In late September, GHA advised members that the Discovery program was about to ‘evolve’. Since then, they have handed out snippets of information about what changes members would see in the new program.
In this post, I am collecting together the pieces of announcements, to get a picture of what we can expect. As the program is not launching until December, we may not get the full picture until then.
Changes
Four status tiers
In the new program, there will be four tiers – Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Titanium.
Silver is the newly introduced entry tier and will be the tier offered to new members. The next levels up are the existing Gold and Platinum tiers. Finally, at the top will be the Titanium level. This is pretty much the current Black level with a new name.
Achieving Status
At present, Discovery uses the number of nights you stay in an eligible hotel to determine your status. While this path will remain, they will also provide a path based on your spend, or the number of different brands that you stay at during a year.
The new paths to status will commence in 2022. So, it looks like for 2021, only the number of nights matter.
When the program changes in December, existing members will move to one of these new levels. Existing Black members will move to Titanium. Platinum members will remain at their current level.
Current Gold members will move to either Gold or Silver depending on the recent engagement in the program. If you have stayed at a Discovery hotel within the last three years, you will remain at the Gold level. On the other hand, if you had not stayed at a Discovery hotel in the last three years, you will be moved to the Silver level.
Local Experience Awards
Local experience awards are a unique feature of the current program. Under the new program, these will be replaced by a new benefit that has not been announced. Any unredeemed awards at 21 November 2021 will be rolled over into this new benefit.
Thoughts
Some interesting changes there for sure. There are also some further announcements to come, as the drip-feed us with details.
