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Tl;dr – Hyatt’s recent improvements to its loyalty program, specifically the expansion of Milestone Rewards and introduction of ‘gifting’ awards to fellow members
Controversial take incoming, so to the lords of points and miles fandom, consider yourself triggered-warned:
Hyatt Globalist is not worth the chase anymore – at least for folks on the cusp.
I say this as a Hyatt Globalist myself, three years running. I’m not talking about business or power travelers who regularly clear 100+ nights yearly. Those folks 1) already enjoy the best that top-tier elite status Hyatt has to offer and 2) won’t need to worry about requalification as that’ll happen organically. For anyone who enjoys staying at Hyatt’s but flirts with other chains or independent hotels too, and is more likely to tally 10-35 Hyatt nights for the year – you. I’m talking to you. You’re exactly the type of traveler Hyatt might count on to progressively increase their loyalty to the point where they move into the 60-night Globalist realm. Well, I think you’re in prime territory for doing the opposite.
In 2024, Hyatt introduced changes to its loyalty program that revamped Milestone Rewards and, most importantly, introduced the ability to gift awards to fellow Hyatt members. These recent changes create just enough incentives to stop the chase while enjoying the top-tier perks during your Hyatt stays.
The kicker? Hyatt is better off for this, too. Let’s dive in!
World of Hyatt Program – Milestone Awards and Hyatt’s Elite Status Tiers
*Feel free to skip this section if you’re well-versed in this stuff.*
It makes sense to quickly cover Hyatt’s elite tiers and Milestone Awards to understand why Globalist isn’t worth the chase.
Hyatt Elite Tiers
The World of Hyatt loyalty program has four tiers: Member, Discoverist, Explorist, and Globalist. The benefits of each tier are displayed in the chart below.
To become a Hyatt Globalist, you must accumulate 60 nights or earn 100,000 base points. Globalist status offers complimentary breakfast, club access, free parking, suite upgrades, late checkout until 4 pm, and welcome amenities. It’s pretty rewarding, and that doesn’t even account for the Milestone Awards you receive both in your march to 60-night and once you hit the 60-night threshold.
Milestone Rewards
Hyatt’s Milestone Rewards allow members to earn tangible benefits for their continued loyalty beyond reward points. With the Milestone programs, after hitting certain elite night thresholds (the first starts at 20 nights), members can choose an award to enhance their next stay or future Hyatt experience. Milestone Rewards are provided every 10 nights, starting at 20 nights, and they even continue after you hit 60 nights. The graphic below shows the full array of Milestone rewards. Hyatt Milestone Awards choices – Source: Hyatt
While there are several awards you can choose from, the focus of this piece is the awards members are eligible to give to others: free night awards, club access awards, and the ever-precious guest of honor awards and suite upgrade awards. Here’s a brief rundown of what they are:
- Free night awards – As they sound. You can enjoy a complimentary night in a standard room at any participating Hyatt hotels and resorts—with no blackout dates. These come in three flavors:
- Category 1-4 Free night award
- Category 1- 7 Free night award
- Ultimate Free night award (redeemable at any Hyatt participating property, including Miraval resorts).
- Club access award: Receive access to a Club lounge where you can enjoy continental breakfast and evening hors d’oeuvres daily and sometimes even get a room upgrade.
- Suite upgrade awards: Treat yourself to an upgrade to a standard suite (confirmed at the time of booking) for a stay of up to 7 nights.
- Guest of Honor award – Enjoy all the benefits of being a Globalist for up to 7 nights. Use it on redemptions or eligible paid stays.
Ok, you’re up to speed!
Why Globalist Isn’t Worth the Chase Anymore
Hyatt created a ‘black market’ when it went live with the changes to its loyalty program in 2024. By allowing members to gift rewards, seemingly overnight, groups of all kinds popped up with folks offering to trade, swap, buy, sell, or give away (for free) awards to others interested in using them. Whether these back-market deals violate Hyatt’s program is besides the point – on Facebook alone, I count four dedicated groups for exchanging World of Hyatt awards groups, 24000 members in total, and I’m sure I haven’t found all of them.
The result (and the point to this)? It’s easy to grab a suite upgrade award or guest of honor certificate when you need one to make your next Hyatt stay much more comfortable. If you do 3-5 week-long stays at Hyatt a year, why not just see if you can procure a suite upgrade award or guest of honor certificate a few weeks before your reservation(s)?
If you hope Globalist status will net you that great bump up to a suite, why not simply procure a suite upgrade award to ensure, you can confirm one in advance of your reservation? Use a suite upgrade award to secure a luxurious room at the Andaz Peninsula Papagayo Resort in Costa Rica 
If you want complimentary breakfast, free parking, club access, and late checkout for your 7-night stay, a guest of honor award is all you need to guarantee that you will experience those benefits on your next vacation.
By now, you get the point. Hotel benefits are only valuable while staying at the hotel, so what does having Globalist status mean for all the nights of a year when you’re not at a Hyatt hotel? A feather in your cap?
If you’re a casual, it’s significantly less expensive to ‘rent’ Globalist status or hustle for a suite upgrade than to invest the time, money, and exclusivity necessary to chase 60 nights. You’re better off dipping in when needed; otherwise, enjoy being a free agent and choosing the properties that best fit your needs, budget, and desire in a given market. Globalist is looking less ‘worth it’.
Pro-tip: January and February stays are becoming a cheat code for enjoying enhanced benefits at Hyatt properties. In addition to already being low-season for many coveted destinations in Europe and Asia, this is also when many Hyatt members’ awards expire. Since Hyatt doesn’t regularly extend or renew expiration dates, you’ll find a lot of members who don’t have travel plans are willing to gift their awards for free.
You thought Blackbeard was going to leave you out to dry? Here, here, here, and here. 
So Why Is Hyatt Better Off This Way?
Three reasons.
First, through the ‘share the wealth’ philosophy of gifting certificates, Hyatt is bringing more travelers into this ecosystem – perhaps people who might not otherwise have considered Hyatt’s as an option or others who are loyal to other chains but are interested in the perks they can enjoy without needing to have elite status. The strongest brands, not just in travel (every industry), recognize the power of building an ecosystem.
Case in point: For all the hate American Airlines receives about the quality of its products, I’ve seen more folks enter the points and miles game chasing AAdvantage miles through shopping portals, hotel stays, and more – solely because they know they can pile up miles quickly to be used for premium travel – even if it’s not on American. That’s the understated power of the loyalty point – it’s still about flying, but it’s also not at the same time. Unlocking the ability to gift awards does something similar – it decouples the exclusivity of a premium experience from status while maintaining the integrity of top-tier status, which brings me to my next point.
Secondly, Hyatt is preserving its loyalty system’s integrity without making sweeping changes. For most folks, it’s still a climb to 60 nights (where the best benefits of Hyatt’s program kick in) or even to 40 nights, where the first of the three most coveted awards—suite upgrade awards, guest of honor awards, and category 1-7 free nights—is earned.
As such, the pool of awards available for gifting doesn’t overinflate. For Hyatt, there isn’t a sudden inundation of Globalist members, which would make it harder for each property to honor the program’s benefits. What you do have, though, is the ability for casual travelers to enjoy more comfortable stays, possibly leading to more patronage down the line.
Lastly, these changes and the results we’ve seen thus far tie in with Hyatt’s broader strategic goals. Leadership has been very clear about its focus on the luxury and lifestyle segments, so allowing new-to-Hyatt travelers to enjoy premium experiences simply by procuring an award fits its growth strategy.
I’d be curious to see Hyatt’s numbers over the next few years to analyze membership growth and patronage after the 2024 changes to the World of Hyatt program.
One Change I’d Like to See to Hyatt’s Loyalty Program
Before closing this out, I have to call out one change I’d like to see Hyatt make to its current scheme. And no, this is not about making Mrs. and Mrs. Smith’s properties’ points pricing more competitive—that almost certainly needs to happen for that partnership to take off.
Instead, I’m asking Hyatt to figure out something to offer members that’s more useful than Club Access Awards. A Milestone Award choice at the 20-night and 30-night thresholds, Club Access Awards can be attached to any reservation where the property has a club lounge, granting the member access to the club and sometimes a bump up to a nice room. The reason this needs to change? It’s straightforward – there aren’t enough properties to use these awards. Let’s take the United States and Canada. There are ~121 Hyatt Regency and Grand Hyatt properties in the US and Canada (as of January 2025). Just 21 of these properties currently 1) have an operational club lounge where one could foreseeably use a club access award. ~17%?
Hyatt – 
You can barely give these awards away, too. I’ve been trying to gift my expiring CAAs for a few weeks now, and there have been next to no takers. Numerous other Hyatt members are in the same position, sitting on these rewards as they’ll undoubtedly expire. It’s time for a change.
I’ll throw out an alternative to avoid coming to the table without ideas. How about a ‘3X points on This Stay’ award? This award would be valid only on paid stays and allow members to supercharge their earnings to accumulate points faster for their next Hyatt experience. This incentivizes cash spending (as opposed to points) at the property of the stay the award is attached to and encourages guests to return to Hyatts in the future with eyes on a future redemption stay. How about it? Are you with me? What say you? Sounds like a win-win to me.
Conclusion
Hyatt’s 2024 changes to its loyalty program – specifically changes to Milestone Awards and unleashing the ability to gift awards – have changed the math on whether a chase to Globalist is worth it for folks who might otherwise be on the cusp. It’s a positive for Hyatt – the company has lowered the barriers to entry for travelers looking for premium experiences while maintaining the integrity of the World of Hyatt loyalty program.
