{"id":13317,"date":"2026-02-26T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/?p=13317"},"modified":"2026-02-25T23:27:51","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T06:27:51","slug":"thursday-thought-the-abject-lessons-from-hyatt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/26\/thursday-thought-the-abject-lessons-from-hyatt\/","title":{"rendered":"Thursday Thought: The Abject Lessons from Hyatt"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/newsroom.hyatt.com\/awardchartupdates\">Hyatt announced a major change and some minor changes yesterday<\/a>, scheduled to start in May. The gist:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Each category will have five price points based on demand, prices will be:\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Category 1: 3,000-9,000 points per night<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Category 2: 6,000-15,000 points per night<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Category 3: 8,000-20,000 points per night<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Category 4: 12,000-25,000 points per night<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Category 5: 15,000-35,000 points per night<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Category 6: 20,000-40,000 points per night<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Category 7: 25,000-55,000 points per night<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Category 8: 35,000-75,000 points per night<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The price of the middle tier for each category is going up between 20% and 38%<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>No changes to existing certificates or upgrade instruments<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>You&#8217;ll be able to share points digitally<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;Early award night availability&#8221; for card members and elites<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The commentary out there on these changes is wild, including words like &#8220;death&#8221;, &#8220;brutal&#8221;, &#8220;devastating&#8221;, &#8220;read it and weep&#8221;, and my personal favorite, &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/hyatt\/comments\/1relau6\/hyatt_deval_is_a_slap_in_the_face_and_im_tired_of\/\">elitism<\/a>&#8220;. Look, I agree devaluations suck, and I agree that this one does too. But let&#8217;s put a few things in perspective when the rage-o-meter drops a bit:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>In 2014, a Hyatt Place that I used to frequent cost $67 per night, and was 5,000 points<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>In 2026, the same Hyatt Place costs $144 per night, and is still 5,000 points (standard)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Over the same 2014-2026 time-frame, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bls.gov\/data\/inflation_calculator.htm\">US dollar inflation is +39%<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Hyatt was probably paying about $25 for my award night in 2016, and about $55 in 2026<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The same phenomenon affects high end properties too, probably worse<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Ink card bonuses, which are Hyatt point producers) are about double what they were in 2014<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A six-pack of soda on sale in 2014 cost about $2 and earned me, best case, 3 Hyatt points<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A six-pack of soda on sale in 2026 costs about $4 and earns me, best case, 12 Hyatt points<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Ultimately, inflation means that I&#8217;m earning more for the same spend, and Hyatt&#8217;s paying more for my redemptions. Whether it&#8217;s Hyatt or any other program, that means devaluations are coming. There&#8217;s only one way to avoid losing much when this happens, and it&#8217;s in the site&#8217;s title:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Earn and Burn<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Miles and points lose value over time, so burn &#8217;em when you get &#8217;em. Or, maybe (definitely) I suffer from elitism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Happy Thursday!<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/chicken-died-for-no-reason-cuz-someone-changed-his-mind-v0-rckconumsigg1.jpeg-768x1024.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13318\" style=\"width:420px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/chicken-died-for-no-reason-cuz-someone-changed-his-mind-v0-rckconumsigg1.jpeg-768x1024.webp 768w, https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/chicken-died-for-no-reason-cuz-someone-changed-his-mind-v0-rckconumsigg1.jpeg-225x300.webp 225w, https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/chicken-died-for-no-reason-cuz-someone-changed-his-mind-v0-rckconumsigg1.jpeg.webp 1080w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\" style=\"font-size:14px\">Next up: How many points did an out of place rotisserie chicken earn in history?<br>Data will include varieties both with and without salmonella, because elitism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hyatt announced a major change and some minor changes yesterday, scheduled to start in May. The gist: The commentary out there on these changes is<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[61,64],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hotels","category-points"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13317"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13326,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13317\/revisions\/13326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}