I think the changes are absolutely fair. Rates in the Bay Area are astronomical and I'm surprised there weren't more jumps. No Starwood prooerty is less than category 5. I agree that a lot of the cat 1 to cat 2 changes were in the USA but the American economy is strong and hotel rates are high and going higher.

The fact that Hyatt always has more downs than ups and always limits changes in the top categories makes me respect them a lot. Every time Starwood has their annual changes ups outnumber downs almost two to one and the "good" properties always go up. Hyatt is much more balanced. So for those of you threatening to go elsewhere, the grass is definitely not greener--at least not with the program's I use (Club Carlson, Starwood & Hilton) which is why my credit card spend goes 80+% to Hyatt.