Hyatt Gold Passport 2016 Award Chart Changes

Hyatt has announced category changes for award redemptions this morning. It’s been a while since Hyatt has announced award chart changes, and the list of properties changing is on the smaller side today.

Hyatt is giving us just about a month’s notice to book hotels that are going up in category, so you still have time to take advantage of the lower rates through 11:59pm CST July 31, 2016.  Let’s take a look at the list of properties changing:

Properties Going Up In Category

The list is almost all Hyatt Place and Hyatt House properties at the lower levels of the program.  Of the 50 properties going up in category, 42 are rising no higher than category 3.  Notable hotels increasing are the Grand Hyatt DFW, Hyatt Centric Park City and the Hyatt Regency San Francisco.

Grand Hyatt DFW is a very solid airport hotel connected to the D terminal at DFW, the primary terminal for international flights.  I just completed a stay at Hyatt Centric Park City, which is located right beside a ski lift in Park City.  I never like to see properties going up in category, but this is a pretty benign list of increases.

Properties Going Down In Category

There are 56 properties going down in category, the majority of which are outside the US.  Two Park Hyatts, in Chennai and Hyderabad, are dropping as well as a handful of Hyatt Regency properties in the US and abroad.  The new Hyatt Centric South Beach drops 2 categories from 6 to 4, which probably makes it affordable by award redemption standards.

So, What Does It Mean For You and I?

Some people will be upset that a key property is going up in price.  Others will be happy to learn that a property they’re thinking about visiting is now going to cost them fewer points.  But, I can’t imagine anyone being too excited one way or another.  These are pretty tame changes all around.  That largely makes sense to me.  While hotels are more full (and more expensive) than they were 5 years ago, I haven’t seen a drastic shift in the market over the past year or so.

You’ll want to lock up reservations prior to the end of July if you have your heart set on one of those properties going up in category.  Similarly, you’ll want to wait until August 1st for properties to drop a category, though you can generally make reservations now for hotels going down in category and ask Gold Passport to re-price them once August rolls around.

Hyatt has given us enough notice to react accordingly and kept the changes to a relative minimum.

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