $1000-$3000 per night, so it’s been worthwhile redeeming Hyatt points.

Elite Status

Hyatt offers a multiple tiering system for their hotel status. Compared to its counterparts, it’s seriously worth investing in Globalist if you have a multitude of upcoming stays with the Hyatt program. Hyatt also offers milestone rewards starting with 20 nights in a calendar year.

Discoverist Status | 10 Nights, 25,000 base points or 3 hosted meetings

10% point bonus
2pm Late Check-out
Bottled Waters
Premium Internet Access

Explorist Status | 30 Nights or 50K base points or 10 hosted meetings

Everything in Discoverist plus…
20% point bonus
Room Upgade
Fast Track to AA Elite Status

Globalist Status | 60 Nights or 100K base points or 20 hosted meetings

Everything in Explorist plus…
30% point bonus
Waived resort fees on all stays
Room upgrade, standard suites applicable
4pm Late Check-out
Club Access
Free Breakfast
Free parking on award stays
Guest of Honor Program

Milestone Rewards

With the Hyatt program, you can receive certain perks when you hit thresholds over a course of a calendar year. During these milestones, you can achieve elite status from each tier, all the way to Globalist status. Let’s see what each milestone brings. (For good measure, most people will hit 10 nights or get Discoverist through the World Of Hyatt Credit card, so i’m not including that below.)

There’s also a Brand Explorer Award program within Hyatt that allows members to try different hotels and receive free nights for their loyalty. Case in point, my wife and I both stayed at 5 different Hyatt properties back in 2021 and 2022 and received 1 additional free night certificate (Category 1-4). This year, we hit 10 different properties and received another free night. It’s incentives like these that make it worthwile.

20 Nights or 35,000 Base Points

two club lounge access awards (useful at certain Regency or Grand Hyatts, where you can apply the club lounge access for a stay up to 7 nights.

30 Nights of 50,000 Base Points

Explorist Status
Two more Club Lounge Access Awards
1x Free Night Award Certificate (Category 1-4) (if you have the World of Hyatt Credit Card and are targeting the $15,000 spend for an additional free night, this is fantastic stack benefit, as it will net you a plethora of points and 2 free nights)

40 Nights or 65,000 Base Points

One of the following selection:
- 5,000 Hyatt points (I’m more of a fan of points, to be honest, haha)
- $100 Hyatt E-Gift Card
- $150 Hyatt FIND experience credit

50 Nights or 80,000 Base Points

Two Suite Upgrade Awards

60 Nights or 100,000 Base Points

Globalist Status
Two Additional Suite Upgrade Awards
1x Free Night Award Certificate (Category 1-7) (this is probably the biggest value as you can apply this to a variety of aspirational hotels around the world)
Access to My Hyatt Concierge

70-100 Nights

10,0000 World of Hyatt Points
1x Additional Suite Upgrade Award

Suite Upgrades

There are a couple of ways to score a suite, from the very basic of paying for a room to utilizing points or certificates within the program. As a Globalist member, the chances of scoring an upgrade is quite high as most hotels may have a standard suite available during check-in. My recommendation is to always check the day-of and seeing if the staff could accommodate that upgrade due to your status.

Globalist Elite Status: As mentioned above, as a Globalist member, you are automatically eligible for a suite upgrade at check-in, given the availability. You can also leverage your Guest of Honor award and apply the suite upgrade via your current Globalist status.
Suite Upgrade Awards: You can leverage your suite upgrade certificates via the Milestone program through Hyatt. One any paid or points stay, you can apply an award certificate that can be applicable across your entire length of stay, up to 7 nights. This only applies to a standard suite.
Points Upgrade: When paying with cash, you can upgrade to a suite using points. This option can actually be an insane value proposition when the price of a suite is far higher than the price of a standard or deluxe room. Given that suite upgrade costs 6.,000 points per night and 9,000 per night for a premium suite, it’s worth a try.

We scored a suite upgrade at the Andaz Seoul Gangnam as a Globalist!

Credit Card(s) | World of Hyatt

Most people begin their World of Hyatt journey with either the Chase World of Hyatt credit card or a Chase Sapphire Preferred card.

The World of Hyatt Credit Card is an essential arsenal for those pursuing the Hyatt program. It currently has a $95 annual fee and offers up to 60,000 bonus points, with 30,000 after spending 3K in months and then earning up to another 30,000 points by earning 2 bonus points total per $1 spent on purchases. (Recommendation: the offer currently isn’t great at all and I would wait for a better or revised version down the line)

An annual category 1-4 free night certificate
A second Category 1-4 free night certificate by spending $15,000 on the card in a calendar year
Automatic Discoverist status for as long as your account is open
Five elite nights every year, plus two elite nights every time you spend $5,000

This is one of my favorite cards and still in my arsenal at the moment - it includes five qualifying night credits and each year you renew the card you get five credits towards status as well. You can get two additional night credits for every $5,000 you spend using the card, which will help you achieve the next elite tier. For $95 annually, it suddenly is a bargain.

There is also the World of Hyatt Business Credit Card that offers 60,000 bonus points after spending $5,000 in the 1st 3 months of opening. It has a $199 annual fee, though its benefits are unique:

$100 Hyatt Credit each year, and if you spend $50 or more at any Hyatt property, you can get a $50 statement credit up to two times each year.
Discoverist Status for the cardholder and up to five employees
5 Tier Qualifying Night Credit for every $10,000 spent on the card in a year

Then there’s the Chase Sapphire and Ink Cards…as Hyatt is a partner of Chase, you can also transfer Chase Ultimate Reward points to the World of Hyatt program at a 1:1 ratio from their cards. In this case, any of the Chase Sapphire or Chase Ink Business Unlimited, Ink Business Cash, Ink Preferred cards can be great choices for those interested in stashing up points. This is a great way to get maximum value out of your Chase points when it comes to finding value.

Bet you didn’t know…

Best Rate GuArantee

Hyatt does participate in Best Rate Guarantee, which essentially means: if you find a lower price then what’s available on their official website, you can gain a 20% discount off the lower price or 5,000 Hyatt points.

If you find yourself in this favorable situation, you can use their claim form found below:

Hyatt Best Rate Guarantee Claim Form

Point Combination Form

Hyatt also allows you to send or receive World of Hyatt points from another member, which can be handy if your spouse or family has an abundance of points. To do this, you will need to utilize their points combination form. Pro tip: you can only be involved in 1 transfer transaction per 30 days, so make sure you understand when you complete a transfer!

Here is the form below: