World of Hyatt devalues – priciest redemption jumps from 45,000 to 75,000 points

World of Hyatt has just announced a substantial devaluation of its points.

Hyatt, unsurprisingly, is putting a more positive spin on it and – in the short term – it may not be as bad as it looks, but the trajectory is not good.

Full details are on the Hyatt website here.

This is all I have been provided in advance in terms of reward chart – the pricing for club rooms and suites is online:

(Yes, there is still a reward chart, so be thankful for small mercies.)

Here are the key points:

• the current three pricing levels are moving to five – so, whilst there is still a reward chart, there is a large element of semi-dynamic pricing here

• five pricing levels and eight categories means that there are now 40 different possible price points just for standard rooms, from 3,000 to 75,000 points – and this is before you add in price points for club rooms, standard suites and premium suites. It’s not dynamic pricing but it feels pretty close.

• for the lowest category hotels (which you are unlikely to stay at as most are outside Europe) there could be a small reduction in points cost on the cheapest possible day

• the new maximum points cost is a substantial jump on current levels

Let’s compare the current and new maximum points prices:

• Category 1: 6,500 points to 9,000 points – up 38%
• Category 2: 9,500 points to 15,000 points – up 58%
• Category 3: 15,000 points to 20,000 points – up 33%
• Category 4: 18,000 points to 25,000 points – up 39%
• Category 5: 23,000 points to 35,000 points – up 52%
• Category 6: 29,000 points to 40,000 points – up 38%
• Category 7: 35,000 points to 55,000 points – up 57%
• Category 8: 45,000 points to 75,000 points – up 67%

Now, there are three caveats here:

• Because Hyatt has moved from three to five categories, there will be far fewer nights at the maximum price than there are now – arguably you can’t directly compare the two maximums

• Hyatt has specifically said that there will be very few uses of the ‘Upper’ and ‘Top’ pricing tiers in 2026 – this is something which will only be widely used over time

• When a hotel sets a price level for a night when the booking window opens (lowest, low, moderate, upper, top) it will not change over the whole booking period

What Hyatt has said is that it wants to create a future-proof reward chart that can adapt to continued increases in room rates. Whilst it didn’t give a time frame, let’s assume that it plans to keep this for at least five years.

However, hotels will still change categories from year to year. There will be the usual readjustment in April 2026. Seven hotels have changed category TODAY in an ’emergency readjustment’ which it seems simply couldn’t wait another two months.

Has the US credit card market ruined it for the rest of us?

It’s hard not to think that, yet again, a hotel loyalty programme has been forced to devalue due to the sheer weight of bonus points being issued via US credit cards, which obviously UK residents cannot access.

Hyatt points are notoriously hard to earn from stays. You get 5 points per $1 spent (pre taxes) and even a top tier Globalist only gets a 30% status bonus.

To get one free night at 75,000 points, even a Globalist would need to spend $11,500 + taxes. Add back 20% VAT and convert to £ and you’re looking at spending up to £10,250 to get a free night.

Bonus point promotions would reduce this sum, but Hyatt promotions are fewer and less generous than we see at other brands.

There is one other possibility

We know that some big hotel groups have cut their loyalty fees over the last 18 months. In the war to sign up properties, especially conversions, having the lowest loyalty fee (as a % of room rate) was becoming a competitive advantage.

Cutting loyalty fees is more attractive than cutting brand fees because franchise law insists that loyalty fees are spent for the benefit of franchisees. Not a penny can be taken as profit. If the brand fee is cut, the impact hits the bottom line.

However, when hotels are paying less to the brand for loyalty benefits, there obviously has to be a reduction in the benefits that are given.

Hyatt was asked in a conference call yesterday if these changes were being made due to a cut in loyalty fees and it refused to answer.

What else is changing?

There will also be increases to all other aspects of the reward chart – the all-inclusive pricing and points and cash and club upgrades. We were not provided this in advance.

There will be no change to the very generous club and suite upgrade deals, including the 6,000 and 9,000 points per night suite upgrades which I use a lot.

There are two positive changes

Hyatt did have two bits of good news to announce:

• you will soon be able to transfer points between members online, without having to fill in a paper form and fax it or scan it to Hyatt (how this has taken so long to put in place I will never know)

• elite members (Explorist and above) and Hyatt credit card holders will be able to book reward nights 13 months in advance – so one month before everyone else. To be honest, because Hyatt has ‘last room availability’ (if there is a standard room available for cash it MUST be offered as a reward) this doesn’t seem to be worth much.

Conclusion

If Hyatt is being honest in what it said:

• that very few rooms will be priced at ‘upper’ and ‘top’ levels in 2026 and

• it will take many years for hotel room rate inflation to ‘fill out’ the reward chart and push more nights into the ‘upper’ and ‘top’ bands ….

…. then you have to question whether the inevitable backlash that will come today was worth it. Perhaps changing the chart gradually every 2-3 years is actually a better idea.

As we learned from Virgin Atlantic’s move to dynamic pricing, it is arguably better to say ‘no availability’ in Upper Class than say ‘700,000 points return’, because the latter just makes your programme look stupid.

On the upside, Hyatt will continue to make all standard rooms available for redemption as long as a room is bookable for cash. This is a very expensive promise for Hyatt to keep, because when hotels are 95% full it pays the hotel the average daily rate, not just the nominal $25-$100 reward fee.

What this does to our valuation of a Hyatt point is unclear. If you can still use 65,000 points for a $1,000 discount on your bill then you will still get 1.1p per point.

The cash cost of the top handful of Hyatt properties – Park Hyatt New York, Park Hyatt Tokyo, Park Hyatt Kyoto, Park Hyatt Sydney etc – also means that even at 75,000 points per night you would still be getting a deal.

These changes do not come into effect until May 2026 (the exact date is unknown). You can book now, for stays up to a year ahead, at the current rates. There is no downside as Hyatt will automatically refund you if your room becomes cheaper after the move to the new chart.

You can find out more on this page of the Hyatt website.