Best Hyatt Milestone Awards Choice
Hyatt has one of the most generous loyalty programs, and award travelers love them for their favorable redemption values. Hyatt's elite status isn't too shabby either. Such as Globalists earnings valuable perks like free breakfast, free parking on award stays, and the ability to do points advance reservations. Those perks are great, but as you climb the ranks to elite status you also rack up Hyatt Milestone Rewards. The Hyatt Milestone Rewards are additional perks that are meant to encourage to continue on your status quest. At most of these reward levels you have to make a selection between a few different award perks. Because of this, travelers often ask what is the best Hyatt Milestone awards choice at each level? In this guide, we will round up the choices and discuss which are potentially the most valuable for you.
How Are World of Hyatt Milestone Rewards Earned?
Before we break down all the juicy details, let's discuss how these rewards are actually earned. Milestone rewards are awarded at each 10 night increment from 20 to 150 elite nights per year. An elite night is any night that posts to your World of Hyatt account under an eligible rate, which does include award stays. I have included the chart below that shows the choices for each increment. The first row is an award that you receive with no selection required. The second, third and fourth row are the award selection you get to choose. You can pick only one of the three options.
Related: How to Transfer Hyatt Free Night Certificates and Other Awards
Hyatt Milestone Awards At 20 & 30 Qualifying Nights
The options for both 20 and 30 qualifying nights are the same. You have the choice between the following:
- 2,000 points next stay award – (for Globalists)
- 2 Club Access Awards
- $25 FIND experience credit.
In my opinion, we can completely ignore the FIND credit. The FIND credit is good for a tour through Hyatt's FIND program. The prices for booking through Hyatt's tour company are generally quite inflated and $25 is not getting me very far.
That leaves us with the 2K next stay award or 2 Club Access Awards. If you are a Globalist, you get access to club lounges automatically. So, the obvious choice here for a Globalist member would be to choose the 2K next stay award. A non-Globalist member would want to weigh if they have any upcoming stays in properties in club lounges that they want to take advantage of. We should note that it is getting harder and harder to find hotels with open club lounges.
A Note on 2K next stay awards
A 2K next stay gives you 2,000 bonus points upon completion of an eligible stay at select hotels only. The stay needs to be at a Hyatt House, Hyatt Place, Hyatt Studios, Caption by Hyatt or UrCove Hotels. The check out date of that stay must be within 180 days of the issuance of your award.
Best Options At 40 & 50 Qualifying Nights
Next up, let's take a look at the best Hyatt Milestone Awards choice for 40 and 50 qualifying nights. The options for 40 and 50 are pretty much the same, with one small difference.
- 5,000 bonus points
- 1 or 2 Suite Upgrade Award (1 for 40 nights or 2 for 50)
- $150 FIND experience credit.
Again, I am all but ignoring the FIND credit – it is useless to me. The option that poses the most value to me here is the Suite Upgrade Award. Suite upgrades are so valuable because can immediately book you into a standard suite when a room is available, on a stay of up to 7 nights. This is super powerful, and can provide some real value – especially on longer stays. They also can help unlock award space that wouldn't be available otherwise.
As an example, I recently used a suite upgrade to upgrade myself from a $400/night room to a $650/night room. That is around $250 per night in value, and if I were to max out the week I could expect to receive over $1,000 in value. A distant runner up in my opinion is the 5,000 points. I value my Hyatt points at around 2 cents per point, which makes the points worth about $100.
Best Hyatt Milestone Awards Choice At 70, 80 & 90 Qualifying Nights
We are cruising right past 60 elite nights, since that is when you achieve Globalist status. At 60 elite nights you receive a whole bunch of awards and there are no choices to be made.
At the 70/80/90 intervals your options are between
- 10,000 bonus points
- 1 suite upgrade award
- Unless you struggle to use the 3 you already have – then take the points
- $300 FIND credit.
I think it goes without saying at this point, I am passing on the FIND credit. This time, we are in a very similar situation as the last interval, deciding between points or Suite Upgrade? The 10,000 points offers a more compelling temptation, and could be worth around $200. Still, however, I am going for the Suite Upgrade Award. If you are able to stay at properties that accept Suite Upgrades they will generally offer more value.
Deciding For 100 Through 150 Qualifying Nights
Woohoo, we have made it to our last selections! And if you have made it this far, you have stayed a ton of nights at Hyatt properties this year (or spent a ton on their credit cards). You are probably very well familiar at this point with your award options, but nonetheless we will break down the options. This time we have:
- 10,000 bonus points
- 1 Suite Upgrade Award
- 1 Miraval Extra Night Award
- If you have a planned stay / desire to go. Otherwise go with the Suite Upgrade Award.
Finally, we say goodbye to the useless FIND credit and introduce something of more substance: a Miraval Extra Night. The Miraval Extra Night awards entitle you to an additional night's free accommodation on an existing reservation at Miraval properties (cash, award stay or points and cash rate). If you are staying at a Miraval property, I'd say that is a compelling option. Otherwise, I am sticking with my Suite Upgrade Awards and taking as many of them as I can get!
I could see taking the Miraval bonus night on one or two of these elite night thresholds, and then move back to the Suite Upgrade Awards.
Best Hyatt Milestone Rewards Choice: ToP Thoughts
Hyatt Milestone Rewards can be a fun way to earn a bit of value as you rise the rungs of qualifying nights. As you get further up the ladder, the Milestone Rewards become more valuable. Among some of the most valuable awards for many travelers are Suite Upgrade Awards, which can even unlock additional award availability. There is a bit of variability on which award may be most valuable to you, so it is worth considering the options as you get to each level.
What do you think is the best Milestone Rewards choice for you? Let us know over in the ToP Facebook Group!
