Is it time to use all our Hyatt points? (on Nick’s mind)

For years, the points and miles community has dreaded that the day would come when World of Hyatt would go to a dynamic award redemption system. This week, Hyatt announced the introduction of a new award chart coming in May of 2026. While they were quick to highlight that they are maintaining an award chart, as if to prove that they were not pricing dynamically, the fact is that there are now almost 80 different price points for awards within World of Hyatt. Call it what you want, award prices are going to range wildly and, in many cases, will probably increase significantly. That has led many to panic-redeem, for fear that Hyatt points will become worthless in the future. Is that the right approach? I don’t think it is, but I do think that the way I look at Hyatt points in the future changes significantly.

It makes sense to book trips you want to take NOW

If you’ve been waiting on an aspirational Hyatt redemption, there’s no doubt you should book it now. If you’re sitting on Hyatt points and have been daydreaming about a particular redemption, it is probably time to push back other trip ideas in favor of prioritizing that aspirational Hyatt redemption.

I expect that those high-end Hyatt properties that become outrageously priced during periods of peak demand, particularly those where demand is almost always near a peak, are likely to see the most significant increases in award cost. There are popular properties that today cost ~35,000 points per night during periods when cash rates are $1500 or more (such as at the Park Hyatt Paris). I expect to see awards like those priced at the Category 8 “top” 75K level in the future.

It may not happen right away, but expect that prices will move into the upper echelons of the new chart most of the time at places like the Park Hyatt Paris, Park Hyatt Milan, Park Hyatt Kyoto, some of the Alila properties, and all of the properties in expensive, nearly year-round high-demand places like Hawaii, Tokyo, and New York City. There will also be plenty of seasonal hits, like ski season (especially during school break periods) in Colorado. If you had one of those types of redemptions in mind, it probably makes sense to push back other plans in favor of taking advantage of the opportunity to redeem your points for greater value today than what you will likely see in the future.

I moved points this week from Bilt to Hyatt and booked a property that I expect to increase in award price for a school break period next year. I hadn’t expected to plan 2027’s February break this far in advance, but I expect that I will likely be priced out during school breaks in the future, so I decided to make plans now.

Again, it makes sense to prioritize booking any bucket list redemptions before the new award chart takes off in May. I’m less concerned about redemptions at lower and mid-tier properties because I expect that there will still be opportunities for solid value at those levels, and even if award prices increase, I can more easily stomach the swings than at the top end.

Moving forward, the new chart does change my perspective on Hyatt points.

A changed perspective on Hyatt points

As things stand, for years now, I have had a dual perspective on the best uses of Hyatt points. That is to say that I have looked at my Hyatt points as being useful for two very different types of redemptions:

1. Aspirational, high-end, centrally located, or pleasantly secluded properties where I would likely never darken the door if not for my points.
2. Single night stays at a limited-service Hyatt Place (or similar) off the highway on a road trip, or near an event I want to attend, or perhaps an airport.

Both of the above situations have long yielded far outsized value that really overshadows what other programs offer.

Those high-end redemptions excite me, not just because of the opportunity for outsized value, but because they have often provided an experience that I wouldn’t have otherwise had. That’s been so much fun. Sadly, I’ll be far less likely to pursue those types of redemptions with Hyatt in future years when those properties move into the upper pricing bands of categories 7 and 8.

I can’t see myself using 75,000 Hyatt points for a single night at a hotel, no matter how nice the hotel or how outsized the value. The points just aren’t easy enough to earn at a rate that makes that reasonable for me. Furthermore, I have historically gotten most of my Hyatt points by transferring from Chase Ultimate Rewards. I can’t turn a blind eye toward transferring 75K points to Hyatt to redeem for a single hotel night when I could alternatively cash out those points for $750. It doesn’t matter to me if that hotel would ordinarily cost $1700 per night; I’m just not a buyer at six or seven hundred dollars a night (nor do I want to use an entire new card intro bonus to book a single hotel night). Hyatt is simply pricing me out with these new higher end redemptions in the new chart.

However, I fully expect that there will still be a plethora of situations where lower to mid-tier redemptions will continue to provide good value.

In our post “What are Hyatt points worth?“, we examined the value of Hyatt points by analyzing data from Gondola.ai. One of the most interesting looks at the data in that post is a chart showing a breakdown of median point value by brand within the Hyatt portfolio. Keep in mind that the median values are right in the middle — half of all redemptions yield more value, half less. The following chart displays an updated look at the median value of points at different Hyatt brands:

Not every brand is included in the chart above, but, as you can see, median value for Hyatt points is pretty consistently between 1.7c and 2c per point. I’ll be curious to see what that data looks like a year from now and a year later than that.

My best guess is that we’ll only see a moderate decrease in the median. The main hit will likely come to the 75th and 90th percentile values. As of today, the overall 75th percentile Hyatt redemptions ring in at 2.2c per point and the 90th at 2.9c per point. I expect that those numbers will be most drastically affected when the chart changes, since the “upper” and “top” tier pricing within each category will certainly reduce outliers.

However, I don’t expect the middle to move drastically. Will it decrease some? Probably. However, even if the midpoint drops, keep in mind that there will still be opportunities to cherry-pick high-value redemptions in the upper 50%. Interestingly, Hyatt Place and Hyatt House have what are among the highest medians. Some of those limited-service properties offer really outsized value during specific high-demand periods (like the college football example noted in the post about the award chart changes). However, most of those peak periods at limited-service brands probably only account for a relatively small portion of redemptions. I don’t expect the upper 50% of redemptions to be as drastically affected at those limited-service properties as they are at the more aspirational brands. I think it is likely that we’ll still see plenty of good opportunities at the lower tiers.

I also think that we’ll continue to find great uses of Category 1-4 free night certificates. At category 4, I think we’re likely to continue to see some standout properties. Many Hyatt enthusiasts have a favorite Category 4 property or two that makes us hold our breath each year when category changes are announced, hoping not to see it move up. I imagine that many of those properties are somewhat likely to stay within Category 4 if award pricing is able to increase to as many as 25,000 points at peak periods. That should make it unnecessary to move as many properties up.

I don’t think it makes sense to rush to burn points

The Mr. & Mrs. Smith experiment has had many of us concerned in recent years, particularly because Hyatt purchased the brand and then, rather than putting those hotels into the existing award chart, Hyatt pegged points at a value of about 1.4c per point (as seen with the median above. There has been reasonable fear that the same would eventually happen across other brands.

We certainly might see that in the future, but this new chart indicates that we won’t see that type of fully dynamic pricing in 2026 or 2027. Given the breadth of this chart, I would expect it to stick around for at least several years. And while I do expect it to severely limit the value outliers, my bet is that there will still be a lot of situations where Hyatt will offer best-in-class value for at least the next few years.

And there are aspects of the Hyatt program that will certainly continue to retain value. Guest of Honor awards will continue to be valuable for meaningful stays — perhaps more so if these category changes chase off some Globalists and/or reduce the number of folks booking award stays.

Furthermore, I’ll be keeping an interested eye on the upgrade chart in future years. As hotel programs reduce the opportunities for outsized value, I will probably be pushed toward cash bookings in more instances in the future. With no change to the chart for upgrades on paid nights, I’ll be looking for opportunities to book those places where I can upgrade to a club room or suite for a reasonable number of points.

Either way, I’m not in a hurry to dump all of my Hyatt points. I’m prioritizing their use for properties that I expect to climb to a point that prices me out, but I’m not looking to cut and run.

What does this mean for the value of Hyatt points?

According to our data from Gondola, the mid-point for Hyatt points (the median of all redemptions, including Mr. & Mrs. Smith) is 1.67c per point. I don’t think Hyatt wants to show a noticeable dip in the midpoint as the new charts launch, so I expect that value to remain relatively constant.

As a result, my bet is that our Reasonable Redemption Value (which is currently based on the previous median of 1.8c per point) may not change significantly over the next year or two. That said, your personal benchmark for beating our Reasonable Redemption Values might need to change. For instance, if you typically target those 90th percentile 2.9c redemptions, you’ll probably need to adjust downward significantly. That will change the way Hyatt points feel, even if reasonable value expectation doesn’t.

What does this mean for the value of Chase Ultimate Rewards points?

I have long said that the day that Hyatt goes dynamic, Chase is going to lose its luster for me.

There is no doubt that when the opportunities for outsized value with Hyatt decrease, Chase points will move down in order of preference for me, even if not in absolute value. I expect Hyatt points to still be worth about as much in the future, but with less potential upside, I am less interested in Hyatt. I don’t prefer Chase’s airline partners over competitors. That makes me less excited about collecting Chase points in the future. That’s not to say that I won’t collect them, but rather that I won’t prioritize them in the same way.

That said, I expect Chase will be fine. Plenty of people highly value having access to familiar partners that they know and trust, like United and Southwest (and Hyatt). This Hyatt devaluation probably won’t matter to most Chase users.

Still, I think there is no question that my personal preference for Chase points has cooled significantly for now, and I expect it to continue to decrease as properties where I’d like to stay with my Chase points continue to price me out. Does that make Chase Ultimate Rewards points less valuable? Not really. Chase continues to have airline partners with enough outsized value opportunities, and while my enthusiasm for Hyatt may dip, I still don’t anticipate that I’ll redeem Chase points for less than the ~1.5c per point at which we value them. I’ll likely prioritize earning Amex and Citi points because of a wider range of outsized value opportunities for airline redemptions (and to some extent for hotel redemptions via Citi), but I wouldn’t adjust my value of Chase points down so much as my preference for other points up.

Bottom line

The changes to the Hyatt award chart look very painful on the surface, and they will likely cause a significant reduction in outlier redemption opportunities. At the same time, I don’t think it is time to panic-redeem all my Hyatt points. I expect that there will still be plenty of opportunities for good value at the lower and mid tiers of Hyatt for years to come. I’ll be keeping a close eye on median values to see how the new chart influences the value of Hyatt points moving forward, but I bet that I’ll still make good redemptions in 2027, 2028, and beyond. However, I am prioritizing those trips I want to take to “destination” properties. I think there is no doubt that the properties around which one would want to plan a trip will likely price me out in the future, so I’m booking those right now and will be looking to Hyatt for more middle-of-the-road redemptions in the future.

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