Hyatt is the first hotel chain out of the gates with a new round of extensions to certain aspects of their World of Hyatt loyalty program. Most if not all hotel loyalty programs provided points expiry pause, elite status extensions, award extensions and more early on during the COVID-19 pandemic and most of those program modifications were for this entire year and some into the first couple of months of 2021. With yesterday’s news from Hyatt they are the first major chain to make further adjustments to their program as they have realized they just can’t see the light at the end of tunnel just yet with the current global travel situation.
Here is what Hyatt provided to us as to what they are doing:
To give members one less thing to worry about during this challenging time, World of Hyatt will further extend the following benefits for all members globally:
- More time to use points:
Previously suspended through December 31, 2020, World of Hyatt is now suspending the forfeiture of points through June 30, 2021. As a reminder, the general policy is that points do not expire, but they will be forfeited if a member’s account is inactive for 24 months. - More time to use earned awards:
Awards with 2021 Expiration: All unused Suite Upgrade and Club Lounge Access awards with February 28, 2021 expiration dates will be extended to December 31, 2021. In addition, all unused Free Night awards that were earned in 2020 with 2021 expiration dates will be extended to December 31, 2021.
Previously announced, but important reminders:
- Awards with 2020 Expiration:
All unused Free Night, Suite Upgrade and Club Lounge Access awards with expiration dates between March 1, 2020 and December 31, 2020 will be extended to December 31, 2021. - More time for elite members to enjoy their status and benefits:
Status and benefits have been extended for elite members without having to re-qualify. This means that whatever your status was as of March 31, 2020 – whether Discoverist, Explorist or Globalist – it was updated and now reflects a February 28, 2022 expiration date.
To provide members advance notice to plan ahead and get the most out of their points for free nights, World of Hyatt is making the following updates to its award chart:
- Off-peak and Peak point redemption further postponed:
World of Hyatt is further postponing the introduction of Off-peak and Peak point redemption (originally planned for March 22, 2020) until July 2021. This means that free-night redemptions will continue to be at standard rates through June 2021. - Annual hotel award chart changes announced:
With only a few exceptions, World of Hyatt is suspending its 2021 hotel category award chart changes that typically occur each March. This means that most hotels will remain in their current categories and be redeemable for the same number of points in 2021 as they were in 2020, with a few current exceptions. You can view the list of current hotels shifting award categories here.- 12 hotels will be shifting to a lower award category effective October 29, 2020. This means members will soon be able to enjoy free night awards for less points at Hyatt hotels including Grand Hyatt Vail (from category 7 to 6), Stonebridge Inn, A Destination Hotel (from category 5 to 4), The Lodge at Spruce Peak, A Destination Hotel (from 8 to 7), and Park New York (from category 6 to 5), and more.
- Four hotels will be shifting to a higher award category effective mid-March 2021, requiring more points to redeem for a free night award. You can view the list of current hotels shifting award categories here.
To summarize the changes we see are points expiry due to account inactivity being pushed back another 6 months, free nights, suite upgrade and Club Lounge access awards with being extended to the end 2021, the introduction of off-peak and peak redemption rates being pushed back again and basically they won’t have any hotel moving up or down in categories in 2021 save for 16 of them – 12 of which will go down a category and 4 will go up. None of their locations in Canada take part in these changes.