Frequent Miler's latest team challenge, Million Mile Madness, is happening now! Follow us as Greg, Nick, and Stephen compete to earn 1 Million SAS miles by flying 15 airlines before November 23rd. Who will complete the challenge with the most Speed, Affordability, and Style?
In Tim’s post “Which hotel credit card is the most rewarding for spending?” the World of Hyatt credit card didn’t perform particularly well. Hyatt settled for the middle of the pack, well below the Sonesta and Hilton Surpass cards. But Tim’s post specifically did not account for elite nights or status earned from spend. That was a sensible simplification, but I think that not accounting for elite rewards hurt Hyatt’s card more than other hotel cards because Hyatt credit cards can be used to earn elite nights, and Hyatt has a particularly rewarding Milestone Rewards program.
Hyatt’s Milestone Rewards offer perks once you’ve completed set numbers of qualifying nights within a calendar year. For example, after 30 nights you’ll get a category 1-4 free night certificate. Where it gets really interesting is at 40 nights where you can get both a Guest of Honor award and a Suite Upgrade Award. And the perks get even better at 50 and 60 nights.
A member of our Frequent Miler Insiders Facebook Group once posted about how he used spend on his Hyatt credit card to help earn Milestone Rewards. If I remember correctly, he wrote that it was like earning 2x on all his spend because he earned not just the points from the spend but valuable Milestone Rewards as well (plus a Category 1-4 Free Night after $15K spend). I thought that was a really interesting way to think about it. And I wondered… if we equate Milestone Rewards to points earned, is it possible to estimate the “X” (the number of points per dollar) indirectly earned with the Hyatt credit card?
Milestone Rewards Chart
With Hyatt, when you complete enough elite qualifying nights within a calendar year, you earn Milestone Rewards. You can earn elite qualifying nights either by staying at Hyatt or Mr & Mrs Smith hotels, or through credit card spend, or both. Additionally, the World of Hyatt card offers an automatic 5 elite qualifying nights per year.
| Elite Nights Earned | Milestone Reward |
|---|---|
| 20 Nights (or 35K base points) | |
| Automatic: | N/A |
| Pick 1: | 2K Next Stay Award |
| 2 Club Access Awards | |
| $25 FIND Credit | |
| 30 Nights (or 50K base points) | |
| Automatic: | 1 Cat 1-4 Free Night |
| Pick 1: | 2K Next Stay Award |
| 2 Club Access Awards | |
| $25 FIND Credit | |
| 40 Nights (or 65K base points) | |
| Automatic: | 1 Guest of Honor Award |
| Pick 1: | 5K Bonus Points |
| 1 Suite Upgrade Award | |
| $150 FIND Credit | |
| 50 Nights (or 80K base points) | |
| Automatic: | N/A |
| Pick 1: | 5K Bonus Points |
| 2 Suite Upgrade Awards | |
| $150 FIND Credit | |
| 60 Nights (or 100K base points) | |
| Automatic: | 1 Cat 1-7 Free Night |
| 2 Suite Upgrade Awards | |
| My Hyatt Concierge | |
| 2 Guest of Honor Awards | |
| 70, 80, 90 Nights | |
| Automatic: | 1 Guest of Honor Award |
| Pick 1: | 10K Bonus Points |
| 1 Suite Upgrade Award | |
| $300 FIND Credit | |
| 100 Nights | |
| Automatic: | 1 Cat 1-7 Free Night |
| Pick 1: | 10K Bonus Points |
| 1 Suite Upgrade Award | |
| Miraval Extra Night | |
| 110, 120, 130, 140 Nights | |
| Automatic: | 1 Guest of Honor Award |
| Pick 1: | 10K Bonus Points |
| 1 Suite Upgrade Award | |
| Miraval Extra Night | |
| 150 Nights | |
| Automatic: | Ultimate Free Night Award |
| Pick 1: | 10K Bonus Points |
| 1 Suite Upgrade Award | |
| Miraval Extra Night |
Completely separate from elite status, Milestone Rewards are available to everyone and are based on the number of nights you stay in a calendar year. Most awards are valid for the rest of the calendar year in which they are selected and 14 months beyond. Free Night awards, the Miraval Extra Night Award, and the 2K Next Stay Awards are good for only 180 days.
Point Equivalents
For each Milestone benefit, I estimated how many points it was worth. Specifically, I asked myself how many points would they have to offer for me to be just as happy getting points instead of the milestone benefit. When there was a choice of multiple benefits, I picked the one that I thought would be most useful to the most people.
I did the same exercise for the big spend bonuses available with the World of Hyatt (consumer) card and the World of Hyatt Business card.
Milestone Reward Value Estimates
Below are values I used for this analysis. Where there were choices, I underlined the reward I assumed would be selected:
| Milestone Rewards | Estimated Value (in points) | Value Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 20 night choice (2K Next Stay, 2 Club Access, or $25 FIND) | 1,000 |
|
| 30 night automatic: Cat 1-4 Free Night Certificate | 10,000 | Cat 1-4 Free Night: Can be used for maximum value of 18K points (peak priced category 4 hotel). However, cert expires after 180 days, and cannot be combined with suite upgrade certificate. Historically, if these certs expire and you complain to Hyatt, they’ll give you 10,000 points (this is only true of certs issued by Hyatt, not those issued by Chase) |
| 30 night choice (2K Next Stay, 2 Club Access, or $25 FIND) | 1,000 | See notes above for the 20 night choices |
| 40 night automatic: 1 Guest of Honor Award | 20,000 | Guest of Honor Award: This can be extremely value since it can be used to give you Globalist status for a stay of up to 7 nights. If you instead gift this to someone else, you’ll get one elite night once they check out. The value of this one is extremely subjective. It would be reasonably to estimate the value close to 0 if you have Globalist status anyway and if you don’t value gifting these to others. In my case, I tend to gift these to family members 3 or 4 times per year and I love how much value they get from these gifts. I’m estimating here that I’d be willing to pay 20,000 points to give them that same experience if these awards didn’t exist and if there was a way to pay with points for it. That said, the value diminishes: there are probably 2 gifts per year in my case where the guest of honor benefits are really good. So I value the first few of these awards more than ones earned at later milestones. |
| 40 night choice (5K points, 1 Suite Upgrade, or $150 FIND) | 36,000 |
|
| 50 night choice (5K points, 2 Suite Upgrades, or $150 FIND) | 54,000 |
|
| 60 night automatic: Cat 1-7 Free Night | 20,000 | Cat 1-7 Free Night: Can be used for maximum value of 35K points (peak priced category 7 hotel). However, cert expires after 180 days, and cannot be combined with suite upgrade certificate. Historically, if these certs expire and you complain to Hyatt, they’ll give you 20,000 points |
| 60 night automatic: 2 Suite Upgrades | 36,000 | 2 Suite Upgrades: See 40 night notes for 1 Suite upgrade above. There is likely to be diminishing return for earning more suite upgrades. You may not find good uses for these 4th and 5th upgrade certs. For that reason, I estimate the value of these two together at only the value of the first single upgrade. |
| 60 night automatic: My Hyatt Concierge | 20,000 | My Hyatt Concierge: How valuable is a concierge that you can email with requests to apply suite upgrades, alter reservations, etc.? That’s really hard to say. Also, the quality of the concierges that people are assigned vary tremendously. Personally, I get a decent amount of value but if I could buy this perk with points I don’t think I’d pay more than 20K points per year. |
| 60 night automatic: 2 Guest of Honor Awards | 30,000 | 2 Guest of Honor Awards: See notes for 40 nights, above. Due to diminishing returns I value these two certs at 50% more value than the first cert earned at 40 nights. |
| 60 night automatic: Globalist elite status | 60,000 | Globalist status: This gives you a 30% point bonus on paid stays; waived resort fees on all stays; room upgrades, including suites; 4PM late check-out; Club access or free breakfast; and Free parking on award stays. It’s really hard to put a value on this. I’m arbitrarily putting this down as being worth 60,000 points |
| 70 night automatic: Guest of Honor Award | 3,000 | Guest of Honor Award: After earning a number of these via earlier milestones, the value of these eventually drops very low. |
| 70 night choice: 10K points, 1 Suite Upgrade, or $300 FIND | 10,000 |
|
| 80 night automatic: Guest of Honor Award | 3,000 | Guest of Honor Award: See 70 night notes |
| 80 night choice: 10K points, 1 Suite Upgrade, or $300 FIND | 10,000 | 10K points, 1 Suite Upgrade, or $300 FIND: See notes above for 70 night milestones |
| 90 night automatic: Guest of Honor Award | 3,000 | Guest of Honor Award: See 70 night notes |
| 90 night choice: 10K points, 1 Suite Upgrade, or $300 FIND | 10,000 | 10K points, 1 Suite Upgrade, or $300 FIND: See notes above for 70 night milestones |
| 100 night automatic: Cat 1-7 Free Night | 20,000 | Cat 1-7 Free Night: See 60 night notes |
| 100 night choice: 10K points, 1 Suite Upgrade, or Miraval Extra Night | 10,000 |
|
| 110 night automatic: Guest of Honor Award | 1,000 | Guest of Honor Award: After earning many of these via earlier milestones, the value of these dips to near 0. |
| 110 night choice: 10K points, 1 Suite Upgrade, or Miraval Extra Night | 10,000 | 10K points, 1 Suite Upgrade, or Miraval Extra Night: See 100 night notes, above |
| 120 night automatic: Guest of Honor Award | 1,000 | Guest of Honor Award: See 110 night notes |
| 120 night choice: 10K points, 1 Suite Upgrade, or Miraval Extra Night | 10,000 | 10K points, 1 Suite Upgrade, or Miraval Extra Night: See 100 night notes, above |
| 130 night automatic: Guest of Honor Award | 1,000 | Guest of Honor Award: See 110 night notes |
| 130 night choice: 10K points, 1 Suite Upgrade, or Miraval Extra Night | 10,000 | 10K points, 1 Suite Upgrade, or Miraval Extra Night: See 100 night notes, above |
| 140 night automatic: Guest of Honor Award | 1,000 | Guest of Honor Award: See 110 night notes |
| 140 night choice: 10K points, 1 Suite Upgrade, or Miraval Extra Night | 10,000 | 10K points, 1 Suite Upgrade, or Miraval Extra Night: See 100 night notes, above |
| 150 night automatic: Ultimate Free Night Award | 30,000 | Ultimate Free Night Award: This is good for good for one free night in any Category 1-8 hotel, Category A-F all-inclusive resort or participating Miraval resort. The best value use of this is for a Miraval resort double occupancy during peak pricing: 72K points. However, cert expires after 180 days, and cannot be combined with a suite upgrade certificate. I don’t know what would happen if this cert expires without being used but my guess is that Hyatt may offer around 30,000 points if you ask nicely. |
| 150 night choice: 10K points, 1 Suite Upgrade, or Miraval Extra Night | 10,000 | 10K points, 1 Suite Upgrade, or Miraval Extra Night: See 100 night notes, above |
Credit Card Big Spend Rewards
World of Hyatt (Consumer) Card: Earn a category 1-4 free night after $15K spend with the World of Hyatt card. The free night can be used for maximum value of 18K points (peak priced category 4 hotel). However, the cert expires after 12 months, and cannot be combined with suite upgrade certificate. I set the value to 12,000 points.
World of Hyatt Business Card: After $50K spend in a calendar year, get 10% back on redeemed points for the rest of that calendar year (Up to 20K points back per year). The value of this perk depends heavily on how much you’re likely to spend in points for Hyatt award nights after achieving the $50K spend. I set the value to 15,000 points.
Points earned from spend: With both cards I made the simplifying assumption that you would only earn 1 point per dollar on all spend. This is despite the fact that both cards have multiple 2x categories and both earn 4x at Hyatt and Mr & Mrs Smith properties.
Results
I tested a number of spend scenarios based on either also spending 15 nights or 25 nights in Hyatt hotels. In scenarios where there was any consumer card spend, I assumed that you would also get the automatic 5 elite nights that the card offers automatically even without spend.
| # Nights at Hyatt Hotels | Consumer Card Spend | Business Card Spend | Total Nights Earned | Result Points Per Dollar |
% Rebate Equivalent (Assumes points worth 1.7 cents each) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 Nights | $15,000 | $0 | 26 | 1.8 | 3.06% |
| 15 Nights | $30,000 | $0 | 32 | 1.77 | 3.00% |
| 15 Nights | $60,000 | $0 | 44 | 2.32 | 3.94% |
| 15 Nights | $80,000 | $0 | 52 | 2.66 | 4.53% |
| 15 Nights | $100,000 | $0 | 60 | 3.99 | 6.78% |
| 25 Nights | $15,000 | $0 | 36 | 1.8 | 3.06% |
| 25 Nights | $30,000 | $0 | 42 | 3.27 | 5.55% |
| 25 Nights | $60,000 | $0 | 54 | 3.03 | 5.16% |
| 25 Nights | $80,000 | $0 | 62 | 4.6 | 7.82% |
| 15 Nights | $0 | $15,000 | 20 | 1.07 | 1.81% |
| 15 Nights | $0 | $30,000 | 30 | 1.4 | 2.38% |
| 15 Nights | $0 | $50,000 | 40 | 2.66 | 4.52% |
| 15 Nights | $0 | $60,000 | 45 | 2.38 | 4.05% |
| 15 Nights | $0 | $80,000 | 55 | 2.71 | 4.61% |
| 15 Nights | $0 | $90,000 | 60 | 4.37 | 7.42% |
| 25 Nights | $0 | $15,000 | 30 | 1.73 | 2.95% |
| 25 Nights | $0 | $30,000 | 40 | 3.23 | 5.50% |
| 25 Nights | $0 | $60,000 | 55 | 3.27 | 5.55% |
| 25 Nights | $0 | $70,000 | 60 | 5.31 | 9.03% |
| 15 Nights | $15,000 | $10,000 | 31 | 1.92 | 3.26% |
| 15 Nights | $15,000 | $30,000 | 41 | 2.76 | 4.68% |
| 15 Nights | $15,000 | $50,000 | 51 | 3.28 | 5.57% |
| 15 Nights | $15,000 | $70,000 | 61 | 4.69 | 7.98% |
| 25 Nights | $15,000 | $10,000 | 41 | 3.72 | 6.32% |
| 25 Nights | $15,000 | $30,000 | 51 | 3.71 | 6.31% |
| 25 Nights | $15,000 | $50,000 | 61 | 5.66 | 9.62% |
| 25 Nights | $15,000 | $70,000 | 71 | 4.72 | 8.02% |
Here are the primary sweet-spots for spend:
- With just the consumer Hyatt card:
- With 15 nights at hotels:
- Spend $15,000. That will get you the credit card’s free night certificate plus the 20 Night Milestone Awards.
- Spend $100,000. That will get you the credit card’s free night certificate, plus all of the Milestone Rewards up to and including the 60 night reward, plus you’ll have Globalist status for the rest of the year, all of the next year, and through February of the year after that.
- With 25 nights at hotels:
- Spend $30,000. That will get you the credit card’s free night certificate plus all of the Milestone Rewards up to and including the 40 night reward.
- Spend $80,000. That will get you the credit card’s free night certificate, plus all of the Milestone Rewards up to and including the 60 night reward, plus you’ll have Globalist status for the rest of the year, all of the next year, and through February of the year after that.
- With 15 nights at hotels:
- With just the business card:
- With 15 nights at hotels:
- Spend $50,000. That will get you the credit card’s 20% rebate plus all of the Milestone Rewards up to and including the 40 night reward.
- Spend $90,000. That will get you the credit card’s 20% rebate, plus all of the Milestone Rewards up to and including the 60 night reward, plus you’ll have Globalist status for the rest of the year, all of the next year, and through February of the year after that.
- With 25 nights at hotels:
- Spend $70,000. That will get you the credit card’s 20% rebate, plus all of the Milestone Rewards up to and including the 60 night reward, plus you’ll have Globalist status for the rest of the year, all of the next year, and through February of the year after that.
- With 15 nights at hotels:
- With both cards:
- With 15 nights at hotels:
- Spend $15,000 on the consumer card and $70,000 on the business card. That will get you both card’s big spend bonuses plus all of the Milestone Rewards up to and including the 60 night reward, plus you’ll have Globalist status for the rest of the year, all of the next year, and through February of the year after that.
- With 25 nights at hotels:
- Spend $15,000 on the consumer card and $50,000 on the business card. That will get you both card’s big spend bonuses plus all of the Milestone Rewards up to and including the 60 night reward, plus you’ll have Globalist status for the rest of the year, all of the next year, and through February of the year after that.
- With 15 nights at hotels:
The sweetest of the sweet-spots described above is the combo where you spend 25 nights at hotels, spend $15,000 on the World of Hyatt consumer card, and spend $50,000 on the business card. With my point-equivalent assumptions, this nets an incredible 5.66 points per dollar in value.
Enter your own values
It’s likely that you won’t be staying exactly 15 or 25 nights in Hyatt hotels. It’s also likely that you don’t value Hyatt’s Milestone Rewards exactly the same as I do. It’s even possible that you don’t value Hyatt points the same as I do. Cool. I’ve got you. You can use the same Google Docs spreadsheet I used to calculate your own results.
Click here to make your own copy of my “Hyatt Milestone Spending. What’s my X?” spreadsheet.
With you own copy of the spreadsheet, you can change any of the green cells to match your own situation. Make sure to look at all of the options on every tab. Once you’ve entered your own values, you’ll find the results on the Earning Rate Calculator tab.
Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
The earning rate calculator does not provide an option to add additional qualifying nights earned through 1) rollover of credit card spend from the previous year, 2) double qualifying night promotions (e.g., Thompson hotel), 3) purchase of Mr and Mrs Smith gift cards earlier this year, or 4) gifting guest of honor awards – other than adding those qualifying nights to the number of nights you stay in Hyatt hotels. On the personal Hyatt card, you earn “2 World of Hyatt Tier-Qualifying Night credits for every $5,000 in Purchases” and “There is no limit to the number of World of Hyatt Tier-Qualifying Night credits that you can earn.” The earning of 2 qualifying nights for every $5000 spend on the personal Hyatt card is NOT based on calendar year whereas the 5 qualifying nights per $10,000 spend on the business card IS based on calendar year.
Great article, analysis and summary. I view the value of the Hyatt personal and business cards the same as you concluded. I try to hit the $50k spend with the Hyatt business card first in order to begin receiving the 10% back on award stays early in the calendar year. And then I work toward the $15k spend on my personal card and then another $15k spend on my wife’s (aka P2) personal card. And to add to the value calculation, I transfer some Chase UR points to my Hyatt account and receive a 10% refund when I use those points too after I hit the $50k spend on the Hyatt business card. So when the holiday season comes around and we have a bunch of family coming to town, I become the Hyatt hotel “Oprah” when I exclaim…”and you get a room…and you get a room!!!…and you get a suite upgrade!!”
If the value of the biz card perks (e.g., 10% rebate after $50K spend) is added to the return on spend, the annual fee of the biz card (adjusted for the $50 credits x 2?) should be subtracted from the return on spend, especially since the AF doesn’t really buy any other benefits outside of a better elite night earn rate.
Hi Greg,
There is another factor that can be included. You get a discounted room mate when you use the Hyatt Biz card corporate code. If you use this code and spend $5k for your hyatt property spend per year you get 2 additional nights. This is the “Meeting and Event Planners, Travel Advisors, and Small Business Owners” perk.
Regular personal hotel stays don’t count, right? Only “qualifying events” such as holding or planning:
1) a meeting, conference, gathering, or other event that includes occupation of no fewer than ten (10) paid guest rooms for the same night (or multiple nights) (“Qualifying Meeting”).
2) a meeting, conference, gathering, or other event that does not satisfy the guest-room minimum required for a Qualifying Meeting, but does include the rental of a meeting room or event space and/or the purchase of catered or banqueted food or beverage from the Hyatt hotel or resort at which the event is held (“Qualifying Catered Event”)
https://help.hyatt.com/en/hyatt-terms/world-of-hyatt-terms.html#/D
All: A C Hop pointed out, I wasn’t subtracting out the value of milestones earned from the automatic 5 elite nights you get with the WOH credit card. This is fixed in version 1.2
Thanks for 1.1 and removing the value of milestones earned through stays, it makes much more sense now. One thing I would note is that you have to be careful about using this tool to determine whether it’s worth it to spend more to hit higher milestone thresholds.
In my case if I project out my planned stays and spending for the year, I come out to 68 nights and a valuation of just over 12 points per dollar, 20% rebate. But if I’m at 68, it probably makes sense to spend $5k on the card, get 2 more elite nights, and enjoy the 70 night milestone. If I plug that into the formula, I end up with 10 points per dollar, 17% rebate.
Comparing those two outcomes appears I’m getting lower value, but it’s still the right choice. Spending the additional $5k will get me a value of 15k Hyatt points in milestone rewards. 3 Hyatt points per dollar is still great, but it’s a lot lower than the 12 points per dollar I was averaging before, so it decreases the average.
The spreadsheet values are correct, but it’s a reminder that you have to look at “marginal value” as you climb the ladder (the incremental value vs what you already received).
Am I missing something, or does the model not count the automatic annual Cat 1-4 cert on the consumer card?
The model intentionally doesn’t account for that since no spend is required to get that annual cert. The model is designed to estimate the value of your spend on Hyatt credit cards.
Hi Greg, thanks for this great tool.
I think I might have found a bug — if the model is only supposed to account for spend, then the 5 elite nights that come with the Hyatt consumer card shouldn’t be attributed to spend — but I think it is, based on cell E10 in the earning rate calculator.
Wow, great catch. Fixed in version 1.2
Hi Greg, you inverted the math on FIND credits. $300 in credits must be divided by 1.4 to get the max point value, not multiplied.
Good catch. Fixed.
I can’t decide if this article is extremely nerdy or incredibly cool. Probably both 🙂
Great as always to see such thorough content in response to reader feedback!
Greg, I’m glad you have a great Hyatt concierge. My is not that great. After reaching 60 nights, if I was given a choice of either 20,000 points, another category 1-7 certificate or concierge service, I would take certificate > points > concierge.
I wouldn’t call mine great either, but she does save me a lot of time since I email her with lots of requests. Anyway, I never expected anyone to value ANY of the milestone rewards or elite benefits the same as I do — that’s why I shared the spreadsheet so you can enter your own values.
I’ve literally never heard from mine, not once, I couldn’t even tell you his/her name or have their contact information. I had a concierge on two prior occasions and she was great, but lost Globalist for year. Earned it back, crickets. I just call the Globalist line if I need something, but it would be nice to be able to email requests as it’s easier if it’s not urgent.
Not knowing your concierge’s name is better than knowing that his name is Edward. That dude has cost me more points through draconian rules enforcement than any phone agent ever would.
With hitting the exact required night stays and exact spend amounts, spend on hyatt cards can get you the return on spend equivalent to any mediocre credit card signup bonus. Miss those stay or spend requirements slightly, and you get basically nothing.
For me, a much better strategy is to simply get one (or more) Chase ink subs, and with the huge haul in points, stay for free at Hyatts, and worst case use some of those points to mattress run at an off peak cat 1 if you need help meeting the next threshold. I keep the Hyatt personal card, but my optimum spend on it is $0. Just give me my 5 elite nights and FN cert. Return on spend: Infinity. Return on AF: >100%.
This is true…if it’s an either/or. If you’re maxing out your SUB velocity AND have extra spend, then this article becomes relevant.
Yep, also if the nearest category one is 2000 miles away from you……not complaining, I would rather live in SB, CA than within a short drive of any Cat 1 hotels, lolol
I love this article! At first I thought I was reading a Tim article, it had his fingerprint style of being very detail oriented and on the nose valuations. But no, kudos to you Greg.
As I was reading through your valuations I was nodding my head, until I got to the SUAs which I thought were way overvalued. Then I saw how you reduced their value for each subsequent one earned. Genius!
Greg – great resource, nice work. Now take it to the next level and incorporate the value of breakfast. If you would otherwise spend $60 for two people/day and stay 25 nights that’s $1,500, which would offset the cost of making the required spend amounts (e.g., ~2% fee for tax payments).
You can model that by setting the value of Globalist status to be based on your stay and breakfast assumptions.
As I pointed out in the other post, the best card for spending on corresponding hotels alone is the IHG card – you get Plat status which gives 10x, 10x for spend and extra 6 points for that card = 26 points worth 0.5 = 13% rebate
For Hyatt – We try to hit Globalist every other year in January or Feb or ASAP – our usual trip is Paris in January for a week and by the time Feb rolls around we are well on our way with spend boost.