Originally Posted by
CrashDavis
Several bloggers and in Marriott/Starwood forums are leaking unofficial news on the new combined program, which is rumored to start kicking in during second half of 2018. All rumors and nothing confirmed.
I am a SPG LT Gold and will be SPG LT Platinum if it survives through 2019 (which may not be happening now and was wishful thinking on my part). So, I have a lot to lose but it is out of my control. I just made sure to meet Globalist and SPG Platinum (due to potential LT goal as mentioned above).
I remember a little over a year ago, all those fleeing Hyatt loyalists swearing off Hyatt for life and running to SPG. It will be interesting to see the number of boomerangs (aka flip floppers) coming back to Hyatt after the revised SPG/Hyatt program.
Yes - I miss the old Hyatt program, but it is working for me over the past year or so.
So who is panicking and now considering coming back?
Not me.
I've still got the Hyatt CC which gives me
Explorist
Explorist gives me MLife Gold
and 1 free night annually.
The credit card stays in my sock drawer and I'm still (slowly) burning down Hyatt points. I haven't paid for a Hyatt room (except cash + points) since the new program was announced.
I tried Hilton, was matched Diamond (now Gold), but wasn't impressed. Need to burn those points.
I've read reports that multiple Hyatts have cheapened on lounge offerings. If that's the case, there's no way I'd spend more money (Hyatts are more expensive for comparable properties than other chains) chasing Hyatt Glob. I've got the club access awards that should allow me to see if that's true.
I'm actually very thankful that Hyatt changed their loyalty program. Since that happened, we've reduced our vacations - we're no longer doing vacations that are centered around chasing statuses - and have bought a beautiful new home that cost twice our old house. We're waiting on our HOA to approve our $80K pool plans so that's more former vacation money that we're using for other things.
Looking at Awardwallet, we've still got quite a few loyalty program points that we should burn. It will probably take us another couple of years to get all of our accounts close to zero.
So thanks Hyatt, you convinced us that we were wasting way too much money on travel. And we're not missing the travel/perks.