Tag Archives for hyatt.
By making all Hyatt awards transferable, there’s now a market in more types of certificates – free night awards; club access awards; suite upgrade awards; as well as the Guest of Honor certificates that members will earn through stays going forward.
Marriott Bonvoy (inclusive of former Starwood members) is the largest program while Hilton Honors has been growing quickly and catching up. Accor’s loyalty program – which is newer than the others – is small for the chain’s size. And while World of Hyatt is the smallest among these 7 hotel groups, it hits substantially above its weight, something that’s true both for program membership and for its co-brand credit card deal.
It was already the best status program among the major hotel chains. It’s getting even better for 2024. I’m excited to see they’ll be onboarding Mr. and Mrs. Smith Hotels which offers amazing luxury and boutique properties. I love the places this will unlock for me to spend my points. So I’m excited about the direction Hyatt is headed.
Hyatt is making major changes to its Guest of Honor benefit, making them transferable certificates earned as Milestone Rewards and valid both on points and paid stays – replacing the unlimited points-only benefit that exists today. However in addition to starting out top tier members with 5 transferable certificates next year, it turns out the unlimited benefit is also available through February 2025.
World of Hyatt is making changes to elite benefits for 2024, and they are mostly good. All awards like upgrades and free nights become transferable, and more benefit choices are being added as members stay every 10 nights. It’ll be possible to confirm a suite and try out top tier benefits after fewer nights, while their Guest Of Honor benefit will be more flexible – but no longer unlimited.
Back in July, when Etihad loaded the return of their Airbus A380 to the London – Abu Dhabi route, there was wide open award space for First Apartment award seats. That seemed like a great reason to put together an award trip with my wife and daughter.
We flew British Airways business class to London, Etihad A380 first class to Abu Dhabi and back, and stayed on points in suites at the Park Hyatts in Dubai and Abu Dhabi and at the Hyatt Regency The Churchill in London.
Hyatt is rolling out confirmation of suite upgrades online. This is a big advance in convenience for using these suite upgrade awards. I always worry that inventory will disappear during the time it takes to confirm a suite. I also worry that the manual process won’t be completed correctly.
Here’s the trick. Since these gift cards don’t expire, you can choose when you want future stays through the Mr. and Mrs. Smith group to count towards status.
If you need to top off status this year, buy gift cards now and hit your status goal Or get a head start on next year. If you qualify for status early in 2024, that status will count for the rest of 2024 and for 2025 (through end of February 2026).
A reader stayed at the Grand Hyatt Tampa Bay for his wife’s 50th birthday weekend. He’s a “Globalist,” a top elite with Hyatt for the past decade or more. And one of the benefits of this status is a dedicated ‘concierge’ who helps with reservations, upgrades, billing and points issues and other hotel matters.
Since his concierge knew that it was a special weekend, she contacted the hotel about delivering something to the room for the occasion. The hotel did. And they charged the guest for it, at full room service prices.
Marriott has an affiliate commission-earning business, and they rebate part of that commission in the form of points.
Hyatt is getting into the homeshare marketing business too with Homes & Hideaways by World of Hyatt. It will launch “in the coming weeks” with domestic markets “like Hawaii, Florida and Colorado,” and eventually expand to international markets as well.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
