Maximizing Hyatt Milestone Rewards: The 7 Perks I Chose

In 2024, I earned 80 elite night credits with World of Hyatt. This meant I not only secured my top-tier World of Globalist status, which requires just 60 elite nights, but I earned 7 Milestone Rewards.

Hyatt’s Milestone Rewards program, launched in 2024, is designed to reward loyal travelers with a choice of benefits upon reaching certain thresholds. That said, I find some rewards much more valuable than others. Let’s take a closer look at the Milestone Rewards I chose and why.

What Are Hyatt Milestone Rewards?

In the World of Hyatt program, you can choose a Milestone Reward benefit after tiers of 10 qualifying nights in the program each year, starting at 20 nights. Whether you earn those nights from promotions, hotel stays, or credit card spending, they all count the same.

Rewards aren’t the same at every threshold, however. Here are the 2025 Milestone Reward options:

The names of some benefits provide greater clarity than others, but our guide to Hyatt’s Milestone Rewards explains each option individually and the expiration dates for some of the perks. (It’s also worth pointing out that Hyatt improved the 2K Next Stay Award for 2024, adding more qualifying brands for bonus points on your next stay.)

You’ll also notice some rewards that have nothing to do with Hyatt or even hotels in general. That’s because Hyatt and American Airlines has deepened their partnership, adding some cross-program benefits for 2025.

Why I Chose These Milestone Rewards

You may value some of these awards differently, but understanding my valuations will make it clear why I chose the Hyatt Milestone Rewards I did last year.

1. 20 and 30 Nights

I had the same 4 options at these tiers, and I immediately ruled out some of them. The FIND credit isn’t interesting to me as it doesn’t provide much of a discount on many of the experiences you can book. In 2024, I didn’t have the option of seat coupons with American Airlines, but I immediately ruled those out for 2025. After numerous bad experiences with American Airlines recently, I’m trying my best to avoid flying with them whenever possible.

As someone with Globalist status, my Hyatt benefits already include access to the hotel’s lounge, if there is one. Thus, I don’t need Club Access awards.

What’s left? The only remaining item at these levels is the 2K Next Stay Award, which provides 2,000 bonus points after your next stay at a property in one of these brands: Hyatt Place, Hyatt House, Caption by Hyatt, Hyatt Studios, Me and All Hotels, and UrCove.

I chose the 2K Next Stay Award for both 20 and 30 nights. However, if you aren’t earning Globalist status, you might consider the value of the lounge access via Club Access awards. Just understand that not every hotel has a lounge.

40 and 50 Nights

At both 40 and 50 nights, I had the same choices, and I still ruled out the FIND credit — even though its value went up. My wife and I don’t book many guided tours or group events for our travels, and nothing from FIND has really caught our eye in the past. And for 2025, again, I immediately ruled out American Airlines since I’m trying my best to fly with any other airline possible.

That left the bonus points and the suite upgrade awards. As a Globalist, I’m eligible for upgrades to suites when they’re available at check-in, but these suite upgrade awards can be used to confirm a suite in advance on stays up to 7 nights. However, I’ve had pretty good luck getting upgraded on my stays in the past, and bonus points can be used however I want. Would a suite upgrade require more than 5,000 points? Probably. Can I book a hotel stay with a suite award? No.

With that logic, 5,000 points were worth more to me than a single suite upgrade award at 40 nights. Therefore, I chose the bonus points because of their flexibility. (For reference, we value Hyatt points at 1.5 cents each, making 5,000 points worth $75.)

However, I chose something different at 50 nights. That’s because the 50 nights tier provided 2 suite upgrade awards (rather than 1), and I found 2 of these more valuable than points now that the numbers have changed.

60 Nights

There isn’t a Milestone Reward required at this tier. This is the threshold to qualify for Hyatt’s top-tier Globalist status in 2025, just like it was in 2024.

70 and 80 Nights

The choices were the same at both 70 and 80 nights. Even with its jump to $300 at this point, I still ruled out the FIND experience.

If I weren’t avoiding American Airlines, I might consider the AAdvantage Gold status in 2025. Getting a year of preferred seats, priority boarding, checked bags, and upgrade eligibility could be worth it — though only if my travel plans would give me plenty of opportunities to enjoy this status. If that’s you, this could be a good choice, assuming you make a lot of economy bookings with American Airlines.

In 2024, I chose 10,000 bonus points as my Milestone Reward at both 70 and 80 nights. I found 10,000 points more valuable than a single suite upgrade award — and more aligned with my travel style. To me, $150 worth of points that I know I’ll use is more valuable than $300 of credit with a program I’m not very interested in.

Final Thoughts

I earned 80 qualifying nights with World of Hyatt last year thanks to hotel stays, spending on my Hyatt credit card, and a targeted promotion for double elite nights — up to 10 nights’ worth, to be exact. Otherwise, I only would’ve earned 70 nights last year.

Along the way, I happened to qualify for 7 Milestone Rewards. After judging my options, I chose what seemed most beneficial. Some of the options weren’t interesting to me, and I ruled those out immediately based on my personal travel interests. You may view them differently, and that’s OK, but understanding why I chose what I did may help you when it’s time to make your own choices.