Hyatt Gives Early Award Access to Elites and Cardholders
Hyatt has launched a previously announced benefit that allows Globalists, Lifetime Globalists, Explorists, and World of Hyatt personal and business credit cardholders to book award stays up to 13 months before check-in. Hyatt is promoting the change as a way to reward its most loyal members with earlier access to award inventory at popular properties.
According to updated World of Hyatt terms, the following members will receive exclusive advance booking access for Free Night Awards and Points + Cash reservations:
- Explorists
- Globalists
- Lifetime Globalists
- Primary cardholders of a Hyatt credit card (regardless of status)
But is it really a new benefit? Hyatt has long allowed members to book award stays roughly 13 months in advance, even if the online calendar only displayed about 12 months of availability. World of Hyatt members could just do this by searching specific dates instead of using on the calendar view.
So this isn’t really a brand-new benefit. Instead, Hyatt has taken something that was previously available to everyone and turned it into an exclusive perk for elites and credit cardholders. If you’re a Globalist, Explorist, or have one of Hyatt’s co-branded credit cards, nothing really changes. You will continue to enjoy that extra month of access. But if you’re only Discoverist or basic World of Hyatt member, it’s a devaluation.
That one month difference could be useful when it comes to hard-to-get properties. Award space at high-demand resorts, luxury properties, and some other hotels during peak travel periods often disappears as soon as it’s released.
Guru’s Wrap-up
Hyatt is trying to present this as a loyalty enhancement. Yes, it’s a nice perk for top-tier elites and Hyatt credit cardholders. But Hyatt has effectively reduced the booking window for everyone else by taking away access they already had.
After the recent award chart changes and Chase transfer devaluation, this is yet another move in the wrong direction.
Will you get a Hyatt card, or chase World of Hyatt status in order to take advantage of early award bookings?
