Hyatt Announces COVID-19 Response: Category Changes Delayed, Change/Cancellation Fees & More

Update 4/2/20: Flexible booking policy has been extended until June 30th, 2020.

Hyatt has announced it’s response to COVID-19.

  • Waiving change & cancellation fees.
    • Existing reservations for upcoming travel between March 14 and April 30, 2020: All existing reservations made before March 13, 2020 that are for arrivals between March 14 and April 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 reservations for any future travel: Any reservation you make between March 13, 2020, and April 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.
    • Existing Advance Purchase Rate non-refundable reservations for travel through June 2020: As announced earlier, special exceptions are in place for all Advance Purchase Rate non-refundable reservations made directly with Hyatt on or before March 8, 2020 for arrivals before June 30, 2020. Guests holding these fully prepaid reservations who have decided not to travel may still opt, at least 24 hours before their stay, to receive 10,000 World of Hyatt Bonus Points compensation in lieu of both their stay and the offer above (if eligible). World of Hyatt points may be used toward future travel at any of our 900+ hotels across 17 brands globally.
  • Award category changes and introduction of peak/off peak pricing will be delayed until 2021 (hat tip to Running with Miles). The following five hotels will still change:
    • Parky Hyatt Mallorca – From Category 6 to Category 5
    • Hyatt Centric Park City – From Category 6 to Category 7
    • Park Hyatt Shenzhen – From Category 4 to Category 5
    • Alila Yanshuo – From Category 4 to Category 5
    • Park Hyatt Ningbo – From Category 3 to Category 4
  • Points forfeit will be suspended through May 31st, 2020.

Hyatt will also be making a decision on elite tier qualifications, but at this stage they haven’t decided how this will be handled.

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21 Comments
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Peter
Peter (@guest_1003404)
June 24, 2020 17:24

I was going to book a hotel of Category 4 today (it was on the category change list released in Feb, 2020. But it is not one of the five above still changing) and I thought it would be in the same category since Hyatt delayed category change to 2021. Surprisingly, now this hotel is CAT 5, so I called Hyatt and was told that this hotel MOVED UP ON JUNE 4TH, 2020. What a surprise!

Danny
Danny (@guest_951072)
April 3, 2020 11:29

Just got an e-mail from Hyatt stating they will be extending elite status to Feb 28, 2022!

Richard
Richard (@guest_950871)
April 3, 2020 00:17

Any word on current club upgrades being delayed as well?

slowbrake
slowbrake (@guest_950819)
April 2, 2020 22:28

On 3/31 I accidentally redeemed a free night certificate at 5pm for same day arrival — i meant for the next day. I called at 11pm on 3/31 (hours after I could have checked in) to tell them my mistake and they changed the reservation to the correct days at no cost.

After check-out I realized they just gave me an extra free night.

TL;DR – Even the advertised 24 hour limit may be negotiable.

Grant
Grant (@guest_950710)
April 2, 2020 19:20

Wish they would say something about free night certificates, wonder if they will extend like other chains?

MickeyMouse
MickeyMouse (@guest_950760)
April 2, 2020 20:42

Not looking like it unfortunately. Just spoke to my Globalist Hyatt Concierge today and she stated no dice that Hyatt isn’t doing it but they’ll give 10k or 20k points for a Cat 1-4 or Cat 1-7.

CMB
CMB (@guest_951075)
April 3, 2020 11:31

They just announced that they are extending any award nights that expire between 3/1 – 12/31/20 to 12/31/21.

Jon O
Jon O (@guest_937694)
March 14, 2020 22:41

“Park Hyatt Mallorca – From Category 6 to Category 5”

Isn’t that backwards?

AnotherLump
AnotherLump (@guest_937516)
March 14, 2020 18:55

The Hyatt statement says nothing about delaying category changes, it only references delaying peak/off peak. Is that information elsewhere?

Chris
Chris (@guest_937074)
March 14, 2020 07:51

I’m currently MSing my way to exploring status and was just think that I’m going to have to slow down on my MS. Less unnecessary trips to Walmart. That’s going to make it tougher to hit the status in time for my honeymoon (if it’s still happening, not sure yet)

Hopefully the tier qualifying decision comes soon.

Gmoney
Gmoney (@guest_937157)
March 14, 2020 10:23

Is the Hyatt card a good one to this on? MS that it is

Bill Shuman
Bill Shuman (@guest_950742)
April 2, 2020 20:09

You get 2 elite nights per 5k spend. Not ideal for % back but helpful if your trying to chase Explorist or Globalist and need more nights.

Sevillada
Sevillada (@guest_936827)
March 14, 2020 00:07

I hope they extend certs, i was going to use two in april that were expiring soon

AKJohnny
AKJohnny (@guest_937127)
March 14, 2020 09:44

they will.. I called yesterday and said they are working on it.

Vince Wang
Vince Wang (@guest_936737)
March 13, 2020 22:31

No Extended Award Certificate???

Ping
Ping (@guest_936757)
March 13, 2020 22:46

i know…. i have one that expires on May 31, hopefully they can extend that

Yev
Yev (@guest_950711)
April 2, 2020 19:20

They told me to reach out to them after the certificate expired to ask for points.

William
William (@guest_950797)
April 2, 2020 21:44

any word on this? i have one expiring in 2 weeks

Cancel
Cancel (@guest_950854)
April 2, 2020 23:45

Yes, reach out to them and ask for points once they expire. I successfully did it last week.