Hyatt is one of my favorite hotel loyalty programs, but I’m not traveling these days in the age of coronavirus. You might be like me, and you may be wondering: When will my Hyatt points expire?
Your World of Hyatt points will expire with 24 months of no activity or AFTER December 31, 2020, whichever comes LAST. Before the coronavirus outbreak, your points would expire with 2 years of no activity. But Hyatt has paused all points expirations until after the end of 2020 due to COVID-19. Now, if your Hyatt points were set to expire this year, you’ve got at least until December 31, 2020.
(In case you’re wondering about other hotel programs, I’ve got you covered! Check out: )
- When do my Hilton points expire?
- When do my IHG points expire?
- Do Marriott Bonvoy points expire?
- How can I keep Radisson Rewards points active?
How can I keep my World of Hyatt points from expiring?
There are lots of ways to keep your Hyatt points active, and not all of them require you to travel OR even to spend any money! You just have to complete ONE of these activities in a 24-month period.
Note, none of these things have changed due to the coronavirus outbreak, other than the extension of your Hyatt points expiration date. I’ve separated these activities into those that require you to travel and/or spend money, and those that don’t!
| How to keep your Hyatt points from expiring | Travel required? (Y/N) | Cash spend required? (Y/N) |
| 1. Book a paid stay at any Hyatt property. Simple enough. | Y | Y |
| 2. Spend any amount of money on the World of Hyatt credit card. If you don’t already have one, it’s a great card offering up to 50K Hyatt points! | N | Y |
| 3. Book an award stay at a Hyatt property. Also pretty simple! | Y | N |
| 4. Transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points to your Hyatt account. These transfer at a 1:1 ratio in 1,000-point minimum increments. Chase UR points are worth about 2 cents apiece and Hyatt points are worth about 1.8 cents apiece, so this is a decent value. | N | N |
| 5. Transfer Hyatt points to airline partners. You can transfer World of Hyatt points to a couple dozen different airline partners, but most are at a transfer ratio of only 5,000 Hyatt points:2,000 airline points. This isn’t recommended in light of other possibilities, but you’d do this at the Hyatt portal. | N | N |
| 6. Earn points with Hyatt partners. Hyatt has partnered with Exhale Spa and Mlife, MGM’s loyalty program. You can both earn and redeem Hyatt points with both partners, just be sure to register with your Hyatt account info. | N | Y |
| 7. Transfer Hyatt points to a friend. You can give Hyatt points to a friend for free, but you can only do this once a month, and it takes a paper form (pdf link) and 2-4 weeks of processing time to do so. Also, this must be for a specific award, so make sure your friend is ready to redeem a free night somewhere right away! I wouldn’t try to “game the system” on this one. | N | N |
| 8. Rent a car with Avis. For a paid rental with Avis, get 500 Hyatt points. Note, you have to provide Avis with your Hyatt number and the code K817700. Only do this if you’re renting a car anyway, and be sure to follow up and make sure you get your Hyatt points; some have reported difficulty getting their bonuses. | Y | Y |
| 10. Purchase Hyatt points. You can buy as few as 1,000 Hyatt points to keep your account active. This usually costs $24, which is a poor value for Hyatt points, but it’s a quick and relatively inexpensive way to keep your World of Hyatt account active. | N | Y |
When will my Hyatt awards expire?
All current, unused Hyatt Free Night, Hyatt Suite Upgrade, or Hyatt Club Lounge Access awards with expiration dates in 2020 are extended through December 31, 2021. This is even true for awards that expired between March 1 and March 31, 2020. This is generous, even compared to Hilton, which also offered extensions. (Read about when Hilton’s points and award nights expire here!)
However, if you have Hyatt awards set to expire in 2021, you’re out of luck. This is particularly true for me, since my awards expire VERY EARLY in 2021:
I emailed Hyatt’s customer service to see if they would extend these January and February 2021 expiration dates to year-end 2021 and they said, essentially, NO:
Due to COVID 19 we are monitoring the the [sic] travel restrictions closely, and currently we are not extending awards that expire in 2021.
Hyatt’s customer service response to my question about whether they would extend my awards, set to expire in early 2021, to late 2021.
When will my World of Hyatt elite status expire?
Your current Hyatt elite status is good through February 28, 2022. Yes, that’s nearly two years from now. Whatever your status was on March 31, 2020, that will be your status through February 28, 2022.
Note, if you have the World of Hyatt credit card, you’ll keep Discoverist status as long as you have the card anyway.
How many points does it cost for a free night at a Hyatt hotel?
Free nights at Hyatt properties cost 5,000 – 40,000 points per night, with some exceptions for peak and off-peak pricing. Hyatt also allows you to pay extra points to book Club-level rooms or even Suites.
For more detail, including how to maximize the value of your Hyatt points, check out 5 Steps to Booking Free Hyatt Hotels.
Bottom line
Hyatt has made some generous updates in light of the COVID-19 crisis, and I appreciate those changes. Your World of Hyatt points won’t expire until at least December 31, 2020. Your free night awards, Club Lounge upgrades, and Suite upgrades, will be extended through year-end 2021, unless they were set to expire sometime in 2021. In this case, you’re out of luck.
I covered this same topic on when your Hilton points and nights expire and What’s happening with your IHG points and elite status, and I’ll be covering other programs shortly! Stay tuned.
And in case you’re wondering what major hotel chains are doing about cancellations during coronavirus, Travel On Points has a handy guide you can check out here!
My free night certificates are set to expire as early as next month when I checked an hour ago. Suite upgrades and club lounge access are expiring in 2021 or 2022.
Hi Christian! My understanding is that Hyatt will automatically update your free night certificates’ expiration dates in the next couple of weeks. However, it doesn’t hurt to email them to confirm; they got back to me within a few hours when I emailed about my early-2021 expirations. I emailed worldofhyatt@hyatt.com. Good luck and let me know what happens!