Hyatt Globalist status is the indisputable best hotel elite status for anyone whose travel patterns take them to places where Hyatt hotels can fit their needs. Ask any Hyatt Globalist and they probably have a story about the amazing customer service they got one time or another. If you’ve ever wanted to join those ranks and pick up a story or two of your own, the bar is not likely to get lower than it is set right now. But we showed this week that you can easily book premium suites or club lounge rooms in a variety of ways, no status required. So should you go for it? Which benefits are worth it? When does it not make sense? This week on Frequent Miler on the Air, we talk about why we’re excited and who should be going after it. We also chat about Radisson craziness, the best cash back credit card that’s never been on your radar, and more.
Watch or listen or read on for more this week about managing your multi-player household’s rewards accounts, a $100 credit card benefit that isn’t your best option, and more.
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This week at Frequent Miler
In hotel benefits & booking
Easy path to top tier Hyatt Status
If you have grown to regret missing out on the ludicrously easy path to Hyatt elite status that existed early this year, you’re in luck: an easy path to top-tier World of Hyatt Globalist status is back. The path of least resistance includes a new credit card, a little spend, and just 10 nights at a hotel. The bar isn’t likely to ever get lower for highly-valuable top-tier elite status. This week on the podcast, we talked about whether or not it makes sense to go after this and who should do it. If you’ll stay at a couple of mid to top-tier Hyatt hotels next year, this can easily be well worth the effort.
Misadventures booking a Hyatt Premium Suite award
One reason not to go after Hyatt Globalist status is because you don’t need it to book some amazing suites. You probably know that you can use points to book premium suites, but did you know that in some cases you can pay less than two hundred bucks and use 9,000 points per night to upgrade to a 1500-square-foot-suite? If you didn’t know that, you’re not alone: this week I had a heck of a time finding someone at Hyatt who knew how this worked. This post was really meant as a reminder not to assume that the first (or second or third or fourth) customer service answer is the right one. Unsurprisingly, Hyatt went above and beyond in fixing this once I finally got to someone who knew what I was talking about.
$100 Marriott property credit rate is bookable online, but don’t do it (usually)
If you have a Ritz-Carlton or Amex Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant card, one of the benefits is the ability to get a $100 hotel credit when you book a stay of 2 nights or more. It sounds nice and I hadn’t realized that Marriott has made this rate bookable online, but you can do better. It is only in a very narrow set of circumstances where this benefit might be worth using — and even then, I don’t think I’d cross my fingers and hope that portal cash posted rather than booking with a preferred partner program.
In managing your rewards
Managing rewards in multi-player mode
Are you Player 1 in a household where you need to manage all of the credit cards and loyalty accounts? Do you have a partner who never checks their email or isn’t home when you need to get a text message verification code? Do you need to know which programs easily allow you to combine points? Greg has become a master of multi-player mode and in this post he gives you the tips you need to worker smarter, not harder. I have personally picked up a number of these tips from him over the years of working here and slowly implemented them to make my life easier. Having all of those tips in one place makes for a great resource.
How long does it take to transfer points to airline and hotel programs?
We’re not the only blog that now has a list of how long it takes for points to transfer to hotel programs, but the fact that we were able to tap into Award Wallet’s data from balance tracker requests means that we will hopefully continue to have up-to-date data if and when transfer times change or partners are added.
That’s it for this week at Frequent Miler. Keep your eye on this week’s last chance deals.
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Late to comment but Explorist demonstrated some value early 2020 when I traveled- impressive upgrade at LAX Hyatt Regency to a suite and PH Sydney to an amazing deluxe room (our room was next door to the one profiled by Lucky years ago). That said, once I hit Globalist last year I’m happy to reire my be 2/2 streak as an Explorist and continue the Globalist love.
Great!
If you are approved, but don’t have the card in hand yet, are you still eligible to start the double night promo?
I think so, but I’m not 100% sure.
Hi Nick & Greg How long after you hit your 60(30 promo) nights does it take your Globalist status to be recognized?
I’m not sure but I think that it’s nearly instant once the final elite nights get credited to you. Unfortunately, Hyatt hotels vary a lot in how quickly they credit your stay to your account. I’ve had it happen within a day or two of checkout and I’ve had it take over a week.
As a follow up to this someone should really do a in-depth comparison of the major hotel chain elite status’s compared to each other (benefits, consistency of benefits, potential $ spend cost to obtain status etc)
I had the Radisson problem you described. Americas simply refused to help. Eventually the hotel cancelled but the only way I got the points back was through Radisson non-America’s Twitter. The points were returned to my newly created non-Americas account not to my America’s account, which had been used to make the booking pre-split.
Nick, your key point is IF there is a Hyatt where one is going. The biggest challenge is Hyatt’s geographic footprint. Yes, Hyatt seems to be on a big expansion program but it is what it is. Part two of this challenge is Hyatt’s geographic footprint of GREAT (top category) properties — even smaller. Part three of this challenge relates to another FT post: award inventory at those GREAT properties.
In a normal year, my wife and I are in hotel rooms about 140 to 150 nights and have a six-figure spend. Even during COVID, we have spent about 60 to 70 nights per year and still have a six-figure spend. I have a great deal of experience on which base my statements.
I am a Globalist (and top-tier in another program) and have struggled with the above-mentioned challenges — not only with Hyatt. Under the other hotel’s program, I have had properties outright refuse to give me a suite upgrade as a tier benefit (when no exclusion applied). Under that other program, a top-tier CSR actually told me that individual properties resist granting suite upgrades as a tier benefit and will want you to pay for the upgrade. Are they (stinking) kidding me? The key take-aways were 1) the hotel network knew that the properties are doing this and 2) the hotel network did not offer to assist me (I had to work it out with the property). For me, this was the last straw.
Here’s something for all of your readers to chew on: given the level of patronage stated above, one would think we would be among the most cared for members. But, we are not. In spite of our level of patronage, this garbage is happening to us. And, if this garbage is happening to us, they simply don’t give a (poop).
With everything that has been happening to tier benefits, tier status is of little value.
After I had already come to this conclusion, I saw your article about Hyatt properties messing around with award availability. I have seen it and can point to a fair number of Hyatt properties that seem to be doing it. As your author of that article asked: if one can’t even redeem points, what purpose does the program even have? I commented that with all of these issues now out in the open, people should develop an alternative strategy for hotels.
In this article, you write, “One reason not to go after Hyatt Globalist status is because you don’t need it to book some amazing suites.”
This is the alternative strategy to which I refer. Indeed, people don’t need status to book amazing rooms. Articles have been published about how to obtain hotel tier benefits without tier status. Without mentioning specific program names, they tend to provide:
There is one program that even provides room upgrade at the time of booking.
For a few years, I had been using one of these programs for off-network hotels. After my top-tier CSR encounter mentioned above, this became my strategy for all hotels.
I offer these comments as someone who has been through the wringer and hope they help anyone who has been wrestling with these issues.
It’s only easy if you’re under 5/24. That make it impossible for many readers.