World of Hyatt offers above-average benefits and unique customer-friendly options to its customers and I want to highlight a few things that I love about the program.

Easily Transfer Awards to Others

One of the biggest grey areas of award programs is whether others can use the rewards you’ve earned. The most common advice you’ll find online for most hotel programs is to book something for yourself, but then add someone else as a registered guest and have that person check in without the account owner ever checking in. The problem with the strategy? That’s also a known way to manipulate the system into giving the guest benefits that are only intended for the elite member, so the guest checking in could be met with a road block at the front desk where they don’t want to cooperate with the strategy. This presents a problem even if you’re not trying to goose elite benefits and just want to have a free night certificate not go to waste.

Enter Hyatt. They have a system where it’s easy to transfer any award online to any other member. Just enter a few basic details of who you want to send the award to and–presto!–it’s now in their account. Keep in mind that awards can only be transferred once, and if the recipient decides they don’t need it, it’s stuck in their account. Of course, that’s a small price to pay for increased flexibility of awards.

In my case, that changes the calculus on what credit cards I want Jenn to hold. I have Globalist status with World of Hyatt while Jenn does not hold status. Up until this was allowed through the website, I would have had to call Hyatt and find a helpful agent who knew what they were doing to transfer the award to me (yeah, I was one of the “insiders” quoted in the post). That was a bit of a pain and it was a long phone call with Hyatt corporate as they discussed with the front desk of the hotel. I’m much happier with this happening automatically online. It now means Jenn’s Hyatt free night certificates can now come officially with Globalist benefits when she first transfers them to me. I don’t have to worry about hotels going above and beyond to offer elite benefits when I’m in the room but not the one reserving the room.

Guest of Honor benefits

A continuation of the point above, there is a way for members staying at least 40 nights a year with Hyatt to be able to share their Globalist benefits with others. Personally I find this an awesome feature of the program. I love having that feeling of taking care of family and friends by extending my benefits to others. What are the better benefits of having Globalist status?

• Complimentary full breakfast (entree or buffet, coffee, and juice) for up to two registered adults and two registered children.
  • Tax and tip are included, so that should not be separately assessed to Globalist members
  • The child ages that qualify are up to each hotel to separately determine, but I think it’s reasonable to expect children up to age 12 to qualify.
  • There are a few hotels where the breakfast benefit does not apply, but there are only a small number of exceptions (such as vacation ownership properties).
• Guaranteed late checkout at 4PM
  • The main exception is at resorts, where it might be hard for hotels to honor the benefit, but it doesn’t hurt to ask if a late checkout could be accommodated if you need it.
• No resort fees
  • When paying for rates using Hyatt points, no one has to pay resort fees (but you are still eligible to receive the benefits of the resort fee)
  • Globalists (and therefore Guest of Honor) do not need to pay resort fees on any eligible rate, including paid rates on the Hyatt website.
• Free parking on award nights
• Room upgrade, including up to standard suites
  • Who doesn’t like a room upgrade?
  • That said, there is a limited inventory of suites and hotels need to prioritize upgrades, so some hotels might place Guest of Honor suites lower than other Globalist members.

The extra benefit of giving others the Guest of Honor benefit? I get an elite night credit that helps me requalify for status and earn milestone benefits. Anything that helps me requalify for status is most certainly welcomed.

Confirmable Suite Upgrades

Starting at 50 elite nights, World of Hyatt members can start earning suite upgrades that can be applied well in advance of my stay. As soon as you book your award, you can start looking for that suite upgrade. It’s a fresh welcome compared to Marriott, which only confirms upgrades a few days in advance of the stay, and even then it’s based upon the algorithm agreeing that you can be upgraded. Sometimes you need that extra space, and to be able to get it without needing to pay anything extra over the base room price is sweet indeed.

Recent improvements to the booking process have also meant that you can get that upgrade right at booking if it’s available. That makes it extremely convenient to upgrade your stay. I love being able to do things without needing to call in and ask for it!

Globalist Status

It goes without saying that Hyatt Globalist status is my favorite status amongst both hotel and airline programs. All of the above benefits listed for Guest of Honor are made available to you if you can spend 60 nights in Hyatt hotels. Yes, there are ways to reduce that requirement to something more reasonable (if you have Hyatt credit cards), but they keep the requirement high to help preserve the elite nature of the benefits.

If you spend 60 nights a year in Hyatt hotels, you’ll also get access to a concierge–a representative from Hyatt who exists to make things run a bit more smoothly for you. Yes, I think many concierges have a long list of Globalists to assist, so I typically don’t use mine to handle time-sensitive items for me. Instead, if there is a billing issue (something incorrect on my bill) or other similar item that doesn’t need to be handled in a timely manner, I’ll go to my concierge. Or I’ll also ask about the lesser-known family rate, where you can save up to 50% on a second room intended for kids (a great option in Europe or Asia where room occupancy limits means you can’t fit a family of four in one room).

Reasonable Award Prices

One of the things that makes Hyatt appealing is its insistence on sticking with an award chart. Most other major hotel programs have moved away from this, charging a variable amount of points each night. That has not only made it hard to plan vacations not knowing the exact amount of points needed until you book, but it feels like a way to allow prices to creep up unknowingly. Sure, Hyatt properties are subject to high and low season pricing, and it feels like every year a number of properties move up in category, but categories still exist and don’t change except during their annual shuffling of categories, which should still be celebrated. I would hate it if they instantly moved away from the model.

Not only are base rooms available at a reasonable points price, but they also make premium suites available for a reasonable upcharge. That has led to a number of times where I debated whether I should take them up on the offer to go with the premium suite. Sometimes there is a special reason why we’re traveling and it’s nice to be able to splurge without costing us an arm and a leg.

What do you like about World of Hyatt?