😭 Missed out on a few newsletters this week? That’s okay. You can catch up on the latest travel news in less than 10 minutes with our Weekly Round-Up podcast episode.
Good morning and happy Friday! I don’t know about you, but I’m SO ready for the weekend…
Not because I’m sick of writing to you lovely people, but because I’m traveling to my favorite city in the world this weekend, and I haven’t been there since the birth of Daily Drop.
But you’ll have to wait until next week to hear about it. 😉
Thankfully, I’ve got a pretty big piece of news to keep you occupied until then:
😮 MAJOR Hyatt shakeup (and it’s good)
💳 Current Transfer Bonuses
😮 MAJOR Hyatt shakeup (and it’s good)
It’s always a little scary when a loyalty program announces MAJOR changes, especially when the program is beloved like World of Hyatt.
Thankfully, Hyatt just dropped a major announcement that was full of POSITIVE changes.
And I’m pretty excited…
Here’s the basic gist of what’s going on:
Hyatt has completely revamped their milestone rewards
They’ve introduced new awards (including new types of free nights)
Guest of Honor now works differently
If you didn’t know, Hyatt has “Milestone Rewards,” which offer you valuable perks for staying a certain number of nights.
This allows you to earn valuable perks for staying as few as 20 nights per year.
Here is what the new and improved milestone chart looks like (you can also check it out on their website):
Not only are there more perks and new perks, but the rewards go all the way up to 150 nights (previously, it stopped at 100).
Personally, I’ve spent 92 nights with Hyatt this year.
One of the reasons I’ve diversified my stays with other programs is that I have no incentive to stay more than 100 nights in a year…
This new chart will DEFINITELY make me think harder about funneling more of my hotel stays to Hyatt next year.
But here’s why this new chart is so exciting:
Each milestone has two components: an award you automatically get, PLUS a choice of another award
There are new awards that didn’t previously exist
Lower milestones have become MORE valuable
Let’s start with that last point…
Previously, Guest of Honor bookings were only available to Globalist members. Now, however, non-globalists can earn Guest of Honor awards by staying as few as 40 nights (more on Guest of Honor in a bit).
This is awesome for people who want to enjoy a taste of the Globalist benefits but who don’t stay enough nights per year to reach top-tier status.
But what REALLY excites me is the new awards they’ve introduced, which I’ll break down for you:
“2k Next Stay” Award
You’ll earn 2,000 bonus points on your next stay at any of the following brands:
Hyatt Place
Hyatt House
Caption by Hyatt
UrCove
Hyatt Place and Hyatt House are the most ubiquitous brands in the entire portfolio, so this is an easy way to earn a couple thousand bonus points. The fact that you can earn this award twice (at both 20 and 30 nights) is fantastic.
Miraval Extra Night Award
This is a really interesting one… At 100, 110, 120, 130, 140, and 150 nights with Hyatt, you can choose a Miraval Extra Night Award as your choice benefit.
If you book at least one night at a Miraval property, you’ll get another for free. It’s essentially a “buy one, get one” award that you can earn up to six times per year.
The downside here is that Miraval hotels are REALLY expensive, and there are only a few of them in the world…
Miraval Resort in Arizona
Still, if you book a two-night stay and use this award, you can basically cut the nightly cost of these expensive hotels in half.
Ultimate Free Night Award
This is the big kicker…
Until now, the most valuable free night award you could earn was only valid on Category 1-7 hotels.
As a result, tons of Hyatt properties weren’t bookable with free night awards (mainly Category 8 and all-inclusive properties).
That’s now changed with the introduction of the “Ultimate Free Night Award” which can work on ANY Hyatt hotel in the entire portfolio.
Most people will (sadly) never get to use this perk, as it requires 150 nights at Hyatt hotels per year.
But for us frequent travelers, that’s a reason to invest more of our time, money, and points into Hyatt over other programs.
Plus, it’s exciting that an award like this exists at all.
Who knows - maybe they could include this type of free night award in promotions or credit card welcome offers in the future.
Finally, let’s talk about Guest of Honor…
You’ve probably seen the term “Guest of Honor” tossed around a lot in this email. But before we get into the changes surrounding it, let me tell you what it is:
Guest of Honor is a perk for Hyatt Globalist members. When you use your points to book a stay for someone else, they’ll get all of your Globalist benefits during their stay.
It’s an awesome way to treat friends and family (or have them transfer points to you from their account to book something for them) and reap the rewards of your elite status.
Currently, this is something Globalist members can do as many times as they want.
Starting in 2024, however, this perk is changing completely.
Instead of unlimited uses, you’ll now earn single-use Guest of Honor Awards as milestone perks. Each award can only be used once, and there is no way to earn more.
The good news is that frequent Hyatt guests will have PLENTY of chances to rack up these awards…
As you can see from the chart, you can earn as many as ten of these awards every year. Even people who stay 60 nights a year to get Globalist will still earn three of them.
People who use this perk frequently will likely be disappointed by this change. Personally, I think the other positive changes FAR outweigh this one, so I’m still a happy camper.
Hyatt’s milestone bonuses are one of the reasons I decided to spend more nights with Hyatt this year, even after reaching Globalist status.
The fact that they just increased in value and there are now even MORE of them makes it pretty hard to chase elite status with other programs next year… but that’s just me…
What do you think of these Hyatt changes? |
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💳 Current Transfer Bonuses
10% from MR Points to Qatar Airways (ends December 3rd)
15% from MR Points to Avianca LifeMiles (ends December 10th)
30% from MR points to Hilton Honors (ends December 31st)
25% from UR Points to JetBlue (ends January 10th, 2024)
Did you know that Daily Drop has a YouTube channel? Check out our latest video for some visual travel hacking tips.
This week’s video takes us back to the classic travel hack (and my personal favorite): saving money by booking dirt-cheap flights. Check it out 👇
Wow… I’m freaking EXHAUSTED.
From Qatar QSuites to FareDrop’s Black Friday sale to booking Etihad with Flying Blue miles to today’s Hyatt shake-up, it’s been one hell of a week, eh?
Y’all stew on that for the weekend and I’ll see you on Monday morning for another jam-packed week of travel hacks.
Love you ❤️
