Some links to products and partners on this website will earn an affiliate commission.

World of Hyatt – my favourite hotel chain, even though I’m pretty much alone with that, as far as European travel hackers go – has announced some changes that will be implemented on 1 November, 2018.

Points + Cash Changes

One of the best reward options is being devalued. Instead of paying points and a fixed cash amount, the new Points + Cash will involve paying 50% of the standard room rate. In a future post, I’ll explain why this new option is fairly close to worthless, but for now here’s what the new P+C chart will look like:

Premium Suites Now Available Using Points

Hyatt has the best suite upgrade policy in the industry. Top tier elite members can confirm complimentary upgrades at the time of booking. The other major chains make vague promises to their top elites of upgrades at check-in.

But even if you aren’t a Globalist member, you can still book suites using points.  And you can now even book “premium suites”.

If you want that premium suite but don’t have enough points, you can always book a cash rate and upgrade…

Points + Cash for Suites

The new reward options are best suited for maths experts, since you now have a Points + Cash option for suites:

Why maths? Because you now have the option of booking suites with:

• Cash
• All points
• Upgrading a standard room (cash) with points
• Receiving a discount of 50% of the cash rate by using some points

Conclusion

None of these changes are earth-shattering. The worst element is perhaps the fact that Hyatt decided that one week’s advance notice was sufficient. Today one might shrug one’s shoulders at these limited-notice changes, but the next time might be a full award chart devaluation or hotels changing award category with no advance warning.

What do you think of these changes?