World of Hyatt extends elite status, free nights & upgrade awards and suspends points expiry to end of 2020

Hyatt Hotels provided to us detailed updates to their hotel cancellation policies and World of Hyatt program.


The no fee change and cancellation policy for Hyatt Hotel stays has now been extended to June 30.
Existing reservations for upcoming travel through June 30, 2020:

• All existing reservations (booked April 1 or before) for arrivals through June 30, 2020 can be changed or cancelled at no charge up to 24 hours before your scheduled arrival. This includes Advance Purchase Rate reservations.
• New reservation for any future travel: With some very limited exceptions noted below, reservations booked between April 2, 2020 and June 30, 2020 – for any future arrival date – can be changed or cancelled at no charge up to 24 hours before your scheduled arrival. This includes Advance Purchase Rate reservations. The only exceptions are reservations booked after April 1, 2020 at Destination Residences and Special Events Rate reservations booked after April 1, 2020. The cancellation policies for a Special Event Rate will be noted in the rate’s Rate Rules section when booking.

On the World of Hyatt side they have now extended the pausing of points expiry due to inactivity to the end of this year from the previously announced May 31. They have also now added in nice long extensions for any free night or upgrade awards you may have in your account that were set to expire from March 1 to December 31, 2020. These will all now expire on December 31, 2021. Finally if you held status with World of Hyatt as of March 31 that will now be extended to February 28, 2022.

World of Hyatt benefits will be extended in the following ways for all members globally:
 

• More time to use points: We are suspending the forfeiture of points through December 31, 2020. As a reminder, our general policy is that points do not expire, but they will be forfeited if a member’s account is inactive for 24 months.
• More time to use earned awards: All unused Free Night, Suite Upgrade or Club Lounge Access awards with expiration dates between March 1, 2020 and December 31, 2020 will be extended to December 31, 2021. This includes existing awards and awards that may be earned throughout this year with a 2020 expiration date. The award extension will be generated by World of Hyatt – members do not need to take action. Awards that expired between March 1 and March 31, 2020 will be replaced with new awards on April 20, 2020. All other qualifying, unused awards will be updated by the 20th day of the month in which the award would have originally expired.
• More time for elite members to enjoy their status and benefits: Status and benefits will be extended for all existing elite members without having to re-qualify. This means that whatever your status was as of March 31, 2020 – whether Discoverist, Explorist or Globalist – it will be automatically updated to reflect a February 28, 2022 expiration date. All elite tier extensions should be reflected in members’ accounts no later than April 15, 2020.

Overall good news from the folks at Hyatt for these extensions to their programs and for the points expiry. We have seen other hotel chains like Best Western and Hilton extend status for members to which Hyatt joins that group. Now lets hope others like IHG do so as well.

These updates will also be added to our COVID-19 resource page later today.

Image via Hyatt