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Last week Hyatt unveiled their new loyalty program slated to begin March 1 2017: World of Hyatt. You’ve probably already read posts boohooing the changes, but lost in that noise are some big improvements over Hyatt’s old program: Gold Passport. Here are my top 5 new features of World of Hyatt…
# 5 Somewhat Meaningful Mid-Tier Status (Explorist)
The old program, Gold Passport, was all or nothing. Platinum status was near worthless while the next level, top tier Diamond status, was great. With World of Hyatt, there is now a mid-tier status unfortunately named “Explorist”. The key benefits of this middle tier over the lowest elite tier (Discoverist) is that Explorists get 4 Club lounge access awards. That’s not a huge benefit, but it is unquestionably valuable. Sadly, qualifying for mid-tier isn’t easy:
- 30 qualifying nights; or
- 50,000 base points (e.g. $10,000 spend); or
- 10 qualifying meetings or events; or
- Spend $50,000 in a calendar year on your Hyatt Credit Card
#4 Qualify on Base Points with up to 3 Rooms at Once
I don’t know if this is meaningful to many people besides me, but to me this is big. I regularly visit Hyatt resorts with friends and family members. I book all of the rooms so that we share my elite status benefits for the stay. With the old Gold Passport program, this did nothing to help me re-qualify for status. Only one room at a time counted for stays and nights. In the new program, though, up to 3 rooms will count towards earning status through base points. Plus, all spend at the hotel will count too as long as my friends and relatives charge everything to the room.
The World of Hyatt Terms & Conditions state the following:
Multiple Rooms. A Member may earn points for up to three (3) rooms per night (Member’s room and two (2) additional rooms) within the same hotel or resort. The Member must be a registered guest, occupy at least one of the rooms, and pay an Eligible Rate for all applicable rooms. The Member will earn Base Points for each of the rooms, but the Member will only earn Tier-Qualifying Nights (defined in Appendix C) for one (1) room. In addition, only the room occupied by the Member will count toward current Program promotions and receive Program benefits and services. The occupant(s) of the additional room(s) will not receive points (or any partner credit offered to Members in lieu of points).
#3 Upgrade Certificates Better than Before
Free nights booked with points can now be upgraded to club rooms or suites through upgrade certificates. Previously, if you wanted to use an upgrade certificate you could only use it on a paid stay. This is a huge improvement when hoping to use upgrade certificates at very expensive properties. Now you can redeem points for a regular room, and apply a certificate to upgrade the stay.
#2 Top Tier Status Better than Before
Top tier World of Hyatt “Globalist” status is arguably even better than Hyatt Gold Passport Diamond status. While there were a few losses in benefits (I’ll cover those in a future post), Globalist status adds some great benefits:
- Room upgrade upon arrival, up to standard suites (previously suites were excluded).
- Free parking on free night awards.
- Suite upgrade awards redeemable on both paid and free nights
- Priority access to available rooms when checking in early
These are in addition to many great perks carried over from the old program such as:
- Guaranteed club lounge access or free full breakfast at hotels without a lounge
- 4pm late checkout
- 2 free United Club passes per year
#1 Still possible to share top tier status benefits
The new program continues to allow members to combine points, and they continue to allow top tier elites to make “Guest of Honor” reservations. These are the two ingredients necessary for getting Hyatt Diamond Globalist benefits without status.
I realize it is strange that my favorite feature of the new program is already available through the current Hyatt Gold Passport program, but hear me out… When I first saw that a new program was being rolled out, I was sure that they would have cut these features, but they didn’t. Both features are spelled out in the new program’s terms & conditions. As a result, even though it may be harder to re-qualify for top tier status under the new program, it is as easy as ever to enjoy top tier status benefits as long as you have a friend with top status willing to help you out. For more details, see: How to get Hyatt Diamond benefits without status.
What about the new free night awards?
The new program offers free night awards earned through stays, nights, or base points as shown in the following table:
This is a nice new addition, but it didn’t make my top 5 because free nights with tight expiration dates are a double-edged sword for me. Sure, they’re great when they work out, but more times than not I find myself scrambling to find a use for them. Give me points over expiring free nights any day.
It’s also worth pointing out that some have reported that the free nights are tied to status levels, but that is not true. If you earn Explorist status with $50,000 of Hyatt credit card spend rather than through Hyatt stay activity, for example, you will not earn the Free night award that is given for staying 30 qualifying nights or earning 50,000 base points.
See also: 5 things I hate about World of Hyatt
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[…] 5 Things I love about World of Hyatt […]
There’s 2 things that make the World of Hyatt a world I no longer want to live in. (I’m a globalist – spend approx 60 nights at Hyatt’s)
#1 They’ve cut your point earnings in half.. maybe more. The elimination of the amenity bonus (points for waiving the amenity) cuts 500-1000 points per stay. A typical stay for me pays 800-900 points plus the amenity bonus. Now that bonus is gone. So I’m going from 1300-1900 points per stay to 800-900 points. They did not lower the cost to use points. So they’ve devalued their program by approximately 50%.
#2 The free night vouchers that you can now earn have an expiration date of 120 days. Vouchers used to be good for a year. The expiration date prevents me from using them on my winter vacation that I take every year. Maybe if I time it right I’ll get to use one or two. Can’t book vacations on maybe’s and what if’s.
The big improvement is the suite upgrade. Problem is you can’t always use it. There are plenty of reports that people are being denied suite upgrades even though they can book them on line for cash. It’s already happened to me once just this past week. Hyatt places btw don’t have suites so if you use those, it’s a meaningless perk.
I’m not happy about the change because I wanted to remain a hyatt customer. But I will not give up my winter vacation to do so. I know I can use SPG/marriott and earn enough points for that vacation. Cutting my points in half with hyatt will make that impossible. I would have been willing to pay more $. So if the goal was to increase margins they should have just raised prices. Instead the just cost themselves 60 nights per year of my $.
Great points.
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[…] 5 things I love about the World of Hyatt […]
[…] new loyalty program slated to begin March 1 2017: World of Hyatt. Yesterday, I listed the “5 things I love about the World of Hyatt.” But, it’s not all sunshine and roses in the World of Hyatt. Here are the top 5 […]
Current credit card holders get platinum status. What happens to this in the new program?
You get 1st tier Discoverist status
do we still get one free night for the annual fee?
Yep
#4: I’ts great that you earn base points, but are you really going to spend $20,000 a year on family and yourself to get to top tier? Tier-qualifying nights can only be earned on one of the rooms, and would be much more appealing if they were earned on multiple rooms.
Yes, I’d prefer tier qualifying nights as well (see my follow up post listing the 5 things I hate..)
$20K is unlikely, but $10K is possible.
Explain “eligible rate”
In their FAQ, Hyatt defines it as follows:
An Eligible Rate is any hotel or resort room rate published by Hyatt (including rates found on hyatt.com, without the application of a discount code, and Hyatt’s “Standard Rate,” “Volume Account Rates,” and “Senior Citizen Rate”).
https://goldpassport.hyatt.com/content/world/en/faqs.html
As a 2017 diamond, will I receive the 1-4 and 1-7 certs on March 1, or only for hitting 30 and 60 nights after March 1?
I think it is only after hitting 30 and 60 nights after March 1
I believe Hyatt is giving a one-time Category 1-7 certificate to all Globalists as of March 1, 2017 to celebrate the start of the program. But other than that one exception, you’ll have to do the 30 or 60 nights after the start of the new program to earn free night certificates.
Greg-
I assume one could still spend 50K in January and February and the remaining 20 stays in those 2 months and qualify for Globalists through 2019?
Thanks
I believe so, but it may be necessary for your statement to close in February after you hit that spend. I’m not 100% sure about that.
It was 40K for 5 Stays and 10 Nights in 2016. Did they change this as well?
Oops, no you’re right. Spend $40K in Jan and Feb.
The option to earn stays/nights w/ the credit card goes away in March and changes to earning mid tier status with $50K spend.
You lost me on #5. 4 lounge passes are worth very little, not enough to justify 50k manufacture.
I certainly wasn’t suggesting that anyone manufacture $50K for it!
our #1’s match. Single best benefit across hotel programs as far as I’m concerned.