I'm not so certain award charts protect us anymore.
While Hyatt is still important to me as a program member every program even those that are disliked by many here have their sweet spots.
And the biggest mistake many members make is only taking into account only the point redemption on the surface amount of those
redemption's sometimes a very big oversight IMO
To ignore the variety of options and benefits of competitors and not keep an open mind is to limit experiences and overpay should that matter to some.
I believe many of us are still digesting what Hyatt has thrown our way with what on the surface may be the largest devaluation
I've ever seen from Hyatt historically.
Its higher than the national rate of inflation.
And that is really bad
Are we paying off their pandemic losses going forward?Will they contribute to mine?
On a 30k Cat 7 redemption even a 10% increase would be 3000 additional points 20% at 6000 30% 9000 etc
For those that say Marriott may be worse we will soon see the bad or the good of that offering.If they massively fail so be it.
They may hurt their bottom line if to aggressive
I've been with Hyatt since 1994 and staying in their hotels long before that with no rewards/points being offered
All that said I have never seen the Hyatt program as dysfunctional to this degree where frequently it simply just doesn't make a whole lot of sense
Sticker shock along with declining in house services, shrinking elite dining breakfast benefits/closed clubs/limited menus and no welcome amenity points
that I receive in every other program at a number of major locations/brands.
Where once I saw Hyatt as my # 1 above all others I now see them as a possibility instead of a must when I do the bottom line analysis
I'm booking away from Hyatt over 50% of the time now and the massive devaluation will just accelerate all that sadly.
The only way I see this working is what the HH execs did years ago which is to overprice rewards but then offer far more promotional earnings by staying
Granted things may get worse and the playing field may level at some point making me shift back.
It seems as if Hyatt execs want to slowly work there way to the Delta airlines program model where revenue may make far more sense
then using point redemption's
Realistically if I had to guess this thing the strategy @ present is fighting internally between dynamic pricing and blaming everything
on seasonal awards the old Starwood/SPG way of doing things
Where aspirational properties are wildly overpriced shifting the redemption's to lower end properties
Historically the key to Hyatt wasn't just the experience it was higher point value currency than other programs.
You had to sometimes frequently go out of your way to stay @ Hyatt
"The little program that could" You had to stay and earn Hyatt points because they were far more valuable.
More properties now seem illogical as one such example I booked nights in Dallas airport non Hyatt
Here is just some of their bizarre pricing revenue vs reward points bookings.Not a big fan of the Regency in that market.Its a maybe as its tired
Hyatt Regency DFW Points 9,500 or 290.00 dollars plus tax
(Obviously the points make great sense here) Must be a high demand time
Grand Hyatt DFW Points 23,000 vs 313.00 dollars plus tax throughout this past year I was able to book most of the time for 220 dollars per night.
The property had previously offered 20k redemption consistently
Despite it being a cat 4 for many years @ 15 k which still makes some sense based on the past years revenue rates if they matter
at all anymore and apparently they don't!