This morning, Hyatt announced new flexibility measures to aid travelers with their plans in light of COVID-19.
Flexible Change & Cancellation Policies
- Existing reservations (made prior to March 13, 2020) for travel through April 30, 2020 may be cancelled up to 24 hours prior to arrival with no penalty, including Advance Purchase Rates.
- Existing non-refundable Advance Purchase Rate reservations made before March 8, 2020 for travel through June 30, 2020 can cancel their reservations in exchange for 10,000 World of Hyatt points (regardless of reservation length or category of property).
- New reservations made March 13, 2020 – April 30, 2020 for any travel date may be changed or cancelled free of charge up to 24 hours prior to arrival, including Advance Purchase Rates.
World of Hyatt Program Changes
- Points forfeiture is suspended through May 31, 2020, even if no qualifying activity has been logged in the past 24 months.
- Peak/off-peak award cost implementation will be postponed until 2021.
- Award chart redemption changes (originally covered here) will be postponed until 2021, with five notable exceptions:
Hotel Current Free Night Award Category New Free Night Award Category Park Hyatt Mallorca 6 5 Hyatt Centric Park City 6 7 Park Hyatt Shenzhen 4 5 Alila Yangshuo 4 5 Park Hyatt Ningbo 3 4
The Upshot
Overall, these are incredibly friendly changes for travelers during this uncertain time. It is particularly interesting to see that five properties are still changing categories; I’m quite curious about the rationale behind that decision.
In addition, though Hyatt has already extended Free Night Awards and elite tier status for members in the Asia-Pacific region, it’s still too early to tell how elite re-qualification will look for members based elsewhere.
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