The Real Deal Behind the New Hyatt Category 8 Rumor

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Rumors are flying about another Hyatt devaluation possibly in the works.  This comes hot on the heels of Hyatt’s big changes to Points + Cash awards effective November 1, 2018.

Earlier today, Hyatt was displaying a category 8 in a drop-down menu on its website costing 40,000 Hyatt points per night.  Currently, their top tier is category 7 (30,000 Hyatt points per night) and includes bucket-list hotels like the Park Hyatt Paris – Vendome, Park Hyatt New York, and Park Hyatt Sydney.

The entry has since been removed.  But it’s understandable that folks who like earning Hyatt points with fantastic credit cards like the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, Ink Business Preferred℠ Credit Card (these Chase points transfer to Hyatt), and The World Of Hyatt Credit Card would worry.

We reached out to Hyatt and got a response.  It’s not quite what you think!

Here’s the deal with the rumored Hyatt category 8!

Possible New Hyatt Category 8

Summer over at The Points Guy reports one of their readers spotted the 40,000-point category 8 greyed out on Hyatt’s website earlier today.  It’s not there anymore, but here’s their screenshot:

I did some poking around and couldn’t find any references to category 8 on the Hyatt site.  According to Summer, the information disappeared shortly after she contacted Hyatt for confirmation.

We reached out as well, and got the following response:

[W]e have no plans for any Hyatt-branded hotels or resorts to move to a new Category 8.

However, the representative further explained that with Hyatt’s upcoming partnership with Small Luxury Hotels of the World, there’d likely be a category 8 coming soon:

Given the diversity and caliber of the SLH portfolio, we anticipate that some SLH properties will fall into a new eighth category on our award chart.  We look forward to sharing more details when the alliance officially launches.

This makes quite a lot of sense, because many Small Luxury Hotels of the World locations are ultra fancy and luxurious.  Here’s team member Harlan’s list of 10 incredible hotels soon coming to Hyatt as a result of the SLH partnership (and recent acquisition of Two Roads Hospitality as well).

What Should You Do?

In any case, it sounds like we can all breathe easy for the time being – in case you were thinking of frantically booking your favorite top-tier Hyatt in anticipation of an award chart change!

But in the meantime, considering you’ll soon have hundreds of new hotels where you can redeem Hyatt points for free stays, it’s a great time to consider boosting your Hyatt points balance.  You can earn Hyatt points directly from The World Of Hyatt Credit Card, which offers up to 60,000 Hyatt points after you meet tiered spending requirements.

Or consider transferring Chase Ultimate Rewards points to Hyatt from cards like the Ink Business Preferred℠ Credit Card,  Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, or Chase Sapphire Reserve®.  All 3 cards have incredible welcome bonuses and are among the best Chase credit cards.

Here’s our post on all the ways to earn Hyatt points.

Bottom Line

The rumored new Hyatt category 8 isn’t quite as it seems!  While the new category did appear on the Hyatt website earlier today (now removed), our friends at Hyatt assure us there are no plans to move any Hyatt-branded hotels or resorts to a category 8.

They do say they’re anticipating some hotels from Small Luxury Hotels of the World, which Hyatt will soon partner with, will fall into the new category.  That’s understandable because many of their locations are incredibly fancy and exclusive.

Let us know what you think of these possible changes!