Travel Party of 5 | Points & Miles for Family Travel

Hyatt Globalist Status: Do you need it?!?! (And how/why we got it!)

• Raya & Duane

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In this episode, we’re breaking down exactly how we earned Hyatt Globalist status without staying 60 nights in a hotel. Hyatt Globalist is the top-tier status that comes with incredible perks like free breakfast, room upgrades, late checkouts, and waived resort fees. We’ll walk you through the steps we took, including how we used credit card spend, milestone rewards, and strategic stays to make it happen.

We’ll also talk about why Hyatt Globalist status has been a game-changer for our family and how it can save you thousands of dollars if it fits your travel plans. Plus, we’re sharing an honest review of the Chase Sapphire Reserve Lounge in Phoenix and how it stacks up against other airport lounges.

If you’re looking to travel more with your family and want to maximize points and perks, this episode is packed with practical advice to get you started. Whether you’re dreaming of earning Hyatt Globalist status or just want to stretch your travel budget further, we’ve got you covered.

Thanks for listening—we’re excited to help you plan your next trip!

Speaker 1:

In today's episode, we're going to share our exact strategy for earning Hyatt Globalist status and opening up a ton of perks and benefits when we travel, without having to spend 60 nights in a hotel. So listen in. Hi, I'm Raya and I'm Dwayne, and we are your hosts of the Travel Party of Five podcast, where we share how we travel as a family of five around the world.

Speaker 2:

We will also share how we use points and miles to travel as affordably as possible and sometimes even completely free.

Speaker 1:

So if you're wanting to travel more with your family but you're not sure how, we'd love for you to listen in.

Speaker 2:

So welcome to our podcast, where we hope you learn a thing or two to get you closer to your next trip.

Speaker 1:

Hello friends, welcome back, welcome back. Thanks for tuning in. We hope you're having a great December. So far, as a reminder, if you're doing your Christmas shopping, make sure you're going through either a shopping portal or Rakuten or something like that, so you can earn some additional money, money you're already going to spend. It's a little PSA. Also, last week we did an episode on the Ondas in San Diego, but the one thing that we didn't talk about was the Chase Lounge Totally forgot.

Speaker 2:

We did forget.

Speaker 1:

So we're going to talk about that, and then we're going to share how we hit globalist status this year without having to spend 60 nights in a hotel.

Speaker 2:

And don't forget about our giveaway. We're doing.

Speaker 1:

Yes. So we're doing a giveaway for reviews. So if you leave us a review on iTunes or Spotify or wherever you listen, and send us a screenshot of the review to our email, we will enter you in a raffle to win a $50 gift card to an online or whatever store of your choosing. As long as it's legal, dwayne's about to say Goodness, I'm never going to live that one down, huh, yeah. So we would greatly appreciate your thoughts and reviews. We appreciate you taking the time, we appreciate that you listen, and the more reviews we have, the easier it is for our podcast to be found when people are searching for points and miles stuff. So, thank you, thank you, thank you.

Speaker 1:

Let's talk about the Chase Lounge. So, first of all, the Chase Sapphire Reserve Lounge opened in Phoenix about two weeks ago. This lounge has been eagerly awaited for like two years. There's a whole Reddit thread about this lounge for the last two plus years where people just keep commenting, nope, not open yet, nope, not open yet, like literally for two plus years. And finally it opened a couple of weeks ago. And so the other reason for our trip to San Diego last weekend or two weekends ago was not only could we go to San Diego, which is better than Scottsdale, but we also would be able to check out the Chase Lounge, because when I tell you I considered buying a flight on Southwest to get into the lounge and then canceling the flight like I'm not kidding I did consider doing that.

Speaker 2:

She definitely did consider that.

Speaker 1:

But then I was like, oh well, we'll just go to San Diego and we'll use it then. So here's our experience and spoiler alert, I will say the lounge is a little bit disappointing for a couple of reasons and we'll get into it.

Speaker 2:

First reason being that it's small.

Speaker 1:

It's incredibly small.

Speaker 2:

I mean we had to wait probably 20 minutes to get in.

Speaker 1:

Which isn't bad. I've heard of people having to wait like hours and we wouldn't have had time to do that. So we walked up. We were there Again, it was maybe like nine something and our flight was boarding at 1030. So we were there around nine. We purposely went early to try to go to the lounge and we were put on a waitlist. They told us maybe 30 minutes and it was about 15. I think it really wasn't that long. They called us in we I have a whole Instagram reel that I made about it. If you want to go like visually, see it, it's on our Instagram at travel party five. But you walk in. They have self-serve food, kind of to the right, um, you know, coffee juice, the whole thing. Cause we were there for breakfast, I can't speak to their lunch dinner options and then they have a bar and then they have like a little more seating, a foosball table and they have like an, an airstream that also makes ready to made I mean ready to order snacks like like when we were there, it was breakfast tacos.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I don't know what it is for dinner.

Speaker 1:

The tacos were fine yeah, they weren't bad and then they have a little more seating and, I think, two private bathrooms and that's about it. There's not a ton of seating. I feel like they could have made better use of the space. The other thing I really didn't like is the where the foosball table and the airstream is. It's open to the terminal, meaning there's no glass to block it off, which means it's pretty noisy. And part of what I like about a lounge is you go in and it just feels like like. My brain is like. It's like when you turn off the vent fan on your stove after it's been on for a while and your brain is just like, ah, it's quiet. That's how I feel about the airport noise versus going into a lounge. The airport is like the vent being on, and going into a lounge is like turning off the vent.

Speaker 2:

Great analogy.

Speaker 1:

Dwayne thinks I'm insane. That's fine, maybe I am.

Speaker 2:

But I mean, it's true, it is open to the airport and you hear the hustle and bustle of the airport.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so those are kind of the two disappointing things. I think here's the good news we sat at the bar and you have a really nice view of the tarmac and it's like right near the southwest gates and so it's in Terminal 4 at the Phoenix Airport and so really nice view and the service was very good. We talked to a couple of the bartenders and they really enjoyed working there. It sounds like they had come from other places, like one of them moved from new mexico and so I found that interesting. But they had good things to say about their employers and all that, and so I think that's always a good sign yeah, I so overall small open, but still a nice lounge to get some food and some drinks before your flight.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it was just us. So I had a glass of Prosecco, Dwayne had some whiskey. I would rank the food somewhere between a Priority Pass lounge and a Capital One lounge, between a Priority Pass lounge and a Capital One lounge. It was better than that Priority Pass escape lounge in Oakland, but it was not as good as a Capital One lounge.

Speaker 2:

The one in Oakland is bad, bad.

Speaker 1:

Would I take our whole family in there if there was time? Yes, I would. I guess the bright side about it being open to the terminal is I don't really have to worry about the volume of my children so much. So there's that, Um, and I mean again, will this save you money on a trip? Yes, If you can get in. Yes, I have heard of of you know the wait being really long. So I think you just have to plan that you might not be able to get in if there's not enough time, and if there is, then it's like a bonus.

Speaker 1:

So yeah yep, they're also opening up a Chase Sapphire Reserve Lounge in San Diego, like literally this week, and, um, I was a little disappointed that we were. We were missing it by like a week or two, so we'll have to see how that, how that one, looks, um, next time we go. But that is our review of the Chase Sapphire Reserve Lounge in Phoenix. Oh, and the way that you can get access to that lounge is you either need to hold the Chase Sapphire Reserve card, which I do and that allows me to bring in a guest or two, or you need to have a priority pass that allows access and if you have the priority pass, you get one visit per calendar year, the Chase. If you have the Chase Sapphire Reserve card, it's unlimited. So that's how you can get access to this lounge. Okay, let's skip over to Hyatt globalist status. So we hit globalist status about a month ago and I'm going to tell you exactly how we did it. Even though we did not stay 60 nights in Hyatt hotels, which is a lot, it's a lot, yeah. So our strategy for earning globalist status, first of all, is because next year we have over 30 nights booked at various hyatts around the world, and so we are. It was a really strategic decision decision to leverage the status to save us money on both food and also get us more space through the you know potential upgrades that we will receive. So I'm going to do a quick rundown of what globalist status gets you and then we'll talk about how we how we got there for 2024.

Speaker 1:

Number one you get lounge access. So if there's a club lounge in the hotel, you get free access to that and normally that will be like breakfast snacks during the day and light bites at dinner. You also get free breakfast, so complimentary full breakfast at properties that do not have a club lounge. If they do have a club lounge, that's generally where your breakfast will be. If they do have a club lounge, that's generally where your breakfast will be. Potential room upgrades, including standard suites, is typically what you'd be upgraded to.

Speaker 1:

Late checkout subject to availability, but you can get late checkout up to 4 pm, which can be really helpful if you have kids and a late flight. Complimentary parking on awards days. So no parking. If you're booking on points, if you're paying cash, you also get waived resort or destination fees. Those are always waived when you book on points, even without status, but if you're paying cash, they're waived on cash bookings. If you're a globalist and I think that's roughly it you also get a globalist concierge, which ours emailed me the other day to introduce herself heather, kathy, kathy, yep, close, yeah, close, sure.

Speaker 1:

So the way that you can earn globalist status is you either stay 60 qualifying nights in Hyatt or you can earn 100,000 base points, which is I don't really know how to explain a base point, but or you use your business credit card or, sorry, your World of Hyatt credit cards, and they have a business and a personal. The business earns five qualifying nights for every $10,000 in spend and the personal card comes with five qualifying nights automatically and then also earns you two qualifying nights for every $5,000 you put on the card. So the way that we earned it is a combination of nights in Hyatt or nights at a Hyatt and credit card spend for the most part. So we earned 20 qualifying nights from the World of Hyatt business card and that means that we put $40,000 worth of spend this year on our World of Hyatt business card. So in the beginning of the year I was using that card for everything, and then we stayed. Let me calculate this out. We stayed 35 nights in Hyatt hotels this year. Five of those were what we're going to call a mattress run, which means we checked into the hotel but didn't actually stay there. And I'm going to be fully transparent that this is against world of Hyatt terms and conditions. Okay, so proceed at your own risk. But there we were. We knew we were going to be a few nights shy, and so we did that and used points to book at a category one hotel, which is the lowest category and therefore the lowest number of points. So we specifically did these on nights that were 3,500 points, and so basically, the way to do this is you go to the hotel to check in, you just don't stay there, and that's that. We only had to do that a few times and it worked out fine for us.

Speaker 1:

Um, and then in september, I opened up the world of hyatt personal card and I I earned five qualifying nights just for holding that card. So every year you hold that card, you earn five qualifying nights towards status, and just from having the card, yeah, just from having the card, yeah, so we'll keep that's a card that we will keep. A lot of them we close after the one year mark, but we will not close that one. Same with the world of hyatt business card, and I mean that's essentially it. We did a combination of credit card spend and nights in Hyatt's. Now I'm going to tell you, as you hit a certain number of nights, you earn what are called milestone rewards. So we'll talk about that in a second.

Speaker 1:

But I want to add first if you don't have a lot of stays at a Hyatt next year, it probably doesn't make sense for you to get globalist status. So I think a lot of people have like FOMO, right. They think, oh yeah, I want that like looks nice and shiny and I want that. But if you don't have a lot of nights in a Hyatt booked, it really probably doesn't make sense Because you're not going to save that much money. You know, but for us, we have five people and we're staying in literally like over 30 nights in Hyatt's next year. It's going to save us thousands of dollars when it comes down to it. So I think you just have to figure out, like you know, yes, it's nice to have, but does it really make financial sense to spend so much on the card? And I mean $40,000 is a good amount of money, you know.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it is.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so you just need to keep that in mind as you're listening to this. So let's talk about the milestone rewards, because they definitely can help you, kind of buffer you, to get you to the status. So at 20 nights you get what's called a 2k next day award or two club access awards and you can choose whichever one you get. We opted for the two club access awards and I'll kind of talk through why I chose these as we go through. At 30 nights you get a category one to four free night award and your choice of a 2k next day, which means 2000 points off your next day, or two more club access awards. Or you also can choose a $25 find experience credit, which I think is not not like. I would never choose that. Um, that category one to four free night is the one we earned that.

Speaker 1:

We went to stay at the Hyatt Regency to Maya in Albuquerque and the reason we did that is because it has a six month expiration date. So that was a little bit of a surprise. I was expecting 12 months. And then, at 40 nights, you get one guest of honor award and then you can also choose either 5000 bonus points or a suite upgrade award or another find experience credit. We chose the suite upgrade award or another find experience credit. We chose the suite upgrade award. At 50 nights, you can either choose 5,000 points or two suite upgrade awards and at 60 nights you get two guest of honor awards and a category one to seven free night award and two suite upgrade awards and access to the my Hyatt concierge. So for all, go ahead access to the my Hyatt.

Speaker 2:

Concierge. So for all, go ahead. I was going to say the Guest of Honor Awards. That's where you can give someone access.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you gift someone else globalist access, yep, and so we predominantly chose the Club Access Awards, the Suite Upgrades, and, yeah, are all the choices. Those are the ones we chose all the time, and the reason being next year we have two rooms booked, one in my name and one in your name, at a lot of properties, and so what I will do is I will either gift you a club access award or I will gift you a suite upgrade award or a guest of honor, just depending on the property. For example, if the property has a club lounge, I'm going to gift you the club access award, and if they don't, then obviously it doesn't make sense because you have to use it at a property that does. If they don't, then I will gift you a guest of honor award, and that will ensure that we all five of us can have globalist benefits everywhere we stay.

Speaker 2:

So that would be great yeah, so that's my plan.

Speaker 1:

Um, I'm gonna work that out with Kathy the concierge.

Speaker 2:

Or Heather.

Speaker 1:

And yeah. So I think next year we'll easily hit globalist status again because of how many nights we already have booked at Hyatt's. I'm questionable about 2026 because, like, we'll have it for 2026, but I'm questionable if we'll have it for 2026, but I'm questionable if we'll earn it in 2026, because I think we're going to be spending some, some cash to stay in a couple of of places that are on my top of my list for 2026 travel, like belize there is no hyatt, so we can't stay at a hyatt there, and that's where I want to go for spring break 2026, and then yellowstone I thought there was like a nondaz or something there.

Speaker 1:

No, no, there's a marriott and a hilton. Um yep, and we also want to do yellowstone, which there's no hyatts there, so we'll see, but we don't need to think that far ahead at this point. So that's in a nutshell how you can earn globalist status without having to stay the 60 nights, if it makes sense for you and your family.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean globalist status is the way to be.

Speaker 1:

I will say it's nice to go into the property and have them recognize it. It makes me feel special.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean the guy had breakfast at the Andaz in San Diego he was shouting it. He shouted it like three times.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and we were like, oh okay, Like that's weird, Like I don't need that kind of recognition, but okay, so anyways, there we have it. We are getting pretty close to Christmas. I think we only have a couple more episodes left before we take a break for the Christmas holiday. I think we only have a couple more episodes left before we take a break for the Christmas holiday. So just another reminder to enter our giveaway raffle for a $50 gift card. Leave us a review, Email us a screenshot of your review and we will enter you into the raffle to win a $50 gift card of your choosing. Our email is travelpartyof5 at gmailcom, and we appreciate you so much and we will catch you on the next one.

Speaker 2:

Yes, thank you so much for listening and good luck with the raffle. Bye, have a good one.