[Now Live!] Hyatt Making Major Changes To Elite Status Benefits; Shows Other Loyalty Program How Changes Should Be Implemented

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Update: These program changes are now live! You can now transfer existing awards to other members from the award page:

You can also now select milestone awards from your account overview page:

Originally posted on 11/30:

Hyatt is shaking up their elite status program with some good and bad news.

You can read background information about earning Hyatt points, elite status, and elite qualifying nights via stays or credit card spending in this post.

Guest of Honor changes

The bad news here is that the unlimited use Guest of Honor program is going away as of 1/1/24. I always thought this program was too good to be true. It allows top-tier Globalists to redeem points for an award that can be used by anyone, allowing them to receive top-tier Globalist benefits during their stay. Combined with the ability to transfer Hyatt points, that meant you could make anyone a Globalist for an award stay.

Instead, you will be able to earn new Guest of Honor awards via milestone awards. These awards will be enhanced though, as they will now be valid on both paid and award stays of up to 7 nights. Benefits include waived resort fees on all stays, club access or free breakfast, room upgrades, late checkout, premium internet, bottled water, and free parking on award stays. However, guests of honor will not earn the Globalist 30% bonus point on paid stays.

You will also be able to go online and gift the award to another member to use, and you will receive 1 elite qualifying night credit after the member completes their stay.

Globalist benefits before earning Globalist

Also interesting, is that under the new program you will receive a Guest of Honor award after 40 nights and you can apply this to your own stay, to receive Globalist benefits even before you earn Globalist status at 60 nights! You won’t earn a bonus elite qualifying night credit when you redeem this for yourself, though you will earn the regular elite qualifying night credits.

Guest of Honor for existing Globalists

As a one-time benefit, members with Globalist status as of 12/31/23 will receive 5 of the new Guest of Honor awards on 1/1/24, which will expire 2/28/25.

Impressively, if current Globalists use or gift all of their Guest of Honor awards, they can still call Hyatt to gift unlimited legacy Guest of Honor awards on free night award stays through their tier expiration on 2/29/24 (for Globalists that qualified in 2022) or 2/28/25 (for Globalists that qualified in 2023).

The terms state that if current Globalists have a tier expiration later than 2/28/25 that they can access this benefit through 2/28/26, though I’m not sure how someone would have a later tier expiration date in 2023?

Lifetime Globalists will get 5 Guest of Honor awards annually, in addition to their annual category 1-7 free night, 4 suite upgrade awards, and Hyatt concierge. Lifetime Globalists can also book unlimited legacy Guest of Honor awards through 2/28/25 after their allotment of new Guest of Honor awards are used.

Transferable Awards

Hyatt will also allow you to transfer awards on Hyatt.com such as Guests of Honor awards, free night awards, suite upgrade awards, club lounge awards, and Miraval extra night awards. An award can only be transferred once, so if the stay is canceled, the award would remain in the gifted party’s account.

You can still book awards in other people’s names without transferring them and the award will then remain in the original account if canceled.

Milestone Award Improvements

The other big change will be with milestone awards, which Hyatt awards as you collect elite qualifying nights.

The current ones include some non-sensical benefits, like club lounge awards for Globalists who already receive club access with their status.

Here is how the new Milestone benefits compare to the current program. In nearly every case, besides perhaps at 40 nights, the new milestone awards are a significant improvement over the current milestone awards:

Milestone Award terms

The 2K next stay award will provide 2K bonus points if you stay on a paid or award stay at any Hyatt Place, Hyatt House, Caption by Hyatt, or UrCove hotel within 180 days of the award selection. If you earn this award multiple times, you’ll need to make separate stays to earn each bonus.

The Miraval extra night award will provide 1 free night at any Miraval hotel when you pay or redeem points for 1 night, within 180 days of the award selection. If you earn this award multiple times, you can redeem multiple extra nights on the same stay. You can’t use any room upgrade awards with these awards. Nightly resort credit isn’t available on the free extra nights. This award must be redeemed for a reservation with a checkout date on or before the expiration of the award.

If you earn an Ultimate Free night award, you can redeem that at any Hyatt hotel, including category 8, any all-inclusive, or any Miraval property. As with category 1-4 and 1-7 awards, it expires 180 days from the date of issuance and must be redeemed for a reservation with a checkout date on or before the expiration of the award.

The FIND credits are valid for experiences on the FIND site for the remainder of the calendar year in which they are earned, plus an additional 14 months after the calendar year. They can be stacked together for one experience or used separately.

Guest of Honor Awards earned through Milestone Rewards are valid for the remainder of the calendar year in which they are earned, plus an additional 14 months after the calendar year. They must be redeemed for a reservation with a checkout date on or before the expiration of the award.

Club access, suite upgrades, Hyatt concierge, and elite status continue to be valid for the remainder of the calendar year in which they are earned, plus an additional 14 months after the calendar year.

Meeting and Advisors benefit

Hyatt will also award meeting and event planners with 2 elite qualifying nights for every $5,000 spent, up to $150K in annual spending. Travel advisors will also receive 2 elite qualifying nights for every $5,000 booked with an IATA number, up to $150K in annual spending.

Hyatt Leverage changes, save on your Hyatt stays

Chase World Of Hyatt Business Cardholders can open a Hyatt Leverage account for their business.

That program provides discounts for staying at Hyatt. DansDeals readers can receive a DansDeals discount by booking Hyatt hotels via this link.

For example, a room at the Andaz West Hollywood, CA will cost $212 instead of $277 for a rate with a similarly generous cancelation policy:

The same discount goes for other room types and suites as well:

Hyatt will enhance this program with a new benefit for the account holder.

Dan’s quick thoughts

I’m not surprised to see the unlimited Guest of Honor program go away, but it still stings.

To Hyatt’s credit and unlike with other loyalty programs, Hyatt is phasing in those changes very fairly for existing Globalists. Other programs seem to make changes at the drop of a hat and say too bad, so sad if you don’t like it. Hyatt makes changes and says if you don’t like it, call us and we’ll make it right, at least for the next couple of years.

The Milestone awards are nicely improved and will encourage more card spending and stays. I would have liked to see Hyatt add the ability to use suite upgrades on the milestone free night certificates, as they added for point stays when they launched the World of Hyatt program in 2017. It would also be nice to have a path to redeem suite upgrade awards on premium suites.

But overall, Hyatt remains a much stronger program than any other hotel loyalty program out there today. Hyatt remains the only hotel loyalty program that is still highly rewarding for its elite status and for maintaining award charts.

What do you think of these changes?

HT: Leon F