I suddenly feel like a free agent athlete that just got cut from the team for being too expensive.

In years past, I would dutifully produce my 25 Hyatt stays before even thinking of requalifying at any other chain. There was no debate. Next year, it will be zero.

Talk about a self-inflicted wound. Way to drop a tactical nuke on your award winning loyalty program. Great job. Morons.

Jeff,

As a Lifetime Diamond, I would be upset if the qualification requirements are downgraded to lower level as I value my achievement to this elite group of qualified members who have achieved this high spending.

Spending money is not an achievement. There is nothing remarkable or meritorious about having a certain level of wealth to spend compared to others. If you are lifetime diamond now, and are upgraded to the new better overall benefit system, then you did not earn that or deserve it either because it did not exist when you "achieved" your lifetime diamond spend level. By that logic, you did not spend anything to earn the new level, so you should not get it, because you are not part of the special club of people that earned THAT level, only your old level of status.

Whether or not it's remarkable to you, spending money ought to be remarkable to Hyatt. If its guests did not spend money, it would be out of business.

Like many here on FT, I believe the WoH elite level names are quite bad. It is humorous how bad they are.

Discoverist? Color me a disloyalist. This level is Dis* on several levels.
Explorist? Deplorable.
Globalist? Quite pretentious considering the underwhelming global reach of Hyatt.

It was cool when Mandalay Bay from MGM in Las Vegas would market for "Resortists". That was a good and sensible term. Unfortunately Hyatt, in their desire to copy MGM, could not find worthy names to match that "*ist" theme.

I can't wait to hear Front Desk agents or other Hyatt Customer Service Reps thanking guests for being a Discoverist, Explorist, or Globalist. I can't see myself as any of those. I must not be in Hyatt's target audience.

These program changes are akin to the review of Spinal Tap's album Shark Sandwich.

:td:

Speaking for myself, I don't aspire to be a "globalist" or even a globe-trotter. I work hard for my family and my clients and myself. I haven't been abroad in the last two decades -- something I am neither ashamed of nor proud of. "Globalist"? No, don't need that or want that. If that makes me uncool, cool.

Until now, Hyatt has been loyal to me and I've been loyal to Hyatt. To be sure, it's translated into a mere 30 or so nights a year, but it's been focused on Hyatt even when it meant going out of my way a bit or paying a more, within reason.

If the new program is designed to turn my measly 30 nights into 10, it's going to work as planned.

The silver lining is I've always been inconvenienced by the way the website makes me log in so frequently. This fixes that. I'll be spending a lot less time there.

The incremental award after 60 nights would certainly makes some people in my company change from investing in two program into invest solely in Hyatt....

What a long day reading through all the speculations and then confirmation of the changes.

I have to assess my strategy for 2017. As a status matched Diamond in 2015, I requalified in 2016 with stays, and will most likely end the year with 27 stays and 46 nights. It would be a real tough stretch for me to reach 55 nights in 2017 because of the small Hyatt footprint. I don't think I could have added more Hyatt nights in 2016, even though I also had combined 50+ SPG, MR, and Hilton nights. My situation is very similar to a lot of Diamonds who have posted here.

As SPG LTP, I do have options. So we'll see what happens in 2017. I will plan to use up my 160K HGP points after Mar. 1 or 17, whenever DSU can be applied to award stays.

I have to say that I am pleased with the Hyatt move to revenue base for status. As a Diamond last year I spent more in each of the Park Hyatt Vendome for a week in July and the Andaz 5th Avenue for a week over Christmas than 25 stays in a Hyatt Place would cost. Those fourteen nights were of no benefit status wise and as a result I concentrated my spending this year on Hilton and Accor (only Sofitel) where revenue based status is rewarded.
I have always liked Hyatt properties and will most likely return in 2018 when the new system is in place.

There seems to be quite a bit of over-reaction and misinformation in this thread.

Overall, there are some significant improvements over the old program.

#1 DSU's on Award Nights.
#2 DSU's on Award Nights
#3 DSU's on Award Nights
#4 Complimentary Suite Upgrades
#5 Free Parking on Award Stays
#6 No Resort Fee on Award Stays

The program negatives are
#1 No 1W - offset by the free night (C1-4) at 30 nights and unrestricted free night at 60 nights.
#2 Breakfast Downgrade - this should really only impact those who took full advantage of the breakfast benefit. Not many people will be impacted by this change as not many people have 4 registered guests to a single room.
#3 The Name - I'm just going to call them Discover, Explore, and Global to get over how bad the tiers sound.

For better or worse, it signifies a shift for Hyatt to focusing on corporate customers, who tend to be less price conscious than those traveling for leisure. This is exemplified in their removal of 1W and the replacement with free nights. Hyatt as a company, is shifting toward rewarding their top customers by cannibalizing some of the mid-tier benefits. And the benefits for their top tier are more generous than anybody in the industry.

Anecdotally, this will influence my stay patterns quite a bit. In the past, there was little incentive to slug out nights 51-100 in the basic Hyatt's across the country. However, with bonuses at nights 70, 80, 90, & 100, I will be directing those nights to Hyatt instead of SPG next year.

Agree on improvement #1, #2, and #3 😁

I heard someone says it and I agree. "Business is business"

The whole original idea of Loyalty program is "earn on business trip and redeem for personal leisure", these change in the industry these years is returning to that original idea.

The loss of 4 DSU's for Diamonds plus only being allowed in Grand Club 4 times per year are big losses for most Diamonds.

The 4pm checkout too is a loss for me when travelling to Asia as it goes from guaranteed to on request.

If you're not a road warrior you won't be able to stay loyal when the changes come in - similar tiers at other properties offer better benefits and the benefits offered are achievable with a lower number of stays.

I'm letting the Hyatt people know about my disappointment!

It was clear that the achievement was not spending the money. The achievement was in finishing the requirements for LTD. But don't take my word for it; you referenced that in the remainder of your opinion.

You don't lose the 4 DSU's, 4pm late checkout, or lounge access as a Diamond/Globalist... Not sure where you got that information from.