The Infamous Reddit World of Hyatt AMA

Slow weekend in the miles & points world so lets have a short post digging into the now infamous Reddit World of Hyatt AMA thread with the recent loyalty program changes…

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It was 73 degrees in Ann Arbor, Michigan on Friday and then it was in the low 30’s without the wind chill on Saturday with ~~some snow flurries~~ snow blizzard, WTF!

I posted on Saturday so I can shore up my falling Alexa rankings but nobody showed up. Actually, I have no idea what this blog’s Alexa rankings are. There used to be a troll trolling my blog and giving us all an update on these rankings but he has not shown up in months, I hope he is well.

Not much that is TBB worthy lately, I think the blogosphere is suffering from fatigue. Deals have dried up and the ones still available or new ones are kept secret because, well, bloggers tend to kill them when they post them.

So…I have no idea what to post today…

How about some gems from the Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) that Hyatt’s Jeff Zidell did last week to explain the ~~enhancement~~ devaluation of the Hyatt loyalty program? It was quite a bomb but it does not compare to the mega bomb in the same venue like that infamous The Points Guy AMA lol.

So, give the guy a hand for having the guts to go through this at least… #brave

Jeff_WorldofHyatt: Our goal in launching World of Hyatt is to provide the best program possible that works at all levels of engagement with Hyatt. Through World of Hyatt’s three elite tiers, we can better recognize and reward guests whether they stay a few times a year or a few nights a month. As for award nights counting towards tier status, my team and I are looking into this option. Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback, as it’s input like yours that helps us improve our program.

thisdude415 rewrote the above BS spin and it is just awesome: Our goal in launching World of Hyatt is to provide the most profitable program possible that works at all levels of customer profitability with Hyatt. Through World of Hyatt’s three elite tiers, we can better recognize and reward guests depending on whether they are budget minded consumers that we DGAF about or our corporate warriors who have bottomless expense accounts. As for award nights counting towards tier status, my team and I are looking into this option. It’s not looking good because award nights do negatively affect our profitability. Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback, as it’s input like yours that helps us improve our profitability.

Mjs157: Jeff, you’re pissing people off here. May want to rethink your answers.

DrDemento: Definitely one of the worst rebranding exercises I’ve ever seen, and I’ve been in the identity business for almost 30 years. Add the doubling of nights required to maintain status that now has a ridiculous Carmen Sandiego-style name, and I expect you’ll be seeing a lot of defections in the next 24 months.

Jeff_WorldofHyatt: World of Hyatt is not a cost savings measure.

thisdude415: “World of Hyatt is not a cost savings measure” HAHAHAHHA AHAHAHAHAHAHA hahaha RIP Hyatt customer loyalty.

beofurg: Have you read any travel blogs? Everyone says the branding and tier names is one of the worst changes of the program…If it aint broke, don’t fix it. If you needed to add a 4th tier to drop credit card users into(yeah, we all know the truth regardless of marketing spin), call it Gold.

bigdinkel: Jeff, when was the last time you ACTUALLY stayed in a Hyatt?

theshelts: Jeff – can you please tell us (in plain English, not corporate-speak) the single biggest reason that led Hyatt to decide to phase Gold Passport into WofH?

Jeff_WorldOfHyatt: Sure. Excellent question! Hyatt is a purpose driven company—our purpose is to care for people so they can be their best, and we have been applying this lens to all we do. Mark, our CEO, challenged each of us at the company to reexamine our work with our purpose in mind. For my team and me, that meant taking a fresh look at our loyalty program. We created World of Hyatt to celebrate the people at the center of our world, our members. We want to reward you more frequently as you engage across our portfolio so we’ve added an additional tier, and also reward you for doing the things you love on our properties, so you can now earn tier status as well as points for dining, spa and other activities.

forcemejure: So… digging through the corporate speak you just posted, your boss wanted to shake things up to prove he was doing something so you and your team scrapped a highly regarded award winning loyalty program and replaced it with a widely panned, poorly received substitute. All for the sake of “change”.

JohnnyJJ1: Jeff, with all due respect, what you just wrote was the very definition of corporate speak

ihavenotimeforgames2: And this “improvement” of your loyalty program combined with your already limited hotel footprint will sure drive your purpose driven company. To the ground?

rollerpig85: Would you rather fight 1 horse sized duck or 50 duck sized horses?

GoodbyeHyatt: As a millennial who gets blamed for every evil of this world as of late, I have to tell you the title ‘Globalist’ is offensive. I could and would never tell anyone I am a ‘Globalist’ with Hyatt. I am not even that particularly fond of ‘Diamond’ but it’s LEAPS and BOUNDS better then ‘Globalist’. Did your marketing team do any research at all to see what ‘Globalization’ means? Was the only other option the ‘Third Reich’ for this tier? I guess in that case you picked right….

baller: At a time a time when globalism is collapsing and national sovereignty is prevailing around the world… Why would you want to associate your brand with such a negative political status “branding” ?!? “Globalist” Seriously??!

And I leave you with this…

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