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World of Hyatt has introduced the ability to book Premium Suite Awards and has modified the way Points + Cash bookings are made; all changes take effect as of November 1, 2018. Like most program changes, some are negative, and some are positive, and how you are affected depends on your stay patterns.
Premium Suite Awards
Effective November 1, 2018, you will be able to book Hyatt Premium Suites at all categories of Hyatt properties. Awards are priced according to the following chart, with category 1 Premium Suite Awards priced at 10,000 points per night, and category 7 awards setting you back 60,000 points per night.
Points + Cash Awards
Through October 31, 2018, World of Hyatt Points + Cash bookings require half the number of points needed for a free award night, plus a set dollar value depending on the category of hotel. For instance, a category 3 property costs 12,000 points for a standard free night award, or 6,000 points plus $75 for a Points + Cash award.
Effective November 1, 2018, the points portion will remain the same at 50% of the required points. However, the cash portion will be 50% of the standard room rate at the property.
Across the board, this is a pretty significant hit. Take the category 2 Hyatt Regency Long Island, previously a standard room Points + Cash award would have set you back 4,000 points plus $55. Now it will set you back 4,000 points plus $84.50, an effective loss of nearly $30.
Things get even worse at higher-end properties. The category 7 Park Hyatt New York would have set you back 15,000 points plus $300; now the same room will set you back 15,000 points plus $497.50. That leaves you nearly $200 more out of pocket.
Our Take
To say the devaluation of the Points + Cash awards is disappointing is an understatement. The change has taken a big chunk of value out of World of Hyatt Points + Cash bookings, and if you used them regularly in the past, you might want to rethink your redemption strategies. On the other hand, the introduction of Premium Suites is excellent news, especially if you were after an aspirational redemption. How will the changes affect your World of Hyatt strategy?
Source: The Points Guy
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This change certainly hurts, but I usually only use points anyways. The card is always good for the one free night per year……after that….Meh.
booked my first premium suite with points.
Disappointing. Hyatt is the property I use when visiting kids out of state.
Very disappointing. I like Hyatt properties but it’s hard to stay loyal when changes like this happen.
This makes me very sad. I really love Hyatt Hotels 😙
Well I plan to ” vote with my dollars” and dramatically reduce the number of stays I will be making at Hyatt properties in 2019. If others followed suit, we might have the opportunity to convince Hyatt to rescind these new changes, which are a substantial devaluation for those of us who use Cash Plus points.
Yes! More ways to redeem points. woohoo.
thank you
I’m a new Hyatt customer, but this devaluation doesn’t make me very excited about the future
I don’t mind giving up on points and cash when I can now guarantee a premium suite.
This is pretty disappointing, big devaluation.
Sadly, yes
I’ve always been a fan of points + cash, so this is a huge disappointment. Looks like full points or full cash bookings provide more value now.
I definitely prefer a P+C devaluation to a standard award devaluation…
Don’t jinx it!
Since I am a fairly new Hyatt customer, I wasn’t able to take advantage of the points + cash. Sad that I won’t be able to experience the lower amount but at least it’s still an option. Could still use points + cash and then cash from another cash back card or UR points to help cover the rest. Horrible to double dip like that though, but if I really wanted to get a nice room I would.
I wonder how available the new level will be?
Devaluations like this are killing this game slowly.
Hopefully, they don’t devalue bookings just using points before I use them. I just booked an AirBNB for March instead because the value (plus location and reviews) was too good to beat.
Not as big of a devaluation as Marriott but they keep chipping away at every program
Thank you for this article. Major devaluation of points + cash option. Points are probably next.
Hope they don’t change the number of points required for an all points stay.
Hope they don’t change the number of points for an all points stay.
I’ve used Hyatt’s Points + Cash bookings quite a bit in the past and I am very disappointed in their devaluation. In general, hotel points seem to be going through universal devaluations. I also used Starwood points extensively in the past and now with the Marriott merger they are not nearly as valuable.
glad i don’t book at Hyatt’s thats a major devalue
What a disappointment!
Unfortunately it’s the way of the points world. And while I’d rather stretch my points than go aspirational (most times), at least they “gave” us something.
very disappointing but at least the points seems to be fine for now.
I have never been a fan of points and cash booking but this really does take a lot of the value out of these bookings for Hyatt. The ability to have more aspirational bookings using points is nice, but I still am satisfied with full points bookings for 8000 points per night.
Points and cash rates were a good deal, especially for extended stays.
I don’t approve of this devaluation at all!
Neither do I.
They are effectively ending the usefulness of Points + Cash rates. Big devaluation.