Last year, I wrote a post suggesting that Hyatt Milestone awards could be worth a mattress run for almost anyone. Now, in the last quarter of 2025, I find myself revisiting the idea of mattress running for Hyatt milestone rewards. Specifically, I’m trying to decide whether to chase milestone rewards with a mattress run, and if I should, whether I should chase 70-night milestone rewards for myself or whether my wife should chase 40-night milestone rewards. I’m hoping that writing this post will help me decide.
Currently on track for 62 / 32 nights
As things stand in 2025, I am on track to close out the year with 61 elite nights with Hyatt, which I have earned through a mixture of stays and credit card spend. My wife (henceforth referred to as Player 2) is on track to close out the year with 32 elite nights (also through a mixture of spend and nights spent).
Over the past couple of years, we’ve begun traveling more often with family, commonly needing at least two rooms (sometimes three), which has bumped my wife’s elite night total higher than it has been in the past. It has also meant an increased need for Guest of Honor awards.
In addition to the year-end elite night totals listed above, we have three more nights that could theoretically be booked in either of our names.
As things stand, I could reach 65 elite nights if we book those last three nights entirely in my name, or my wife could reach 35 elite nights with those stays in her account.
As fate would have it, travel plans will leave us at a Category 1 Hyatt property where we could book an additional 5 nights at off-peak pricing, which means that we could get 5 additional nights for 17,500 points. Should we be considering a mattress run? If yes, who should mattress run?
The argument for mattress running Hyatt Milestone Rewards
Last year, I wrote a post outlining why one might mattress run for Hyatt elite nights. In fact, I argued that it might be worth it even for those who don’t spend very many nights at Hyatt properties.
We have often said that it can be well worth mattress running two or three nights to reach an important Hyatt milestone. That is certainly true if it will help you reach 60 elite nights, which unlocks a multitude of perks (Hyatt Globalist status, a Category 1-7 free night certificate, 2 Guest of Honor Awards, 2 Suite Upgrade awards, and a My Hyatt Concierge).
However, in our case, we would be unlocking 40-night milestones for my wife or 70-night milestones for me with a 5-night mattress run.
Here are the 40-night and 70-night milestone rewards:
40-night milestone rewards
At 40 Hyatt elite nights, a member receives both:
- 1 Guest of Honor Award (which provides Globalist status benefits for a stay of up to 7 nights)
and
- 1 choice from the following list:
- 1 suite upgrade award
- 5,000 bonus points
- $150 FIND Experience credit
- 2 Main Cabin Extra seat coupons on American Airlines
70-night milestone rewards
At 70 elite nights, a member receives:
- 1 Guest of Honor award
and
- 1 choice from the following list:
- 1 Suite Upgrade Award
- 10,000 bonus points
- $300 FIND experience credit
- American Airlines Gold status
70 nights is the clear winner
Out of the two options, reaching 70 nights in my account makes far more sense than stretching for 40 nights in Player 2’s account. Since Hyatt makes Guest of Honor awards, suite upgrade awards, and even points transferable between members, it doesn’t matter which of us earns the benefits listed above. If I earn a Guest of Honor award and want my wife to be able to use it, I can easily gift it to her (or vice versa).
It therefore pretty clearly makes more sense for me to mattress run towards 70 nights than it does for my wife to mattress run towards 40 nights.
So, should I mattress run my way to 70 nights?
After determining that it makes more sense for me to reach 70 nights than it does for her to reach 40 nights, the next question is: Should I mattress run this? Is it worth it?
Booking the rest of our needed nights in my name would bring me to 65 elite nights. A 5-night mattress run at a Category 1 off-peak property would cost 17,500 Hyatt points. Is it worth spending 17,500 points on a stay that I don’t really need to get the 70-night milestone rewards?
Before running the numbers, I assumed that the answer would probably be an easy “yes” because of how much I value suite upgrade awards. After running the numbers, I’m a less convinced.
Mattress running for 10K points + Guest of Honor
If my 70-night choice were 10,000 points, that would mean spending 17,500 points to get 10,000 points and the Guest of Honor award. You could think of that like a net cost of 7,500 points for the Guest of Honor award. While that doesn’t feel like a slam dunk, it might not be a bad deal depending on your use case for a Guest of Honor award. We sometimes head to New York City for a weekend with a friend or family member (where a Guest of Honor award comes in handy for the second room), and the combination of free parking and free breakfast for a weekend could easily be worth 7,500 points. On the flip side, the benefit here wouldn’t be for me but rather for others in my family. Still, the Guest of Honor award is what sometimes makes Hyatt a great choice for family and friends weekends in New York. This might not be a bad trade.
Mattress running for AA Gold + Guest of Honor
American Airlines Gold status might be worth a mattress run for some folks. However, I’ve already earned that status this year separately, so I don’t need it. As a Hyatt Globalist, I also have the option to redeem points for American Airlines status for a day, so American Airlines Gold status isn’t going to make me mattress run for 5 nights.
Mattress running for FIND credit + Guest of Honor
While the $300 credit for a FIND Experience might appeal to some, I’ve never been tempted to book one, so I definitely wouldn’t value this credit at face value. I’m not interested in trading Hyatt points for an expiring credit that can only be used toward a specific set of experiences, where Hyatt may or may not have a good price or offering. I wouldn’t use points to mattress run for this.
Mattress running for suite upgrade award + Guest of Honor
What about the suite upgrade? Is it worth a 17,500-point mattress run to unlock a Guest of Honor award and the suite upgrade award?
The suite upgrade award is valid for a stay of up to seven nights. I rarely stay at the same hotel for 7 nights, but I sometimes stay for 3-5 nights. As a family traveler, I very much appreciate getting a suite whenever possible. At first glance, I thought for sure I’d mattress run for this combination.
However, to figure out whether this is worth it, you have to consider that Hyatt offers a number of different ways to confirm a suite in advance:
- Use a suite upgrade award certificate
- Book directly into a suite using more points than the cost of a standard room
- Use Points + Cash (roughly half the cash cost + half the points cost, so this isn’t usually a great value)
- Pay some type of standard rate + 6,000 points per night (labeled as LP Upgrade)
It is difficult to pinpoint a point value for a suite upgrade award since it depends on how you’ll use it and what other options you’d have had available.
I think there is a good chance that I would use the suite upgrade award for higher value than the cost of earning it. For instance, at Category 3, a standard room award costs 12,000 points per night, but a standard suite award costs 20,000 points per night. If I used my suite upgrade for a stay of 3 nights or longer at a Category 3 hotel or higher, it would save me more than 24,000 points, but the mattress run would only cost me 17,500 points. The mattress run would have been a slight win if I used it that way.
However, there are also situations where I would come out behind the cost of the mattress run (in other words, if I need a suite for a shorter stay, I might be better off simply booking a suite with my points).
Perhaps more importantly, I currently already have five suite upgrade awards in my account (four of which are valid until February 28, 2027). When I reach 60 elite nights next month, I’ll earn 2 more suite upgrade awards (for a total of six expiring in February 2027). While I will probably find use cases for most of those, the likelihood that one gets used for a suboptimal stay starts to increase as I accumulate more suite upgrade awards.
As I thought about it, this became a sticking point for me: the fact that I will already have six expiring at the end of the next membership year made me question the wisdom in spending more points than necessary to earn another suite upgrade. Funny enough, Greg had noted this diminishing value of additional suite upgrade awards when he wrote valuations of milestone rewards last year, and I questioned whether the value would truly diminish for me. In doing this analysis, I realized that he was right. I don’t want to pour 17,500 points into a mattress run for this set of benefits because of the diminishing value of additional suite upgrades.
What could change my mind?
After coming to terms with Greg’s law of diminishing value of additional suite upgrade awards, I felt like I probably shouldn’t mattress run to hit 70 nights.
However, while his law of diminishing returns certainly applies to my suite upgrade award situation, I’ve had the opposite situation with Guest of Honor awards. I’ve needed more of those than I had this year, and friends have come in for the save a couple of times already when I needed a Guest of Honor award for a family member’s room. I am very nearly tempted to mattress run to 70 to select 10K points, essentially picking up a Guest of Honor award for a net cost of 7,500 points.
But that isn’t quite enough of a win to push me over the edge. Generally speaking, if I am going to mattress run, I want it to be for a value that will be a clear slam dunk. I’m not convinced that I’ll get slam-dunk value out a 17,500-point mattress run. However, if I only needed to mattress run 2 or 3 nights, the math would change. If I were using about 10,000 points for the mattress run, and I could choose to get back 10,000 points for the 70-night milestone reward, the Guest of Honor award would feel “free”. I’d almost certainly be in for a short mattress run in that case. If I end up with a couple of additional unexpected Hyatt nights, I will probably revisit the idea of mattress running two or three nights. However, as things stand, I don’t think it’s worth mattress running five nights for either the 40-night or 50-night milestone rewards.
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I’m in the same boat, but with an added wrinkle: My WOH credit card statement closes on 1/1 and I’m at 68 nights. If I complete the next 5k in spend in December, do those nights post and hit the 70 nights, or do they start me off with 2 extra nights in 2026?
I’m in a somewhat similar boat, trying to mattress run to lock in the 40 elite night milestone. With unposted credit card spend and a couple of cheap nights booked here in Las Vegas to get 10,000 bonus points, I should be fine on the 40.
BUT now I have a new one: I am in a match/accelerated status program thru AA, so if I hit 20 nights before mid-December, I get Globalist status thru Feb. 2027.
Including the above-mattress run am sitting at 17 between now and year-end.
The cheapest option here in Las Vegas is Rio at $94/night. I’m thinking $300-$350 to have Globalist locked in through Feb 2027 may not be a bad idea. Sadly, the bump to Globalist wouldn’t kick in until after my long trip (11 nights) in December.
Thoughts?
In a roundabout way you uncovered another possibility. Trade your unused SUA’s for GOH’s, since you seem to need more of the latter than the former. I’m sure there’s other people who value the SUA more than the GOH that you could trade with. Everyone has different travel patterns so some may churn through SUA’s more than others. I have GOH’s that I don’t use and will probably gift in January (so I get the EQN for 2026) as I’m already going to hit 70 nights anyways.
I have a similar question. I’m on 65 nights and need about $8k more in spend on the business card before 12/31 to get another 5 nights. If I select the 10k points, that is about 2.2x on spend. Not sure what I’m going to do, especially because I still might actually to some travel before the end of the year.
Spend on your credit card
Can you get there based on spend instead? Perhaps redirect some spend from P2 card to P1 card?
The problem with the suite upgrade awards is they are often not available to use. I checked in Amsterdam Hyatt Regency and they said they couldn’t use my suite upgrade award but they could upgrade me for $190 euros per night and if I didn’t want to do that I would have to wait until late that afternoon to check in to a regular room. I surrendered and then to add insult to injury after the $1000 charge Hyatt said the charges weren’t eligible for points. Now that’s how they take care of Globalists in Amsterdam!
I love these articles, where we can see your brain working things out! This brings up something I’ve been wondering:
We want to take advantage of the slightly increased offer for the WOH consumer card. We’ll be able to max it out with all of our upcoming stays. I have Globalist, but I’m over 5/24. P2 doesn’t have Globalist. Since Hyatt makes Guest of Honor awards, suite upgrade awards, and even points transferable between members doable, is there ANY reason that P2 shouldn’t get the card instead of me? (We highly value Globalist benefits!!!)
(I won’t be under 5/24 until 6/01/26, and it appears that the increased credit offer expires Nov. 10, 2025). I think Chase is firm again on 5/24 for co-branded cards?
Thanks for all your insight!
Would the upgrades you earned now expire in 2/28 if you wait to select your choice until January? That’s my recollection- and changes the math a fair amount
I have found that SUAs which are longer dated than pretty much anyone else’s- by making choice selection in january is very valuable for booking hard to come by suites- I used one in the andaz in maui last year- which is generally a tough place to use an sua.
Based on my experience, if you choose SUAs earned in one year but wait until January to select them, that you get the full 26 months until expiration.
Based on this article I have a question. Is it worth to mattress run for 1 or 2 nights to get the discoverist status? In context when I’m planning to stay in HYATTs next year whenever I have a chance and my entire setup is build almost exclusively around Chase (for transfers to Hyatt)
Not really, I’d say. You can easily get Discoverist by holding one of Hyatt CCs, so there is no need for mattress running for that status. On the other hand, if I were to reach Explorist through the 1-2 night mattress run, I’d do it for two reasons –
This is exactly my personal situation. I have earned Globalists through 2/27 this year through a combination of spend on CC nights and actual stays, but I am less inclined towards hitting Globalist again next year since it will require substantial spend on CC, which I intend to direct towards other SUBs. As of now, I intend to hit Explorist next year mostly through organic stays and some strategic organic spend (e.g. $15k on personal Hyatt to earn 6 EQN and one additional Cat 1-4 cert), earn 4 CAA, which I then plan to use throught rest of 2027 for Hyatt stays, while I decide if I should hit Globalist again that year. This is mostly because we intende to take a couple of 2 weeks long South East Asia trips towards the end of 2026/early 2027.
Nick, while you can capture value, are you expending resources (dollars or points) that you wouldn’t have otherwise used? The concept of mattress running is a stay that a person was not otherwise going to do.
Remember that if your wife uses any of YOUR gifted GoH awards, you’ll also get one EQN when she finishes her stay. So you may need less than 5 nights for mattress run. Again, this assumes she uses GOH awards gifted by you.
Get the biz cc and ms $10k on it. No oop spend and you hit the next milestone.
That’s what I am doing on the personal card – spending $5k to get the remaining 2 EQN to get me to 70 nights.
If the spend on the WOH credit card is done in December, but the statement closes in January, in what year are the EQNs earned?
The year in which the charge POSTS. So generally, 12/31 will count towards the next year. But a charge on 12/15 will count for the current year.
One minor detail to note about spending for elite nights — spend on the personal card is cumulative and rolls from year to year but spend on the business card does not. If you end 2025 with $9900 on the business card, it goes to zero on January 1.
Is it worth the $10K of spend though? Best case you ms in one of the 2X categories you’ll get 20K Hyatt points on spend, plus 10K for the milestone bonus and a GoH award.
I’ve got upgrade offers for AMEX Biz Gold for 70K MR on $10K spend (no need for a new card app), which with the 4X categories could net you 110K total on similar spend. I have a hard time valuing 30K Hyatt points and a GoH over 110K MR.
If $10K gets you to another uncapped Hilton FNC that seems more valuable as well.
Would totally make sense to get to 60 nights for Globalist, but 70 looks like more marginal returns.
Depends on your spending velocity. I can ms that in 3 days at Office Depot and make $90 cash in the process.
That’s fair. If you have a high threshold for spend/ms then you are already maxing out your SUB potential and more marginal returns are still better than a flat 2X. I don’t really ms myself so harder to relate to that.
If you have that kind of spend velocity I would say to keep going for the higher 100+ night Hyatt milestones where you can get the more lucrative Cat 7 free night, Miraval bonus nights, and Ultimate Free Night awards.