World of Hyatt Status Changes
Big news broke today on the hotel loyalty front, with new World of Hyatt status changes coming in 2024. Whenever we see hotels and airlines “enhance” their loyalty programs it is usually corporate speak for a devaluation. How about the jewel of the hotel loyalty landscape, World of Hyatt? Would they pull the same thing with these changes to the Hyatt program for 2024? Let's take a look at what is coming next year and then I'll share my thoughts on if this is good or bad.
Update 1/2/24: These changes are now in effect.
New Milestone Rewards
World of Hyatt Milestone Rewards were rolled out a few years back as a way to combat people getting status perks via a status match etc. With the change you could only get the best perks by triggering the Milestone Rewards via your elite nights. Those nights could be earned from holding the World of Hyatt credit card, spending on your card (including the Hyatt Business card) or by staying in their hotels. Each time you would hit a new tier of elite nights you would get some standard perks or get to pick one. They are increasing what is available to people starting next year. Here is the new Milestone Award chart for 2024 with the new World of Hyatt status changes:
As you can see above you now get more options at a greater interval of elite night levels. You also get a set award at most elite night benchmarks (ToP line above), but also get a choice from three options below. This is an improvement, especially at the low end of the chart, versus giving you stuff you couldn't use. Getting a club access award if you are a Globalist member is almost worthless, almost. Hyatt added some new redemption options as well, let's dive into them.
***It should be noted that you get everything listed at 60 nights, the chart is just a horrible design, which will likely confuse many.
2K Next Stay
- Earn 2,000 Bonus Points on their next stay at a Hyatt Place, Hyatt House, Caption by Hyatt or UrCove hotel.
This is available at 20 or 30 nights. I think it is an improvement over automatically getting 2 club access awards. Those are much harder to use after the pandemic with closed lounges all over the place. If you are a Globalist member then you already get lounge access anyway, so there is a very minimal use for them for top tier elites. That makes the bonus points option valuable for many.
FIND Experience Credit
- Select FIND credit to use on any FIND experience around the globe. Credit ranges from $25-$300, depending on which Milestone Reward the member has achieved.
This is also available at 20 or 30 nights for $25 a time. It bumps up to $150 at 40 and 50 nights and $300 for 70, 80 and 90 nights. I don't imagine this being overwhelmingly popular but it could come in handy at certain resorts.
Miraval Extra Night
- Stay one night at a Miraval resort to receive a complimentary second night.
The Miraval extra night award is available at 100, 110, 120, 130 and 150 nights. This could be a game changer for some. Miraval resorts are crazy expensive, on cash or points, and that has deterred some from booking a stay with them. With this addition you can go for 2 nights and pay for only one. The fact that it works for cash or points stays makes this huge, like 40,000 World of Hyatt points huge.
The Ultimate Free Night Award
Enjoy one free night in any participating Category 1-8 hotel, Category A-F all-inclusive resort or participating Miraval resort.
The Ultimate FNC is available after 150 nights. There have been two things that World of Hyatt loyalists have been begging for. First, to be able to ToP off their free night certificates like the competition allows. Second, a free night certificate that works at any resort. While I think the first one would have been the bigger win this offers up the second one. It just requires a butt ton of elite nights to get, so many will never reach it.
Guest Of Honor Award
Give someone they care about – including themselves – Globalist benefits on either award or eligible paid stays, starting at 40 qualifying nights in a year.
I saved this one for last since I am going to go into it in more detail on it in next. Instead of Globalists having unlimited guest of honor privileges they will earn them as Milestone Rewards along the way with these World of Hyatt status changes. You earn one Guest of Honor booking at 40, 60 (2 of them), 70, 80, 90, 110, 120, 130, 140 nights.
Link To Press Release
The Main Negative With These Changes: Guest Of Honor
If there is one thing that people may be upset with for these World of Hyatt status changes it would be the Guest of Honor tweaks. Guest of Honor was a program that let Globalists use points to book award stays for friends and family. The friends and family would then be able to take advantage of your hard earned Globalist status during their stay. It was a way to gift your top tier status so that those closest to you had a memorable stay.
The problem is that people gamed it by selling access to their status for a price. This watered it down for all other elites staying at the hotel and was likely costing Hyatt more than it was worth. My guess is this is why they made it a Milestone Reward now. That is exactly what they did when people were gaming status matches for their program and introduced the Milestone Reward program.
While there are some that used this perk often for friends and family, in the way it was intended, I think most people probably only used it a few times a year. Anyone that maximized it is unhappy with the changes, but I think many won't notice the difference.
There were some good additions to the Guest of Honor program with this change too:
- Guest of Honor now works on cash and points stays (used to only work on award stays)
- You can book the Guest of Honor awards online which is a nice improvement
- You can use the awards on yourself. This is great for the people that can get to 40 nights but not the full 60. You get to be a Globalist for your most important stay each year.
- The person gifting the Guest of Honor booking now gets an elite night credit where only the person staying used to.
As a bridge to this new gap, World of Hyatt will be giving all current Globalist members 5 Guest of Honor awards to start next year with.
Gifting Milestone Rewards Now Possible
The other notable change with these World of Hyatt status changes, when it comes to Milestone Rewards, is that many of the Milestone Rewards are now giftable. The nice thing is that you should be able to do this easily online when it is up and running too.
You can gift the following Milestone Rewards:
- Club access awards
- Free night certificates
- Guest of honor awards
You can not gift the following Milestone Rewards:
- Concierge
- Suite upgrade awards (although this may happen in the future if they ever become bookable online)
Perks For Event Planners
I know my friend Bonnie is intrigued by this change. According to Miles to Memories event and travel planners will get the following:
Hyatt is also enhancing how event planners, travel advisors and small business admins earn in their program. Starting January 1, 2024 people planning events on behalf of others will earn 2 qualifying night credits for every $5,000 USD in spend. This caps out at 60 elite qualifying nights or $150,000 USD.
That is pretty epic, especially with how expensive some of these conferences can be. Some planners may be able to get top tier World of Hyatt status after just one or two events.
World of Hyatt Status Changes: ToP Thoughts
It is surprising to say this, but I think these “enhancements” are positive overall. Miracles do happen! I think Hyatt is giving us more options as we earn elite night credits and has caught up some on their seriously lagging online capabilities. It still surprises me how far they have left to go though. Let's get points sharing, suite night award bookings and free night cert top offs up and running and all online already! Maybe next year.
The one downside I see to these changes are people that heavily used Guest of Honor for friends and family members. Hopefully you can still book the room for yourself and just add their name to it. There is no guarantee this works but it gets by at most hotels, at least in the US. Otherwise, be more diligent in who you give your gifts to! I think the Guest of Honor program improved overall though, with online bookings and them working on cash stays now too.
Let me know your thoughts on these World of Hyatt status changes over in the ToP Facebook Group.
