If you spend enough time within the points & miles world, you know that one thing is inevitable: award points devalue. Additionally, it can be frustrating if you don’t know how to deal with award chart devaluations.
This happens for a variety of reasons. First of all, just like there is general inflation within the economy, this also translates to the points & miles economy as well. Second of all, executives at hotel chains and airlines think that they can devalue their currency at will, and people will stay incredibly loyal. (Delta learned the hard way that there are limits to that.) Third, with credit card companies now giving out hundreds of thousands of points for a single sign-up bonus, without the same exponential growth in actual seats or noteworthy hotel rooms, award rates necessarily have to increase so that inventory can be properly managed.
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As a way to manage inventory, I have no qualms with that. It’s a way to manage costs, and, given that credit cards give out such massive sign-up bonuses if you play your cards right, I’m not as upset about it as others are. It still stinks. However, any program that’s worth being a part of won’t absolutely decimate the value of their rewards program. (American Airlines gets my business because they explicitly see the value of their rewards program.)
However, there are times when a rewards program announces devaluations, yet gives you time to book anything that you want to book. For example, when American Airlines devalued their rewards program in 2016, they gave people ~5 months to spend their points. Wyndham just devalued their rewards program and gave people about 3 weeks to redeem their points.
My Current Predicament with Award Chart Devaluations
I’m primarily interested Hyatt’s World of Hyatt program. If you have spent any significant time reading this blog, you’ll realize that I’m a huge fan of the Hyatt program and its hotels. I think I’ve spent several million Hyatt points over the years. Indeed, they are my primary transfer partner when I’m transferring my Chase Ultimate Rewards.
One reason that I’m such a loyal fan of them is, when they do their yearly hotel award category changes, they give you time to make speculative bookings at any hotels that you want to book at at the old price.
Hyatt recently announced their annual award category changes. I won’t go into it here (as you can find full reviews here, here, and here). You can find the whole list of Hyatt changes here. However, you want to make that you are able to get award bookings at the places that you might want to go.
This begs the question: What is the best way to approach a devaluation? How do you make the best of a bad situation?
Take Stock of What Points & Miles You Currently Have
The first thing that you want to do is to take stock of the points and miles that you have. How many points in that award program? If you have 1,000 points, you probably won’t be able to use them. If you have 10 million points, do you really need to worry about this? You probably have enough points for several years.
Also consider if you are able to get points easily. One of my favorite features of credit card rewards is the ability to transfer to individual rewards programs. In the case of Hyatt, I am able to transfer from both Chase and Bilt to replenish my Hyatt account.
Focus on the Places You Actually Want to Go
You then want to go through the list of changes and ask yourself, “Will it actually be feasible for me to go to this hotel or take this flight?”
On this years crop of Hyatt devaluations, I see two hotels that I am particularly interested in: the Andaz Costa Rica Resort at Peninsula Papagayo & the Hyatt Place London City East. I want to go to the Andaz Costa Rica Resort because, just a few years ago, it was only 15k points, and now it’s going up to a base rate of 30k points. For the Hyatt Place London City East, it’s a great place to stay in London (both location-wise and points-per-night wise). I’ve probably stayed 30 nights at the Hyatt Place London City East, almost all on points, and it’s my go-to when I’m in the city.
This lets me know that these are my two target properties. These are the properties that I need to make sure I focus on in these next few steps.
Figure Out When There is Refundable Award Availability
There is one thing you need to make sure when making these bookings: it needs to be refundable.
Given that you likely do not have days set in stone when you know you can make this trip, any trip that you book needs to be refundable. This is called a speculative booking. You are speculating that you’ll be able to take the trip, but you aren’t 100% positive.
Before you click book, you want to make sure that the terms & conditions give you an opportunity to cancel the hotel booking or flight at a later date.
Recognize that You Might Get Bitten by Award Chart Devaluations
Given that you are looking for a refundable booking date, you can feel confident that you have a room or that flight. The devaluation date occurs, but you have your booking, so you’re good to go!
Unfortunately, life happens, and you have to change your date. Unfortunately, you are no longer eligible for that great rate. You are only eligible to book whatever your trying to rebook at the new rate. It’s unfortunate, but that’s just how it works.
Conclusion
Award chart devaluations happen, and they stink. However, you can use them to your advantage to help get your future travel planned.
Hopefully, with these tips, you are able to successfully able to book something that you can look forward to doing!
How do you feel about award chart devaluations? Have you ever made a speculative booking to “beat” a devaluation? What are you booking?