Things to know about getting a Hyatt points refund if your stay is now 'off-peak'

This has been a big week for the World of Hyatt program. Its new three-tiered award chart has now gone into effect, which means stays starting March 1, 2022, price at either off-peak, standard or peak rates.

While initial TPG tests show that overall there's roughly the same number of peak as off-peak nights, with a majority of nights still pricing as standard, this is a devaluation for those who don't have the freedom to plan their vacation around off-peak award dates.

But there are always winners somewhere to be found in most changes, and in some cases, the cost of your individual award stays for on or after March 1, 2022, may have gone down. To that end, Hyatt is telling members that if you booked a stay prior to the new award chart going into place — which means prior to Oct. 26, 2021, at 10 a.m. CST — and your stay went down in award price, then you will receive the difference in points back into your account.

For example, if you originally booked a Hyatt Category 6 hotel, such as the Grand Hyatt Kauai, at 25,000 points per night and your dates are now displaying an off-peak award, requiring 21,000 points per night, you'll receive 4,000 points back per night booked.

Here's what we know about how that refund will process – and what to do if you need the points now.

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Recheck your upcoming reservations

If you have an already booked Hyatt reservation for March 1, 2022, or later, you'll want to check to see if the required number of points for your stay has decreased.

When you go to book a stay at the hotel, you'll now see a "Points Calendar" option. This will give you a monthly calendar view of how many points are required per night.

If you go to the dates you are traveling, you'll want to compare the number of points redeemed for the free night compared to the number of points in the calendar view. The calendar view also makes it incredibly easy to see which nights are now deemed off-peak — allowing you to plan better if you do have some flexibility or want to know how many points the trip will cost you.

If you see that the dates you are booked to travel are color-coded green and "off-peak" you'll know your points reservation has gone down in price, since all points booked prior to Oct. 26 were at the "standard" price.

Note that the calendar only displays theoretical pricing and not actual availability.

Related: How to earn Hyatt Globalist for less in 2021

Receiving the difference back in points

If your upcoming stay is now during an off-peak time — or even just includes one or two off-peak dates — you should receive the difference in points back into your account.

While Hyatt said this will automatically happen on its end, it didn't publicly announce a specific date by which members will start to see those points credited back to their accounts.

Related: The most award-friendly hotel program: Everything you need to know about World of Hyatt

TPG reached out to Hyatt and was told, "Members will have started to see their accounts reflect any adjustments to their point balance starting yesterday and throughout the course of next week."

If you don't want to continue to sit tight and need those points sooner for something else, you do have a few options.

You could cancel your already booked reservation and re-book at the new rate, though you might not want to do this if you have received special accommodations already — such as a suite upgrade — or if your room type is no longer available.

You also could contact Hyatt on your own to request that a representative makes the adjustment to your individual stay sooner. There's no guarantee this will work, but we have seen some success stories in the last couple of days.

One of the easiest and fasted methods is to send Hyatt a direct message through Twitter.

You'll want to send a direct message to the @HyattConcierge handle (do not send a public tweet). Make sure to let the representative know that you booked a hotel stay that has gone down in points and request that they credit your account with the difference. You'll need to provide your reservation number.

Bottom line

Whether you hold out for Hyatt to go through its own process to manage the refunds or need to speed up the process by reaching out to Hyatt directly, make sure to keep on checking that the difference in points is eventually credited to your account.

We recommend having screenshots of your future stays and your account balance so you can easily double-check that all of the points you are owed safely make their way back into your World of Hyatt account.