Hyatt is changing their loyalty program effective March 1. Top tier elite status will be more rewarding:
- Upgrades at check-in will include standard suites if available
- It will be possible to earn more than just 4 confirmed suite upgrades a year, and those will be valid on award nights
- Top tier members will get a dedicated reservations representative (“My Hyatt Concierge”)
There are some other elements of the program that trade off, for instance giving up check-in amenities in favor of short-expiring free nights upon achieving status levels.
The biggest tradeoff with Hyatt’s program changes for many is that top tier status becomes harder to qualify for (although everyone who made elite status under the current rules will be grandfathered through February 2018).
Since the Hyatt program has the most lucrative top tier among the major hotel loyalty offerings, there are plenty of people considering whether it makes sense to try to get in under the wire with status before the rules change.
Hyatt Diamond Room Service Breakfast at the Park Hyatt Vendome, Paris
Mommy Points wrote about the last great mattress run, staying 25 times in January and February to earn Hyatt top tier status through February 2019. One Mile at a Time covers this as well.
Once the new “World of Hyatt” revamp of the program starts March 31 the option to qualify for top tier status based on stays rather than nights goes away. The ability to earn stays and nights towards status with Hyatt’s co-brand credit card goes away as well.
But you can stay 25 times or 50 nights before the end of February and qualify for status under the current terms. That’s a lot of stays, and I bet many of them will be completed in Las Vegas bouncing back and forth between MGM hotel properties midweek, at the Hyatt Regency Lisle near Naperville, and at more rural limited service properties.
Do that in January and February and you have status for all of 2017 and all of 2018. And if you want, you can even use credit card spend that hits your Hyatt account by end of February to help get you there.
- Spend $20,000 and receive 2 stay credits and 5 night credits toward Diamond status.
- Spend $40,000 and receive an additional 3 stay credits and 5 night credits toward Diamond status.
View from the Park Hyatt Sydney
There’s one potential wrinkle in this plan, which was pointed out to me by Michael R. and echoed by One Mile at a Time commenter Ryan.
The terms and conditions of the Hyatt program, effective March 1, suggest you cannot get more than 4 suite upgrades on March 1. If you’ve requalified for Diamond status for next year you’ll get 4 confirmed suite upgrades March 1. If you requalify again at the beginning of 2017 what happens?
Receiving Complimentary Suite Upgrade Awards. Upon achieving (or re-achieving) Globalist status by satisfying the Tier-Qualifying Night or Base Point accrual requirements detailed above, a Member will receive four (4) complimentary Room Upgrade Awards for suite accommodations (“Complimentary Suite Upgrade Awards”). For Members who have received Globalist status for a multi-year term, additional Complimentary Suite Upgrade Awards will not be awarded each Calendar Year upon elite status renewal (unless the Member otherwise re-achieves Globalist status by satisfying the Tier-Qualifying Night or Base Point accrual requirement). In no event will a Member receive more than four (4) Complimentary Suite Upgrade Awards on the Effective Date of these Terms.
Living Room of Suite at the Park Hyatt Chennai
The concern is the last sentence, “In no event will a Member receive more than four (4) Complimentary Suite Upgrade Awards on the Effective Date of these Terms.”
If a current Hyatt Gold Passport Diamond member, whose status is going to expire in February 2018, does this mattress run and achieves Globalist status in January and February 2017 (valid through February 2019), do these terms mean they would get status but not more suite upgrades?
Here’s what I was told:
Member is already a Diamond through February 2018. They receive (4) suite upgrades on March 1, 2017.
If an existing Diamond member through February 2018 then requalifies for Globalist through February 2019 by having 60 nights based on a combination of stays / nights /credit card spend before the end of February 2017, this member will receive 4 Suite Upgrade Awards on March 1, 2017. Since this member has hit 60 nights in 2017, the member will not have the opportunity to earn more until hitting tier qualifications in 2018.
If an existing Diamond member through February 2018 requalifies for Diamond through February 2019 on a combination of stays / nights / credit card spend before the end of February 2017, this member will receive 4 Suite Upgrade Awards on March 1, 2017. In order to receive additional Suite Upgrade Awards, this member will need to reach 60 nights (including those from January and February) or 100,000 Base Points after March 1, 2017.
I tested with the Hyatt folks how it plays out in 3 different scenarios:
- If an existing Hyatt Diamond (through Feb 2018) achieves 60 nights by end of Feb 2017 they will receive 4 suite upgrades in March only. So be careful not to have 60 nights in January and February (which is possible – though unlikely – staying with Hyatt and earning 10 nights with credit card spend). Make sure you don’t cross 60 nights until after March 1.
- If an existing Hyatt Diamond achieves 25 stays but not 60 nights before end of February they will receive top tier Globalist status through Feb 2019 but will not receive additional suite upgrades until they do hit 60 nights.
- If someone who is not an existing Diamond – say no status at all – achieves Diamond for the first time before end of February 2017 through stays, but not nights, they will receive 4 suite upgrades upon achieving Diamond status but these will expire on February 28, 2017.
Then — since they will be Globalist at the time of the program transition on March 1 — they will receive 4 suite upgrade awards valid for one year.
And they would have the opportunity to receive 4 additional suite upgrade awards if they reach 60 nights or 100,000 base points in 2017.
For the vast majority of people, trying to mattress run with Hyatt makes no sense at all next year. With Hyatt’s small footprint and top status giving you basically nothing at most of their properties (Hyatt Place/Hyatt House), it is time to put to rest the claim that Hyatt has the best program out there. Unless somebody is already staying in cities with full service properties more than 60 paid nights (preferably paid by somebody else), it is time to move on and stop worrying about achieving status with them. Take the opportunity to burn points as without needing nights for status, you can take advantage of the benefits while they last and free yourself.
I’m like 5 stays short of Diamond this year. Therefore I was planning to do a couple one night stays in Nov/Dec to make up the difference. This means I will have Diamond at end of December ( am currently plat).
Are you saying I will not get the 4 upgrade certs upon reaching diamond? Also, that it probably makes no sense to do a mattress run in Jan/Feb as I wont get the 4 certs then either? Only when reaching 60 stays in 2017?
I guess having the status through 2018 is useful but if I read correctly for someone who will have Diamond / Globalist in 2017 there is no value in doing the run?
Sorry I may just be misreading the article but it is very confusing….
I’m with PS here. I will be enjoying 2017 diamond and moving on. When a loyalty program gives guests the proverbial middle finger you don’t go and throw away a couple thousand dollars of worthless nights to requalify again. Take your business elsewhere. I’m not bitter about it. I get that they need to be competitive and if it was my business I might do the same, but that doesn’t mean I have to fall in line and walk like sheep into the next hotel and do 25 mattress runs just to comply with their new restrictions. Just moving on to other hotels and best wishes to those who will try to continue as top elites.
So could one create a new account and use that for the 25 stays?
Hyatt is small and insignificant. Most of their properties aren’t so nice and they have very limited geographic breadth.
Total misleading articles.
Hyatt only has around 675 properties world wide, out of which 350 of them are Hyatt Place and Hyatt House where top tier members will get no benefit after 1st March(Except bonus points). Which is more than 50% of their total properties. Also they have so many Hyatt hotels that has no lounge, so the only benefit in those hotels will be breakfast. Same goes with most Park Hyatt’s. Which makes 70% of the properties after 1st March will give you no benefits(few hotels with breakfast)
Hyatt is already such a small footprint on top number of Hyatt’s with lounge are even smaller. Anyone who is thinking of mattress run during Jan and Feb 2017 will be better off spending that same money during their actual stay(vacation)
I agree about eventually moving on ! Hyatt diamond is awesome at full service hyatts , even better than SPG in some ways but with the small footprint it’s just not worth it anymore with the changes . Now let’s see what happens to SPG we may be shafted all the way around come 2018 , so who know what’s to come !
Note:
It is impossible to stay 60 nights before March 1st. There are only 59 nights.
I presume Hyatt has access to far more data than I can imagine and knows what it’s doing. But with Marriott/Starwoods on every corner, it seems this is a bizarre time to eliminate stay-based status and to increase the nights required. Maybe it was a reaction to them giving away Diamond status the last couple of years to anyone with a telephone. I wonder whether they are planning some more highly targeted status offers or promos because this makes no sense. Clearly, the handful of globalist swill be well treated, but the reality is that unless you are a business traveler with business to the right places, there is virtually always a Marriott wherever there’s a Hyatt (but not the opposite).
^This. Totally ridiculous that they upped the requirements for top tier and have so few hotels where you get any benefit. I can get breakfast at Hilton and Marriott by holding 1 credit card or at 50%+ of Hyatt’s properties by having a pulse. What a mistake I made focusing on Hyatt instead of Statehood this year. Kicking myself on that.
In other news, does anyone know how the free certs for staying at 5 brands will work? Do the brands I stay at in Jan and Feb count? Or is it 5 brands after March 1? I will take them up on that as I burn my one year of elite status.
@Hunter as I note, you can spend 60 nights if you include the 10 nights earned via credit card spend
@ Gary — Thank you for clarifying that this would be a complete waste of my time.
@PS sez: “..it is time to put to rest the claim that Hyatt has the best program out there.”
LOL. The claim was always bogus, anyway, as WOH! — yet another work-in-progress (WIP) in a long series of such for a program that’s been like in a permanent WIP state — now makes amply clear…
Now I’m confused. I thought an existing Diamond only needed 55 nights in 2017 to requalify for Globalist for 2018 (ending feb 2019). The above says 60 nights to earn DSUs for an existing Diamond (exp Feb 2017).
Gary, could you clarify please?
World of Hyatt, World of Hurt.
Thanks for the news flash Gary; however, when you consider the alternatives to and the opportunity costs of such a plan, anyone getting 60 nights or 25 stays at WOH in Jan. and Feb. 2017 purely to get Globalized (active verb?) has truly gone off the deep end. Maybe Hyatt could come up with a new level for those folk — Extremist or something.
@John. Could not agree more. After spending every day of January and February at crappy hotels and spending $1,000s of dollars, now I can take advantage of my free breakfast at Hyatt Place–whoops, I could have gotten that anyway. It is WWOH (World Without Hyatt) for me once I use up my points.
Free breakfast is not worth this cost, especially if House/Place hotels already offer free breakfast. In a year as Diamond I was only able to use breakfast once, on an award stay, and got lucky to get a suite upgrade on the same award.
I’d love to move to SPG but my business trips don’t find SPG properties close by. Looks like I’ll hop over to Marriott…I’m not incredibly excited about it but at least it’s a viable option. Hyatt was poised to continue to capture all my business but only because of the 25 stay requirement…multiple Hyatts near my office meant 4 easy stays per week…
My wife achieved mattress-running diamond for years and I thoroughly enjoyed the perks that came with it. After their 2016 status match she had lots of trouble getting upgrades. The re-tooled loyalty program for 2017 and beyond eliminated what were once very good hotel awards. So goodbye for now but good time were had though!
@gary @fellowreaders, any chance you could respond to my question above? Sorry its still a bit confusing.
I strongly, strongly recommend against anybody to actually consider doing massive mattress runs to implement this foolish plan.
Save your money and spend it on properties that you actually want to visit.
@Ben O –
>>>Are you saying I will not get the 4 upgrade certs upon reaching diamond?
NO, that is NOT what is being said. If you requalify for Diamond (either 25 stays or 50 nights) in 2016, then on 01MAR17, you will become a Globalist (top tier) member through 28FEB18 *AND* also on 01MAR17 you will receive four (4) suite upgrade certificates valid through 28FEB18.
>>>Also, that it probably makes no sense to do a mattress run in Jan/Feb as I wont get the 4 certs then either? Only when reaching 60 stays in 2017?
IF you do a mattress run to complete 25 stays in Jan/Feb 2017 you will NOT receive an additional 4 suite upgrade certs on 01MAR17. The ONLY way you will earn an additional four (4) upgrade certs (in addition to the four that will be placed into your account if you requalify for Diamond in calendar year 2016) is if you complete 60 *nights* at Hyatts in 2017. Note that if one completes 60 nights at Hyatts in 2017, upon the date of the 60th night being completed, four (4) additional suite upgrade certificates will be earned, and those certificates will expire 12 months from date of issuance. If one wants to maximize the length of time certs are valid, theoretically, one will complete their 60th night on 31DEC17, so that upgrade certs will be valid through 31DEC18. HOWEVER, this is a dual-edged sword, because not earning certs until 31DEC17 means that one may miss windows of opportunity to confirm suite upgrades earlier in the current year when the hotel booking window opens up for subsequent years. Think: Booking suites in 2017 for use around spring break 2018 at suite-limited properties, such as the Grand Hyatt Kauai.
CAVEAT: IF you complete 60 nights in Jan/Feb 2017, then you will NOT earn an additional four (4) upgrade certs on 01MAR17. It behooves members who requalify for Diamond in 2016 to not earn their 60th night until AFTER 01MAR17. By the way, it IS POSSIBLE to complete 60 nights in Jan/Feb 2017 – for example, if you have 50 nights completed PLUS 10 nights earned from HY credit card spend. Also note that if you have a stay that starts in 2016, but crosses over into 2017, the stay and nights count all are considered to be based in 2017, because it is the checkout date that is the driver of stay and night credit. SO in a hypothetical scenario, you could have a 50-night stay starting November 12, 2016 and ending January 1, 2017, and thus for elite program year 1/1/17 to 2/28/18, you would have accrued by January 1, 2017 1 stay and 50 nights).
>>>I guess having the status through 2018 is useful but if I read correctly for someone who will have Diamond / Globalist in 2017 there is no value in doing the run?
It depends. The value you derive from such a run depends on the amount you spend to earn the 25 stays in Jan/Feb 2017, and depends upon your expected travel patterns through 28FEB19, and the benefits (and how one values those benefits) one expects to derive. There are many ways to make the economics work in one’s favor, but each valuation scenario is personal to one’s own cash expenditure on the mattress runs LESS one’s own incremental benefits reaped (and at what valuation) from having Globalist status (i.e., how much do you think you will save by having free breakfasts, waived resort fees, etc.) PLUS from one’s own opportunity cost calculations of the cash expended on the mattress runs (i.e., if I spend $2000 on mattress runs, what else could one have earned/done with that $2000 that one would have appreciated and valued).
>>>Sorry I may just be misreading the article but it is very confusing….
It can be confusing. But it takes a bit of #geekery and #nerdy attention to detail and T&Cs to get it all figured out.
@michael R thanks man that helps to clear it up now!
Hey guys one last question. So let’s say I qualify for diamond on December 15th this year. When I qualify how long until I get the 4 DSUs? Also would I get another 4 DSUs in march 2017 also? Or only if I re qualified again? How does it work? I assume both sets of 4 (or just one I guess) would expire 12 months later…
@Ben O – If you qualify for Diamond on 15DEC16, your four (4) DSUs will appear in your account on 01MAR17, as would have been the case whether or not the program had been changing from Gold Passport to World of Hyatt. Those four DSUs will expire if not used for stays that *end* no later than 28FEB18 (you used to be able to *apply* non-expired DSUs for stays that occurred/ended after the date of expiration, but that policy changed starting with the DSUs that were issued 01MAR16, with expiry 28FEB17).
Luckily I live in Las Vegas. I could do both Starwood and Hyatt, I believe.
The key here is getting the “resort fee” removed.
I wish all the airlines and hotels would just sell status like US Air used to.
Besides suites and breakfast, Hyatt’s biggest Diamond benefit is cutting the buffet line at Bellagio
Gary, just to clarify if I qualify for Diamond status in February 2017 with 25 stays in Jan/Feb I’ll get Globalist status 3/1/17 and I’ll receive 4 suite upgrades. I’ll also qualify to keep Globalist status until 2/2019. However, will I only receive an additional 4 suite upgrades for 3/1/2018 to 2/28/2019 if I hit the 60 nights in 2017? Or would I receive the 4 suite upgrades in 2018 due to the fact that I would still have Globalist status for that year? Essentially my question is if I qualify for Diamond in early 2017 will that entitle me to 4 or 8 suite upgrades over the 2 years of Globalist 3/1/17 to 2/28/19? Thanks.
Your first scenario is correct
Gary you write: “If someone who is not an existing Diamond – say no status at all – achieves Diamond for the first time before end of February 2017 through stays, but not nights, they will receive 4 suite upgrades upon achieving Diamond status but these will expire on February 28, 2017. ”
Is that a typo on the expiration date or is Hyatt awarding 4 SNAs that will expire upon issuance? That can’t be right.
So, based on this Gary that there is a chance to get up to 12 suite upgrades if you achieve Diamond Status in January and February 2017?
“If someone who is not an existing Diamond – say no status at all – achieves Diamond for the first time before end of February 2017 through stays, but not nights, they will receive 4 suite upgrades upon achieving Diamond status but these will expire on February 28, 2017.
Then — since they will be Globalist at the time of the program transition on March 1 — they will receive 4 suite upgrade awards valid for one year.
And they would have the opportunity to receive 4 additional suite upgrade awards if they reach 60 nights or 100,000 base points in 2017.”