Definitely the Best Elite Status, but is World of Hyatt the Right Hotel Loyalty Programme for You?

Now that Hyatt plans to open four new hotels in the UK in 2024, including the UK’s first Park Hyatt (London River Thames) in Battersea, it’s time to take a more in-depth look at the Hyatt Loyalty Programme. 

Mr Brightside, our undercover points and miles expert, looks at World of Hyatt in more detail. This article has also been updated for 2024. 

What is the World of Hyatt Loyalty Programme?

World of Hyatt is the loyalty programme for the hotel chain whose best-known brands include the “Hyatt” name: Park Hyatt, Grand Hyatt, Hyatt Regency, and Hyatt Place.

Approximately 1,300 Hyatt-branded hotels participate in World of Hyatt. The Hyatt portfolio spans 78 countries and six continents. Hyatt used to be affiliated with both MGM and Small Luxury hotels but these have both been removed from the program recently. Instead they have added Mr and Mrs Smith. 

As a smaller hotel chain, you might struggle to find a Hyatt hotel during your travels. But if earning and spending points are important to you, some Park Hyatt hotels are simply the most luxurious you will find.

How Do I Earn World of Hyatt Points?

Hotel Stays

World of Hyatt members earn 5 base points per US dollar spent.

You can earn 2.5 base points per US dollar spent at Hyatt Studios.

A Hyatt point is worth around 1.2p, but there are ways to make points worth more.

You earn points on your pre-tax room rate and other eligible amenities billed at the hotel. When paying for your room in a currency other than US dollars, Hyatt will strip out any taxes included in the rate and convert the remainder to US dollars (at a rate usually to their advantage).

To earn points, you must book directly with World of Hyatt. Reservations made via online travel agencies (such as hotels.com, booking.com, etc.) will not be eligible.

The exception is booking through a Hyatt Privé agent. Hyatt Privé is a special benefits program that can only be accessed by selected luxury travel agents. Our partnership with GTC allows you to earn these benefits for free. 

As well as the usual points and perks, Hyatt Prive clients staying at any Hyatt Hotel will receive the following exclusive added-value benefits:

• A $25-$100 property credit per room per stay. This varies by property
• Breakfast daily for up to two persons.
• Free WIFI
• Room upgrade priority is subject to availability, confirmed within 24 hours of booking.
• The connecting room priority is subject to availability and is confirmed within 24 hours of booking.
• Early Check-in and Late Check-Out subject to availability, confirmed within 24 hours of booking.

World of Hyatt usually runs two chain-wide promotions per year, one in late winter / early spring and the other in autumn. There are usually additional ad hoc promotions throughout the year. 

Hyatt also offers 500 bonus points for each stay booked at a new hotel. The list is updated frequently and can be found by clicking here.

Buying Hyatt Points

You can buy a maximum of 55,000 Hyatt points annually. The lowest number of points you can buy is 2,000, and points can be purchased in increments of 1,000.

Hyatt regularly offers a 40% bonus promotion that reduces the price of purchasing points. 

There are no ways for Europeans to earn Hyatt points from a credit card.

You can pool your points with anybody.

Earn Points with FIND Experiences

Hyatt offers several FIND experiences near its hotels. You can earn up to 10 points per $1 spent. There are 500 experiences across 80 worldwide destinations. Earn points by going on tours, seeing the local sights, and having once-in-a-lifetime experiences.

AVIS Car Rentals

You can now earn 500 points per AVIS car rental. When booking, provide your Hyatt membership number and use the discount code provided by Hyatt.

American Airlines AAdvantage and Other Airlines

If you collect American Airlines points, you can earn 1 Hyatt Point per $1 spent on American Airlines flights on top of your air miles. 

Earn Hyatt Points with Meetings and Events

There are additional rewards for booking events with Hyatt. Earn 2 credits toward tier status for every eligible $5,000 up to $150,000. Points can be split between up to 3 event planners. 

Corporate planners and social event hosts can earn up to 50,000 Bonus Points for qualifying event spending. 

You can also choose to spend your points on future meeting credit. 15,000 points are worth $200 credit, and 75,000 points are worth $1000 credit. 

Earn Miles

You can also earn miles and transfer points to miles with the following travel partners. At check-in, you must present your airline partner and World of Hyatt membership numbers.

How Can I Spend World of Hyatt Points?

World of Hyatt is pretty unique in that it allows members to book almost ANY room type using points at a fixed price, from standard rooms to premium suites. 

Previously, Hyatt had 8 award categories—1 being no-frills and 8 being a luxury resort.

There are now three subcategories: off-peak, standard, and peak redemption.

A standard redemption will cost the same, but you may now end up paying more for peak redemptions and less for off-peak redemptions.

Standard Room Rewards

Regency Club (Executive Lounge) Rewards

Standard Suite Rewards

Premium Suite Rewards

All-Inclusive Resorts

Redeem your points at one of 10 all-inclusive brands, including:

• Impression by Secrets
• Hyatt Ziva
• Hyatt Zilara, Zoetry Wellness & Spa Resorts
• Secrets Resorts & Spas, Breathless Resorts & Spas
• Dreams Resorts & Spas
• Hyatt Vivid Hotels & Resorts 
• Alua Hotels & Resorts (inclusions may vary at some Alua locations, as described when booking)
• Sunscape Resorts & Spas.

Free nights are based on double or single occupancy. Additional guests will cost additional points, which range from 6,500 to 29,000 per person, depending on the hotel category and whether the stay is peak or off-peak. 

Miraval Resorts

Redemptions cost a different number of points to standard Hyatt resorts. Stays include a $175 resort credit per person.

Hyatt Cash and Points Upgrades

You can pay for a room using a combination of cash and points. The rate will be calculated based on 50% of the standard points rate and 50% of the flexible room rate. This makes the combination of cash and points expensive!

Spending Points on Room Upgrades

You can also redeem your points for room upgrades starting at 3000 points per night:

Transferring Hyatt Points to Airline Miles

Instead of spending your points on stays, you can also transfer your points into airline miles, including Avios, and there are lots of loyalty programs to choose from. The redemption rate is 2.5: 1. 5000 points is the minimum for converting to airline miles. 

Dining and Spa Experiences

Some participating hotels allow you to spend points on dining and spa experiences, parking, transportation, and more. You don’t even need to stay the night to redeem your points. 

The Brand Explorer Award

If you stay at five different Hyatt brands over your lifetime, you will receive one free night certificate valid for a standard room at any Category 1-4 hotel. This certificate expires one year after being earned.

You can earn a maximum of 3 free night certificates.

Do Hyatt Points Expire?

Points expire after 24 months of account inactivity. Tools such as Award Wallet allow you to track expiry dates. If this happens, your account will remain open. 

Without a Hyatt hotel stay, the easiest way to extend your points’ life is to buy 1,000 points for $24. (£18)

How Do I Earn Hyatt Elite Status?

The World of Hyatt has several absurdly named status levels: Member, Discoverist, Explorist, Globalist, and Lifetime Globalist. 

An interesting poll on Flyertalk revealed that 75+% % of respondents claimed Globalist or Lifetime Globalist status. Although Flyertalk members are not representative of the wider population, this heavily skewed result suggests that those in the know either aim for Globalist or don’t bother with Hyatt.

Through Nights

Elite status qualification runs on a calendar year basis – January 1st until December 31st. 

Reward certificate stays count for elite status purposes.

Short Cuts

Paul wrote about his experience switching to Hyatt thanks to a targeted status challenge.

What are the Benefits of Elite Status?

Globalist members will receive the following:

• Free breakfast
• Guaranteed 4 pm late check-out
• Guaranteed executive lounge access
• 30% bonus points
• Upgrades to the best available room (including standard suites)
• Parking fees are waived when staying on award nights
• Resort / Destination fees waived
• An assigned Concierge who will handle any requirements you might have
• Guaranteed availability – 48 hours

Globalist members can also spend their points on Guest of Honor reward bookings for family or friends. Guests will be treated as if they were Globalist members.

The Bright Side… even though you might be tempted to save those hard-to-earn Hyatt points for yourself, Guest of Honor allows you to treat loved ones to a special hotel stay. My parents still rave about their visit to Tokyo and their GoH stay at the Hyatt Regency.

Milestone Rewards

In January 2024, Hyatt introduced more flexibility and choices to milestone rewards. Each threshold has three rewards starting when the member has stayed 20 qualifying nights.

Rewards are now gifted for every 10 eligible nights and continue until the member has reached 150 qualifying nights. 

Here are the latest Hyatt Milestone Rewards:

• 20 nights or 35,000 Base Points – 2k bonus points for your next stay at a selected Hyatt Hotel OR 2 Club Access Awards or $25 FIND Experience Credit.
• 30 nights or 50,000 Base Points – 1 free night certificate at a Category 1-4 hotel (valid for 6 months) AND 2k bonus points for your next stay at a selected Hyatt Hotel, OR 2 Club Access Awards OR $25 FIND Experience Credit.
• 40 nights or 65,000 Base Points – A Guest of Honor Award (Gift someone or yourself a Globalist experience​ for up to 7 nights). You will also get either 5,000 bonus points, a suite upgrade award for a stay of up to 7 nights OR a $150 FIND Experience Credit.
• 50 nights or 80,000 Base Points – 5,000 bonus points OR a suite upgrade award for a stay of up to 7 nights OR $150 FIND Experience Credit.
• 60 nights or 100,000 Base Points – 2 Guest of Honor Awards AND 1 x Category 1-7 or A-D free night award AND 2 x free suite night awards for stays of up to 7 nights AND My Hyatt Concierge
• 70 nights – Guest of Honor Award AND either 10,000 bonus points, 1 x suite upgrade award for stays of up to 7 nights OR $300 FIND Experience Credit.
• 80 nights – 
• Guest of Honor Award AND either 10,000 bonus points, 1 x suite upgrade award for stays of up to 7 nights OR $300 FIND Experience Credit.
• 90 nights – 
• Guest of Honor Award AND either 10,000 bonus points, 1 x suite upgrade award for stays of up to 7 nights, OR $300 FIND Experience Credit.
• 100 nights – 1 x category 1-7 free night award and either 10,000 bonus points, 1 x suite upgrade award for stays of up to 7 nights, Miraval Extra Night Award (stay one night and stay another free of charge).
• 110 Nights  – 1 x Guest of Honor award and either 10,000 bonus points, 1 x suite upgrade award for stays of up to 7 nights, OR Miraval Extra Night Award 
• 120 Nights – 1 x Guest of Honor award and either 10,000 bonus points, 1 x suite upgrade award for stays of up to 7 nights, OR Miraval Extra Night Award 
• 130 Nights – 1 x Guest of Honor award and either 10,000 bonus points, 1 x suite upgrade award for stays of up to 7 nights, OR Miraval Extra Night Award 
• 140 Nights – 1 x Guest of Honor award and either 10,000 bonus points, 1 x suite upgrade award for stays of up to 7 nights, OR Miraval Extra Night Award 
• 150 Nights – 1 x ultimate free night award (Enjoy one free night in any participating Category 1-8 hotel, Category A-F all-inclusive resort or Miraval resort) and either 1 x suite upgrade award for stays of up to 7 nights OR Miraval Extra Night Award.

The Suite Upgrade Awards are the BEST perk from major hotel chains. When booking your stay, you can CONFIRM a doesn’tpgrade. It doesn’t matter whether you pay using cash (booked direct) or points.

The Bright Side… Once you’ve made it to 60-night Globalist status, the flexible and well-organised can stay at least 28 nights per year in a suite. 60 nights aren’t quite so daunting if your Asian beachfront stays are so pleasant!

Small Luxury Hotels of the World (SLH) Removed and Replaced with Mr & Mrs Smith

As of May 15th 2024, the partnership between SLH and Hyatt ended and was replaced with Mr & Mrs Smith. SLH now has a partnership with Hilton. 

Mr & Mrs Smith has a portfolio of over 2000 luxury hotels and villas worldwide, and 700 of them are now bookable with Hyatt. This allows you to stay at some unique hotels while accruing Hyatt points. You can now earn Hyatt points in countries like Namibia and Fiji.

The Mr & Mrs Smith collaboration also opens up more opportunities to earn Hyatt points in the UK at stays such as:

• Cliveden House
• Chewton Glen
• Cowley Manor
• Lympstone Manor (review here)
• Bovey Castle

You can find all the hotels available to book through this partnership by following this link – hyatt.com/explore-hotels/map and filtering by Mr & Mrit’sith.

However, it’s worth noting that the benefits differ for Hyatt members staying at Mr & Mrs Smith properties. If you have Globalist status, the only benefit you will receive is a space-available upgrade. 

World of Hyatt: The 30-Second Lowdown

The most common complaint about World of Hyatt—its limited footprint of hotels—is also the reason why its elite benefits are so special. It takes serious effort to become (and stay) a Globalist when there isn’t a Hyatt everywhere, so Hyatt ensures this effort is rewarded. However, there has been a big increase in recent years to more than 1,300 hotels. 

However, Hyatt has struggled to make the World of Hyatt worthwhile for travellers who cannot manage 60 nights per calendar year (two whole months!). 

The Milestone Rewards attempt to fix this, starting at 20 nights, but they are relatively difficult to understand, especially compared to Hilton’s simple offer of complimentary breakfast for Golds.

The earn-to-burn ratio with Hyatt is excellent, and the free night certificates you can pick up starting at 30 nights (and with 5 brands) can be deceptively valuable. However, it is truly disappointing that there are no cashback options. 

I have mixed feelings about credit cards and how excess points in circulation can cause devaluations. Still, the lack of European credit card options places us at a severe disadvantage vis-a-vis Hyatt’s American members. The ability to spend points on club rooms or even suites would be a fantastic option, but how is a European resident supposed to earn them?

I suppose I’ll eventually grow tired of the discipline needed to find 60 Hyatt nights in a calendar year, but as long as there are new Hyatt hotels to discover in exotic locales and confirmed suite upgrades to make those hotels even better, I’ll continue to make Hyatt my main hotel loyalty programme.

You can join World of Hyatt here.