[2020.4 Update] After Hilton expanded its relief policy to global members, see here. Hyatt has now followed with the same policy.
- Points will not expire through the end of 2020
- Free night awards, suite upgrade awards, and similar certificates expiring from March 1, 2020 through the end of 2020 will be automatically extended to December 31, 2021
- Elite status already earned or newly earned from March 31, 2020 through the end of 2020 will be automatically extended to February 28, 2022
These updates will be processed automatically by the system, so there is no need to contact customer service.
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.
My guess is that IHG will also roll out a similar global policy soon. Marriott is still being Marriott, but there is at least one piece of good news:
[02/25 Update] Hyatt today released the detailed eligibility rules for this relief policy, matching the earlier rumors. For details, see the official WeChat post. Hyatt has been the most generous hotel program in this round of relief policies. Some readers at Flytea apparently did not even meet the stated requirements, but were still able to get it done by calling customer service directly. See this discussion post.
- IHG, Marriott, and Hilton may release additional details later;
- My guess is that these hotel groups’ relief policies may also expand like Hyatt’s to cover Asia-Pacific, or at least South Korea and Japan, where the outbreak situation was not looking good.
It’s here!
After IHG was first out of the gate [see this article], Hyatt’s official WeChat account announced a World of Hyatt member relief plan related to the coronavirus outbreak. See the official WeChat post.
Now the pressure is really on Marriott, Hilton, and Wyndham to follow with similar policies. Wyndham also has a decent footprint in mainland China, but since Wyndham has long had a match policy [see here], Marriott is still the one everyone is watching most closely.
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Key background
Hyatt came out strong here, with a relief plan for all members in the Asia-Pacific region!
*Asia-Pacific here includes Australia, mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Cambodia, Guam, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Maldives, the Philippines, Saipan, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Hyatt did not explain how it determines billing address eligibility, including timing, so if you need to update your address, do it as soon as possible and take your shot.
The rumored eligibility criteria for extension were as follows:
To receive the above extensions, members needed to meet one of the following three conditions: 1. As of February 18, 2020, the address on the member account was in a country or region within Asia-Pacific; 2. If there was no address on file, the member’s language preference on the account was Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, or Korean; 3. If there was no address on file, the account was registered through the WeChat mini program.
We did not know at the time whether this was accurate, but it did suggest that the relevant billing address snapshot date was 02/18, which looked very similar to IHG’s setup. If you’re interested in what Marriott and Hilton do next, you know what to do...
Relief #1: Elite status extended by one year
For eligible World of Hyatt members with Discoverist, Explorist, or Globalist status, the current expiration date will be extended from February 28, 2021 to February 28, 2022, allowing members to keep their elite status and benefits.
- A one-year Globalist extension is incredibly strong.
- Hyatt does not offer a separate requalification gift; its meaningful rewards are earned through actual stays, so there is nothing like IHG’s style of requalification gift selection.
Relief #2: Member awards extended by one year
For eligible World of Hyatt members, unused awards with expiration dates during 2020 under their membership account, including suite upgrade awards, Club Lounge Access awards, and free night awards, will have their expiration dates extended to December 31, 2021.
- With the extension running through December 31 next year, the effective extension for most of these certificates is actually more than one year.
Official statement
The World of Hyatt team is actively updating eligible member accounts to extend elite status and award expiration dates, and expects to complete the process by March 31, 2020.If World of Hyatt members have any questions, members in mainland China can call the Hyatt Global Contact Center member line at 400-920-1234. Members in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and other regions can check https://about.hyatt.com/zh-hans/contact.html, contact Hyatt through WeChat customer service (official WeChat account: HyattHotels), or email [email protected].
Relief policy roundup
More international airlines and hotel groups may join with similar relief policies, so here is a quick roundup of the ones most relevant to us so far:
Hotels
IHG got things off to a good start this time, and the pressure on Hilton and Marriott is probably pretty significant now.
Airlines
Participation from international airlines will probably be limited. Right now, China Southern’s offer is the strongest, so I won’t list the relief plans from the other Chinese airlines here.