One of the ways that World of Hyatt rewards its members is through Milestone Rewards, which can be remarkably valuable.
In addition to Hyatt’s published status tiers of Discoverist, Explorist, and Globalist, the program’s Milestone Rewards also encourage incremental loyalty by offering perks in-between status-earning levels.
Let’s take a closer look at World of Hyatt Milestone Rewards, including what’s offered at each tier and which reward(s) you should choose.
What Are World of Hyatt Milestone Rewards?
While separate from Hyatt’s elite status program, Milestone Rewards offer Hyatt members more reasons to keep staying at hotels that fall under Hyatt’s umbrella.
Recall that members earn Hyatt Discoverist, Explorist, and Globalist status by staying 10, 30, and 60 nights in a calendar year, respectively. As you accumulate stays throughout the year, you can further reap benefits from Milestone Rewards along the way.
Beginning at 20 nights, and up to a maximum of 100 nights, you’ll earn Milestone Rewards for each 10 nights that you stay. That means that you can earn up to nine Milestone Rewards if you were to stay 100 nights in a year.
In this way, Hyatt members are incentivized to keep staying with Hyatt, even if they don’t make it all the way to the next elite status tier.
For example, if you’ve already reached the Explorist status level after staying 30 nights, but won’t quite make it all the way to Globalist at 60 nights, you’ll still earn rewards at 40 and 50 nights.
Similarly, if you’ve already reached the top-tier Globalist status but still complete stays, you’ll further receive recognition at 70, 80, 90, and 100 nights with Milestone Rewards.
How to Earn Milestone Rewards
Hyatt members can earn a qualifying night towards Milestone Rewards by staying at Hyatt properties, earning base points for paid stays at Hyatt hotels, or by spending money on either of the World of Hyatt Credit Cards by Chase.
With the World of Hyatt Credit Card by Chase, you earn two qualifying nights for every $5,000 (USD) spent on eligible purchases. Meanwhile, if you have the World of Hyatt Business Credit Card by Chase, you’ll earn five qualifying nights for every $10,000 (USD) spent on eligible purchases.
Hyatt’s Milestone Rewards are not just earned for reaching a certain number of nights stayed, but can also be obtained by earning base points. Recall that base points are earned at a rate of five base points per $1 (USD) of eligible spending.
The first Milestone Reward is reached after earning 35,000 base points, which means you’d have to spend at least $7,000 (USD) at Hyatt hotels in order to start earning Milestone Rewards this way.
While staying the maximum 100 eligible nights can earn you nine Milestone Rewards, there are only five Milestone Rewards that can be reached by earning base points. The highest Milestone Reward you can earn with base points would require you to spend $20,000 (USD) at Hyatt hotels in order to hit 100,000 base points.
For most travellers, Milestone Rewards will be easiest to earn by staying the required nights, rather than by earning base points.
What Can You Earn with World of Hyatt Milestone Rewards?
Until you reach 70 nights, every 10-night Milestone Reward is different.
Let’s take a look at all of the Milestone Rewards, as well as our picks for which is best to choose at the levels where a choice is given.
20 Nights or 35,000 Base Points: Two Club Lounge Access Awards
Club Lounge Access Awards are only valuable if you are a non-Globalist member staying at Hyatt hotels that have a lounge. This is because unlimited lounge access is an ongoing benefit of reaching Hyatt’s highest Globalist status.
There have been some data points of Hyatt awarding a modest amount of points to members who have unused Club Lounge Access Awards that are about to expire. If you find yourself in this position, it may be worth your time to reach out to Hyatt.
If this trend continues, then Club Lounge Access Awards will be significantly more valuable.
As for Hyatt’s lounge footprint, there isn’t an exact formula for which hotels have lounges. Most Hyatt Regency and Grand Hyatts have lounges, while some other Hyatt properties may as well. If you have Club Lounge Access awards at your disposal, be sure to reach out to the hotel in advance to make sure you’ll be able to use them.
Only one Club Lounge Access Award is required for your entire stay, up to a maximum of seven consecutive nights. If you have a longer stay, you’ll benefit from free food and drinks, which can help to reduce costs on your trip.
However, note that Club Lounge Access Awards can’t be used for stays that were booked using a Hyatt Free Night Award.
The awards expire on the last day of February two years after earning them, meaning that a Club Lounge Access Award earned in 2022 will last until February 29, 2024.
30 Nights or 50,000 Base Points: Free Night Award + Two Club Lounge Access Awards
In addition to reaching Explorist status, members who stay 30 nights or earn 50,000 base points through spending $10,000 (USD) at Hyatt hotels receive two additional Club Lounge Access Awards and one Category 1–4 Free Night Award.
The Free Night Award can be immensely beneficial, as there are quite a few quality Hyatt properties at the Category 3 and 4 levels, including the Hyatt Regency Vancouver, Hyatt Regency Toronto, Hyatt Regency Cartagena, Park Hyatt Siem Reap, and Grand Hyatt Melbourne.
Of course, you’ll want to redeem the Category 1–4 Free Night Award for a hotel at the highest award category that would otherwise cost more if you were to book it with either points or cash. Note that the award can also be used for nights that fall under peak pricing rates.
In order to find all of Hyatt’s Category 3 and 4 hotels, you can search on Hyatt’s Explore Hotels page. On this page, you can filter by category, brand, and geographic region to find hotels that might work best for your travel plans.
You should also pay attention to your Category 1–4 Free Night Award’s expiry date, as they expire 180 days from the date they are earned. You must redeem the Free Night Award for a stay with a checkout date before the expiration date.
If you don’t have any upcoming trips before your Free Night Award expires, Hyatt allows members to give Free Night Awards to other Hyatt members. This is unique to Free Night Awards, as you aren’t able to gift Club Lounge Access Awards or other Milestone Rewards.
40 Nights or 65,000 Base Points: 5,000 Points, $100 (USD) Hyatt Gift Card, or 10,000 Points Off a FIND Experience
This is the only Milestone Reward before 70 nights that offers you a choice. Personally, I’d recommend the $100 (USD) Hyatt Gift Card, but let’s look at the options a bit closer.
First off, since we value Hyatt points at 1.5 cents per point (USD), 5,000 Hyatt points is therefore equivalent to $75 (USD). At our valuations, the $100 gift card is a clear winner – especially since the gift card is a lot more flexible than Hyatt points, as it can be used for food and other expenses at Hyatt hotels.
However, the $100 Hyatt gift card is also limited in that it can only be used at Hyatt properties located in North America and South America.
Given the location restriction, you may want to choose the 5,000 points if you have no future Hyatt stays planned in the Americas, or if you have an immediate high-value use for the 5,000 points in mind.
FIND experiences are similar to Marriott Bonvoy Moments: activities outside of hotel stays that can be booked with Hyatt points.
The discount of 10,000 points on a FIND experience has an expiry date of six months from the date of issuance.
Although 10,000 Hyatt points are worth more than $100 on paper, the fact that this discount is restricted to FIND experiences really limits its value. Thus, it may still be optimal to pick the $100 gift card for this Milestone Reward.
50 Nights or 80,000 Base Points: Two Suite Upgrade Awards
Hyatt’s Suite Upgrade Awards can be extremely valuable instruments for locking in a desirable suite for an upcoming stay.
Even though you’re only awarded two Suite Upgrade Awards at this level, you only need to use one to upgrade an entire stay of up to seven nights.
This is far better than Marriott Bonvoy’s Suite Night Awards, which require one to be used for each night of your stay. Moreover, Hyatt’s Suite Upgrade Awards can be used to confirm an upgrade at the time of booking, compared to Marriott’s, which require you to wait until five days before the stay to make the request.
Like Club Lounge Access Awards, Suite Upgrade Awards expire at the end of February two years after they are earned. Thus, the Suite Upgrade Awards earned in 2022 have an expiration date of February 29, 2024.
Using a Suite Upgrade Award will entitle you to an upgrade to a standard suite. Any upgrades to higher premium or specialty suite levels would be up to the discretion of the hotel.
As great as Suite Upgrade Awards can be, unfortunately they can only be used for bookings made with either cash or points, and can’t be combined with a booking made with a Free Night Award.
60 Nights or 100,000 Base Points: One Category 1–7 Free Night Award + Two Suite Upgrade Awards + My Hyatt Concierge
After reaching 60 nights or earning 100,000 base points, you’ll earn Hyatt’s highest Globalist status, and you’ll also be rewarded with another Milestone Reward.
Similar to the Category 1–4 Free Night Award, the Category 1–7 Free Night Award has an expiration date of 180 days after being earned. To maximize its value, it should be reserved for the highest category redemption possible.
Hyatt’s award chart has eight hotel categories, so the ability to use this Free Night Award for a Category 7 hotel unlocks some of the best properties that Hyatt has to offer.
(The Category 1–7 Free Night Award can also be used to book an all-inclusive hotel or resort classified as Category A–D in Hyatt’s all-inclusive award chart.)
Again, you’ll want to search Hyatt’s Explore Hotels page, where you can find the best Category 7 hotel or a Category A–C all-inclusive hotel to work with your travel plans.
If you’re unable to use your Category 1–7 Free Night Award, you may gift it to another Hyatt member.
The two Suite Upgrade Awards at this level will now bring your total to four, meaning that you’ll now be able to enjoy four separate Hyatt stays in a suite.
Meanwhile, My Hyatt Concierge can be a valuable tool, as you have your own dedicated concierge who can help you book future stays with a simple email.
They can also confirm suite upgrades for you, register you for any promotions, contact the property on your behalf regarding any special occasion you might be celebrating, or help resolve any disputes you may have.
70, 80, 90, and 100 Nights: 10,000 Points or One Suite Upgrade Award
After 60 nights, the next four milestone rewards can only be earned by staying nights at Hyatt hotels, rather than by earning base points. Members can choose between 10,000 Hyatt points or one Suite Upgrade Award for every 10 nights stayed, starting at 70 nights and up to 100 nights.
To me, 10,000 Hyatt points is the clear winner here.
If you reach this stage, it means that you’re already a Hyatt Globalist, which comes with ongoing suite upgrades among its plethora of perks. Although Globalist suite upgrades aren’t guaranteed, they’re still given fairly frequently.
If you have a special upcoming stay where you’re really hoping you’ll get a suite, you can always set aside one of your four Suite Upgrade Awards that you’ve earned from previous Milestone Rewards, rather than forgoing a valuable 10,000 points to choose another one at the 70- to 100-night thresholds.
Conclusion
Hyatt’s loyalty program is perhaps the strongest loyalty program out of all the major hotel chains, thanks in part to its valuable Milestone Rewards.
Milestone Rewards incentivize members while they’re working their way from one elite status to another, and provide even more rewards upon achieving the highest Globalist status.
It’s a feature that I wish Marriott and Hilton would incorporate into their own programs as well – but for now, this is yet another reason why loyalty to Hyatt can pay off handsomely.
