At the beginning of 2019 I put together a plan for my family to earn World of Hyatt Globalist status for the year. Although I am lifetime Platinum Premier at Marriott, right now I truly prefer the Hyatt brand. Earlier in the year, I evaluated the best program for maximizing my families hotel points and the hotel chain with the best benefits for my family and it was very clear — Hyatt is by far the absolute best option for us. Having benefits such as waived resort fees, upgraded rooms and lounge access helps us travel more comfortably and allows us to save a good amount of money on our vacations.
Related: 10 Tips to Hyatt Certificates — Club Lounge Access, Suite Upgrades, and Free Night
My Families Strategy to Earning Hyatt Globalist Status
To earn World of Hyatt Globalist status, one needs to stay 60 qualifying nights. My husband Adam travels quite a bit for work, so earning status is not too difficult, although he doesn’t stay 60+ nights a year. This past year, he clocked in 25 nights at Hyatt properties, so just business travel got us almost half way there.
Fortunately though, free nights using points count towards status, as does using The World of Hyatt Credit Card. Earlier this year when I strategized our plan, I was pretty confident that work travel plus family travel plus credit card spend would put us over the threshold. All in all, we clocked in 67 nights towards status pushing us well over the minimum to earn Globalist status.  
Truly, The World of Hyatt Credit Card really helped us. Without the credit card, we would have never earned status. The benefits include:
- On a yearly basis, you’ll earn an automatic 5 nights towards status
- With every $5,000 you spend on the card, you’ll receive 2 elite nights towards status
Right off the bat, this meant that we only needed to earn 55 elite nights in 2019. We then made sure to use the credit card quite a bit — we even payed our taxes and preschool costs on the card using Plastiq.
The Benefits We Receive by Earning Globalist
With the milestone benefits and credit card benefits, we received:
- Four category 1-4 free night certificates. With the credit card you receive a free night certificate every year. You also receive another free night certificate after spending $15,000 on the card which we will easily do. Then, once we hit 30 nights we received another certificate as that is one of the milestone benefits. We also hit another brand explorer award for a forth free night.
- One category 1-7 free night certificate. Once we hit 60 nights we received one of these certificates.
- Four Lounge Certificates. Once we hit 20 nights we earned 2 lounge certificates and once we hit 30 nights we earned another 2 lounge certificates. Note: Once you hit Globalist status, you receive unlimited lounge access.
- 10,000 Bonus Points or a $100 Gift Card. Once we hit 40 nights we had the option of selecting either 10,000 bonus points or a $100 gift card. We selected the 10,000 bonus points since we value them at approximately $200.
- 4 Suite Upgrades. Once we hit 50 nights we earned 2 suite upgrade certificates and then once we hit 60 nights we earned another 2 suite upgrade certificates. We already used one of these certificates to stay at an awesome one bedroom suite at the Hyatt Ziva Cancun and have another one confirmed during an upcoming stay at the Hyatt Regency Coconut Point.
Overall…
I am glad that Hyatt Globalist status is now confirmed for my family for next year. Of course Hyatt was running a promotion for select individuals to status match to Hyatt Globalist status, but this route allowed us to receive the milestone benefits as well. The most important benefit for us is the suite upgrades, which you do not receive with a simple match.
For my family, Hyatt is absolutely the best choice hands down. I personally used to have Hyatt Globalist status (previously Diamond status) for years, but it expired earlier this year. Now I am glad that my husband is able to hold the high level status torch. Despite a limited footprint compared to the other chains, we always seem to be finding ourselves at Hyatt properties quite often. Right now, many of our family vacations are structured around warm beach destinations and there are plenty of amazing Hyatt opportunities in the Caribbean for a reasonable number of points.
Did you earn your desired status for 2019?
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You seem to disregard any personal/award stays which now count towards status. I assume you guys do at least 10-15 nights a year.
With my SPG Platinum status having taken a massive nosedive in value due to the merger, I’m taking a similar approach with Hyatt. I’m spending around $100,000 a year through my business on the Hyatt card, which, in conjunction with my regular stays, should easily get me to Globalist. I’ll still have 75 night status with Marriott, so I’ll burn a certificate and a couple of misc. nights, but that’ll be it for them. I’ll choose Hilton as my secondary chain. The HHonors program lacks much value, but gold status is super easy to attain and has good tangible benefits. I’ll stay at cheap points Radisson hotels (hello Budapest!) because my cards get me a slow stream of points with them. IHG will fill in the remaining chain stays.
I have the old version of the Hyatt card.
Is it better for me to upgrade this to the new version or keep what I have?
TIA
@DaveD – There are pros and cons of both. The old Hyatt card will give you Explorist status (30 nights) after spending $50,000 each year. The new card will give you 5 nights towards status and then 2 nights with every $5,000 spend. That means to earn Explorist status you need to spend $65,000 on the card. However, with the old card there is no way to earn Globalist status, while the new card there is with more spend on the card. The new card will also give you a free category 1-4 night certificate after you spend $15,000 on the card. The new card costs $20 more, but will also give you 4x points at Hyatt properties. Whether you should keep the old or upgrade to the new depends on your goals.
I earned my bonus on the old card way more than 24 months ago. Can I cancel it and wait a month and then apply for the new Hyatt card and get the 50000 point bonus?
This only works if Hyatt’s limited footprint meets your needs. Good for Japan and most major US cities, as well as some resort areas like Palm Desert and Arizona. But Anybody who wants to visit Europe is basically SOL. Also very limited in ski country and national parks.
@Boraxo – Definitely depends on your vacation goals. I’ve had some great Hyatt stays at ski resorts out west.