Easy fix to this is call to apply the points on the points advance reservation and they will compensate you the difference. THen, after the points have been applied, you can apply the SUA on a subsequent phone call. I have seen this done before and it works. They key is you have to make 2 seperate phone calls.

So true. I have found many desirable properties in Asia, particularly in China, Hong Kong and Macau, no standard room is available for redemption. They are always room with club access - this is a big devaluation to those with Globalist status. I checked the whole 2026, GH Macau not a single day has standard room. On top of that, the suite redemption unless it is specified with club access, you could wind up in a true suite but NO club access. I have confirmed this with GH Macau. Other programs usually a suite automatically come with club access, NOT Hyatt, or at least most Hyatts in Greater China.

Did not work when I tried in April or May 2024. I did just that.


By your implication, you would get back extra points if you funded the points advance and then subsequently canceled.

Ypu can’t even shorten the trip by a day without it repricing.

Yes, that’s correct. If you fund the Points Advance at the new category rate and then later cancel the reservation, the system refunds based on the current points value which can result in receiving more points back than were originally used.

This has happened to me multiple times, and I’ve had to call MHC to have them remove the extra points that were deposited into my account.

What you may be thinking is this: if you book a Points Advance to lock in the current rate and the property later changes categories, then try to add a SUA, the system will reprice the reservation at the current category. However, if you keep it as a Points Advance, wait for the category change, and then fund it at the new rate, you can add the SUA at the current market rate because the reservation has already been funded at that updated level. Go back through your reservations for points advance that were funded after it changed categories, MHC will add in additional points to your account.

Best,

well I’m surprised at getting points back.

but I’m not quite following you. If you fund it at the new (post category change) rate, and then cancel, you are just getting the points back you put in.

Did you really mean fund it at the new rate?


I know you can’t apply a SUA to a points advance reservation prefunding.. At least MHC told me so on more than one occasion.

This is basically me. I have WAY more Cat 1-4s redemptions than 5+ (and fairly certain I've never done a Cat-7-8).

Hyatt was my favored way to go to baseball spring training in Phoenix, and hotels have 100% blown up into 15k from 5k by category inflation and peak times. I expect Hyatt's new chart to continue that.

I did decide to take the WoH card this year because the 7 potential Cat 1-4 certs over a ~year are super juicy, but I expect that by 2027 when I run dry I will know which way to go with WoH going forward, as the category changes and charts should be showing firm trends by then.

If you make a Points Advance reservation when the hotel is in a lower category, then later fund it after the category increases, and subsequently cancel it, Hyatt will refund the points at the higher (new) rate. This happened to a colleague of mine—he ended up receiving an additional 70,000 points back. About six months later, Hyatt corporate caught it, canceled his future reservations to recoup the points, and restricted his account. He’s now only allowed to fund Points Advance bookings within 48 hours of arrival, even though the policy technically states seven days. He’s essentially been placed on a special program.



And yes, you’re correct—you can’t apply a Suite Upgrade Award (SUA) until the reservation has been funded.

Agree 100%. Like you, I look to see if I can get 2 cents a point of value and that's the only thing that drives my decision. It's definitely been easier to find this value at the lower category hotels.

I travel a lot, all out of pocket, and I need to pay for it one way or another. I view my points as having value and don't really want to spend 35,000 points ($700 the way I look at it) for a hotel night unless I absolutely have to.

I feel the same way, but it often manifests in the other direction - I like staying in nice places and would rather burn 35k points than spend a grand in cash. I've found the highest value redemptions are at the higher end of the scale - like PH Maldives which penciled out at 10 cpp last January.

OTOH there is something extra-satisfying about getting a nice hotel room in a major city for 15,000 points or less, including breakfast, parking, and usually a halfway decent upgrade.

It’s true that it’s getting harder to find really outsized value per point. In 2024 I had a few stays north of 7¢/pt - that’s already much harder to find today, and it’ll likely get even harder with the new chart.

On the other hand, it doesn’t make much sense for Hyatt to consistently offer 6–8¢/pt redemptions while selling points for ~2.5¢/pt at the same time. Over time, award pricing tends to move closer to the price Hyatt sells points at.

You can still beat the bank, but the margin is smaller now - and it’ll likely shrink further with the new chart. The real “problem” is that WoH is still very attractive for a lot of travel patterns, often more attractive than other hotel programs, so many members will keep engaging even after a devaluation - myself included.

I’m still looking forward to most of my upcoming stays - largely because of Globalist recognition and being treated as a returning guest. At many Hyatt properties they genuinely try hard to make me feel valued, and that level of consistency isn’t the norm these days.

Just trying to think through how my spending and stay patterns will change with the new award chart updates. Last year I hit 70 EQN with a mix of points, FNA's, cash bookings and credit card nights. We have always tried to "splurge" a bit once or twice a year at some of the more aspirational properties, though last year we did a bit more of this as we celebrated our retirement. We booked 12 of our nights on points, ranging from Cat 3 to Cat 8 and spent 340,000 points. The higher tier properties included 2 nights each at PH Milan and Miraval, as well as 4 nights booked at HR Maui. When I calculate what those 12 nights would cost on the new award chart (I matched up the current tiers to the new tiers) and those stays would have cost 446,000, which is a 31% increase. To earn those additional 106,000 points I'd have to spend an additional $11,000 on room rates with my Hyatt card, (9.5x earn) or $106,000 in unbonused spend on the card. We averaged about $300 per night cash rate, so that's another 37 paid nights. Unfortunately we don't have a business or any other avenue to generate that increase in spending.

One of the ramifications for me would be booking less of the category 6-8 properties on points as the value proposition is greatly decreased as well as is the ability for me to earn that many points for redemptions. I had put enough spend on the Hyatt card to earn 20 EQN, knowing the payoff to help hit 60 nights is valuable for Globalist status (which I agree with others is hugely valuable). I knew the tradeoff to earn these EQN's meant less overall points earning if I had used other cards like my Venture X, but getting to Globalist offset that. I continued to put spend on the card knowing that it wasn't the most optimal use of points earning, but helped with earning additional milestone awards.

I still see myself using a mix of cash rates, FNA's and credit card spend to hit Globalist, but I really don't see myself putting incremental spend on my Hyatt card at this point as I feel the value proposition of the points and some of the incremental milestone awards like 10k points has greatly decreased. We've already adjusted our cc spend downwards as we had frontloaded a few large expenditures this year, and I feel we can hit 60 nights through other means.

I've always most valued with WOH the Globalist benefits and the ability to occasionally stay at aspirational properties. Losing (or greatly reducing) the ability of one of those two benefits will have me less engaged in the program, and mostly to continue to earn Globalist. Maybe Hyatt is okay with these changes for a customer like me....who knows, though I'm sure they would hope that people would put more spend on their cc's as opposed to less. If Hyatt changes the earn value on that in the future, either on the current card or new premium card, I would look to reevaluate things.

I just went through the exercise of transferring all of my UR points to Hyatt (prior to closing the Reserve card once the annual fee posts this month. I then depleted my Hyatt account via speculate bookings (which I am 90% sure I'll use) prior to the coming devaluation. I may then be done with Chase Saphire Reserve (after their AF increase) and Hyatt.

My strategy has been to move towards values that still exist. Since the beginning of the game, a good chunk of my travel has been to take advantage of specific good deals. Back in the days when all major programs published award charts and devals in advance, I'd fill up half of my year's trips with high value hotels that were on the deval list that year. Hyatt still publishes this, so it's still possible to enjoy properties "one last time". Then I move on to values that still exist (in any program), and have not run out so far.

I'm someone who enjoys the "thrill" of redeeming 5k pts at somewhere I actually want to go. Last year it was Lindner Prague and Vienna. This year it will be Caption Namba and somewhere in KL. I enjoyed HP Moab as cat 2 and HP St George as cat 1; at cat 5 and cat 3 respectively now, they're like old Exs no longer relevant, I wave and turn the other way.

In the new scheme, there will likely be fewer great deals. I'm hopeful it will still produce good/decent values here and there, especially in shoulder and off seasons. One of the things I "hate" about current redemption environment is that it "forces" me to redeem in the high season for good CPP. I actually want to go to places in the off season to avoid crowd; maybe I can in the future IF awards drop to the lowest band.

I went to go blow a decent chunk of points before the devaluation and I cannot find standard room redemptions. There is an event that I want to go to in AMS the second weekend of September and room rates are ridiculous.

I looked at a couple of other dates in November/December and it is the same deal. The skeptic in my feels that all of the properties are playing games in advance of the devaluation. If someone told me that is how it is now, I would believe it because I have not been traveling much over the last year.

Agree. Standard availability dried up at the PH Paris immediately after the announcement with only a few days a month now. Seems to be consistent.