When do your World of Hyatt points expire? How can you stop it?

I receive regular emails from readers asking ‘How can I stop my World of Hyatt points from expiring?’ or ‘When do my World of Hyatt points expire?’.  This series, of which this is the final article, looks at the major hotel loyalty programmes and shows you how to keep valuable points intact.

World of Hyatt is the hotel loyalty scheme for Andaz, Alila, Destination Hotels, Grand Hyatt, Hyatt, Hyatt Centric, Hyatt House, Hyatt Place, Hyatt Regency, Hyatt Zilara, Hyatt Ziva, Joie de Vivre, Oasis, Park Hyatt, Thompson, Unbound Collection and Miraval.

If you need to refer to this article in the future, there is a link to it on our ‘Hotel Offers’ page in the World of Hyatt section. This also includes details of current Hyatt promotions.

When do World of Hyatt points expire?

According to the World of Hyatt terms and conditions here:

(a) Inactivity. If a Member’s account is inactive for twenty-four (24) consecutive months, all points in that Member’s account will be forfeited at that time, but the Member’s account will remain open (with the ability to earn new points thereafter) unless the Member’s account is otherwise terminated in accordance with these Terms. (Prior to July 1, 2017, Members whose accounts were inactive for twenty-four (24) consecutive months had their membership terminated and all points in and awards or benefits associated with that Member’s account were forfeited upon termination.) Under no circumstances will forfeited points be reinstated. Active Members can remain active in the Program by (i) receiving points via authorized means, (ii) receiving credits with a partner in the Program for a stay at a Hyatt hotel or resort, (iii) redeeming points (and, if applicable, completing any reservation for which such points were redeemed), (iv) gifting a Program award (in accordance with these Terms), (v) converting points to Partner Loyalty Points (as defined in Appendix B), (vi) purchasing or combining points, or (vii) having a valid Hyatt co-branded credit card, including the Hyatt Credit Card and the World of Hyatt Credit Card (collectively, “Hyatt-branded Credit Card”) associated with the Member’s Program account. If a Member redeems points for an Award Reservation and either cancels that reservation or does not actually check-in on the appointed date (i.e., no-shows), that reservation will not count as a redemption of points pursuant to subsection (iii) of the preceding sentence and will not toll the measurement of that Member’s Program inactivity.

Historically Hyatt had been very lax on imposing its expiry rules. Under the 2017 rules above, it is clear that you will lose your points if there has been no activity in the previous 24 months.

What do they mean by ‘active’?

The key point is that YOU DO NOT NEED TO STAY AT A HOTEL TO KEEP YOUR POINTS ALIVE. You simply need to have some activity go through your account. It is assumed that clause i) “receiving points via authorized means” covers any method of earning points.

This is more difficult to achieve with Hyatt than with other chains because it has a limited number of partners. You cannot transfer points from American Express and there is also no Hyatt branded credit card in the UK.

Here are your options if you are UK based and do not have a Hyatt stay, or a Las Vegas casino stay at an MGM Resort property, coming up:

Earning points

Buy World of Hyatt points

Eat at a participating Hyatt hotel restaurant or visit a Hyatt hotel spa (when not staying at the hotel)

Credit an Avis car rental to Hyatt

Transfer Award Wallet refer a friend points to Hyatt

That’s it.

What you cannot do to save your points is transfer your points into someone else’s account (or vice versa). Whilst Hyatt DOES let you do this – for free – both accounts must have had some activity in the last 12 months. If you had some activity on your account in the last 12 months, your points would not be about to expire in the first place!

Spending points

The rules I quoted above make it clear than booking and immediately cancelling a reward night does not count as activity. You can often get away with doing this in other programmes.

Here are your options:

Transfer points into an airline loyalty scheme. The minimum transfer is 5,000 points which gets you 2,000 airline miles, and the transfer will keep the remainder of your points active for another 24 months.

Use 2,000 points for a $10 dining or spa credit at a Hyatt hotel – you do not need to be a guest to do this

Use 6,000 points for a one-day Avis car hire redemption

Keeping a small amount of Hyatt points alive is not as simple as it could be. There are options, though, so there is no excuse for seeing your account closed down. For an easy life, I would just buy a handful of points and be done with it.

How to be notified of upcoming miles and points expiry dates

If you want to track the expiry dates of all of your miles and points, I recommend signing up to AwardWallet for free. It keeps all of your points balances, including non-travel loyalty schemes, in one place and updates them automatically. If you pay for the premium version ($30 per year) it also tracks your all expiry dates and emails you when points are about to expire.  On the free plan, you can track the expiry date for three loyalty schemes of your choice.

Hotel offers update – December 2021:

Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from the major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.

Want to buy hotel points? There is currently a special offer running with IHG Rewards (80% bonus to 4th January 2022) and World of Hyatt (30% discount, equivalent to a 43% bonus, to 30th December 2021).