Switching Back to Hyatt
 

Questions to the smart Hyatt people here. I was a member with Hyatt (still am) and a loyalist with their previous program. When the program changed, I was forced to move back to Hilton because the highest level was not a possible achievement for me, where it was with another program. I have a couple of questions that you might be able to assist me with, as I don't know if anything has changed in regards to the program itself.

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).

Thanks in advance.

1. I think there are challenges to expedite it here and there -- If you are AAdvantage Plat or higher there are supposedly expedited status challenges. There are also (last I knew) selected status challengers if you are employed by selected employers. It's been a while since I've seen a widescale open to all challenge offer though.

2. Point stays -and- free night awards (no matter if they come from milestones or credit cards) all count towards status.

3. Like you said, upgrades (when available) to suites, suite upgrade instruments, lounge access, and yes Resort fees always waived. Also free parking on award stays. There are some soft benefits as well that are 'off record' but which I have regularly enjoyed (some properties do welcome gifts still, I never seem to get charged for rollaways). I think the biggest difference (to me) though is free breakfast when there isn't a lounge. I've really enjoyed some great restaurant breakfasts at full service Hyatts!!

4.The World of Hyatt CC gives you 5 night credits every year, and then 2 night credits for every 5K spent. I think I have about 30 nights this year from the WOH CC.

American Airlines and Hyatt have a reciprocal elite benefit program. I have not checked the current offers in several months, but if you are AA elite, might take a look.

Yes, pretty much all stays count toward status. Exceptions are listed at Hyatt.com. There are few that would affect a regular guest. Paid, free on points, free from the CC, free when you hit 30/60 nights, etc. all count. You do have to book at Hyatt.com on paid stays unless you get lucky, which appears not to be too common.

If you travel that much and visit cities where there are Hyatts, you should go for it and get the CC. It gives you 5 status nights yearly (I got 15 for some reason in 2018 and that gave me the push to go for Globalist). Also 2 status nights per $5000 spend. I value status nights at around $20 until I get to 60, so that's an extra .8% return minimum for me. Free cat 4 night annually holding the card, free cat 4 at $15K spend, free cat 4 when you hit 30 nights in the program, free cat 7 when you hit 60. Other things along the way.

One perk that is often underrated is "Guest of Honor" where you make a points reservation for someone and he/she inherits your status for the stay. Very nice thing to do for family, friends, business associates, as a wedding gift, etc.

I have saved a ton with the free parking in cities like Chicago on points/free stays. Not on paid stays. They also are quite willing to go out of the way for me on special requests. Any time I have a problem, request, or question, I email my Concierge and she takes care of it.

Even if you do not get a match, there may be some kind of challenge. Search the more popular blogs and here for the latest.

And then there is the burning side.The places I go, there are lots of cat 1-2 Hyatts. 5000 or 8000 points. Chase UR>Hyatt is 1:1 and there are CCs that will give you up to 5 Chase UR per dollar. I could go for years now and not pay cash for a Hyatt stay.

My Kroger has Hyatt gift cards. When they run the 4x fuel promo, you get up to 14% in free gas when buying them, plus whatever you get on CC spend. Other chains have fuel offers as well.

I will do everything I can to keep Hyatt status. And my 5x UR cards.

Note that a lot of suite upgrades at Hyatt are just junior suites, meaning one big room with a sitting area and usually a large and luxurious bath, depending on the brand. This includes upgrades that are confirmed with TSUs. OTOH, I've been given higher level suites, especially in places where I'm a returning guest, so YMMV.

Note that various earned free night certs tend to expire fairly quickly. When WOH first started, there was the same problem with TSUs but that feature has been improved.

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.
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hyat...rgeted-10.html
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hyat...rdholders.html

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.

Globalist is great. Highly recommended and no need to add to what others have mentioned.

But the deeper I dig into stay profiles, the more I contemplate whether Explorist might just be good enough. At 20 nights, you start earning the lounge access certificates, which can certainly go a long way if you like to take your longer holidays at Hyatts with a lounge. A lot of breakfasts are covered at the HP/HH nights that are often required to get to 60 nights without breaking the bank. (and to grab the extra promo points) And Globalist gets nothing much at the Vegas properties...

At the very least, it's far less painful working back towards Globalist if you can start upgrading stays starting at 20 nights.

You can sign up for this trial if you work for certain employers. That's why it asks for your company email.

Thanks everybody, we do have the CC and I am Platinum with AA.
You guys just made this much easier. Learning that status counts for points stays, just insured me making the move back.

Happy to be back with Hyatt.