How to Get Elite Status With Hyatt

Hyatt is a popular hotel chain, and it offers a loyalty program anyone can join. When you sign up for the World of Hyatt program, you'll be able to earn points you can redeem for stays. And if you stay at Hyatt properties often enough, you could also earn elite status with it.

There are three elite status tiers in World of Hyatt: Discoverist, Explorist, and Globalist. Below, you'll find the current requirements for each status, the benefits they offer, and the travel credit card that can help you get elite status.

How to earn elite status with World of Hyatt

There are two ways to reach elite status tiers in the World of Hyatt program. You can stay a minimum number of nights or earn a minimum number of Base Points in a calendar year. When you're a World of Hyatt member, you earn 5 Base Points per $1 on Hyatt stays and at Hyatt properties.

Here are the current requirements for each World of Hyatt tier:

• Discoverist: 10 nights or 25,000 Base Points
• Explorist: 30 nights or 50,000 Base Points
• Globalist: 60 nights or 100,000 Base Points
• Lifetime Globalist: 1 million lifetime Base Points

Lifetime Globalist is the only tier that's exclusively earned through Base Points. It has the same benefits as Globalist, with the key difference being that it lasts for life. If you get it, you don't need to worry about earning elite status with Hyatt ever again.

Speeding up the process with a Hyatt credit card

If you want elite status more quickly, there's a way to skip the line, so to speak. The World of Hyatt Credit Card includes Discoverist status. As long as you're a cardholder, you'll get that automatically without needing to earn it.

This card also includes five qualifying night credits per year. And you earn two additional qualifying night credits every time you spend $5,000 on your card. You could earn Explorist or Globalist status entirely through credit card spending. Here's how:

• If you spent $65,000 on a Hyatt credit card within a year, you'd earn 26 qualifying night credits. Combined with the card's five qualifying night credits, you'd have 31 nights, enough for Explorist status.
• If you spent $140,000 on a Hyatt credit card within a year, you'd earn 56 qualifying night credits. Combined with the card's five qualifying night credits, you'd have 61 nights, enough for Globalist status.

Now, that's a lot more than most people spend on their credit cards. But you're also presumably going to stay at Hyatt hotels throughout the year, so you'll accumulate nights that way, too.

Let's say you spend 12 nights at Hyatt hotels in a year. If you get The World of Hyatt Credit Card, you'll already have Discoverist status, plus five qualifying night credits. That adds up to 17 nights. If you spend $35,000 on your card every year, you'll earn another 14 qualifying night credits. That's 31 nights total, enough to meet the requirement for Explorist status.

What are the benefits of Hyatt elite status?

World of Hyatt elite status has quite a few perks. The table below doesn't go over all of them -- free bottled water isn't all that exciting and won't make you say "Wow, I need Discoverist status!" But it highlights some of the most valuable perks you'll get at each status.

While Globalist is clearly the best of the best, each elite status can help you save money and have a better time during Hyatt stays. You'll earn more points on your bookings. You'll be able to go to the special Elite check-in line and checkout later, when that's available. And a complimentary room upgrade is always nice.

If you like staying at Hyatt hotels, it makes sense to go for elite status. It doesn't take too many nights to get Discoverist status, or you could get it by opening a hotel credit card with Hyatt. The Explorist and Globalist tiers are harder to reach, but they're attainable for frequent travelers, or anyone who puts enough spending on a Hyatt card.