Originally Posted by
Hydro88
Yes and globally it's the same. Think about Northern Europe, London, UAE and pretty much all of Africa, Australia, Hong Kong... Hyatt is either woefully lacking in these places or has (in my opinion) clearly inferior options qualitywise than Marriott.
The reason I still stay more with Hyatt than with Marriott is that a) in some places I go to frequently, I prefer the Hyatt properties and b) Hyatt has the far better loyalty program. That's why I think WoH needs to be better than Bonvoy - it has to compensate for less, and often less attractive (for me, I understand this is personal) choices.
I actually don't mind the category changes just announced. I care more about the status benefits than the points. There's a clear devaluing of the Cat. 1-7 cert, but that the points are adjusted to cash prices is understandable.
I'd note that HGP (as it was at the time) was actually the first program I really "hooked into" (I had a prior membership in IHG's program as well, but I parked a bit more regularly at Hyatt). Gaps like these nudged me to Starwood (which also had relatively low thresholds for decent status at the time, as well as solid airline-oriented redemptions), and that plopped into Marriott when
that merger happened. Last year's reduced thresholds and carry-over nights pushed me easily to Discoverist, so I came back and pulled Globalist together fairly easily (I think I got something like 110 night credits last year at Hyatt and about 130 or 140 at Marriott...but to be fair, probably 30 from Hyatt and 30-40 from Marriott were from carry-over/double night promos).