Hyatt announced several changes to its World of Hyatt loyalty program on Thursday that will take effect in 2024. Thankfully, these modifications are more tertiary than central, although on balance the changes represent an improvement to the program and will spur loyalty.
Hyatt Announces 2024 World Of Hyatt Program Update
Good news: the fundamental structure of the World of Hyatt program as well as the requirements to attain elite status are not changing in 2024.
Milestone Award Change
Milestone Rewards will begin after 20 qualifying nights or 35,000 Base Points per year and continue for each 10 qualifying nights, up to 150 nights.
At (nearly) each threshold, members will have a choice among three awards and Milestone Rewards can now be shared (and even transferred online).
Here’s a chart showing Milestone Rewards at each threshold:
A few notes:
- Hyatt dubs its new free night award an “Ultimate Free Night Award” which is awarded upon passing 150 nights and valid at any Hyatt hotel (Category 1-8 or at an all-inclusive resort)
- Unfortunately, you will still only earn a Category 1-7 free night award at 60 nights, even those such “systemwide” certificates predated the introduction of a Category 8 tier
- Starting at 100 nights in a calendar year, you can earn a Miraval Extra Night (book one night, get the second night free)
- Using points with the Miraval Extra Night award, a two-night stay averages out to 32,500 points per night
- 2K Next Stay Award offers 2,000 bonus points on the member’s next stay at four Hyatt brands:
- Caption by Hyatt
- Hyatt House
- Hyatt Place
- UrCove hotel
These awards can easily be gifted to others online (but you cannot stack awards like combining a Guest of Honor booking with a suite upgrade award)
Now let’s discuss changes to the Guest of Honor program, which you can see reflected above.
Guest Of Honor Changes
Hyatt is revamping its Guest of Honor program in a shift that makes this benefit more flexible, but also limits its use.
The Guest of Honor perk currently allows Globalist members to redeem points for their family or friends and have their benefits applied to that guest. It’s a great concept that encourages loyalty and also rewards it.
Currently, the number of Guest of Honor bookings that can made each year is not capped, but can only be made on points bookings. Starting in 2024, Guest of Honor bookings can be applied to cash stays as well. This is a big deal. Guest of Honor bookings will even be bookable online starting next year.
Another change: When your Guest of Honor reward is applied to a friend or family member’s stay, you will earn one elite night credit at the end of that stay (the person using the Guest of Honor benefit will continue to receive credit for each night of their stay).
Finally, note that a Guest of Honor booking is awarded upon staying 40 nights. That means an Explorist (guests who stay at least 30 nights per year) can sample life as a Globalist member for up to seven nights upon reaching this threshold. That becomes quite a valuable benefit depending upon the property.
Overall, I find these Guest of Honor changes very positive, particularly being able to apply the benefit on cash stays and earn elite credit from someone else’s stay.
A Boon To Travel Agents + Meeting Organizers
Travel agents are incentivized to funnel more business into Hyatt with elite status now possible simply for booking other people or meeting.
Travel advisors can:
- Earn 2 qualifying night credits for every $5,000 USD (up to $150,000) in eligible room-rate spend booked each year at participating hotels and resorts, when booked through Hyatt Privé or directly with Hyatt when both a IATA number and World of Hyatt membership with the reservation. That’s up to 60 qualifying night credits, enough to earn Globalist status.
- Qualifying night credits count toward earning tier status in World of Hyatt and toward Milestone Rewards
For meeting and event planners:
- Earn 2 qualifying night credits for every $5,000 USD (up to $150,000) in eligible spend on events each year, awarded after full payment
- For those doing the math, that equates to 60 qualifying night credits, enough to earn Globalist status
- Qualifying night credits count toward earning tier status in World of Hyatt and toward Milestone Rewards
- Starting in 2025, tier criteria will no longer be based on the number of qualifying meetings in a year
CONCLUSION
Hyatt has announced changes to its World of Hyatt loyalty program for 2024 and I’d say the changes create more value for program members and will drive loyalty. It is nice to see that Hyatt put some thought into this and I am relieved that next year Globalist status will become even more valuable, not less, for most members.
image: Park Hyatt Sanya
I love the new Guest of Honor benefits and Hyatt is so smart to try to get new loyalists this way! I wish United would give us some way to share Economy Plus upgrades with friends and family. I’m always paying extra for my parents to fly in Economy Plus. Kudos to Hyatt for thinking outside the box and enhancing a program in so many ways.
From a personal perspective I’m seeing more bad than good. I use GOH a lot, around 8-10 times a year, and reducing the number by a lot is a huge negative for me even if there’s a waiver for the coming year. Also, don’t currently earned category 1-4 certificates expire after a year? The new ones are only for 6 months. Those are my big gripes.
As to smaller gripes, the certificates earned should have been bumped up to categories 1-5 and 1-8 respectively due to category inflation but weren’t (remember when Hyatt had only 6 category 7 hotels and category 7 was the max?). The 2,000 points as an alternative to club lounge access is better than nothing but not by much. For that matter the club lounge access should offer restaurant breakfast if the lounge is closed rather than the nothing currently offered.
On the good side, the elite night for a GOH booking is weak sauce but sure beats nothing. Likewise for the 2,000 points rather than club lounge choice. It’s also a plus that my Hyatt Prive agent will get some additional benefit for my bookings.
Taken as a whole, these changes do offer something for lower tier members, which is laudable. I just wish that I wasn’t losing out as a 70 night Globalist. Tough to benefit everyone I suppose. Even with these negatives Hyatt is still the best of the major chains so that still counts for something.
I really wish they had done this a year ago. Will hit 150ish nights this year. But it’s not easy to do. And I legit live in hotels.
But love the changes and motivates me to continue to prioritize Hyatt after hitting my usual 100 nights.