World of Hyatt has just announced some major changes to award pricing. While the program is maintaining published award charts, these changes have the potential to be pretty brutal, especially as time goes on. Separately, I’ve covered a couple of minor positive program updates, related to points sharing and early access to awards.
World of Hyatt hugely increases award pricing
World of Hyatt has announced plans to introduce new award charts for stays booked as of May 2026 (there’s not yet an exact date as of which these changes will be implemented). This is the first time that Hyatt is updating its award chart in around five years, since 2021.
With these changes, World of Hyatt is keeping the same number of award categories that there are now. Instead, what’s changing is that we’re going from three to five redemption levels within each tier:
- Currently, each hotel has off-peak, standard, and peak pricing
- Under the new system, each hotel will have lowest, low, moderate, upper, and top pricing
To rip the band-aid off, below is what the new award chart looks like for standard room redemptions, compared to the old award chart.
As you can see, the idea is that off-peak, standard, and peak pricing under the old award chart, corresponds somewhat closely to lowest, low, and moderate pricing under the new award chart. For example, comparing redemption costs per night for standard rooms:
- Category 1 properties will go from costing 3,500-6,500 points, to costing 3,000-9,000 points (14% decrease to 38% increase)
- Category 2 properties will go from costing 6,500-9,500 points, to costing 6,000-15,000 points (8% decrease to 58% increase)
- Category 3 properties will go from costing 9,000-15,000 points, to costing 8,000-20,000 points (11% decrease to 33% increase)
- Category 4 properties will go from costing 12,000-18,000 points, to costing 12,000-25,000 points (up to 39% increase)
- Category 5 properties will go from costing 17,000-23,000 points, to costing 15,000-35,000 points (up to 52% increase)
- Category 6 properties will go from costing 21,000-29,000 points, to costing 20,000-40,000 points (up to 38% increase)
- Category 7 properties will go from costing 25,000-35,000 points, to costing 25,000-55,000 points (up to 57% increase)
- Category 8 properties will go from costing 35,000-45,000 points, to costing 35,000-75,000 points (up to 67% increase)
Note that all award charts are changing, including those for suite and club redemptions, as well as the award charts for Miraval, all-inclusive properties, and more.
Free night awards (including Category 1-4 and Category 1-7 certificates) will continue to be valid for stays at properties within each tier regardless of the pricing level, as long as a standard room is available.
Hyatt notes how it will continue to have annual hotel category shifts in the future, as it does now, with yearly changes announced in April. However, over time, expanded redemption levels are intended to reduce the need for larger category shifts.
How will World of Hyatt’s expanded five tier pricing be used?
It goes without saying that these changes have the potential to be massive. On the very low end, we’re seeing some award costs go down by 8-14%, while across categories, we’re seeing some award costs go up by 33-67%. The devil is in the details here, of course, and what really matters is how pricing will be split up between the five tiers. So let’s talk about that a bit.
In this announcement, World of Hyatt is emphasizing how it plans to continue having published award charts, which “reinforces its commitment to transparency, predictability and lasting member trust.” For some background, here’s how Hyatt describes the logic for these award pricing changes:
This update enables more precise alignment at the hotel level within clearly defined category caps, and the added levels allow the program to manage peak demand more precisely by reducing the need for broad increases or major category shifts in the future. While the updated framework takes effect in May, World of Hyatt will implement the changes thoughtfully, with limited hotels moving a limited number of nights into the Upper and Top categories in 2026 and broader adoption in the years that follow.
After five years without a meaningful structural update, this evolution reinforces long-term stability and protects the integrity of the program rather than fundamentally changing it. This adjustment allows the program to grow into the updated chart for years to come.
What should we expect from the pricing tiers in practice? Based on a briefing with Hyatt executives, here are a few points that were clarified:
- There will be no limit on how many nights per year will go into each of the five pricing tiers for a particular property, so there’s no assurance that the “top” pricing will only be used for X nights per year
- Hyatt’s assurance is simply that executives at the program understand the extent to which good value redemptions are something that members value, so they’ll keep that in mind as they design the program and price awards, and “maintain the trajectory of the value of points”
- Hyatt executives note how this new pricing system could cause some hotels to ultimately move to lower categories over time; the idea is that some college town limited service properties may have previously been in a disproportionately high tier due to very high demand during limited periods, while the new five tier structure allows that to be addressed more efficiently
- Hyatt states that this is an “award chart [they] will live in and grow into in the years to come” without making further changes, and pricing in the “upper” and “top” tiers will be gradual, with a limited number of properties and dates moving up initially
My take on how bad these World of Hyatt changes are
World of Hyatt is a program that offers great value, and in particular, I appreciate how it’s the only major hotel loyalty program where you can efficiently earn points through transferable points currencies. As competitors have fully moved to dynamic award pricing and have eliminated award charts, I appreciate Hyatt’s continued commitment to keeping award charts.
As I view it, there’s the question of what award pricing will look like come May, and then maybe what award pricing looks like a few years down the road. I think the most telling thing here is Hyatt’s plan to “grow into” the new award chart.
The idea is that initially only a limited number of dates and properties will have pricing in the “upper” and “top” tier, which is really where pricing gets brutal. But several years down the road, I imagine that a majority of nights at a majority of properties will fall into the upper part of the award chart, rather than the lower part of the award chart. As a matter of fact, I imagine that the next time we’ll see a new award chart is when there’s not much room left in this new award chart to move to higher pricing bands.
But look, no matter how you slice it, these changes are brutal. Even if you just compare the current “standard” pricing to the future “moderate” pricing (which seems like the most apples-to-apples comparison, based on the information we have so far), it’s really rough. Category 4 goes from 15,000 to 20,000 points per night, while Category 8 goes from 40,000 to 55,000 points per night.
I can’t say I’m surprised to see these changes, given what we’ve seen at competitors. But still, that doesn’t mean we’re going to be happy about them. And while I appreciate the idea of still having an award chart, that definitely provides a lot less certainty than in the past, when the same category of hotel can cost 3,000 or 9,000 points per night.
Bottom line
As of May 2026, World of Hyatt is introducing new award pricing. While the program will maintain an award chart with eight categories of hotels, we’ll see a move from three pricing bands to five pricing bands within each tier. Unfortunately on the high end, the increase in award costs is massive, and members will be paying up to 67% more points than before.
Only time will tell how bad the increases are at first — Hyatt is promising that the use of the higher tiers will initially be limited, but I guess we’ll see how this all plays out.
What do you make of these World of Hyatt changes?