I love Hyatt. They will be my favourite hotel program since Fairmont President’s Club will be ending next year. Yesterday, they announced some improvements to the World of Hyatt program which has been the best piece of news I’ve heard from the past few months.

Hyatt Free Night Awards Count Towards Status

Hyatt is the only major chain that does not count free nights (whether with points or certificates). IHG hotels doesn’t count award stays towards Royal Ambassador, but that’s a more limited subsection of IHG elite status. Now, all Hyatt free night awards will count towards tier status. This begins January 1, 2018 and includes both points redemptions and free night certificates (including those from credit cards and promotions).

Park Hyatt Vienna – Ambassador Suite

I prefer staying in luxury hotels on my trips. One of the best things about hotel points are that you are often able to get some of the best hotels in the world through awards. Hyatt, in comparison to other programs, probably has the best value for money in terms of redeeming for top-tier properties.

Looking through my stay history this year, I had 13 nights where I redeemed points. Furthermore, I could have adjusted the rates of another 14 nights to points redemptions. Thus, this is huge for me. It is much easier to requalify for Hyatt Globalist for 2018.

Since you are now able to use Globalist Tier Suite Upgrades on points reservations, this means you can confirm a suite at booking in a luxury property for up to 7 days while redeeming points. On top of that, you now earn elite stay credits!

In addition, Hyatt has also extended the expiration date of some free night certificates from 120 to 180 days from issuance. This is nice, but I’ve never had a problem redeeming these nor should most people.

Earning Hyatt Points

Hyatt Points are pretty hard to get in Canada, so one thing I do recommend doing is purchasing points during their sales. This can be a great deal if you already have bookings planned. To determine whether buying points are worth it, compare the cash cost vs. the cost to redeem points.

If you can access credit cards in the US, Chase Ultimate Rewards offers a 1:1 transfer ratio to Hyatt. I recently picked up the Chase Ink Preferred and earned 80,000 points I can transfer to Hyatt. The Chase Sapphire Preferred and Reserve also offers this transfer option.

Purchase Hyatt Points – 40% Promotion (Ended)

Finally, you can transfer Hyatt points for free between accounts every thirty days. This can work well if you know a friend who is a Globalist member as they can give you Globalist benefits through Guest of Honor reservations.

I have been extremely critical about the new World of Hyatt program, and still have some misgivings. However, these new improvements make up for the multiple devaluations that occurred when Hyatt Gold Passport transitioned to World of Hyatt.