Which 40 Night Hyatt Milestone Reward should I pick?

52

Update: Reposting this because I recently received my 2023 40 Night Milestone choice.  I chose 5,000 Hyatt points rather than the $100 Hyatt gift card so that I’d have one less thing to remember to deal with.  Additionally, note that the FIND experience option has improved. It used to be a 10K discount (~$140 off) that expired in 6 months.  Now, it is a $150 credit which expires 14 months past the end of the current calendar year.

a screenshot of a gift card

Many hotel loyalty programs offer extra perks when you reach different thresholds of elite status.  Hyatt does too, but they also reward members with perks all along the way.  Once you’ve spent 20 nights in Hyatt or partner hotels in a calendar year, you earn your first World of Hyatt Milestone Reward (2 club lounge access awards).  Then, every 10 nights after that — up to 100 nights, you earn a new milestone reward.  A full list of Milestone Rewards is shown at the bottom of this post.  This post, though, is about the reward earned at 40 nights.  At 40 nights, you get your choice of:

  • 5,000 World of Hyatt Bonus Points
  • $100 Hyatt Gift Card
  • $150 FIND experience credit

I recently achieved 40 nights and was sent an email telling me to pick one of the above rewards.  Which should I pick?

What are 5,000 World of Hyatt Bonus Points worth?

At the time of this update, our Reasonable Redemption Value (RRV) for Hyatt points is 2.1 cents each.  That’s the value at which it is easy to get that much value or more from points when booking free nights.  So, 5,000 points can easily be redeemed for $105 or more towards Hyatt stays.  That said, I wouldn’t buy Hyatt points for 2.1 cents each unless I needed them for a specific award and I didn’t have enough Chase Ultimate Rewards or Bilt points to transfer over.  If the points were available for sale, I’d pay at most 1.5 cents each.  That means that I’d be willing to pay up to $75 for 5,000 points.

  • Acquisition Value (Amount I’d be willing to pay): $75
  • Redemption Value: $105+ (it is easy to get $105 or more value from 5,000 points)

FYI: Hyatt points never expire as long as you have account activity at least once every 24 months.

What is a $100 Hyatt Gift Card worth?

This may seem like a ridiculous question.  Obviously it’s worth $100, right?  Well, yes and no.  Yes, it can be used to offset $100 worth of Hyatt charges.  No, I wouldn’t pay face value for this gift card.  For one, it is limited to Hyatt hotels & resorts within the Americas.  Additionally, Hyatt gift cards are sometimes available for sale at a good discount.  If the $100 gift card was available for sale, I’d be willing to pay up to $80.

  • Acquisition Value: $80
  • Redemption Value: $100

FYI: Hyatt Gift Cards never expire.

What is a $150 FIND experience credit worth?

a person holding a bird

FIND experiences include things like chef-led cooking lessons, food tastings, surfing, falconry, etc.  If you book these things through Hyatt, you can either pay cash (and earn Hyatt points for the purchase) or redeem points at 1.4 cents value towards the experience.  The $150 FIND credit is a discount off of paying cash.  If this credit was available for sale, though, I’d pay way less than $150 for it.  For one, I don’t know if the FIND prices are any good.  Two: they don’t have a very big selection of options and so I don’t know that I’ll have the opportunity to use the discount.  Three: the FIND Credit is only valid for the remainder of the Calendar Year in which it is issued, plus an additional fourteen (14) months.  That’s a big improvement over the original 6 month timeframe for this award, but still I would never pay anywhere near face value for a credit that expires.  So, if I was given the option to buy one of these, I would likely pass altogether.  However, if I thought there was a good chance of my using the certificate I might be willing to pay $75.  The most I’d be willing to pay would be $125, but that would only be if I was 100% sure that I had a great immediate use for the certificate.

  • Acquisition Value: $0, $75, or $125 (see above)
  • Redemption Value: $150

Which Hyatt Milestone Reward should I pick?

As you can see above, the FIND Experience discount offers the greatest potential redemption value, but it also happens to be the one I’d pay least for if it was for sale.

Out of the other two options, the $100 Hyatt gift card has a slight edge… based on how much I’d be willing to pay for either award.  That said, there is a mental cost to remembering to use that $100 certificate and a potential real cost if you forget about it altogether.  Additionally, the 5K points have a much higher potential value when used.  For those reasons I chose 5K points in 2023.

Bottom Line

Both the 5,000 points and $100 gift card are perfectly good options for most people, but I like the 5K points because of its ease of use and potentially higher redemption value.

World of Hyatt Milestone Rewards

For reference, below is the World of Hyatt Milestone Rewards chart.  More details can be found here.

Elite Nights Earned Milestone Reward
20 Nights (or 35K base points)
Automatic: N/A
Pick 1: 2K Next Stay Award
2 Club Access Awards
$25 FIND Credit
30 Nights (or 50K base points)
Automatic: 1 Cat 1-4 Free Night
Pick 1: 2K Next Stay Award
2 Club Access Awards
$25 FIND Credit
40 Nights (or 65K base points)
Automatic: 1 Guest of Honor Award
Pick 1: 5K Bonus Points
1 Suite Upgrade Award
$150 FIND Credit
50 Nights (or 80K base points)
Automatic: N/A
Pick 1: 5K Bonus Points
2 Suite Upgrade Awards
$150 FIND Credit
60 Nights (or 100K base points)
Automatic: 1 Cat 1-7 Free Night
2 Suite Upgrade Awards
My Hyatt Concierge
2 Guest of Honor Awards
70, 80, 90 Nights
Automatic: 1 Guest of Honor Award
Pick 1: 10K Bonus Points
1 Suite Upgrade Award
$300 FIND Credit
100 Nights
Automatic: 1 Cat 1-7 Free Night
Pick 1: 10K Bonus Points
1 Suite Upgrade Award
Miraval Extra Night
110, 120, 130, 140 Nights
Automatic: 1 Guest of Honor Award
Pick 1: 10K Bonus Points
1 Suite Upgrade Award
Miraval Extra Night
150 Nights
Automatic: Ultimate Free Night Award
Pick 1: 10K Bonus Points
1 Suite Upgrade Award
Miraval Extra Night

Completely separate from elite status, Milestone Rewards are available to everyone and are based on the number of nights you stay in a calendar year. Most awards are valid for the rest of the calendar year in which they are selected and 14 months beyond.  The Ultimate Free Night award, Miraval Extra Night Award, and the 2K Next Stay Awards are good for 180 days.

Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

52 Comments
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments