Frequent Flyer

Hyatt Reprices Award Nights at 17 Hotels for 2013


Family at the airport terminal
Tim Winship

    When hotels announce their annual award-price changes, the news generally ranges from bad to very bad.

    The upcoming Hyatt changes are an exception.

    Beginning on February 7, 2013,

    Hyatt Gold Passport

    members will pay more points for award nights at seven hotels and fewer points at 10 other properties.

    With fewer that 500 hotels in the Hyatt network, that amounts to price changes to around 3 percent of the Gold Passport hotels. So from a disruption standpoint, the changes are pretty benign.

    Even better, there are more price decreases than increases.

    And perhaps best of all, as these things go, Hyatt has given program members almost two months' notice of the changes, by email, and clearly displayed the changes, positive and negative, on its website.

    As always with award changes, the advice is twofold: