Update: Hyatt Postponement Of Award Chart Peak Seasons and Category Changes Until 2021

Hyatt had recently updated World of Hyatt members about their current position during Coronavirus and the impact on the loyalty program changes that were scheduled for March 22, 2020.

The company decided to postpone the introduction of seasonal pricing but didn't mention the award category changes specifically.

Now that the date has come and gone Hyatt has updated their website to reflect that the award chart changes won't take place until at least 2021.

You can access the Hyatt Coronavirus response website here.

World of Hyatt Member Update

We are closely listening to our World of Hyatt members and using their feedback to continually evaluate ways to flex the program. In the spirit of advancing care for members during these unique circumstances, we are making the following World of Hyatt program modifications:

Suspending Points Forfeiture:

We will be suspending the forfeiture of points through May 31, 2020. As a reminder, our general policy is that points do not expire, but they will be forfeited if a member's account is inactive for 24 consecutive months.

Postponing Award Chart Changes:

We are postponing the introduction of Off-peak and Peak point redemption (originally planned for March 22, 2020) until 2021. This means that free-night redemptions will continue to be at standard rates for the rest of this year. Before we launch Off-peak and Peak point redemptions for stay dates in 2021 and beyond, we'll provide advance notice as we always do.

Evaluating Elite Tier Qualification & Benefit Extension:

In February, World of Hyatt extended elite tier status and award expiration dates for qualifying members residing in Asia Pacific. Visit the World of Hyatt COVID-19 FAQs for details.

Given the quickly evolving nature of the situation, it is simply too early to suggest revised elite tier qualifications and award expiration beyond members in Asia Pacific. However, we know that adjustments will need to be made, and we are committed to communicating these as soon as we can.

The passage about postponing the award chart changes was added later. When I wrote the last article when Hyatt announced that the peak season feature would be delayed it wasn't out there yet.

This of course means that the hotels that would otherwise go down a category will also not move for the time being.

Some of the highlights in this years initially proposed changes (in my opinion) were:

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• Andaz 5th Ave New York (6 to 7)
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• Centric Park City (6 to 7)
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• Elounda Gulf Villas & Suites (7 to 8)
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• Hyatt Regency Tokyo (3 to 4)
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• Grand Hyatt Tokyo (6 to 7)
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• Park Hyatt Saigon (4 to 5)

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• Hyatt Regency Amsterdam (5 to 4)
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• Park Hyatt Hamburg (5 to 4)
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• Park Hyatt Mallorca (6 to 5)
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• Grand Hyatt Incheon (3 to 2)
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• Grand Hyatt Shanghai (4 to 3)
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• Park Hyatt Seoul (6 to 5)

What's important to consider here is if you have any favorite hotel that is currently covered under the Category 4 Limit to use the various Cat 1-4 certificates Hyatt provides per year the best is to check if it in fact still remains in this field.

I guess it depends on which properties one usually frequents if these are good news or bad news. Given my own stay pattern I'd have probably profited more from Hyatt going through with the category changes as planned, however the peak season would have been a killer for me.

Overall Hyatt was very generous extending the Globalist status for APAC members but I think we've reached a point where this should be available to everybody. It's a good thing to lead and not follow, especially in times where many other travel companies are coming up with plenty of bogus.