Extended to Nov 2019: Complimentary Hyatt Explorist status for selected MNC employees

Although elite status may seem hard to earn on paper, there are actually a myriad of ways to earn it quickly without having to stay 50 nights away from home each year. Most of these, however, still require you to do at least a handful of stays, or have a high-end credit card (like the AMEX Platinum Charge, which comes with elite status in several hotel chains).

The good news is that if you’re working for the man in an E Corp-esque cubicle farm, you may be eligible to get Hyatt elite status without needing a single stay.

Hyatt is offering instant Explorist status (their second highest tier) to employees of selected companies.

Check if your company is eligible here

Click the link above and enter your Hyatt membership number and company email address to check your eligibility.

If you’re eligible, you’ll enjoy Explorist status for 90 days. During this period, if you stay 10 qualifying nights, you’ll keep Explorist status through February 2021. If you stay 20 qualifying nights, you’ll get Globalist status through February 2021. You need to register by 28 November 2019. 

Which companies are eligible?

Just for fun, I played around with the email validation system because it seems to do an instantaneous check on the back end whether your company is participating. If it isn’t, you’ll see something like this:

But if it is, you won’t get any error message…

…and your registration will subsequently go through. You’ll need to complete your registration by clicking on a link sent to your company email.

As per Point Me to the Plane, the offer is available to both “targeted companies” and “companies with corporate rates”. Through trial and error, I found that EY, IBM, PWC, Microsoft, Apple and Netflix all qualified. I’m sure there must be more, so do try your company and let me know if it works.

Benefits of Hyatt Explorist and Globalist status

Explorist status usually requires 30 nights a year to qualify, and comes with

• Complimentary premium internet
• Waived resort fees on award stays
• 2pm check out, on availability
• Upgrade to best available room, excluding suites
• 20% bonus points earning
• 4 Club lounge passes

Globalist status usually requires 60 nights a year to qualify, and comes with

• Complimentary premium internet
• Waived resort fees on award and eligible paid stays
• 4pm check out, based on availability
• Upgrade to the best available room, including standard suites
• Club lounge access
• The ability to gift status via Guest of Honor stays (I’ll write something about this soon)
• 4 guaranteed suite night awards after 60 qualifying nights

Both Explorist and Globalist status also come with M Life Gold, which may or may not be useful to you depending on how you feel about casinos.

Status match opportunities

Once you have elite status with a single chain you can parlay it for elite status elsewhere. You could match Hyatt Explorist status to Hilton Gold for a further 90 days (although you do need to show proof of at least one stay within the last 12 months), or to Best Western and Wyndam Rewards (neither of which require any proof of past stay .

Conclusion

Hyatt doesn’t have the largest footprint of all the chains, although they’ve recently started some great partnerships to expand their reach, like the one with SLH.

But then again, that’s the point of this corporate status challenge- the hope is that by offering complimentary elite status to road warrior travelers, Hyatt can encourage them to switch their patronage. Even if you don’t travel for work, it’s worth trying your luck with registering so you can enjoy some additional benefits on an upcoming trip (or match the status to a chain where you’ll stay).

Remember that Hyatt is currently offering its largest public points sale until 12 June 2019, where you can buy points at 1.71 US cents each. These points can be used to score great value redemptions at luxury hotels for much lower than revenue prices.