Originally Posted by
gilbylg45
I booked a Hyatt stay for New Years in Sydney with WoH points, then canceled the reservation a couple weeks ago. Last week I noticed the reservation had a FULL PREPAYMENT/NO REFUND policy, but I checked and the full points balance was refunded. Yesterday I get a fraud notice from Chase that Hyatt Sydney tried to charge the card I had on the reservation for $1800, but Chase denied it. I responded that it was a fraudulent charge and haven't seen any other (Hyatt or Chase) messages since.
I read through a bunch of articles and threads discussing the vague policy that some hotels may charge you the full cash rate on points bookings if you cancel, but I can't find any terms on my original reservation. I admit I made a mistake, but I thought at worse I might be out the WoH points. Will Hyatt take action against me (suspending my account, etc)? I have other reservations upcoming that I don't want to be in jeopardy. I suppose it's possible but I doubt the Australian hotel would actually try and come after me. Chase already blocked the charge and they're going to send me a new card so I don't (yet) have any CC chargeback or other financial battle.
What would you do? Wait and see if it blows over? Call and try to work something out?
Do you still have the original reservation email? In the "Reservation Details" section, there is typically a grey box that states "CANCELLATION POLICY:" and the policy below. Hyatt reservation emails generally follow the same template, so it should be there. If you weren't aware, the cancellation policy is also seen when booking, by clicking on "Rate Rules".
That being said, the cancellation policy for a points booking is typically the same policy used for a standard rate room. Doing dummy bookings at the HR (PH not available), it appears that this is a special cancellation policy in effect for New Years. This is what I see:
Code:
Cancellation Policy
FULL PREPAYMENT/NO REFUND/NO CHANGES
So, the $1800 charge appears to be in line with the cancelled reservation.
If I were you, I would get ahead of this - look for the original reservation and the cancellation policy you agreed to and verify that they match up. Assuming it does, it does mean you agreed to the cancellation charge and it isn't really fraudulent. I believe there are some DPs (don't recall if it was WoH, or some other hotel program), where you could negotiate with corporate and/or the property to lose the points in lieu of the cash charge. You could 'ignore' this, but that potentially puts your other reservations/WoH account in jeopardy.