World of Hyatt confirmed on February 25, 2026 that its award chart will expand from three pricing tiers to five, with the new chart and 136 hotel category changes taking effect at 9:00 a.m. EDT on May 20, 2026. According to Hyatt's announcement and follow-up coverage from The Points Guy and One Mile at a Time, 112 properties are moving up in category and 24 are moving down, and top-tier redemption rates climb as much as 67 percent at Category 8 hotels.

Bookings made before May 20 will price under the current chart, even for stays that extend into 2027. That detail matters more than the headline percentages, because every member with flexible travel plans has roughly two weeks to lock in the old rates.

What's Actually Changing on May 20

Hyatt is keeping its eight-category structure. The change is inside each category: instead of off-peak, standard, and peak, every category will have five tiers, Lowest, Low, Moderate, Upper, and Top. Hyatt's senior vice president of global marketing and loyalty, Laurie Blair, told reporters the program will "grow into" the new chart over several years, with a "limited" number of nights priced at Upper and Top tiers in 2026.

The top of the chart is where the math gets ugly:

  • Category 1: 3,000 (Lowest) to 9,000 (Top), versus 3,500–8,000 today
  • Category 4: 12,000 to 25,000, versus 12,000–20,000 today
  • Category 8: 35,000 to 75,000, versus 35,000–45,000 today

A peak-night stay at a Category 8 like Park Hyatt Maldives or Andaz Mayakoba moves from 45,000 to as much as 75,000 points. All-inclusive Category F properties, the Secrets and Dreams resorts in the Inclusive Collection, jump from 58,000 at peak to 85,000 at the new Top tier, a 47 percent increase based on double occupancy. Miraval moves from 65,000 to a 70,000 Moderate floor.

The Lowest tier gets cheaper at the bottom of the chart. Category 1 drops 500 points, Category 2 drops 1,000, and Categories 5 and 6 each drop 2,000 points from their current off-peak rates. Hyatt has not disclosed what percentage of inventory will fall into each tier, so it's unclear how often these Lowest rates will actually appear.

The 136-Hotel Category Shuffle

Hyatt published the full list of category moves alongside the chart announcement. The headline numbers, per Hyatt's newsroom: 112 hotels moving up, 24 moving down, and roughly 90 percent of the portfolio holding steady.

Fourteen properties are crossing the Category 4 threshold and moving up to Category 5 or higher. That's the line that kills free night certificates issued by the World of Hyatt Credit Card, since those certificates cap at Category 4. Properties affected include several recognizable US and international names that have been popular certificate redemptions for years.

Two moves stand out at the extremes:

  • Grand Hyatt Grand Cayman Resort & Spa jumps from Category 6 to Category 8 before the property even opens, a two-category bump that takes it out of free-night-certificate range entirely.
  • The Barnett, JdV by Hyatt in New Orleans moves down from Category 5 to Category 4, putting it back inside certificate range.

The seven previously announced immediate changes, Andaz Pattaya Jomtien Beach, Hyatt Centric Malta, Hyatt Regency Kotor Bay Resort, Hyatt Place San Antonio-Northwest/Medical Center, Grand Hyatt Incheon, Grand Hyatt Grand Cayman, and The Barnett, were the first wave; the remaining 129 take effect with the chart on May 20.

What's Actually Protected

Hyatt's transition rules favor members who book early:

  • Free night awards and Points + Cash stays reserved before 9:00 a.m. EDT on May 20 price under the current chart, regardless of stay date.
  • If your existing booking is at a property that moves down a category, Hyatt will refund the points difference automatically starting May 20.
  • Free night certificate expiration dates aren't changing, so a Category 1–4 certificate booked at a Category 4 property today stays valid even if the hotel jumps to Category 5 later.

That third point is the practical advantage. Travelers holding Chase Ultimate Rewards balances or expiring Hyatt free night certificates have a clean window to lock in current pricing for any Category 5–8 stay through early 2027.

What This Means for Your Points Strategy

The actionable read, based on Hyatt's own transition guidance:

Book Category 6–8 stays before May 20. Even speculative bookings make sense given Hyatt's standard 48-hour free cancellation policy on most award stays. Locking in 45,000 points for a peak Category 8 night when the post-May rate could be 75,000 is a 30,000-point hedge.

Use Category 1–4 certificates at properties moving up. The 14 hotels crossing the Category 4 line are the most time-sensitive redemptions in the portfolio. Once they reprice on May 20, the certificate won't cover them.

Don't transfer Chase points speculatively. Chase Ultimate Rewards transfer 1:1 to Hyatt, but transfers are one-way. Transfer only what you'll book before May 20, and keep flexibility in Chase for everything else.

Reassess Category 1–3 redemptions after May. The new Lowest tier could improve value at the bottom of the chart, but only if those rates appear often enough to matter. Wait for real-world inventory data before changing strategy.

For context on the broader transfer math, our World of Hyatt awards guide walks through the partner-by-partner valuations.

The Wider Picture

Hyatt's pitch is that this preserves the published chart while letting the program "reflect demand." That's the same language Marriott and Hilton used before moving to fully dynamic pricing. Blair emphasized Hyatt is "the only global hospitality loyalty program left that has a published award chart" and remains committed to maintaining one, a useful claim to read literally. A published chart with five tiers and unbounded Top-tier inventory shares characteristics with dynamic pricing, even if it's not technically the same.

For now, Hyatt is still the most transparent of the major hotel programs, and the early-booking carve-out is unusually generous. The members who lose the most are the ones who don't act before May 20.

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