World of Hyatt is limiting the gifting of awards, a move that will adversely impact me, but does make sense considering the ease in which these awards are transferable.
World Of Hyatt Restricts Unlimited Gifting Of Awards
Hyatt is unique in letting its World of Hyatt members gift most types of awards to other travelers. This includes most awards earned through Hyatt’s Milestone Rewards program, including:
- Club Access Awards
- Free Night Awards
- Guest of Honor Awards
- Suite Upgrade Awards
Currently, there are no restrictions on the transfer of these awards: they can be transferred instantly to anyone and without limits…not just members of your family or within a “household account” (as some other loyalty programs have done to reduce the buying, selling, and bartering of these awards).
Of course, that creates a parallel market for these awards…a lucrative business for those who game the system and that undermines the value of the program for others since room space or suite upgrades are capacity-controlled.
Starting June 7, 2025, World of Hyatt members will be limited to receiving 10 gifted awards per calendar year. This restriction does not impact how many awards you can gift, only how many you can receive.
The updated terms & conditions now reflect that change:
As of June 7, 2025, a Member may be gifted a maximum of ten (10) transferred awards per calendar year in accordance with the process described above. This restriction applies only to the receipt of transferred gift awards. Members remain able to transfer as many eligible awards as they choose.
It isn’t clear whether those who have “exceeded” the 10 awards will start fresh on June 7th or be blocked from receiving any future gifts for the remainder of the year.
This Is Fair, But It Does Impact Me In A Negative Way
As some of you may know, due a panoply of personal and professional changes, I lost Globalst status this year for the first time in a decade, a status I do greatly miss.
But one thing that has softened the blow is that family and friends have been very generous to gift me Guest of Honor and Club Access awards, such that even short one-night stays do not seem to feel all that different…I’m still treated like a Globlist. Going forward, I’ll have to be a little more choosy in which stays I use those awards for and that will change the way I choose hotel.
Without the World of Hyatt credit card, I’m not sure this year is going to be any different in terms of re-qualifying for Globalist, though I am keeping the pace at last for now…
Perhaps the solution will be to shift stays to my wife Heidi once I surpass the 10 gifts, which further hinders Globalist status, but if I’m only staying 40 nights per year and have de facto status thanks to these awards, I guess the Globalist label doesn’t matter all that much anyway.
CONCLUSION
Starting June 7, 2025 Hyatt is adding a restriction to the receipt of gifted awards. You’ll soon be limited to 10 awards per year…so use them wisely.
image: Park Hyatt Kyoto
Not sure what this accomplished, the “illegal” sales online will continue. I doubt those involved in these dealings are going to be curtailing the activity. And as you showed there will be ways around for those who are creative.
I don’t see this doing anything if they feel there is a problem going on. Although it would be interesting to see how many are buying more than 10 a year compared to those truly being gifted a few a year.
@Matthew … adversely affect … not “adversely impact” . ( Affect is correct .)
Does affect me … not “does impact me” . ( Affect is correct .)
There has been no “impact” .
@Matthew: I gave up on hotel status a while ago and it feels amazing. If I want to stay in a Hyatt, I either use points (from past stays of credit card transfers) or pay cash. I am going with my family to Europe this summer and have booked 20 nights of hotels. Not a single one has a loyalty program. All boutique local places and I can’t wait to enjoy each of them.
Just to clarify. Globalist benefits are not mandatory in many Hyatt brands such as Hyatt Place and Hyatt House. The manager decides if to honor any benefits at all.
@ Matthew — With all due respect, I find the asking for gifts a bit tacky.
Why? What are you (for example) going to do with them? Do you also let your PlusPoints just expire because you don’t want to share them with someone you trust?
It gives the impression that you feel that you don’t need to meet the requirements for Globalist, like your readers.
We don’t ever let PlusPpints expire. We typically use them to lock in confirmed upgrades to Polaris as soon as we receive them. Yes, United gets to tell us when we can use them, but we are very flexible, so do not mind.
To be clear, I’m not asking readers for their benefit…I get them from friends and family. I would invite all readers to do the same thing. I’m very thankful that this softens the blow of losing my Globalist status for the first time in a decade.
If I recall properly you said something about being on the outs with Chase so you don’t have the Hyatt card to spend your way the rest of the way to Globalist. What about Heidi? If she hits Globalist through spend and reservations are in her name then that should ease up the crunch a fair bit.
Heidi and I don’t travel enough together for that to make sense. But things may be improving between me and Chase…stay tuned.