INSANE: Hyatt Globalist for Two Years With As Few as 10-15 Nights! (Spend as few as 37,500 points!)

Hyatt just announced that they are reducing elite qualification in 2021

For the 2021 calendar year, World of Hyatt will be reducing the Base Point and Tier-Qualifying Night requirements by 50 percent so members can achieve or requalify for status and enjoy elite benefits in half the time – either by staying half the number of nights or earning half the number of Base Points required in a calendar year. For example, a member can earn top-tier Globalist status in record time by staying 30 Tier-Qualifying Nights or earning 50,000 Base Points in 2021 and start enjoying exclusive benefits including 30% Bonus on eligible purchases, waived resort fees on eligible rates and free night awards, room upgrades including standard suites available at check-in, Club access or breakfast, Guest of Honor benefits and more.

Reduced 2021 World of Hyatt elite status qualifications include: 

• Discoverist – Stay five Tier-Qualifying Nights or earn 12,500 Base Points 
• Explorist – Stay 15 Tier-Qualifying Nights or earn 25,000 Base Points 
• Globalist – Stay 30 Tier-Qualifying Nights or earn 50,000 Base Points 

This is exciting all on its own. After all, Hyatt Globalist is (in most people’s opinion) the best Top Tier status there is.

Quick note: This does not change the qualifications for Milestone Rewards. I’ll address this below, but if you earn 30 nights for Globalist, you only get the Milestone Rewards for 30 nights, not 60.

Stack with 4th Quarter Double Elite Promotion

I’d previously I’ve written about Hyatt’s fantastic 4th quarter promotion. That is where World of Hyatt members globally can register to earn Triple Points across all Hyatt locations worldwide for stays through February 28, 2021 (extended from the previous Jan 4 end date), starting with their first qualifying stay during that period. This becomes Quadruple points if you have this credit card.  Also, for every Tier-Qualifying Night on stays completed during the Promotion Period, members will earn one Tier-Qualifying Night credit toward elite status the year in which they earn it, and one bonus Tier-Qualifying Night credit toward elite status in 2021.

This coincides with another Hyatt promotion for 15% back on award stays which is bumped to 25% back on award stays if you have the credit card. Make sure you signed up for that too or do so by December 1st. Here’s a reminder on that promo:

World of Hyatt members can receive 15% of their redeemed points back as Bonus Points when they redeem points for free night stays, now through February 28, 2021. World of Hyatt and Hyatt Credit Cardmembers can receive an additional 10% of their redeemed points back as Bonus Points, for a total of 25% of redeemed points back when used during the promotion period.  Members and Cardmembers have more time to register for the exclusive offer by January 15, 2021. Members can register here; Cardmembers can register here.

I had confirmed and reconfirmed that if you have a stay that ends in the first 4 days of 2021, you will get ALL of those nights credited to 2021. (And now the end date of that promotion has been extended past January 4th to February 28th.)

I’d previously written about this as a strategy to get Globalist through February 2023 by staying 25 nights on a stay checking out Jan 1-4. But those figures are now greatly reduced!

Many of you already booked 30 night stays based on my previous post – so think about amending those to shorter stays now!!

Hyatt has added time to existing promotions

I almost missed this in the Press Release:

More Time to Enjoy Valuable World of Hyatt Promotions

• Bonus Journeys – Members globally have more time to take advantage of World of Hyatt’s most rewarding global promotion, providing members the ability to earn up to quadruple points on eligible spend at 1,000+ participation locations worldwide through February 28, 2021, if they register by January 15, 2021. Plus, members can earn double Tier-Qualifying Night credits – yet another way for members to accelerate toward earning tier status in 2021.

• Free Nights on Sale – World of Hyatt members can receive 15% of their redeemed points back as Bonus Points, plus free parking, when they redeem points for free night stays, now through February 28, 2021. World of Hyatt and Hyatt Credit Cardmembers can receive an additional 10% of their redeemed points back as Bonus Points. Members can register here by January 15, 2021; Cardmembers can register here.

• Dine Local, Earn Triple Points – World of Hyatt members can continue treating themselves when dining close to home by earning triple points on eligible spend for dine-in, takeout or delivery (when not staying the night) at participating outlets at Hyatt hotels and resorts through February 28, 2021.

The “New Math” on 2 Years of Hyatt Globalist – if you are Strategic!

You now need just 30 nights for Globalist in 2021. This means just 15 nights during the Double Elite nights promo works!

With the previous version of the promo, qualification for having the nights count twice in 2021 meant you had to check out Jan 1-4. That is no longer the case since the promo was extended to Feb 28th. You can now check in anytime as long as you check out before the promo ends on Feb 28th. So, checking in Dec 20 and out Jan 4th still works for 25 nights, but now so would checking in Dec 27th and out Jan 11th or even checking in on Feb 1 and checking out on Feb 16th. There is much more flexibility now!

It also means that if you do the stays in 2021, they do NOT need to all be consecutive like they did when the “trick” was to check in in 2020 and check out in 2021.

But the qualification criteria is reduced if you have an existing World of Hyatt credit card, because that gives you 5 elite nights automatically.

And under the current promotion, if you apply for a brand new World of Hyatt credit card by the end of December, you’ll actually get 10 elite nights next year (a bonus 5 as part of the welcome bonus offer).

This means that if you were to apply today for a new World of Hyatt credit card you would need to stay just 10 15 nights with a stay beginning in December 2020 and checking out in January 2021 (and do not forget to register!!) to earn Globalist for 2 years!

Update: The 10 elite nights offer for a new WOH card expired Dec 31st  you’ll only get 5 now, so you’ll need to increase the number of nights needed overall by 5.

Get Hyatt Bonus Points: Earn 30,000 Bonus Points after spending $3,000 on purchases within the first 3 months from account opening, plus an additional 2 Bonus Points total per $1 spent in you first 6 months on purchases that would normally earn 1 Bonus Point, on up to $15,000 spent. | How to apply for this offer.

As an aside, Hyatt reps have given conflicting into on the 2021 checkout awarding all nights in 2021. Hyatt updated the promo FAQ page to be quite clear:

23. How will my nights count if I check in during 2020 and check out in 2021?

For every Tier-Qualifying Night on stays completed during the Promotion Period you will earn one bonus Tier-Qualifying Night toward elite status in the year in which it was earned and one bonus Tier-Qualifying Night toward elite status in 2021. Bonus Tier-Qualifying Nights will be awarded two to three weeks after the Promotion Period has ended. If your stay starts during the Promotion Period in 2020 and your checkout date is January 1 – February 28, 2021, your Tier-Qualifying Nights and bonus Tier-Qualifying Nights will all be awarded in 2021.

This is basically pure insanity to me – and I’ll be doing this 100%. I just dropped under 5/24 so I’ll be trying my luck at a new World of Hyatt credit card but even if I don’t get it, I’ll stay 15 nights. (Update – I applied and was approved, though I needed to call Chase reconsideration to reallocate credit lines.)

Assuming you have a Category 1, and you want to use points to make this work, you would spend as follows:

• 15 nights if you have no World of Hyatt credit card. 5,000 points per night for a category 1. That’s 75,000 points. You’ll get a 15% rebate under the Free Nights on Sale promo which is 11,250 for a net of 63,750 points.
• 13 nights if you have an existing World of Hyatt credit card since you already have 5 elite nights being credited. That’s just 48,750 points since you get a 25% rebate under the Free Nights on Sale promo.
• 10 nights if you have a NEW (must apply by Dec 31, 2020) World of Hyatt credit card since you already have 10 elite nights being credited. That would be just 37,500 points out of pocket!!

You could, of course, also do paid nights and do your own math on cash vs. points.

Note: as mentioned above, the 10 elite nights for a new credit card is expired  you’ll get 5 now, so add 5 nights to all math above.

Get Hyatt Bonus Points: Earn 30,000 Bonus Points after spending $3,000 on purchases within the first 3 months from account opening, plus an additional 2 Bonus Points total per $1 spent in you first 6 months on purchases that would normally earn 1 Bonus Point, on up to $15,000 spent. | How to apply for this offer.

Hyatt Globalist Benefits

Hyatt Globalist is easily the most coveted top tier elite status in the US, more-so than Marriott or Hilton and definitely more than IHG.

You’ll get:

• 30% bonus on points earned on stays
• Waived resort fees on all stays including paid (all members have them waived on award stays)
• Gold MLife status
• Premium Internet
• Room upgrades including standard suites
• 4pm late checkout
• Challenge to American Airlines Platinum Pro status (or in some cases, Executive Platinum by invite)
• Club Access or Breakfast on all stays
• Free Parking on Free Night Awards
• Guest of Honor (book for a friend and they get your Globalist benefits)

Milestone Rewards

But on top of all those benefits for more than 2 years, you’ll get all of the Milestone benefits for earning 30 elite nights.  (Note: In the previous version of this deal, you’d have gotten 60 nights of Milestone Rewards but this reduced qualification will only come with what you get for up to 30 nights.)

So, you are still getting 4 Club Lounge access awards PLUS a free Cat 1-4 night worth (to me) at least $200. Lounge access on 2 stays is easily worth $100++ depending on length of stay.

MilesTalk Musings

This is INSANE to me in terms of the ease of getting such a valuable status for 26 months. I don’t know how much I’ll get to travel in 2021 but I am quite sure I’ll be making up for that in 2022!

I’m about to apply for I just got approved for the World of Hyatt credit card to see if I can reduce the qualifications to a ridiculous 10 nights with a check-in in December and a checkout in January or 10 nights any time in January / February 2021.

Meanwhile, if you ever stay at Hyatt and have wondered about the “Globalist Life” – it will never be easier than this. (At least, I can’t imagine it!!)

Thoughts?

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You can find credit cards that best match your spending habits and bonus categories at Your Best Credit Cards. 

New to all of this? My “introduction to miles and points” book, MilesTalk: Live Your Wildest Travel Dreams Using Miles and Points is available on Amazon and at major booksellers.