The Best Ways to Earn Hyatt Globalist Status

The World of Hyatt loyalty program is arguably the strongest hotel loyalty program compared with other major hotel chains.

While harder for Canadians to earn, Hyatt’s top-tier Globalist status offers amazing benefits and can be achieved by staying 60 qualifying nights per year across Hyatt’s relatively-smaller global footprint.

Let’s take a look at a few of the best ways you can earn Globalist status without necessarily having to stay the full 60 nights.

Why Is Hyatt Globalist Status So Valuable?

As the highest loyalty tier within the World of Hyatt loyalty program, Globalist members receive the greatest benefits. The most valuable of these include:

• Free breakfast
• Club Lounge access
• Room upgrades to Standard Suites
• 4pm late checkout
• Free parking on reward stays
• Access to the Guest of Honor program

The free breakfast benefit is especially strong, as it is granted to the Globalist member, one additional guest, and up to two children. Note that the cut-off age for children is determined by each specific hotel.

Club Lounge access is only relevant for Hyatt hotels that actually have a Club Lounge on their property.

For those that do, Club Lounges often provide additional food throughout the day, with a cocktail hour in the evening serving hors d’oeuvres. At times, these servings can easily replace a full meal, and when alcoholic beverages are included, your drinks for the evening are also covered.

Room upgrades to Standard Suites can certainly enhance any trip, and I have found Hyatt to be fairly consistent and generous with upgrades when they are available.

4pm late checkout is an underappreciated benefit that can certainly prove to be quite valuable for those wishing to get the most out of a hotel stay. Late checkout adds the better part of a day to the last day of your stay, allowing you to utilize the hotel’s facilities or squeeze in a full work day at the hotel before checking out.

Whether renting a car or staying at a Hyatt property as part of a road trip, having free parking on reward stays can equal huge savings. This is especially so in larger cities like Toronto, Vancouver, or New York, where downtown parking comes at a premium.

Lastly, the Guest of Honor program allows for Globalist members to temporarily gift their status to a family member or friend. When a Globalist member uses their own points to book a stay for someone else, the recipient receives the full benefits as though they themselves were a Globalist member.

Milestone Rewards

In addition to the above benefits, Hyatt members receive milestone rewards as they cross different qualifying night or base point thresholds along the way. Anyone who has attained Globalist status with 60 qualifying nights or by earning 100,000 base points would have also received the following benefits throughout their journey:

• Four Club Lounge Access Awards
• One Category 1–4 Free Night Award
• A choice of either 5,000 points, a US$100 Hyatt gift card, or 10,000 points savings on a FIND experience
• Four Suite Upgrade Awards
• One Category 1–7 Free Night Award
• Access to My Hyatt Concierge

While the Club Lounge Access Awards are utterly useless for Globalist members, especially as they cannot be gifted to others, the other milestone rewards are great.

Suite Upgrade Awards cannot be used on a booking made with a Free Night Award, but can be used on bookings made with points. Furthermore, unlike Marriott’s Suite Night Awards, only one Suite Upgrade Award is required to upgrade an entire stay of up to seven consecutive nights.

The Free Night Awards for various tiers of properties can also prove to be quite valuable, especially if you redeem them at the highest award categories. Note that these may be used for nights that fall under peak rate pricing, too.

Visit Hyatt’s Explore Hotels page and filter by category, brand, and geographic region to find Category 4 and 7 hotels that might work best for your travel goals.

In addition to the regular benefits and milestone rewards, Hyatt Globalist status can be matched to MGM rewards Gold tier, providing further benefits.

How to Earn Globalist Status

The three main ways of earning Hyatt Globalist status are:

1. Staying 60 qualifying nights
2. Earning 100,000 base points
3. Hosting 20 meetings or events

Of the above, staying 60 qualifying nights is the easiest method of earning Hyatt Globalist status. Qualifying nights include paid stays and stays books with World of Hyatt points and reward certificates.

Additionally, Hyatt gives out further qualifying nights to those who hold and spend on either the Chase World of Hyatt Visa or the Chase World of Hyatt Business Visa.

Earning 100,000 base points requires a US$20,000 spend at Hyatt properties, as guests earn five base points per dollar. Any bonus points earned by using a Chase World of Hyatt Visa or by any other means do not count towards the 100,000 base points.

Unless you run a large event-centred business, hosting 20 meetings or events will be nearly impossible, as one credited meeting or event requires at least 10 paid guest rooms.

While 60 qualifying nights may be the “easiest” option of the three, it is still no simple task. That being said, there are some tricks to getting to 60 qualifying nights that might make it more manageable.

Alternative Pathways to Hyatt Globalist Status

Besides the aforementioned traditional ways of reaching Hyatt Globalist status, there are also a few other pathways to reach these targets.

Chase Hyatt Credit Cards

Compared to Marriott and Hilton, Hyatt has limited co-branded credit card options. In fact, there are only two co-branded credit cards.

The two US-issued Chase credit cards come with automatic Hyatt Discoverist status (Hyatt’s lowest-tier elite status), and come with additional benefits to help reach higher Hyatt status levels.

By just holding the Chase World of Hyatt Visa, you will automatically receive five qualifying nights per year. In addition, you will earn two qualifying nights for every US$5,000 spent on the card, in addition to earning Hyatt points.

In other words, after the initial five-night credit offer, you would need to spend US$137,500 in order to reach Hyatt Globalist status.

While the Chase World of Hyatt Business Card does not include automatic qualifying nights just for being a cardholder, it offers a slightly better bonus on spending.

Cardholders receive five qualifying nights for every US$10,000 spent on the card, in addition to earning Hyatt points. This means that a total spend of US$120,000 would be required in order to reach Globalist status.

Either way, this is certainly a large requirement that would only make sense for those who have a lot of spending either for a business or personally.

“Mattress Running”

“Mattress running” refers to checking into hotels solely for the purpose of earning points or elite credits.

Those unable to hit the required number of nights or stays organically can add to their annual total by seeking out cheap Hyatt properties. While Hyatt does not have a Fifth Night Free benefit like Marriott or Hilton, they do have a much cheaper rewards chart.

Category 1 Hyatt hotels can be booked for as little as 3,500 World of Hyatt points with off-peak pricing. There are over 250 Category 1 Hyatt hotels, with five such properties in Canada:

• Hyatt Place Prince George
• Hyatt Place Edmonton-West
• Hyatt Place Calgary Airport
• Hyatt House Winnipeg-South/Outlet Collection
• Hyatt Place Moncton/Downtown

If you were to spend all 60 qualifying nights at one of the above properties during off-peak pricing, it would cost you a total of 210,000 World of Hyatt points to qualify for Globalist status.

While it wouldn’t make sense to “mattress run” the entire 60 nights, it certainly would be worthwhile for those who are only a few nights away.

Luckily, Hyatt tends to run promotions throughout the year that can definitely help with reaching 60 qualifying nights.

Promotions

Earlier this year, members received 2,022 bonus points for every two qualifying nights, up to a total of 20 qualifying nights. This meant that every two-night stay at an off-peak Category 1 hotel only cost 4,978 points (2,489 points per night).

While not quite as lucrative, there is currently a promotion where members staying in participating Asia Pacific Hyatt hotels earn 1,000 bonus points for every two qualifying nights before September 2, 2022. To benefit from this offer, you must register before July 31.

There have also been some amazing promotions in the past, such as 2021’s Bonus Journeys promotion, which provided double elite qualifying nights on every stay.

Be an American Airlines ConciergeKey member

Hyatt doesn’t have many options for status matching; however, they have an interesting partnership with American Airlines’ AAdvantage program.

Those who have elite status with American Airlines can link their American Airlines and Hyatt membership accounts.

American Airlines ConciergeKey members will automatically receive Globalist status, while other AAdvantage elite status holders may at times be invited to status challenges to earn Hyatt Globalist status. 

Status Challenge

Hyatt does not currently have a public status challenge; however, they offer an opportunity for employees of specific companies to reach Globalist status faster than the traditional way. Those who think they may be eligible should check with their corporate travel manager.

Eligible members must register before November 30, 2022. After registration, they will then automatically receive the lower-tier Explorist status for 90 days.

During those 90 days, if they stay for 10 qualifying nights, they will be able to keep Explorist status until February 29, 2024. If they stay an additional 10 qualifying nights (20 total), they will earn Globalist status until February 29, 2024.

While Explorist status is not necessarily worth chasing, being able to unlock Globalist status for only 20 qualifying nights is certainly worth considering, as long as you’re eligible for the challenge.

Conclusion

While certainly a lot harder for Canadians to obtain, Hyatt Globalist is arguably the strongest hotel status one can have.

For those who have a lot of spending needs, signing up for one or both of the Chase Hyatt credit cards would be the easiest way to earn Hyatt Globalist status.

For those unable to meet the large spend required to earn Globalist status through credit card spending alone, the best way to earn Globalist status is to keep a close eye on promotions and take advantage of the cheaper Category 1 hotels during off-peak pricing.

With incredible benefits and additional milestone rewards, the Hyatt program offers tremendous value for those who are able to take advantage.