Hyatt Globalist In Just 20 Nights Instead Of 60—New Air Canada Partnership Opens New Opportunities

The key challenge in marketing is figuring out who are your customers and where to find more of them. One of the most target-rich ways for an airline to find more top customers is to access people who travel alot with another brand. It’s tough to do this at scale directly with another airline’s customers. But you can find a mutually beneficial way of doing this with a hotel chain. And that chain gets heavy travelers out of it, too.

There’s a long history of airlines actually owning hotels. Pan Am wanted properties so that there were nice places for people to stay at the destinations they flew to. That supported the airline business. United Airlines wanted to vertically integrate to capture more of its customers’ travel wallet.

• Pan Am founded InterContinental Hotels in 1946 to put reliable luxury properties at its international destinations and sold it in 1981.

• American built its Flagship Hotels operation in the late 1960s, then folded leased Americana properties into it in 1972 and branded the combined chain as Americana Hotels. It exited this business around 1980.

• Westin was Western International Hotels until United Airlines acquired it in 1970, renamed it Westin in 1981 and sold it in 1988. TWA acquired Hilton International (not the U.S. Hilton entity) in 1976, and sold it to United in 1986. So United actually owned both Westin and Hilton before unwinding its ‘Allegis’ conglomerate – which also owned Hertz.

But finding valuable customers was a key insight behind the first modern linkup between an airline and hotel the way we see Marriott and United and Hyatt and American work together. It began with Starwood and Delta doing ‘Crossover Rewards’. Delta elites earned miles in addition to Starpoints on Starwood hotel stays, and Starwood elites earned points in addition to SkyMiles on Delta flights, and there were reciprocal status benefits as well.

That was the original model of the Hyatt-American partnership. All those points are expensive. So American and Hyatt revamped to eliminate reciprocal points-earning.

It’s interesting to see a smaller chain like Hyatt partnering with a large airline like American, but Hyatt hits above its weight especially with premium travelers. Their properties skew higher-end, and they have very loyal customers.

So seeing this model extended makes sense, too, and Hyatt and Air Canada have forged a partnership as well, though many of the benefits are focused on travelers in the Canadian market.

Linked members get new ways to earn and redeem points and reciprocal elite status challenges and for those with premium Canadian Aeroplan cards significant additional rewards on Hyatt spending. The status match piece is likely the most valuable for most.

• Hyatt members can choose to earn 500 Aeroplan points per eligible Hyatt stay instead of World of Hyatt points. On a super cheap Hyatt stay – less than about $93 – this can make sense. But it’s too small a play to really move the needle.

• Aeroplan cardholders with cards issued in Canada get a real earnings boost. Premium personal cardholders earn 2 World of Hyatt points and 2 Aeroplan points per eligible Canadian dollar; premium business cardholders earn 2 Hyatt points and 2.5 Aeroplan points; core personal cardholders earn 1 Hyatt point and 1.5 Aeroplan points; and core business cardholders earn 1 Hyatt point and 2 Aeroplan points. That degree of variation is a bit complicated, but premium cardmembers get real value here on top of normal Hyatt earn.

• Aeroplan members can redeem 25,000 Aeroplan points for World of Hyatt Category 1–4 and 75,000 points for Category 1–7 free-night awards. Hyatt members can redeem 50,000 Hyatt points for a certificate worth 30,000 Aeroplan points toward an Air Canada or partner flight reward.

• Hyatt points transfer to Aeroplan at 2:1, beginning with 5,000 Hyatt points and then in 1,000-point increments. Linked Aeroplan elites can transfer Aeroplan points to Hyatt at 2:1, with a 500-point minimum and limits of 100,000 Aeroplan points per day and 250,000 per week.

Redeem For Award Certificates Can Make Sense In Edge Cases

Generally speaking you’ll still want to avoid the points transfers, and you’re going to get better value most of the time redeeming Hyatt points for Hyatt stays and Air Canada’s points for flights. But Air Canada offers valuable hotel redemptions already, and these are an extension of that in a way that mirrors Hyatt’s partnership with American.

And spending 25,000 Aeroplan points for a Category 1–4 certificate at 25,000 Aeroplan points can work out on a top-priced catetory 4 redemption (25,000 Hyatt points) where hotel rates are through the roof but standard rooms are still available. It’s a limited case, but can be useful.

Aeroplan charges 75,000 points for a category 1-7 Hyatt certificate. Hyatt charges 50,000 points for a 30,000 point aeroplan flight reward certificate.

In contrast, American charges 25,000 AAdvantage miles for a Category 1–4 certificate (after a member reaches 40,000 Loyalty Points or Gold status) and 65,000 miles for a Category 1–7 certificate (after 125,000 Loyalty Points or Platinum Pro status). Aeroplan lets members redeem for certificates without first crossing an elite threshold, but Category 1–7 pricing is higher.

Status Matches Is Where The Real Value Lies

I really like the status challenge element here. Aeroplan elites and eligible premium Aeroplan cardholders can register annually for a 90-day Hyatt status challenge: 4 nights to Discoverist, 10 nights to Explorist, and 20 nights to Globalist. Globalist is the only meaningful status at Hyatt and normally requires 60 nights.

Premium Aeroplan cardholders also receive Hyatt Discoverist status, five Hyatt elite-qualifying night credits each calendar year, and two attempts at the 90-day challenge each year. That’s amazing. Globalist comes with upgrades, late checkout and breakfast or club lounge access (but not night-based milestone awards when earned off a challenge).

Meanwhile, World of Hyatt elites receive an annual C$20 Air Canada flight credit after linking accounts. That’s better than a hole in the head, as my grandfather used to say, but it’s really just an inducement to travel with Air Canada by buying tickets.

Later this year Hyatt Explorists and Globalists will be offered annual Aeroplan elite status challenges.

The enhanced credit-card earning is limited to Aeroplan cards issued in Canada. But the status benefit is based on Aeroplan elite status, not Canadian residency. U.S. Chase Aeroplan Card members receive Aeroplan 25K status for the rest of their approval year and the following calendar year. Spending $15,000 annually retains 25K status.

Since 25K is Aeroplan elite status, U.S. cardholders should be able to register for the Hyatt challenge and earn Globalist with 20 nights.

And since Marriott Titanium and Ambassador members can claim Aeroplan 25K status, a Marriott elite should be able to become Aeroplan 25K and then challenge to Hyatt Globalist.