Hyatt Hotels World of Hyatt

Did Hyatt tell you today about Dec 13 hotel category changes?

a balcony overlooking the ocean
Hyatt Carmel Highlands Inn

View from the Wing posted a list today of 9 Hyatt Hotels changing reward category as of 12:01am Wednesday, December 13. Then the news spread to Weekly Flyer, One Mile at a Time, Mommy Points, Deals We Like, Magic of Miles.

No news on these changes on The Points Guy. Million Mile Secrets posted the news, but credits One Mile at a Time.

No announcement on hotel category changes made on FlyerTalk from a Hyatt representative. Someone started this thread and posted a link to View from the Wing in the Hyatt Forum.

No link to an official World of Hyatt notification on any of these blog posts.

And no email from World of Hyatt to me about any changes.

Few complaints from the blogosphere

For me this is a total non-event, I haven’t stayed at any of these hotels and have no current plans to either. Although the Confidante hotel looks pretty cool in a retro Miami art deco sort of way and that’s becoming more accessible.

View from the Wing

The good news is that not many hotels are changing categories — eight hotels are going up in price, and one hotel is going down in price. I’m frustrated by the lack of notice here, but then again this is a fairly minor adjustment.

One Mile at a Time

Most of the properties increasing in award rate aren’t that exciting to me

Mommy Points

The Final Two Pennies

You only have until 11:59 pm tomorrow, Tuesday December 12th to make reservations at the current redemption amounts. That’s less than ideal.  Thankfully, it’s such a small list of hotels.

Any time I see an e-mail with the subject “category changes†I get a bit nervous.  This is absolutely the happiest I’ve ever been with a list of annual hotel category changes.

Pizza in Motion

No news directly from Hyatt is the big news story to me.

The main news story to me is not the changes, but the lack of no direct news from Hyatt regarding these hotel reward category changes.

Tuesday, December 12 is the last day to book Hyatt Place Santa Cruz for 8,000 points before it rises to 15,000 points or Hyatt Camel Highlands Inn for 25,000 points per night before it rises to 30,000 points on Wednesday, Dec 13 according to these bloggers.

Both of these Hyatt hotels are located in my Monterey Bay, California neighborhood.

Bottom line:

Does an email from World of Hyatt to a few bloggers now constitute adequate member notification of global hotel loyalty program changes affecting millions of World of Hyatt members?

a balcony overlooking the ocean
Hyatt Carmel Highlands Inn

Hyatt Carmel Highlands Big Sur Coast townhouse and view

Whale fountains at Hyatt Highlands Inn California

In the Heart of the Hyatt Carmel Highlands Inn (Jan 5, 2009)

Highway 1 Big Sur Coast Drive detour (Sep 19, 2013)

7 Comments

  • Pizzaman December 11, 2017

    Thanks for linking to my post. I could be wrong, but I don’t think I get e-mail communication on a decent amount of hotel category changes. I see social media stuff for the SPG folks. But, unless I deleted them, I don’t recall any e-mails from them. Could be me remembering it wrong.

  • Pizzaman December 11, 2017

    Sorry, to clarify, I don’t think I get an e-mail as a “regular” member. Most I either get as a blogger or through social media/message board posts.

  • Mommy Points December 11, 2017

    I am surprised if they haven’t posted it anywhere else. I was surprised, and pointed that surprise out in the post, that the deadline was less than 48 hours out. That does seem short, even given the relatively short list of changes.

  • Rupert December 11, 2017

    Completely agree with you, the trend of airlines and hotel chains to change award programs without or with minimal notice is disturbing. While they are “legally” ok to do so, it does violate the spirit of a loyalty program… but then again, loyalty is dead, it’s just rewards now as far as I’m concerned…
    I believe this will come back to haunt hospitality in the next travel downturn, when occupation is down, they are surprised why their “loyal” guests are going elsewhere and they are scrambling to fill their beds/seats…

  • Danny December 12, 2017

    Good thing I saw your post. I booked four nights at the HP Long Island City. 8k is a steal for new property in NYC.

  • […] waited a day to see if I would receive an email in regards to it. Nothing. I wasn’t alone, as Ric Garrido pointed out, he never received anything either. An odd way to handle an immediate devaluation… […]

  • Ric Garrido December 13, 2017

    Reward rates went up as stated by the few bloggers Hyatt apparently considers their key insiders and source of news to the world.

    Reminds me of the time in high school when I received Ds and Fs and 3 weeks of unexcused absences after the school secretary only told my first period teacher I was out with chicken pox, while all my other teachers never received the news until after the damage had been done to my report card.

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