Hyatt extending status, free nights because of coronavirus
 

View from the Wing blog has details.

A few wrinkles.

Great, everybody can just chill out now

Well done Hyatt!

This removes worrying about staying Globalist this year!

Thanks Hyatt - now to see how many more events this year get canceled.

Nice done.

Extending World of Hyatt loyalty program benefits
We are closely listening to our World of Hyatt members and using feedback to continually evaluate ways to flex the program. To advance care and give members one less thing to worry about during this incredibly challenging time, World of Hyatt benefits will be extended in the following ways for all members globally:

• More time to use points: We are suspending the forfeiture of points through December 31, 2020. As a reminder, our general policy is that points do not expire, but they will be forfeited if a member’s account is inactive for 24 months.

• More time to use earned awards: All unused Free Night, Suite Upgrade or Club Lounge Access awards with expiration dates between March 1, 2020 and December 31, 2020 will be extended to December 31, 2021. This includes existing awards and awards that may be earned throughout this year with a 2020 expiration date. The award extension will be generated by World of Hyatt – members do not need to take action. Awards that expired between March 1 and March 31, 2020 will be replaced with new awards on April 20, 2020. All other qualifying, unused awards will be updated by the 20th day of the month in which the award would have originally expired.

• More time for elite members to enjoy their status and benefits: Status and benefits will be extended for all existing elite members without having to re-qualify. This means that whatever your status was as of March 31, 2020 – whether Discoverist, Explorist or Globalist – it will be automatically updated to reflect a February 28, 2022 expiration date. All elite tier extensions should be reflected in members’ accounts no later than April 15, 2020.

no one has any suite upgrade awards expiring in 2020, as they all now expire Feb 2021 (or Feb 2022 for those earned since Mar 1).

and all expiration extensions need to be soon, rather than post original expiration, or they’ll be impossible to use for advance planned 2021 trips.

cleanup on aisle 1 needed.

Compared with Hyatt, Marriott has been just horrible. Half-hearted change on reward expiration. And its annual category changes and peak/off-peak already implemented.... We should just break Marriott merger with SPG. It is anti competition.

Hilton made the same change as Hyatt just did.

This is quite likely to cause spending on the Chase WOH CC to be massively curtailed.

Why rack up status nights in 2020 for 2021 if you are already Globalist until early 2022?

Cashback may be king unless they offer some nice promos.

Fully agreed - Marriott will eventually match, just because it will have to competitively, but they are doing an amazing job of botching their response and never taking a leadership position

Not really. WoH still has nice Milestone rewards, like FN, $100 GC and suite upgrade etc.

I assume people will spend their $15K to get the free CC night as usual

I would guess it's a pretty small group of people who majority spend their way to Globalist (vs. a mix of at least half the nights via BIB)

Maybe. My primary use of the card is because I typically get more value out of a WOH points than out of my cash back cards (i.e. I get more than 2 cents per point). Night credits are bonuses, usually I don't need them for qualification, but it makes reaching the 70/80/90/100 bonuses much easier.

But, with rates expected to come down, point hoarding of course is less attractive anyways.

Agreed. I'm assuming (hoping) that suite upgrade awards would be extended to Dec 2021? Either way well done Hyatt!

the answer needs to be that ALL existing and newly issued certs (free nights, upgrades) shall be set to expire no early than Dec 31 2021. and to set the new expiration date quickly. i think that’s where we will end up, after a few weeks.

Well, some insane folks will step up to the plate to swing for Marriott "in defense of Marriott Bonv*y" and other BS stuff. Marriott just spent more $$$ to lobby the corrupt politicians to approve its SPG merger. Now it has too much market power and still can dictate whatever it wants to do with its disastrous Bonv*y program.

I certainly like Hyatt to acquire more properties. I hope it can acquire Fairmont Hotels from Accor. That brand is stuck with Accor.