World of Hyatt Introduces Peak and Off-Peak Point Redemptions

A little less than three months ago, Marriott introduced peak and off-peak pricing. Following in Marriott’s footsteps, World of Hyatt today announced that it has also adopted peak and off-peak pricing for free night awards, starting in March 2020. Under this new structure there will be three point redemption values.

Is this a benefit or a devaluation? Are we about to be Bonvoyed? It depends of course on how this plays out. Hopefully there’ll be some benefits coming out of this, but overall, I am not happy with this new announcement. We’ll know more when the link below goes live at 11 a.m. EST.

LINK: Hyatt Peak and Off-Peak Redemptions 

Here’s the basic information that I know so far:

• Off-peak: Fewer points will be required during Off-peak times – starting at 3,500 points per night.
• Standard: Points required during standard redemption periods will follow today’s point requirements – starting at 5,000 points per night.
• Peak – When hotels are the busiest, more points will be required for a free night – starting at 6,500 points per night and will be no more than 5,000 points above the Standard point requirement.
• This new structure will apply to all types of award nights, including free nights in a standard room, club-access room, standard and premium suites.
• Points + Cash awards will also offer Off-peak and Peak rates and will still require 50% of the standard cash rate and 50% of the points required for a free night.
• If a member has an existing award booking for a night that changes to Off-peak in March 2020, they will receive an automatic one-time refund on the point difference. Members will not be charged more if their existing award booking changes to Peak.
• Free night point redemptions will be identified as Peak, Standard or Off-peak as soon as nights are available for reservations (usually 13 months in advance) and will not change once posted.
• hotel award categories are not changing and will remain 1-8.

Here is the new award redemption chart for a standard room:

Until we examine this new structure in effect, it is hard to say whether it is a positive or negative change. I’m trying to remain optimistic. In the next post, I’ll discuss some possible Silver Linings to this new program.