World of Hyatt has long been my favorite hotel rewards program. It offers great point value, multiple ways to book suites at a good value, shareable perks, and the best top-tier elite benefits of any major hotel chain. Sadly, the first item, “great point value,” is about to devalue. Hyatt has announced that new 5-price-tiers-per-category award charts will take effect in May 2026. On average, point prices will be considerably higher than before. Worse, the top, extreme-peak pricing will be way higher (38% to 67%, depending on the hotel category). Full details can be found here: Mayday — Hyatt to launch a brutal new World of Hyatt chart in May 2026.
So… What now? Will I continue to turn to Hyatt for hotel bookings? Will I continue to pursue Hyatt Globalist status?
My general hotel-booking approach won’t change
While I’m a fan of Hyatt’s loyalty program, I don’t usually go out of my way to book Hyatt hotels. Instead, when picking a hotel, I look at its location, reviews, and whatever other factors are important to me for that trip. I also look at whether I can use hotel credits, free night certificates, or points for good value. When a Hyatt hotel makes my short list, I often find I can get great value by booking it with Hyatt points (usually by transferring points from Chase Ultimate Rewards to Hyatt).
When Hyatt’s point prices go up, there’s no reason for me to change my approach to booking hotels. Instead, I expect that booking with Hyatt points will be the “winner” less often. To be clear — it will still happen. There will still be plenty of times when Hyatt points offer the best value compared to any other option. But I think it will happen less often than it does today. Instead, I’ll probably find more opportunities to book with other hotel points (Marriott, IHG, etc.), use various free-night certificates or hotel credits, or book through Chase when Points Boosts are available.
Reconsidering Hyatt Globalist status
I love Hyatt Globalist status for perks such as daily free breakfast, free parking on award stays, free upgrades, and waived resort fees on all stays. Those benefits are only valuable, though, when staying at Hyatt hotels. If increased award pricing leads me to stay at Hyatt hotels less often, the value of Globalist status will decrease accordingly. Additionally, as I book more hotels through Fine Hotels + Resorts® and The Edit by Chase Travel℠, Globalist benefits become less meaningful even when staying at Hyatt hotels. Recently, for example, I stayed at the Park Hyatt Melbourne, which I had booked through Fine Hotels + Resorts. Booking through Fine Hotels + Resorts automatically provides free breakfast, a free room upgrade, and property credit. As a result, I didn’t benefit at all from my Globalist status during this stay. I received the exact same treatment (which was very good, by the way) as if I had no status at all. If I had parked a car at the hotel or if the hotel charged resort fees, I would have benefited from Globalist status, since those fees would have been waived. Neither was the case for this particular trip.
I have no doubt that I will have some Hyatt stays where Globalist status will be meaningful. In those cases, I would just need to find people willing to gift me Guest of Honor certificates so I could receive Globalist benefits for those stays. Within the Frequent Miler Insiders group on Facebook, there’s the “Wild West Sharing Thread” where people regularly offer up their Guest of Honor certificates.
Logically, it doesn’t make sense for me to continue to pursue Hyatt Globalist status. Emotionally, though, it’s tough to give it up. Recently, I’ve received incredible upgrades at a couple of Hyatt properties. I’m not convinced that I would have had the same luck with Guest of Honor certificates. And in at least one of those stays, I wouldn’t have bothered to look for a Guest of Honor certificate, since it was just one night.
I’ll probably continue to pursue Globalist status this year as planned (See: Greg’s elite plans for 2026). That will give me Globalist status through February 2028. And it will give me plenty of time to evaluate Globalist status under the new award chart to see whether it still delivers enough value to be worth the effort.
The wild card — a new Hyatt card
In the sections above, I stated that I’ll probably book Hyatt hotels with points less often, which will make Globalist status less valuable. There’s one wild card that could change things, though: we expect Hyatt to introduce a new credit card this year. It’s possible that the new card will offer perks that lead me to stay at Hyatt hotels more rather than less. For example, if the new card unlocks the ability to top off free night certificates with points to access higher-category hotels, and/or makes it possible to earn more category 1-7 free night certificates, then Hyatt’s higher point pricing may be less of an issue.
In case you missed it, I wrote up my dreams for the new Hyatt card here: My Hyatt premium card wishlist.
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Globalist since 2020. While I like the perks, it is becoming hard to maintain the status. I’ll let it expire in Feb 2027.
For your stay in Melbourne did you get access to the club lounge by virtue of the way you booked the stay? We had stayed there last year and very much enjoyed every aspect of the hotel.
I just realized you stated a different hyatt than I did in Melbourne. We stayed at the Grand Hyatt.
Good to hear that the Grand Hyatt was nice. The Park Hyatt used to have a club lounge (which is very unusual for Park Hyatt hotels), but they closed it permanently.
“Logically, it doesn’t make sense for me to continue to pursue Hyatt Globalist status.”
+1
Will getting the current 80k WOH Business card today challenge receiving a SUB for the upcoming Business card? Advised? ill-advised?
I’ve otherwise already found Globalist not worth it as of last year, but I considered directing substantial spend toward status via the Business card. The now-higher prices makes that less likely outside of like, India, Indonesia, and the like. At present, Hyatt is receiving far fewer nights from me, so I do wonder if changes like these will begin to hurt their bottom line? Seems quite a few people are value-oriented or less price sensitive
The opportunity cost for obtaining Globalist was too high when you only take 1 to 2 trips a year for longer stays at a luxury level Hyatt. Makes more sense to search for a GOH for those trips than to bother with mattress runs or put spend on a Hyatt card. I’d rather put spend on a Hilton Surpass card where $15k spend earns a FNC. Spending $15k on the Hyatt earns a FNC but only for Category 4 or below. If Hyatt ends up killing award luxury stays with their new quasi-dynamic pricing, I’ll be even more focused on Hilton on luxury stays and use my Hyatt points for low-end airport stays.
For me the change is that once I hit the $15k on the credit card for the free night, it’s a non use. Really a shame. Even staying at Hyatts. I think that there will be value still. But, I’m spending points before the change, that’s for sure.
I’m in the same boat as many here and will qualify for Globalist for 2027 based on current and planned travel and credit card spend. What’s changed is that I’ve sock-drawered my Hyatt card for the rest of this year as I had some big purchases I used it for prior to the devaluation and can hit 60 nights just via stays. I knew I was getting suboptimal earn on the card, but it allowed me to top off my EQN’s to get to Globalist (and points to use for bookings) and higher milestones. Now with the huge devaluation, the gap now between earn and how much those points will buy in terms of stays is too wide for me to put any spend on the card besides what I need for Globalist for 2027.
My sense is in April there will be a ton of hotels moving up in category as Hyatt resets the categories prior to the May devaluation. Then, as they’ve stated, hotels should be moving less and less up in categories in future years. Hyatt has said we won’t see a lot of hotels redemptions moving up in tiers this first year, but what I see happening is over the years more and more nights for a particular hotel will only be available in the top two tiers. They can say they aren’t moving hotels up into new categories each year, but these migrations to the top tiers are basically the same thing. Just harder to track.
Really bummed at the moves Hyatt has made. Hoping too that there might be some value added with a new premium card, and/or enhanced earn rates for Globalists to offset some of this.
“Then, as they’ve stated, hotels should be moving less and less up in categories in future years.”
When Hyatt introduce the new Category 8 in 2019, they promised that category 8 was just for special ‘SLH Hotels’ they were bringing into the program.
Now SLH is gone but there are Hyatt hotels in Category 8.
These promises are not even the worth the paper they are printed on.
100% agree and I don’t believe for one minute they will hold to what they say/have said. I’d guess in future years before they “officially” move a hotel up a category most of it’s redemption nights will be in the highest two tiers, which basically match the higher category’s lowest tiers.
When is the premium chase Hyatt card anticipated to be released? I’m personally trying to decide whether to use a 5/24 slot for a Bilt palladium or save it for the Hyatt card if it’s coming soon
I asked Gary at VFTW and he’s thinking this fall.
If the ‘thot leader’ says so… must be true!
LOL! He said he based that on the timing between the last time Hyatt changed program terms and the release of the new card. Definitely not “insider” info. I’d think with the huge devaluation, Hyatt might have tried to time the release of a new premium card around this to help “soften” the blow and redirect the narrative, which is mostly negative around their program right now.
One “upside” is that with many people leaving Globalist upgrades will become easier. Not a huge factor but something to consider. Maybe the hotels will aslo value Globalists slightly more as they will overall be paying more for the status through increased award pricing.
I can only speculate, but I strongly suspect that “points and miles Globalists” (maximizers who reach Globalist through a combination of mostly award stays, CC spend, maybe some mattress runs) are a small minority of all Globalists. Most globalists are probably road warriors whose company/business pays for their stays at limited-service properties.
These road warrior Globalists will probably continue staying at Hyatts and continue burning their points at a similar rate regardless of the devaluation.
Likely; but not nearly as much as Marriott, or a brand with a larger footprint.
Many road warriors go to places without a Hyatt. Consequently, the value-minded Hyatt enthusiast is a higher proportion of the elites
@Greg are you close to Lifetime Globalist status? Or are too many of your stays points?
I highly doubt Greg is anywhere close to earning Lifetime Globalist or ever plans to reach that. Under “My general hotel-booking approach won’t change” above, he only mentions award stays, and I doubt he books a paid Hyatt stay hardly ever. His example of an FHR booking (paid, with Amex credit) at a Hyatt is probably the rare exception.
PS – Nick has regularly mentioned he’s close to earning Bonvoy Lifetime Platinum status. The big difference in eligibility is Bonvoy lifetime status doesn’t require any paid stays (just nights earned on award stays and/or credit card elite nights + 10 years of Platinum (possible via CC)) and Hyatt Lifetime Globalist ONLY counts paid stays ($200k lifetime spend) – award stays don’t move the needle.
LSP is right, I’m about a million years away from LIfetime Globalist at the rate I’m going.
This will be my last year as a Globalist after 12 consecutive years.
Over the past 5 years I stayed in a Hyatt hotel room anywhere from 25-35 nights each year. I made it to 60 nights through credit card spend with both the Hyatt personal and business cards.
As pointed out in this post and previous comments, more and more cards are including hotel benefits. I get $250 Delta stay credit with my Reserve business cards. I get $300 credit with my VentureX card. I am considering a Strata or Sapphire Reserve card that offers substantial hotel credits.
This will be my last year as Globalist as I simply can’t justify the effort to maintain Globalist with my current stay pattern. I will miss the Globalist perks and treatment but I will get to evaluate different properties and locations as a free agent.
I had made my decision before the Hyatt point redemption devaluations so my decision looks even better now
FHR/Edit/HomeAway are to Globalist as Premium Economy is to Business Class… if Premium Economy flights had to be booked at the DMV and were only cost effective for flights 1500 miles and less.
I’m not sure everyone would agree – even before the Plat refresh the FHR was our favorite perks.
So much that during C19 we held 5 Plats primarily for the FHR/Airline the other was gravy – this being Bonvoy Plat – true Plat with annual choice at 50N, and Hilton Diamond and Radisson VIP (all which include Free Brekkie or F&B credit).
Currently we hold four Aspires, three Plats, two CSR, two VenX, USB AR, A Ritz-Carlton and a Brilliant. But honestly the FHR with $300 statement credit 2X delivers a ton of ROI
But the Aspire/Ritz still take the honors for best ROI vs AF.
I kinda of agree with your J vs PE analogy with regards to CSR EDIT – with the exception that you can still find 2X Points Boost on EDIT properties – which slightly skews some of the negative calculus- but will still likely PC sometime after next AFs post (currently $550) this October.
Woah, FHR is leaps and bounds better than those 2-night-minimum, no-guaranteed-4PM-late-checkout knockoffs at Chase or BILT, besides, HomeAway has like hardly any properties on it anyway… yuck.
Thanks Greg! I appreciate the FM team sharing their strategies on this big change. I’m a freelancer and only ever approached Hyatt from the perspective of transferring UR in for redemptions. The relationship was only ever transactional for me. And it seems pretty clear when the devaluation fully takes effect, they’ll be very few transactions where transferring UR to Hyatt makes sense.
Similar I’m also agnostic toward loyalty but Bonvoy has treated us very well (same with Accor Fairmonts).
Like @Greg I tend to check the same tjings when deciding on a property we have points/FNC across IHG/Bonvoy/Hilton/Radisson.
Over past 11-12 years in this hobby, we never really hopped on the Hyatt bandwagon – only made our first Hyatt bookings last year for Hyatt House/Place when we could 3+cpp with no resort fee, free brekkie and parking. All were under 10K UR. I think we have booked 5 Hyatt’s in the past 6 months.
I also use a $150 Delta Stays credit to book MCO Hyatt last month – we ended up no showing – AA CRJ-900 had mechanical issues, so we spent another night on Anguilla – which was cool.as it was 24°F in Orlando that night and 82° on the island.
Sad times. This is the last year of Globalist for me, after many years. The loss of SLH was huge. It took away TONS of possible room inventory.
Now, there are simply too many people chasing too few rooms/suites/upgrades with Hyatt. I don’t care about AIs. I want real properties, actual hotels and resorts, not unlimited cheap booze and middling cuisine.
Also, MMS has zero meaningful benefits (and is more expensive when booked via Hyatt vs. direct.) What a stupid “addition.” My concierge can’t even adjust those reservations.
As crazy as it is, Hilton > Hyatt now, and it’s not close. I’ll not be staying at Hyatts except to use whatever points/awards in have left. My cash nights are now SLH/Hilton.
And Mr and Mrs Smith is abysmal. Nowhere close to slh partnership
Another factor is Hyatt’s increasing dedication to all-inclusives, limited service hotels like Hyatt Place, and other properties that offer little to Globalists such as Mr. & Mrs. Smith. Hyatt has increasingly drifted away from full service hotels with the amenities that made them successful and status desirable. Many if not most Hyatt Regency hotels in the USA now don’t even have a club lounge. With so many stays not offering suite upgrades or lounge access, the free parking and no resort fee on substantially more expensive awards are pretty meager as a solace.
We’ll see just how bad the changes will be but I was expecting category 1-4 certificates to make the long overdue change to 1-5 to mitigate any bad news. I also didn’t figure the bad news would be <i>quite</i> so bad. I will say that regardless, I’m certainly less loyal to Hyatt than a month ago. I’ll reach Globalist this year and perhaps even my wife as well (as planned) but suddenly next year seems a lot more doubtful.
You nailed it.
What you have noted will have a sobering effect on those of us with lifetime status. Between fewer stays on which to use tier benefits and the erosion of benefits, fewer and fewer will find value.