The Thing I’ll Miss Most About the Old Hyatt Gold Passport Program

Recently, Hyatt introduced their World of Hyatt program, to replace the current Hyatt Gold Passport program. While I’m not going to re-hash the details of the new program, you can find out more details of the program here.

One of the changes moving forward with World of Hyatt is that they’ll be removing the welcome amenity or bonus points at Hyatt properties worldwide, which is going to be the most missed benefit for me as a current Hyatt Diamond.

Truth be told, I’ve rarely taken the “amenity” option, with, I think, of one exception which was at the Grand Hyatt Tampa, where I was literally offered dinner as the amenity, and I couldn’t refuse since I was hungry. I almost always take the bonus points option – where at lower tier properties (Hyatt Place and Hyatt House), you receive 500 points, and at upper tier properties (Hyatt Regency, Grand Hyatt, Park Hyatt, etc.), you receive 1,000 bonus points.

I’m really going to miss the 1,000 bonus points

I do a lot of stays at Category 1 Hyatt properties, usually because these are airport hotels, and I tend to find cheap airfares departing at absurd times before 7am, where I don’t want to make the drive from home. Washington Dulles airport is littered with these Category 1 Hyatt properties, which is a godsend for me. Since rates tend to be $100+, a lot of the time I’ll use 5,000 Hyatt points to cover the night.

Here’s my thought process: If I use 5,000 points to cover the night, and can manage to stay in a Hyatt Regency type hotel to receive the 1,000 bonus points, it’s almost as if I had spent only 4,000 points for the night, which is really a terrific deal. Especially when you tend to do “hotel hopping” – staying one night in one Hyatt and the next night at another, you can really accumulate these 1,000 points quickly and easily. Stay 5 stays at any one of these properties that gives 1,000 points as the amenity, and you all of a sudden have a free night at a Category 1 hotel.

What will you be missing with the new Hyatt program?