If you’re a World of Hyatt member who’s ever gifted a free night or suite upgrade to a friend or family member, there’s a new rule coming your way — but it might not affect you at all.
Starting on June 7, 2025, Hyatt will limit how many awards a member can receive as gifts from others. However, there’s no change to how many gifts a member can give. This is a targeted change, seemingly aimed at reducing the underground market of purchasing awards — something that violates Hyatt’s terms but has become a bit of an open secret in points and miles circles.
Here’s what’s changing (and what’s staying the same).
What’s Changing: Limits on Receiving Gifted Awards
Beginning June 7, 2025, each World of Hyatt member will be limited to receiving a combined total of 10 gifted awards per calendar year.
The limit includes the following types of awards:
- Free Night Awards (Category 1–4 or 1–7 certificates)
- Club Access Awards
- Suite Upgrade Awards
- Guest of Honor Awards
This is a combined limit, meaning you can’t receive 10 of each — just 10 total across all categories.
So, for example, if you’re gifted 3 suite upgrades, 4 free night awards, and 3 Guest of Honor bookings, you’ll hit your limit for the year.
Hyatt will enforce this limit on a calendar-year basis, with the counter expected to reset each January.
What’s Not Changing: No Limits on Gifting to Others
While Hyatt limits how many awards you can receive, there’s still no cap on how many you can gift.
That’s good news for those who like to share their perks with friends or family, especially since Hyatt makes it remarkably easy to gift awards, as we demonstrated in this post about transferring a free night award. This new policy only applies to awards transferred from one member’s account to another, like when you call Hyatt and ask to assign your suite upgrade or Guest of Honor booking to someone else’s profile.
It’s important to understand the difference between transferring an award and booking a stay for someone else from your account:
- You can still redeem points or free night certificates from your account and list someone else as the guest. This is common and not limited by the new rule.
- Some awards cannot be used by another person unless they’re formally transferred, and not all awards are even transferable.
Specifically, Hyatt does not allow you to use the following types of awards for another person unless they are officially gifted:
- Club Lounge Access Awards
- Complimentary Suite Upgrade Awards
These awards must be gifted through Hyatt’s internal process in order for someone else to use them, and those gifts now count toward the 10-award annual recipient limit.
So while you’re still free to book standard award nights for others from your account, some of Hyatt’s most valuable perks can only be shared by gifting — and that’s where the new restriction applies.
Why This Change?
According to Hyatt, the new rule is “intended to support a better experience for members using these awards.” But reading between the lines, it appears this is Hyatt’s attempt to combat the unapproved resale of perks like Guest of Honor awards or suite upgrades.
These awards were never meant to be monetized, but in online forums and Facebook groups, it wasn’t hard to find people selling them, often for hundreds of dollars. By capping how many awards a single person can receive, Hyatt makes it harder for those gaming the system to operate at scale.
My Take
For most casual travelers — or even loyal Hyatt Globalists — this change likely won’t matter. You’re probably not receiving more than 10 gifted awards in a year unless you’re part of a large family, gifting community, or (ahem) gray market.
But for those who were receiving dozens of awards annually, this could be a real speed bump. And that’s likely the point.
In the end, Hyatt is walking a fine line: limiting abuse without punishing generosity. And for now, that line looks reasonable.
Want to comment on this post? Great! Read this first to help ensure it gets approved.
Want to sponsor a post, write something for Your Mileage May Vary, or put ads on our site? Click here for more info.
Like this post? Please share it! We have plenty more just like it and would love it if you decided to hang around and sign up to get emailed notifications of when we post.
Whether you’ve read our articles before or this is the first time you’re stopping by, we’re really glad you’re here and hope you come back to visit again!
This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
