World of Hyatt Didn’t Extend Status Into 2022

World of Hyatt Didn't Extend Status Into 2022
Photo: Sean Foster on Unsplash.

Update: After we published this story, World of Hyatt has emailed “selected” members to offer them a status extension for another year with status now valid until February 2023. It is not clear which members are being offered this extension and it is not available to everyone.


Over the past few months, almost every major hotel loyalty program has announced another year of elite status extensions for their members, meaning they won’t lose their status until at least the end of 2022.

This makes sense as many people have been unable to travel and retain their usual status level during 2021. But there is a bizarre exception: World of Hyatt.

Every loyalty program gave status extensions in 2020

In 2020, pretty much every hotel loyalty program in the world extended their members’ status due to the pandemic. At the beginning of 2021, most hotel loyalty programs then also reduced their elite status qualification and renewal requirements for the year, recognising that travel was still more difficult than usual.

But with COVID-19 (frustratingly) not going anywhere just yet, most hotel chains realised towards the end of 2021 that this wouldn’t be enough. If they didn’t extend members’ status for a further year, they would risk losing a lot of their most loyal customers just as they were starting to travel again.

Further 12-month status extensions given in 2021

So in September 2021, Hilton Honors became the first major hotel loyalty program to announce a second year of status extensions for all members. (Hilton had also been the first hotel chain in 2020 to extend its members’ statuses until the end of 2021.)

Over the following weeks, most other hotel loyalty programs followed suit including Shangri-La Circle, Accor ALL, Marriott Bonvoy and IHG Rewards.

But not World of Hyatt…

Despite this, World of Hyatt did not announce any further status extensions in 2021. In fact, World of Hyatt has also just resumed letting its members’ points expire if they haven’t had any account activity in the last 24 months.

World of Hyatt did extend its members’ status in 2020 until the end of 2021. It also halved its elite status qualification requirements in 2021, allowing members to earn or renew their status for 2022 with half of the usual number of tier-qualifying nights or base points during 2021. But the program has not announced any similar initiatives in 2022, even though many others have.

Based on this, one can only assume World of Hyatt has made a calculated financial decision to let the status of many of its members lapse. Either that, or the company has forgotten about its overseas-based members.

If you live in the United States, it may not have been so difficult to retain World of Hyatt status during 2021 as there are far more Hyatt properties, travel in the US was less restricted, and it’s possible to retain status there through co-branded Hyatt credit card spend. But in Australia, there are no Hyatt credit cards, many of us couldn’t travel for much of 2021 and there are currently only seven Hyatt hotels open in Australia.

In fairness to Hyatt, they do offer significantly better status tier benefits than programs like IHG Rewards and Accor ALL. But not extending members’ status when they couldn’t travel seems a bit unfair – especially when every other major hotel loyalty program has done so.

If you’re a long-term Hyatt Discoverist, Explorist or Globalist member who has lost their status this year due to being unable to travel last year, one AFF member suggests that you could try contacting your Hyatt concierge.

Join the discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: No 2022 status extension for World of Hyatt members

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 70 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include economics, aviation & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.
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It is what it is ... as an "Explorist" I'm looking at MLife.

Doesn't help those Globalists who did not requalify.

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Yes that is, sadly, correct.
Not sure what they are thinking (or maybe they now have too many US-based Globalists via credit cards to worry about international members who actually need to earn nights…. )
However if you have been a Globalist for a while and made a solid attempt this year speak to your allocated Hyatt concierge and see what they can do (hint).

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Hyatt probably have a good handle on how their membership fared during the year. Maybe because of the size and geographical distribution of hotels, the average WOH did better than occurred in other programs.

Interestingly, in various parts, US members of other programs were complaining they did the hard yards in renewing and it was;t fair that some folk were just getting extensions. So goes a bit both ways, and on Flyertalk, as an example, only a smattering of complaints about WOH handling of it.

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Of course, those 15 night Globalists from last January still have 14 months ro run.

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It has been pretty hard to earn/maintain status in this country for the past two years. That is hotel chain and airline agnostic.

Hotel-wise you basically had to do a lot of stays in your own city, or be one of the few domestic road warriors left. A former colleague of mine (DPRV-based, but working the whole year in Canberra, so PH CBR based) didn't get to 60 nights (ended up low 50s) for the whole year in 2021. Normally these sorts of people easily crack 100 nights. The reduction is largely due to the long Prison Victoria lockdowns. On the flip side if he had taken up longer term residence at the PH CBR he would have easily qualified for status, and probably generated the GDP of a small African country in FBT bills for his employer (although presumably maintaining his regular home should have exempted some of that spend).

I do wonder whether we will see any FBT test cases coming out of the COVID period where long[er] term work accommodation was essential to ensure worker continuity and business continuity, but was entirely due to government-imposed lockdown and travel restrictions. Perhaps not covered by the legislation currently, but certainly weighing the facts, any changes to the status quo which would normally generate a taxable fringe benefit could be argued as [should be / being] exempt as they are a direct result of government intervention, rather than a true fringe "benefit".

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This looks to have changed, I received this email from World of Hyatt I note the word "selected".

GSP, we've got some great news to share with you about your World of Hyatt membership. You've been selected to keep your Discoverist status for another year. This means you have through February 2023 to enjoy your benefits for extraordinary stays. We hope you’re as excited to receive this news as we are to share it.

There’s nothing you need to do—your status will automatically be extended.

Reply 3 Likes

This looks to have changed, I received this email from World of Hyatt I note the word "selected".

GSP, we've got some great news to share with you about your World of Hyatt membership. You've been selected to keep your Discoverist status for another year. This means you have through February 2023 to enjoy your benefits for extraordinary stays. We hope you’re as excited to receive this news as we are to share it.

There’s nothing you need to do—your status will automatically be extended.

As I also received.

For me, Guaranteed 2pm check out is the most significant Explorist benifit.

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I’ve reached Globalist last year thanks to the halved requirement of only 30 nights which I achieved relatively easily despite the pandemic and I look well on track to make it to 60 nights this year (got 10 already and it’s only mid February).

I also happily notice that Hyatt status seems to “count more” than status in other chains, probably because they do NOT make it so easy to achieve. So, as someone said earlier, there’s two sides to it.

Same with airlines- I was only 65 SC short of requalifying for Platinum when Qantas announced yet another status support. It saved me booking a flight I didn’t need but given I was that close on my own, it always felt a bit as if I had been cheated for all my loyalty this year.

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