Gold Passport Concierge

Dear Flyer Talkers,

We appreciate all of the interest and feedback regarding our Trial Tier Offer. We are currently evaluating the success of this program, and we are going to discontinue it for now. Members who already registered will still be eligible to participate under the original terms.

Sincerely,

Karen Smith

JumboJ

Wow just my luck. I lagged on signing up for this.. and was going to do so today because I have some long trips coming up shortly. Then I log on to find this! You snooze you lose I suppose.

JumboJ

I was a bit misled by this verbage:

"To participate in this promotion, new members or current members must enroll / register by calling Gold Passport Customer Service at (800) 228-3360 between November 1, 2009 and December 31, 2010."

Hence the lack of urgency on my part. Not cool.

koroleon

Ughhh. I wasn't in a hurry because I have 5 stays booked where Platinum wouldn't add anything (free wi-fi included) and after that I'll be PLT anyway. But I had started considering other stays too and I always assumed I could just get PLT if I decided so. I must learn to take advantage of every promo while it's there.

notquiteaff

Misled? The T&Cs also have this:

"Hyatt reserves the right to alter or withdraw this program at any time without notice."

That said, I was going to sign up my wife for the Platinum trial, since she's going to spend 7 nights *somewhere* in Japan later this year, and I was going to make it Hyatt hotels. Now I might stick with SPG since she's at least SPG Gold.

JumboJ

I'll earn Plat while hitting the BWB promo anyway.. but I wanted to grab plat BEFORE making that run, so as to possibly add a little bit of comfort to my MR. Also have a few stays coming up at the Regency Auckland, and wanted the possibility of an upgrade.

JumboJ

Sure, everything always includes that "We may not really be saying what we just said, should we decide that that's not we really wanted to say or that we no longer intend to say it" clause, but what else is there to go on, other than what's been said?...

Why bother stating promo dates at all then? Why not just "Valid from today until we've had enough."?

Keyser

its frustrating but it is what it is....even i missed out on this promo as i didn't sign up when i first heard about it, but it doesn't matter since i probably wouldn't have made it to 15 nights in any case....

if they say then can pull the promo without any notice then its our fault for not signing up when we had the chance....

notquiteaff

If you were running a program like GP, would you not reserve the right to make changes?

Don't get me wrong, I am not happy about the discontinuation, since I (or rather my wife) am impacted by it as well. But I don't feel exactly misled.

I am curious what drove this change. Did they reach a target threshold? Did they decide it was too generous?

Keyser

i'll go with the target threshold....looks like this promo for a big success for them....

JumboJ

I'd carefully weight out the ramifications of any possible promo beforehand.. then I'd put out my promo, and do what I said I was going to do. I'm sure you've had instances in your life where you've kept your word, even though it was uncomfortable for you, simply because it was your word. What they should have done, if they wanted to test the waters, was make the promo period shorter to begin with. They committed to it for an inordinately long period of time from the outset. Or rather than set a timeframe.. advertise it as "the first 5,000 to register for this promo", if they had a body count in mind.

SisterEarth

I hadn't yet registered for this promo specifically because I was trying to time the 180-day earning period with several future stays that I have booked June through December. I planned on registering June 10th, two weeks before my first stay, and would have surely acquired Diamond status.



+1

SandC

Those of you who did not (for whatever reason) register for this promotion should give GP CS a call. Perhaps they'll still be able to enroll you, the worst that can happen is they say No.

notquiteaff

Right, and maybe they didn't anticipate that every blogger under the sun would encourage anyone interested in just spending a single night at a Hyatt to sign up for the Diamond trial, thus causing the hotels to get flooded with newly minted Diamonds (and Platinums) who may actually have no interest in long-term status and just want to take advantage of the short-term gain for an upcoming vacation. If so, yeah, it should have been predictable.

I agree, it seemed like a super long period (and it even started in the past).

But my bottom line argument remains that we have to assume that the "we reserve the right to make changes" clause is there for a reason.

And now, if you excuse me, I have to go explain to my wife that she won't be staying at a Hyatt in Japan because I couldn't find the time to sign her up last week

Keyser

good luck with that....