Originally Posted by
TheTourVan
1. I understand they don't do status match, so I will be starting over from scratch. I am okay with that, because I enjoyed my time at Hyatt, but do they offer challenges to expedite it?
2. Are points stays still not counted towards status?
3. The biggest difference I see between Globalist and Explorist is Lounge Access, upgrade includes suites and free parking? Am I missing any others? Resort fees always waived?
I do more than 60 nights now with Hilton each year, but very much enjoyed having points nights count towards that. With Hyatt not counting them in the past, I am not sure I get there and could determine if this will work, because the perks are pretty considerable. Does the Hyatt CC (which I have) give a head start in nights like Amex Bonvoy does (we have that one too).
As others have responded, but here's some additional data points.
1) I'm not aware of any status
matches in a few years. However, they do occasionally have status challenges, most frequently related to your employer email.
Globalist Status - Now only 20 nights (targeted)!
Here we go again. 20-night Globalist for Hyatt credit cardholders.
But dang, there's actually a challenge
right now you can sign up for!
https://world.hyatt.com/content/gp/e...ier-offer.html
Register by 11/28, stay 20 nights in the next 90 days and get globalist through Feb 2021.
2) Both points and free night certs count towards status. You also mention the CC, and that's another
huge benefit towards status. (Just to confirm - do you have the new World of Hyatt CC or the old Hyatt credit card? From here on out, assuming WoH).
With the new(ish) WoH CC: 5 nights automatically every year. Plus 2 night credits for every $5K spend. And a free night certificate at $15K spend. So let's say you do the minimum of 15K spend. you'd get:
- 5 free nights
- 6 nights from the spend
- 1 night from the Cat 1-4 cert
- 1-3 nights for spending 15K points
= 13-15 nights. So now you only need 45 nights to maintain globalist.
Assuming you qualify for globalist, you get a free Cat 1-4 cert at 30 nights, 5K points at 40 nights, Cat 1-7 cert at 60 nights. So that's another three free nights. So now you only need to come up with 42 nights.
3) The globalist benefits are really top notch and in many ways other chains try, but don't match what Hyatt offers. Certainly there are some things that Hyatt doesn't do (4th/5th night free in particular), but I'm willing to shift a significant amount of hotel spend to Hyatt for the benefits.
- Resort fees are waived for all members on point stays. With Globalist, as mentioned Resort Fees are also waived on paid stays.
- As mentioned, free parking on point/certificate stays (which can save some
serious money)
- In addition to lounge access, if the hotel doesn't have a lounge it includes breakfast in the restaurant for 2 adults and 2 children. At places like Park Hyatt or Andaz this easily saves $100/day.
- 2 Suite Upgrade (TSU) at 50 nights, 2 TSU at 60 nights, 60 total. Plus at 70/80/90/100 nights you can choose an additional TSU or 10K points. Especially if you travel with family where you stay in a hotel for a few days to a week, these are incredibly valuable. For example:
HR Maui, paid 20K points/night for a base room going for $400/nt. Then upgraded to the suite
for a week that was going for $800/nt. That one certificate got me a 7x$400 = $2800 upgrade. No, I wouldn't actually pay that much for the upgrade, but it just gives you an idea of the value that's out there.
- As mentioned, the space available upgrades now include standard suites. In practice, hotels are pretty good about giving room upgrades. Sometimes you need to push a little bit "it looks like this suite is available for upgrade". Other times they'll give you amazing upgrades without asking. They definitely do not limit themselves to just standard suites, I've gotten presidential-style suites a few times just because. This is very much a property-by-property thing though.
- Late checkout guaranteed at most hotels. It's been great to just not worry about it, and get most of a day in (4PM) at lots of locations. I feel like they're also very generous with early check in (I've done as early as 10AM after a morning flight a few times). If they have the room available, I've never had an issue getting early check in or late check out. A very small amount of YMMV, but it's a great combination of guaranteed benefits and they'll usually work with you even if it isn't a guaranteed benefit.
- Flexibility on cancellation policy. When they changed their default to 48 hour cancellation, they had a caveat that for globalist it's still 24 hours (but I can't find it anywhere). That being said, I've had multiple instances where I've called a hotel or globalist support
after check in time and they were happen to cancel the reservation at no charge.
- As others have mentioned, Guest of Hyatt is really neat. With your points, you can make a reservation for someone else and they get Globalist benefits. Great if you're traveling with someone and you want both rooms to get globalist benefits, or even if you're just giving a gift to someone (here's your honeymoon hotel). Just note that you don't earn night credits on GoH.
- Unlike Bonvoy, I find Hyatt's globalist support (email/twitter/phone) to be top notch. If there's a problem with a hotel bill after the fact, I talk to globalist support not the hotel. They handle the details, argue with the hotel and fix it.