Originally Posted by
JackE
Almost everything he said makes perfect sense so yes, I believe he is a lawyer and a pretty good one. You do not understand what "brand equity" is but I'll tell you what it isn't: seeing long-time customers head for the exit in droves.
We'll see a lot of point redemptions in 2017 as they do, then Hyatt will need to slash prices beginning in 2018 to lure them back because those folks will assign very little value to World of Hyatt.
For your convenience:
brand eq·ui·ty
noun
noun:
brand equity; plural noun:
brand equities
- the commercial value that derives from consumer perception of the brand name of a particular product or service, rather than from the product or service itself.
I will tell you for a fact the average consumer does not perceive commercial value of a brand based upon the points earned and whether or not benefits were redacted from a loyalty program that was exploited and resulted in too many over entitled elites. In that regard both of you are now wrong, you can throw all the compliments you want at someone on a message forum, it will not change the facts at the end of the day. Most customers at Hyatt are not Diamond, and if most Diamonds stopped staying at hyatt the extra inventory would be sold at market prices or to contract rates.
With regards to slashing the prices in 2018 I would not hold my breath on that one. Hyatt is no longer interested in being a generous program where everyone on the forums is an elite. Clearly no good deed goes unpunished, if you would have preferred award availability can be space limited and the chart can be devalued to the levels of marriott and hilton properties where many high value customers seem to intend to flee to.