Hyatt Suite Upgrade Awards
Since I just used one of my Hyatt suite upgrade awards, I figured now is the perfect time for a guide of sorts on them. These are a part of the World of Hyatt's Milestone Awards you earn from hitting a certain number of elite nights. The pain in the butt part is, unlike the greatness of transferring free night certificates to any member, these can not be booked online. Hyatt suite upgrade awards also have a some other weird rules, but we'll get to all of that in a bit. On a more positive note, these awards can be kind of like the magic whistle in Super Mario 3 and unlock some award space that isn't currently there. Let's dive in!
How To Earn Hyatt Suite Upgrade Awards
When World of Hyatt revamped their program in January of this year, the Milestone Awards were a big part of that. I actually like the additions and added value for the super users of the program. There are a few different ways to earn elite nights:
- Get 5 elite nights every year for carrying the World of Hyatt credit card
- You can earn a night for every paid / award stay
- Sometimes promos will allow you to earn double elite nights etc.
- Earn elite nights via spend with the World of Hyatt credit card and the World of Hyatt Business card.
- Remember that the way these track are different between the two cards.
Those are the ways you can rack up enough elite nights to be able to choose Hyatt suite upgrade awards as your milestone selection. As you can see from the chart above, these are the elite nights milestones where suite upgrade awards are an option:
- 40 nights – 1 Hyatt suite upgrade award
- 50 nights – 2 suite upgrade awards
- 60 nights – 2 suite upgrade awards
- 70 – 150 nights (every 10 nights) – 1 Hyatt suite upgrade award
You do have to actually select this as your perk at each one of those intervals. That may not always be the best choice available to you, but these are the intervals where you can select them should you choose to.
Rules Of These Awards
There are a few things that need to be in place for you to use your Hyatt suite upgrade award. The first part is that a standard suite needs to be showing as available when searching hotels. Sometimes this is difficult to tell, since properties will have many different types of suites. If the suite award price is showing as double the regular room rate, then you should be good. At times, it is also notated which kind of suite it is in the room description. In those instances it will say this is a standard suite etc. If it says something like “this is a premium suite” then you are out of luck. You can also reach out to the helpful Hyatt Concierge team on Twitter / X should you have questions about a specific property and date.
The next thing that needs to be working in your favor is that you have to be booking a points, points & cash or cash stay to use your award. For some unknown reason the suite upgrade awards can not be paired with a free night certificate. That is true whether it is a category 1-4, category 1-7 or the new Ultimate Free Night Award certificate. I should also note that you can not stack Hyatt suite night awards with Guest of Honor bookings either.
What If You Have A Mixed Booked Stay?
What if you use a free night certificate for one night of the stay and then book the rest of your stay with points or cash? In cases like this, you are at the mercy of the individual hotel. You have to hope that they upgrade you on the free night certificate night to match the rest of the stay. Sometimes offering to pay a minimal fee, say $50, will lock in a guaranteed upgrade. You can also try to explain that turning only one room, versus two, will save them substantial time and money. Much of it will depend on how booked the hotel is, and how early you reach out with your request.
How To Book A Hyatt Suite Upgrade Award
Here is how you can access your Hyatt suite upgrade awards once logged into your account.
- Go to your My Account section and then select Awards.
- From there you should see the Suite Upgrade Awards between any Club Access Award & Guest of Honor Awards that you have.
When you select your Hyatt suite upgrade award one of the options will be how to redeem. Selecting that will give you this pop-up
Need a little assistance? We're here to help. Call 1-800-544-9288 or 1-402-593-8615 or a Global Care Center to redeem your award.
So even if you forget what the number is, or how to use your suite award, you can find the info inside your World of Hyatt account. You will want to have the following information ready before making the call:
- Your World of Hyatt member number
- The name of the hotel that you want to book
- Ensure that the hotel is showing suites available
- Dates you need to book
- How many people will be in your room
How Do Hyatt Suite Upgrade Awards Unlock More Award Space?
I saved the best perk of these suite upgrade awards for last. A fact that I am not sure everyone realizes, that they unlock extra award space. That is because all that matters in order to be able to use them is that a standard suite is available for sale for a cash stay.
That is right, there doesn't need to be award space available to book these suckers. Heck, there doesn't even need to be a standard room available. Take a look at the two screenshots above. This hotel had no standard rooms available via points and the suite wasn't available for a standard award. The suite was only bookable via cash, or points and cash, neither of which I was interested in. I called in to use my suite upgrade award, and a few minutes later I had a room booked with points at a hotel showing no standard awards available. All for only 12,000 points, which is the standard award rate for this hotel.
Hyatt Suite Upgrade Awards: ToP Thoughts
Hopefully this Hyatt suite upgrade awards guide gives you a good breakdown of how to earn them, their rules and how to use them. It also shows that they have a secret super power, unlocking extra award space. While getting a larger room and more space, I think that is the most valuable part of this Milestone Reward.
Let me know if you have ever used your suite upgrade award to unlock more award space over in the ToP Facebook Group.
