Guide To World Of Hyatt Club Access Awards

World of Hyatt’s Milestone Rewards program offers perks for every 10 elite qualifying nights that members earn in a calendar year, all the way from 10 nights to 150 nights. The Milestone Rewards perk that has historically been the least valuable is club access awards. However, thanks to these certificates now being transferable, they’re certainly more useful than in the past. Let’s cover the details.

World of Hyatt Milestone Rewards basics

World of Hyatt’s elite tier thresholds are as follows:

• Discoverist status: 10 qualifying nights or 25,000 base points (equivalent to $5,000 of spending)
• Explorist status: 30 qualifying nights or 50,000 base points (equivalent to $10,000 of spending)
• Globalist status: 60 qualifying nights or 100,000 base points (equivalent to $20,000 of spending)

Separate from qualifying for status, the Milestone Rewards program offers rewards for every 10 elite nights, all the way from 10 elite nights to 150 elite nights. It doesn’t matter how you earn those elite nights — even elite nights earned through the World of Hyatt Credit Card (review) and the World of Hyatt Business Credit Card (review) would qualify toward this.

It’s possible to earn up to four club access awards per year:

• At 20 elite nights or 35,000 base points, you can select two club access awards
• At 30 elite nights or 50,000 base points, you can select two club access awards

There’s an opportunity cost to selecting these awards, so be sure to read my guide to the Milestone Rewards program.

World of Hyatt club access awards basics

Let’s go over the basics of World of Hyatt club access awards:

• Each club access award can be used to access a hotel’s club lounge for a stay of up to seven consecutive nights
• Club access awards are valid on eligible paid rates (including Hyatt Privé rates), as well as free night awards, and Points + Cash bookings; they’re not eligible on bookings with free night certificates or non-eligible paid rates, though
• You can apply club access awards in advance of your stay either through Hyatt’s website when making a booking, or by contacting Hyatt reservations
• Club access awards are valid for the year in which they’re earned, plus an additional 14 months; in other words, if you earned club access awards in January 2025, they’d be valid through February 2027, and you need to actually stay by the expiration date
• Club access awards can either be redeemed by the World of Hyatt member who earned them, or can be transfered to a friend or family member

How to gift World of Hyatt club access awards to others

The ability to transfer club access awards to others is valuable, given that these have historically been of limited value to Globalist members (since they get club access anyway).

How do you go about transferring your club access awards to others? Just log into your World of Hyatt account, click on the “Awards” section, and then you’ll see your club access awards listed.

If you want to transfer your award to someone else, click the three dots next to the award you want to transfer, and click “Gift Your Award.” Then enter the last name and World of Hyatt number of the person you want to transfer the award to, and then it’ll be instantly deposited in their account.

Then when you actually want to redeem a club access award (whether earned directly or transfered), just log into your World of Hyatt account, and go through the process of making a booking. When you get to the page that lists rates, you should see the ability to apply a club access award. This of course assumes that the property has a club lounge available.

World of Hyatt club access awards best strategy

Three major things have changed about World of Hyatt club access awards as of last year:

• You can now gift these to other World of Hyatt members, which offers a lot more flexibility
• You can now apply these online, rather than having to call
• You no longer automatically receive club access awards, but rather they’re an option you can select at two Milestone Rewards thresholds

All of these are great updates, because historically World of Hyatt Globalist members have earned four club access awards per year through the Milestone Rewards program, with no practical use.

That’s because Globalist members already receive guaranteed club lounge access as a perk, so there’s no incremental value. Contrast that to suite upgrade awards, which are valuable, since they allow you to confirm a suite upgrade in advance, when as a Globalist member you’d otherwise only get room upgrades subject to availability at check-in.

With that in mind, assuming you do select club access awards with the Milestone Rewards program, what’s the best strategy?

If you’re a World of Hyatt Globalist member, you have a couple of options. You could gift club access awards to family or friends to make their Hyatt stays better. However, keep in mind that you also get Guest of Honor awards, and if you gift those to others, they’ll also automatically get club access. As an alternative, if you often travel as a group and book multiple rooms, use the club access awards to ensure club access for the additional rooms.

If you’re a World of Hyatt Explorist or Discoverist member, use club access awards to get club access for the stays that are most valuable to you, since you don’t otherwise receive complimentary club access. Use them on the stays that are the longest, and in places with the best lounges (you’ll generally find that Asia has the best club lounges, while the United States has the worst).

Now, I think the other logical question is whether you should bother selecting the club access awards or not. At the 20 and 30 elite night thresholds, the two alternative choices are as follows:

• A 2K Next Stay award, offering 2,000 bonus points on your next stay at Hyatt Place, Hyatt House, Hyatt Studios, Caption by Hyatt, me and all hotels, or UrCove Hotel, within 180 days
• A $25 FIND Experience credit, which can be used for $25 off a FIND experience

Personally I value the 2,000 points at ~$30, while the FIND experience credit is worth at most $25. So really, the maximum opportunity cost of each club access award is around $15, which is really low. Therefore my advice is that if you can find literally any use for a club access award, that’s the best option to select. Meanwhile if you can’t, you should instead choose one of the other options.

Bottom line

The World of Hyatt Milestone Rewards program offers a variety of valuable perks, including suite upgrade awards, club access awards, Guest of Honor awards, and more. Club access awards can be transfered to others, which is probably the best use for Globalist members.

Each club access award can be used to confirm club access for a stay of up to seven nights. While this is of limited value to Globalist members, being able to gift this to friends and family is awesome. Now if only more hotels had club lounges that were actually open…

What’s your take on Hyatt club access awards? Do you select them with the Milestone Rewards program?