TravelingForMiles.com may receive commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on TravelingForMiles.com are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. TravelingForMiles.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers.
Some links to products and travel providers on this website will earn Traveling For Miles a commission that helps contribute to the running of the site. Traveling For Miles has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Traveling For Miles and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities. For more details please see the disclosures found at the bottom of every page.
When, in late 2020, Hyatt announced that it would be slashing its elite status requirements for 2021 and that all stays made through 28 February 2021 would earn double elite night credits, I knew immediately that I would set out to earn Hyatt’s top-tier Globalist status. Late last month I achieved my target and as a few people have been asking, I thought I’d share how much Hyatt Globalist status ended up costing me (and how much I actually consider it cost me).
Total Outlay vs Incremental Cost
There are two ways that I could add up the cost of earning Hyatt Globalist status and as I’m sure there will be varying opinions on which is the correct cost to use, I’m going to show both.
- Costing method 1 involves simply adding up the cost of earning all 30 elite night credits that gave me Hyatt Globalist status.
- Costing method 2 only considers the costs I incurred in earning the elite night credits required for Globalist status after Hyatt’s announced that its status thresholds would be halved. Before that announcement, I had no intention of aiming for any Hyatt status above the Discoverist status that my World of Hyatt credit card gives me so any elite night credits earned before that moment in time would have been earned regardless. In effect, I consider those elite night credits to be a sunk cost.
How The Elite Night Credits Were Earned
At the beginning of September 2020, Hyatt announced that its year-end promotion would offer double elite night credits. The usual credits would count towards elite status and milestone rewards in 2020, and the bonus credits would count towards elite status and milestone rewards in 2021.
At that time, I had no intention of trying to earn Hyatt status so the bonus elite night credits didn’t mean much to me, but this aspect of Hyatt’s promotion explains how I ended up with elite nights crediting in 2021 for stays made in 2020.
2020 Stays That Earned Credits In 2021
Hyatt Regency London – The Churchill – 5 nights (award booking)
- Original cost of stay = 125,000 points
- 25% rebate from Hyatt Bonus Journeys promotion = -31,250 points
The total net cost of 5 elite night credits was 93,750 points = $1,313*
*I value Hyatt points at 1.4 cents each
Great Scotland Yard – London – 2-nights (revenue stay)
- Cost of booking = £323.70/$438
- Rebate from UK Amex Offer = -£100/-$135
- Total cash cost = £223.70/$303
- Points earned from stay = 7,430 = -$104*
The total net cost of 2 elite night credits was $199
*I value Hyatt points at 1.4 cents each
Credits Earned In 2021
10 elite night credits came my way courtesy of my World of Hyatt credit card which costs $95/year. 5 elite night credits were part of the card’s annual benefits and the other 5 were from the welcome bonus that was available in the latter months of 2020.
The final 13 elite night credits came from a long-stay mattress run at the Hyatt Place West London/Hayes which cost £37.69 ($51.78) per night.
Because Hyatt is offering double elite night credits on all stays through 28 February, I only needed 7 paid nights to earn the elite night credits that I required to get me to Globalist status and my total outlay for those nights was $362.
- The 7 nights at the Hyatt Place West London/Hayes earned me 5,795 World of Hyatt points which I value at $81.
- By paying for this stay with my World of Hyatt credit card, I earned a further 1,448 World of Hyatt points which I value at $20.
That brings the net cost of the 13 elite night credits to $261.
Total Costs
The Total Outlay
- 5 elite night credits from the Hyatt Regency – The Churchill = $1,313
- 2 elite night credits from the Great Scotland Yard = $199
- 10 elite night credits from the World of Hyatt credit card = $95
- 13 elite night credits from the Hyatt Place West London/Hayes = $261
30 Elite Night Credits & Hyatt Globalist Status Cost $1,868
The Incremental Cost
By the time Hyatt announced its new status requirements for 2021, I had already applied for the World of Hyatt credit card*, I had already enjoyed a 5-night stay at the Churchill, and I had already booked the 2-night stay at the Great Scotland Yard, so neither of those stays or the decision to get the World of Hyatt credit card were influenced by the opportunity to earn Globalist status. As far as I’m concerned, those are sunk costs and do not form part of my costing for Globalist status**.
From my point of view, only the costs I committed to from the moment I decided to go for Hyatt Globalist status (the moment Hyatt announced the new elite status criteria for 2021) should form part of the cost of earning Globalist status, so this is what those costs look like:
- 13 elite night credits from the Hyatt Place West London/Hayes stay = $261
*I haven’t placed a value on any other benefits of the World of Hyatt credit card (including the free night award) which further justifies not including the cost of the card in the costing.
**I haven’t placed a value on the free night award that I earned on my way to Globalist status as I cannot be 100% sure that I’ll get a chance to use it.
Bottom Line
All in all, it doesn’t really matter whether you agree with my costing methods or not as you can see all the costs that I incurred and you can reach your own conclusion as to how much Globalist status cost me. That was the whole point of this post.
If you’d told me at the beginning of 2020 that I would earn my favorite top-tier hotel status by the end of January 2021 I would have called you nuts. If you had said the same thing to me at the beginning of November 2020 I’m still not sure that I would have believed you (although, admittedly, most things were starting to look possible at that point) so I’m pretty happy right now.
Sure, I have no immediate use for Hyatt Globalist Status (I’m not going anywhere right now!) but I have no doubt that I’ll get an incredible amount of use out of it later this year and all through 2022 and that’s something I’m really looking forward to.
