How To Gift Hyatt Guest Of Honor Award

Late last year Hyatt made some changes to their Milestone Rewards, making it easier to use and share many popular rewards.  They also added some great new benefits, such as free nights at Miraval resorts and the opportunity to earn a free night award redeemable at any Hyatt property in the world.  As part of that slate of changes, they made it considerably easier to share rewards such as their Guest of Honor award.

Guest of Honor awards are very unique in the hotel loyalty space.  While Globalist Suite Upgrades are my favorite award, I would argue that Guest of Honor awards are one of the most valuable benefits of hotel elite status.  By making someone your “Guest of Honor” they will be treated as a Globalist for an upcoming hotel stay.  That means being able to take advantage of benefits such as guaranteed late check-out, free breakfast and the chance at complimentary room upgrades.  I’ve been able to make some great memories for family and friends with Guest of Honor bookings.

Hyatt made these awards even more valuable last year. Prior to the recent changes, a Globalist member could only book a Guest of Honor award using their own points.  Now that the awards are transferable, Globalist members have a lot more flexibility. The recipient can make their booking (with cash or points) and apply the Guest of Honor award on their own.  The only significant restriction is that you can’t combine a Free Night Award (such as those earned from holding a Hyatt credit card) with a Guest of Honor award.

In the past, members would need to call Hyatt (or e-mail their Globalist Concierge) to setup a Guest of Honor booking.  It wasn’t the end of the world, but there was friction (and some folks really hate picking up the phone).  When I sat down with Hyatt last year, they outlined how the process would be streamlined.  At the time we weren’t able to test the new features.  Recently, I had the chance to test if the new procedures performed as advertised.

How To Gift Hyatt Guest of Honor Award

The first thing worth mentioning is that the Hyatt app seems to be more reliable to perform any of the new actions, such as gifting awards.  Your best bet is to start with the app.  Here’s a step-by-step walk-through of transferring a Guest of Honor Award. In the “Account” section of your Hyatt app, select the “Awards” tab.  Scroll down until you see “Guest of Honor Awards”.  If you have Guest of Honor Awards from Milestones as well as last year, they’ll be organized chronologically by expiration date.  Choose the one with the soonest expiration date, which should be at the top.  Choose “Gift”

On the next screen you’ll be prompted to enter the World of Hyatt number and last name for the member you wish to transfer the Guest of Honor award to.  Note: even if the person you’re gifting a Guest of Honor award to has never stayed at a Hyatt hotel, they’ll still need to sign up for the World of Hyatt program to receive the award.  Hyatt does verify the information you enter and will reject the transfer if the name doesn’t exactly match the membership number.

Next is a quick confirmation screen.  Once you click “Confirm”, the transfer is a final transaction.

Hyatt has instituted a 2FA step, which I’m a big fan of.

Success!  You’ll get a message that your transfer has been completed.

Shortly after that, your recipient will get an e-mail notifying them that they have a Guest of Honor award to use on a future booking.

The Final Two Pennies

Hyatt’s Guest of Honor bookings are more valuable based on recent changes.  Hyatt wants to encourage Globalist members to reward their friends and family with Guest of Honor awards.  For each Guest of Honor booking a Globalist gifts to someone, they’ll also receive one elite night credit.  That means transferring a Guest of Honor award can help you re-qualify for Globalist status.  As you can see from my step-by-step instructions, Hyatt has made it much easier to give someone a Guest of Honor booking.  It took me just a few minutes, and my friend was on their way to free breakfast and late check-out on an incredible Hawaiian vacation!

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