iflyjetz

That's definitely true for United's GS and I'm sure CK has a similar setup.
In addition to the heaviest road warriors, GS is also given to high ranking corporate personnel, especially heads of major travel departments and other corporate travel decision makers.

skj

Do we need to have these debates in every single thread ? What does this have to do with Hyatt and AA ?

uppereastsider

Sorry, not trying to get off topic. But someone equated the Hyatt / AA announcement as another sign of the company failing, and I disagreed and wanted to prove why (recent actions showing a program improving, not losing value)

To get back on topic --> For my view and my personal travel opinions/habits, this is a net positive and increases my perception of Hyatt. Others will disagree, but if I can get some type of AA Status, great! And since it appears I can earn additional AA miles at Hyatt Stays and Hyatt Miles on AA flights, then that's another +1 for Hyatt overall, and signs of a strengthening, growing program

conde

I wonder if the AA status challenges offered to WoH Elite will be like what AA offered last year to targeted people. Last year, AA sent me an offer for Platinum Pro status, good from 1/25/18-5/25/18. Previous to that I hadn't flown AA in a couple of years. All I had to do was register. Platinum Pro status and benefits upfront, and would continue after 5/25 if I met normal thresholds.

I took advantage of that promotion a couple of times, but did not pursue flying/spending enough to continue afterwards. I still prefer Delta to AA.

Perhaps the status challenge for WoH Elite might come in a similar form with AA status and benefits upfront for a limited time.

RedSun

The challenge is a promotion, not a benefit offer. It's Hyatt's marketing scheme. I do not think Hyatt much additional benefits here other than the cross-over points.

Both Hyatt and AA executives shamelessly said that members want challenges to get to higher reward levels, not outright status matching. This is a lie.

txhyattlvr

People love to speculate and trade on rumors as facts....

I don't believe this will materially impact upgrades or flood Hyatt with new Globalist members. The real threat to upgrades is more relatively cheap upselling of suites to non-Globs.

This, IS, however a brilliant move by Hyatt as Concierge Key Members at AA are the airlines' biggest spenders. Giving them Globalist status (but no reason to chase 60 nights since they have the status anyway) will likely bring Hyatt some nice high margin customers, especially at places like the Grand Hyatt DFW, Park Hyatt NY, various international properties in business centers (Hong Kong comes to mind), etc., where the perks might attract some of these people. However, the vast majority of these customers likely already have travel patterns/loyalty and I sincerely doubt we'll see some kind of mass migration over to Hyatt as a result of this move.

In terms of the number of Globalists that exist - it ISN'T a big number, especially after they got rid of the "25 stay crowd" a couple years ago, and I think there's room in the system for some growth without degrading benefits - ESPECIALLY if they continue to limit access to things like TSU's, Concierges, etc.... I've heard mention of me being the ONLY Globalist staying at various HH's and HP's on various weeknights many times. There's more at the full service properties, but I think it's a handful of rooms at many of those on many nights and I base this on the restaurants where I observe very few people who are likely Globs (convention groups, corporate groups, sports teams, etc... very few who match the profile of a Glob), the check in line where I'm clearly the only one, etc.

GUWonder

craigthemif

One of the details I'm most curious about is the earning of Hyatt points on AA flights, especially since I credit my AA flights to BA. I suppose you'll have to link a specific AAdvantage account to make it work...

I also surprised that they couldn't manage to comp Globalists some garbage AA status, rather than just challenge (like Marriott / United and the old SPG / Delta), but YMMV until we see the details.

GUWonder

joe_miami

Unless Hyatt is saving that announcement for later, Globalists will need to start spending $3,000 per year and flying 25,000 PQM on AA to get even the lowest-level AA status.

spgplat21

It sounds like, at a minimum, there will be an AA status challenge offered to Hyatt elites so the first time should at least be easier than the standard qualification requirements. But I can't imagine they'd let you do a challenge every year, so eventually you would be subject to the regular qualification requirements even as a Hyatt elite member.

joe_miami

AA actually will let people do a challenge every year, for a fee ranging from $200 to $500. If Hyatt elites get a free challenge, perhaps limits will be imposed on those.

s0ssos

Why?

danger

It would seem that for a large chunk of Hyatt members, this "enhanced" partnership only benefits those in the US, just like the credit card. Yes, it's great that there are new ways to earn but those ways are largely-to-entirely out of reach for those outside the US. If there's a status challenge to AA, you can bet your last Hyatt point that it won't be possible to complete that challenge on AA partners. So again it seems to be a case of 'live in the US (or to a lesser extent, China) or don't expect much from Hyatt'.

joe_miami