World of Hyatt is my favorite hotel loyalty program. Hyatt’s program offers published reward charts, good value, numerous ways to get suite upgrades, top-notch elite benefits, and plenty of options to share perks and free nights with friends and family. But it’s not perfect. There are things I’d like to see changed. Here’s my wish list…
Fix the Free Night Category Issue
Over time, it has become increasingly difficult to use Category 1-4 and Category 1-7 free night vouchers. Each year, Hyatt upgrades some of the best Category 4 hotels to Category 5, and the best Category 7 hotels to Category 8. In the past, this has been partially mitigated by the many SLH (Small Luxury Hotels of the World) hotels around the world. In Europe in particular, there were tons of SLH Category 3 and 4 hotels where we could use Category 1-4 vouchers. But then Hyatt divested SLH and bought Mr & Mrs Smith instead. That would have been a net gain if Hyatt hadn’t decided not to include Mr & Mrs Smith’s hotels in rewards charts. Instead, Mr & Mrs Smith’s points pricing is based entirely on cash prices. As a result, not a single Mr & Mrs Smith hotel can be booked with a Hyatt free night voucher. Not a single one. Hyatt could partially fix things by changing the vouchers to 1-5 and 1-8. Or maybe even better: make certificates work either as a category or as a maximum points value. For example, Hyatt could issue Category 1-4 certificates worth up to 15,000 points (standard Category 4 rate) and Category 1-7 certificates worth up to 30,000 points (standard Category 7 rate). And just like Marriott and IHG, Hyatt could allow its customers to top up these certificates with points. This way, for example, we could use a Category 1-4 certificate plus 2,000 points to book a Category 5 night during off-peak season (which normally costs 17,000 points). Similarly, we could then use certificates for free nights at Mr & Mrs Smith hotels.
Allow multiple discounts on a single reservation
I find it extremely frustrating that Hyatt does not allow me to apply suite upgrade awards to reservations that use free night certificates. They also do not allow them for Guest of Honor awards. The same restrictions apply to Club Access awards.
Why don’t you allow us to combine these benefits as we wish?
Do not set a 6-month expiration date for milestone awards.
Stop letting free night certificates earned as milestone rewards expire after 6 months! all Milestone Rewards are valid for the remainder of the calendar year in which they were selected or earned and 14 months beyond. Most Milestone Rewards already work this way. But Free Night Rewards, Miraval Extra Night Awards and 2K Next Stay Awards are valid for only 180 days.
Fix Mr. & Mrs. Smith Reward Stays
Currently, Mr & Mrs Smith prices are set dynamically, with point values ranging from less than 1 cent per point to a maximum of 1.4 cents per point. Even at this maximum, these prices do not reach the Average Point value we’ve seen across all Hyatt hotels (median 1.7, mean 1.8). I’d love to see Hyatt add standard room awards to the mix, so Mr & Mrs Smith rooms, when available, would be priced on a standard award chart. Other rooms should continue to be dynamically priced. If the standard room award thing is out of the question, then all redemptions should get at least 1.4 cents per point value (or more).
Further wishes
Through the Facebook group Frequent Miler Insiders, I asked group members what changes they would like to see from Hyatt. I incorporated some of my suggestions into my suggestions above. And here are other suggestions from the Facebook group that I think are good ideas, but didn’t make it into my top four wishes:
- 5th night free – Rewards
- Show the Pay My Way button on all searches where this option is available, not just cash searches.
- Online point exchange
- No pet fees for Globalist members
- Allow Club Access Rewards to be used for free breakfast Greg’s note: During the pandemic, many hotels closed their club lounges and decided to never reopen them afterward, making Club Access Rewards much less valuable. How about only allowing us to use them for free breakfast at Hyatt Regency and Grand Hyatt hotels (the brands that have most often had lounges in the past) if they don’t have a lounge?
- Allows booking of Premium Suites with either 2 Suite Upgrades or allows one Suite Upgrade to Premium after booking a Standard Suite with Points or Cash.
- Add Guest of Honor as a milestone reward for 50 nights (without removing from other milestones)
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