Incredible: Hyatt Reduces 2021 Elite Qualifying Criteria By 50% (Earn Top-Tier Status With Just 20 Nights)

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Updated 1 December 2020: Hyatt has confirmed that guests will earn double elite night credits for 2021 from stays with checkout dates between 1 January and 28 February 2021.

The World of Hyatt has just announced that it is reducing its elite status qualifying criteria by 50% for the 2021 qualification year and, in one fell swoop, it has just made top-tier status considerably more accessible to a large number of World of Hyatt members.

Hyatt Elite Night Targets Halved

For the 2021 calendar year, Hyatt will be requiring guests to earn half the usual number of elite night credits or half the number of base points in order to earn World of Hyatt status.

This is what the reduced qualification criteria will look like:

Discoverist – Stay 5 Qualifying Nights or earn 12,500 Base Points
Explorist – Stay 15 Qualifying Nights or earn 25,000 Base Points
Globalist – Stay 30 Qualifying Nights or earn 50,000 Base Points

Hyatt loyalists who hold the World of Hyatt credit card will only need to earn 10 nights for Explorist status or 25 nights for Globalist status as their credit card gives them 5 elite night credit per year.

Anyone who has successfully signed up for the World of Hyatt credit card since the new welcome offer launched in the middle of October (and anyone who successfully signs up for the card before 31 December 2020) will only need to earn 20 elite night credits to reach top-tier Globalist status (more details).

The news, however, gets better!

This Stacks With The Current Promotion!

Part of why I’m so utterly amazed at this move from Hyatt is because the current 4Q promotion (Bonus Journeys) has been offering guests one elite night credit for every night consumed since 1 October (on top of the elite night they earn for 2020) and that’s a promotion which already made earning status in 2021 considerably easier.

Now, with Hyatt reducing the elite status thresholds for 2021 by half, the bonus nights that can be earned in 2020 look even more valuable – essentially, any qualifying night earned between 1 October 2020 and the end of the year will count towards the reduced elite thresholds in 2021.

More importantly, and as I have managed to confirm with Hyatt, where under the old promotion dates all stays with checkout dates between 1 – 4 January 2021 earned double elite night credits in 2021, now all stays with checkout dates between 1 January and 28 February 2021 will double elite night credits in 2021.

This means that it will be possible to earn top-tier Globalist status with 10, 13, or 15 nights spent at Hyatt properties in the first two months of 2021 (click here to see full details of how this works).

That’s incredible!

Quick Thoughts

A key point to note (amidst all my excitement) is that while the World of Hyatt has reduced the number of elite nights and the number of base points needed to earn elite status, the thresholds set for Milestone Rewards remain the same – you’re not going to earn 4 suite night upgrades just by earning 30 elite night credits. You’ll still earn 2 Club Lounge Access Awards when you hit 20 nights and a Category 1-4 free Nights Award and another 2 Club Lounge Access Awards when you hit the 30-night mark, but you’ll still need 50 elite night credits to earn the first two suite night awards and 60 elite nights if you want to earn another 2.

Still, that point aside, this is a spectacular opportunity to earn top-tier World of Hyatt Globalist status which among other things, offers the following:

• 30% bonus points on all spending with Hyatt
• Waived resort fees on eligible cash rates and award nights
• A match to M-Life Gold status
• Upgrades to standard suites at check-in (based on room availability)
• 4:00 PM late check-out
• Free breakfast on all stays
• Free parking on award nights

That’s a range of benefits that I value quite highly (there are a lot of money-savers in that list) so I’m almost certainly going to see if I can lock-in Globalist status sooner rather than later.

It looks like I’m probably not going to be heading home to Los Angeles for the Holidays so I may see if I can take advantage of any great rates that I can find at Hyatt properties in my vicinity to lock in a few more 2021 elite nights that are already on offer. I may even explore the option of putting some more spending on my World of Hyatt credit card to earn the 2 elite night credits the card offers me for every $5,000 of spending that I put on it.

Overall, I have to admit that while I’m sure there will be some out there who will be griping that Hyatt is giving status away too easily and that there will be far too much competition for elite status benefits in 2021 and 2022, I’m loving this move by Hyatt. It’s generous and with a lot of people yet to make travel plans for 2021, it’s a move that’s almost certain to drive quite a bit of business Hyatt’s way and away from the likes of IHG and Marriott.

Taking me as an example: Although I had already recently decided to move a lot more of my business from Marriott to Hyatt (which is why I applied for the World of Hyatt credit card) I still expected to have a reasonable number of Marriott stays in 2021 and 2022. Now, however, it looks like I may be ignoring Marriott completely for the next couple of years as I first work to earn Hyatt Globalist status and as I then try to make the most of that status for as long as that status is open to me (through February 2023).

Bottom Line

Hyatt has just announced that it is halving the number of nights and base points needed for World of Hyatt status in 2021, and this will see the number of elite nights needed to earn top-tier Globalist status reduced to as few as 10 (for some World of Hyatt credit card holders) and as few as 15 for everyone without a World of Hyatt credit card. if you have ever aspired to top-tier Hyatt status then now is probably the time to go for it.