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.
Other 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. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities. Terms apply to all credit card welcome offers, earning rates and benefits and some credit card benefits will require enrollment. For more details please see the disclosures found at the bottom of every page.
The elite benefits directly related to the World of Hyatt elite status may have become less impressive since Hyatt introduced its Milestone Rewards program, but Hyatt elite benefits can still be very useful, and two of the more useful elite benefits often get overlooked.
A more flexible cancellation policy
At the beginning of 2018, Hyatt introduced a new default cancellation policy which ensured that going forward, guests would have to cancel their reservations at least 48 hours in advance to avoid a cancellation fee.
Not all Hyatt properties chose to align with the new cancellation policy, so you’ll still find hotels which allow you to cancel without penalty up to a day before you’re due to arrive …
… but the 48-hour rule is probably the one that’s most commonly found in the Hyatt system.
What quite a few people don’t seem to know, however, is that the 48-hour cancellation policy doesn’t apply to World of Hyatt Explorist or Globalist members.
When Hyatt changed the default cancellation policy, it also included a carve out clause for Explorist and Globalist elites which it even included in the press release announcing the policy change.
“While this change is designed to improve room availability, we recognize that flexibility is important and will offer relaxed criteria for our most frequent guests.
Beginning with reservations made or changed on January 1, 2018, World of Hyatt Explorist, Globalist or Lifetime Globalist members will be able to cancel up to 24 hours before arrival when the hotel’s cancellation policy is 48 hours.”
You’ll also find this exclusion mentioned in the World of Hyatt terms and conditions.
Appendix C, Section IV, paragraph (f), has this to say:
“Cancellation: Explorists can cancel reservations up to 24 hours before the hotel or resort check-in time when the hotel’s or resort’s cancellation period is not more than 48 hours.”
As you would probably expect, however, there are a few exceptions where this rule does not apply.
Specifically, the elite status cancellation benefit does not apply …
- On reservations made at Hyatt Vacation Club properties
- On reservations made at Miraval resorts
- On reservations made using a prepaid rate
- On reservations made using a non-refundable rate
- Where a hotel or resort cancellation period is more than 48 hours
- On reservations booked at corporate negotiated or group contract rates
- On reservations booked under a room-type specific cancellation policy.
It’s also worth noting that the terms say that “[e]ligibility for this benefit is based on tier status at the time of cancellation” so if you no longer hold Globalist or Explorist status at the time of cancellation, you cannot make the most of this benefit even if you held one of those statuses when you first booked.
Clearly, this isn’t a universal “get out of jail free” card for Globalists and Explorists because it won’t help in situations where properties have harsher (and sometimes more ridiculous) cancellation policies …
… but this has helped me out a couple of times in recent years, so it’s worth keeping in mind if you have Hyatt mid- or top-tier elite status.
Book awards when you’re short of points
This is a benefit given to World of Hyatt Globalists only and it’s a benefit that I’ve used to good effect a few times (and twice in the past 12 months) even though you won’t find it mentioned in the list of Globalist benefits or in the World of Hyatt terms and conditions.
The headline for this section says it all really – if you have Hyatt Globalist elite status, you can make award bookings even if you don’t have the required number of points sitting in your account at the time of booking.
All a Globalist has to do is to call up the global reservations center or, better yet, contact their concierge, and ask them to make the booking for them.
No points will be deducted from your World of Hyatt account when you do this, but you will have to make sure that you have enough points in your account to cover the cost of the booking two weeks before you’re due to check-in*.
When I first used this benefit (back in the days of the Hyatt Gold Passport program), the points required to make the booking were automatically deducted from my account as soon as my balance was big enough to cover the whole booking.
The last time I used this benefit (in December last year) I had to contact my Hyatt concierge (who had made the booking for me) to ensure that the points needed for the reservation were deducted (they were not automatically deducted even though my WoH balance was sufficient to cover the booking), so be aware that either scenario is a possibility.
Currently, I have another such reservation in place for a stay next year, so I’ll post an update here when the payment for that stay is taken and we’ll have another data point to work with.
For a Globalist like me who gets most of their World of Hyatt points through transfers from Chase Ultimate Rewards, this is a great benefit to have access to.
Firstly, if I’m short of Hyatt points and Chase Ultimate Rewards points, it gives me time to build up a sufficient number of points to pay for a booking without leaving me at risk of award availability disappearing before I have enough points to pay.
Secondly, even if I have enough Ultimate Rewards points to cover a booking, I can use this benefit to keep those points with Chase right up to the time that I’m 100% sure that I won’t be cancelling the reservation. This way I don’t risk having my points “stuck” in the World of Hyatt if I can’t follow through with the stay.
*A few years ago, you could get away with making sure that you had the required number of points in your account a few days before check-in, but all of my more recent experiences suggest that you are now required to have the points in your account two weeks before check-in.
Bottom line
There are two World of Hyatt benefits that often fly under the radar and both can be very useful.
World of Hyatt Explorist and Globalist elites can cancel most reservations that come with a 48-hour cancellation policy up to a day before check-in, and World of Hyatt Globalists can make award bookings even if they’re short of the points needed to pay for the reservation.
Have you made use of one or both of these benefits? Let us know in the comments.
What’s the easiest way to get Globalist status with Hyatt?
If easiest = least effort, then through spending on the World of Hyatt credit cards.
If easiest = cheapest, then though nights spent at cheaper Hyatt properties.
Sadly, there’s no shortcut to the 60 nights Hyatt currently requires for Globalist status (although people with Platinum Pro and Exec. Platinum status with American Airlines are sometimes offered status challenges).