It’s old news by now that Hyatt is relaunching their loyalty program under the “World of Hyatt” banner, including a realignment of elite benefits across four new tiers. Where it used to be a simple member/platinum/diamond hierarchy, it’s now split into “Member,” then “Discoveratrix,” then “Exploratoire,” and finally “Globalickity.” How they came up with those names is beyond me, but those are the actual names, despite what you may have seen elsewhere.
I have Hyatt Platinum status now and will be downgraded to Discoveratrix on March first when the new program launches. I was mad about this at first, because I thought I was losing my 2PM checkout benefit. However, upon checking the World of Hyatt website, it looks like Discoveratrixes still get late checkout upon request, so that’s good. I now get access to “preferred rooms” instead of room upgrades, but since I never once got an upgrade as a Platinum, that’s not too bad. I also get free water (gotta stay hydrated bruh) and a free room award night if I stay at five Hyatt brands. I think those are both new benefits, which is nice.
The only downgrade is that I go from earning 15% bonus points on stays down to 10%, although realistically that makes a tiny difference given how many points I normally earn through Hyatt stays each year. Still, it was nice to hear from Hyatt today that they’re offering me 5% bonus points through February 2018, essentially keeping me at the Platinum earning rate through my first year in the new program. Here’s the relevant part from the email they sent:
Is anyone excited about World of Hyatt? I suppose it’s good if you’re super loyal to Hyatt and terrible if you just barely qualified for Diamond status under the previous program. For someone like me, it seems like this is mostly a wash, although I appreciate Hyatt offering mid-tier people a soft landing into the new program. I should also note that the email specifically mentioned earning status by holding the Hyatt credit card, so this may not have been offered to all current Platinum members… or maybe people who earned Platinum through stays were offered additional benefits. Who knows! Is this really that important?
Windbag Miles 
Yeah, you got that right: For those of us who were making Hyatt Diamond on 25 stays and/or 50 nights, including 2 to 5 stays and 5 to 10 nights from spend on the Chase Hyatt Visa card, the 60 night thing to be a Globulist (Diamond equivalent) is a total buzzkill. I mean, I like Hyatt. I like the breakfasts, not just at the Park Hyatt Vendome and the Andaz Maui and the Andaz San Diego and the Andaz Fifth Avenue (did I mention Andaz?), but also at the Hyatt at the Bellevue and even at the HR Lexington (KY) and the HR DFW. And the 4pm check out was fantastic. So, in this, my exit year, I continue to stay at the higher end Hyatts when I can. Far less incentive — none, in fact — to stay at Hyatt Place and Hyatt House. Finally, as no end of folks have pointed out, the irony — well, irony for the miles and points literature — is that I would stay at Hyatt 60 nights a year if they only had Hyatts in a lot of the places I am staying. Like 19 nights in Europe first half of this year.
Thanks for the therapy.
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I’m in the same boat (as are a lot of people). I stay ~110 night/year in hotels globally, yet struggled every year to get 25 in a Hyatt because their footprint is so small. I often went out of my way, staying in less convenient places or paying more than I wanted to in order to re-qualify for Diamond each year. Apparently my loyalty was not that important to Hyatt, so I reluctantly did a Platinum challenge with Starwood and I’m switching (I will keep my Hilton Diamond which is my primary brand). I like Hyatt properties better, and the breakfast benefits are much better, but if Hyatt doesn’t value loyalty, they aren’t going to get it.
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I think there’s a blog entry in there somewhere about the fungible meaning of “loyalty”… Hyatt values people who spend buckets of money with them, which is definitely a form of loyalty. However, airline and hotel loyalty programs always seemed to value people choosing them, which is a more ethereal form of loyalty that doesn’t show up as clearly on the balance sheet. The bummer is that loyalty programs are closing to road warriors whose companies require them to fly rock bottom economy fares and stay in the Hyatt Places of the world, and they’re restricting their ranks to the mega-rich. I need to think more about this before I make a series of bold claims, but my initial feeling is that the proliferation of revenue requirements across most loyalty programs benefits people who are already wealthy – another way that the people who can afford things usually get them for free. That’s what’s sad – there are people who are willing to put in the work to be loyal to a brand, and the brands are making it clear that they don’t give much of a fuck unless those people are also stuffed to the gills with cash.
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