Boy reading this this morning sure pi**ed in my cheerios. Ugh.... Digesting this all day and I just don't see how any of this can be good. Such BS corporate speak in their conversations posted on VFTW and OMAAT. Fourth year as Globalist, so not the history of most on here, but I've valued the most to be able to use points towards aspirational stays while using a mix of cash and points for other stays. (45 nights with a mix of cash, points FNA's last year, rest were cc nights for my 70). A few thoughts, and probably mostly a rehash of many people's thoughts.

-Devaluing the program (yes it's a devaluation even though corporate pushed back on Gary Leff when he characterized it as such), while not providing any way to add back any value on the earn side is a kick in the teeth. With a devaluation of between 35%-67% on the top end of each category level and not guaranteeing any limitations on nights in the higher (or lower) tiers of the category is brutal. I think if we look back over the past 5-10 years, this is just a continuation of devaluation of points and not having any offset of this in earnings rates is too much to take.

-I think Hyatt is underestimating member loyalty, which has been a hallmark of their program as one of the strongest hotel programs out there. Doing something like this, both with a huge devaluation, and no recent history of increasing earnings puts a lot of pressure on that belief that people will stick around. Especially since.....

-Hyatt's smaller footprint and smaller membership base makes something like this even riskier. IMO, Hyatt has purposefully made their program appreciably more valuable because they needed a hook to keep people engaged in the program and to actively choose to stay at their properties. This is especially true when in many markets there are comparable or more convenient locations with Marriott and other programs. A devaluation like this really changes the calculus on this, especially since their rates are often higher in many markets.

-I've seen the reference to Delta and Skypesos, and the rebuttal that having less valuable miles certainly hasn't hurt them. However there's a huge difference in comparing Delta to Hyatt, especially based on market size in comparison to competitors. Delta can "afford" to have such a poor rate on their miles because of other factors in their favor. Not sure what those comparative factors would be for Hyatt when their footprint is so much smaller than their competitors. Definitely similarities to how Alaska operated for years with having such an outsized value in their program, as that was a big hook to get repeat customer engagement.

-I find it difficult to fathom that Hyatt would drop this huge turd out there today and not have anything appreciable to offset the stench of it for members (Electronic points sharing and 13th month for points booking notwithstanding). You would think if there's going to be enhanced earnings, changes to FNA's, or globalist sweeteners they would also announce those in conjunction to take out some of the sting of these changes. I asked in a comment on VFTW if there was any discussion regarding when/if on a premium cc and Gary said based on past practice that after the last new cobrand agreement to card refresh took about a year. He is guessing maybe in the fall. So Hyatt has chosen to have all these negative changes control all the narrative around the program, and then in April we'll have another round of bad news with hotel category changes. And then in May we'll be able to see the distribution of all 5 of the pricing levels life in the calendar.

In early March I'll have just over forty of the sixty nights needed to re-qualify. At that point I should be able to get to sixty predominately with stays, so I don't really see much value in putting much spend on my card moving forward. I typically end up with around seventy nights each year, but what is the incremental benefit of going from sixty to seventy? 10k points or two SUA's have typically been my preference. Those 10k points would still allow me to book a Cat 1-4 hotel at current peak versus new peak, but not any of the other categories. I value using the SUA's if possible at more aspirational properties or at least Cat 5 or higher properties on stays of 3 nights or more, but those 3 night stays will now cost me 33k-90k more in points. Ummm.....no thanks. At least qualifying earlier this year will let me be in a wait and see approach and decide if there's still value in me staying loyal with Hyatt.

Sorry for the long rant on this. Maybe I'll wake up in the morning and it will be a bad dream. LOL