World of Hyatt will offer access to awards earlier

As of some point later this year, World of Hyatt plans to introduce early access to award night availability for select members. Specifically, this will be available to those with a co-branded Hyatt credit card, plus World of Hyatt Explorist and Globalist members (meanwhile Discoverist memberswon’t get access to this).

The expectation is that these members will be able to book awards one month earlier. So instead of the current window of 12 months, the new window will be around 13 months. Having access to awards earlier is good news, and I suppose it’s a nice incentive to have status or a credit card.

For super competitive awards (like the Park Hyatt Sydney on New Year’s Eve, or the Park Hyatt Kyoto during peak Cherry Blossom season), this will definitely make a difference in being able to snag award space. However, it’s not like this limits down the eligibility pool that much.