World of Hyatt

This is a reminder that Hyatt's 2022 award category changes come into effect from tomorrow, 22 March, and that means that we have less than 24 hours in which to lock in the current award prices at 70 World of Hyatt properties that will soon cost considerably more. 

A new promotion has been launched for holders of the World of Hyatt credit card in which a 20% rebate is being offered on award stays made at Hyatt's Thompson properties between 1 April and 5 June 2022.

The World of Hyatt has just announced that 146 of its properties will be changing award categories in a little over a month's time and while the changes are pretty evenly split between properties moving up a category and properties moving down, it's interesting (and a little worrying) to see that Hyatt will be moving nine of its properties into Category 8 which up until now, has been reserved for SLH properties only.

This is a post to remind World of Hyatt members that if you can't find an economical or worthwhile use for a Hyatt free night certificate, there's no need to make a booking for the sake of it or to watch the certificate go to waste - Hyatt will often be happy to give you points in exchange for any free night certificates that you allow to expire.

Hyatt has finally announced the details of its next Bonus Journeys global promotion which, unfortunately, won't go live until next year even though registration for the promotion is now open. As with a number of previous Hyatt promotions, there's an extra bonus available for holders of Hyatt co-branded credit cards but I'll warn you right now that anyone expecting a repeat of what we saw in previous promotions will almost certainly be disappointed.

Hyatt purchases Exhale Spas back in 2017 and we saw the program added to the World of Hyatt a few months later. Since then, World of Hyatt members have been able to earn and burn points at Exhale Spas around the country, and World of Hyatt elites have been able to enjoy extra benefits at Exhale locations too. Sadly, not for much longer.

Up until now, most of the research that I've been doing around the World of Hyatt program since seasonal pricing was introduced hasn't thrown up anything that's hugely negative or anything that was totally unexpected. That was until I started trying to work out just how far out I'd have to book to be able to reserve the amazing Alila Venata Big Sur at no more than 35,000 points per night (Category 7 peak rate). What I've discovered is more than a little disappointing.

Last week we saw the World of Hyatt emailing members with a targeted offer in which 30,000 bonus points are on offer for every 10 nights consumed and which looks tailor-made for road warriors. Now we're hearing about another targeted offer that's out there in the wild in which fewer points are on offer but which will work a lot better for guests staying fewer nights.

Hyatt appears to be targeting select World of Hyatt members for a promotion that could be very lucrative for anyone planning to enjoy quite a few nights at Hyatt properties in the next 10 weeks. The offer is being emailed to targeted World of Hyatt members but in case your spam filters are a little too aggressive, there's a link to the registration page in this post where you can check to see if Hyatt has chosen you for this offer.

On 26 October, seasonal pricing was introduced to the World of Hyatt program meaning that while no properties moved hotel categories on that date, Hyatt stays from March 2022 onwards can now cost up to 25% more than they currently do. With Hyatt's seasonal calendars now live, I've taken a look at a few regular Hyatt properties and a few well-known and higher-end Hyatt properties to see what the calendars show and to see if I can answer three key questions that have been on my mind.