FlyerTalk Forums - Hyatt FAQs & Tutorial on Getting Hyatt Points

I realize that this FAQs thread needs to be rewritten to reflect the change from GoldPassport to World Of Hyatt. I will be working on it soon, but some of this thread is still applicable do im leaving it up.

I would like to thank SanDiego1K for initiating http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hyatt...tt-points.html which is incorporated in this thread. However, we’ve decided to expand this great start into a “full blown” FAQs thread. In an effort to keep this thread useful, please read this and post questions pertaining to this information. We may occasionally clean up this thread by deleting posts “after a while” so please do not be offended.

HYATT GOLD PASSPORT PROGRAM

BASICS

How do I sign up for Hyatt Gold Passport?

Sign up at https://goldpassport.hyatt.com/gp/en/benefits/join.jsp

What hotel chains are part of Hyatt Gold Passport?

Park Hyatt (PH), Andaz, Grand Hyatt (GH), Hyatt Regency (HR), Hyatt Place (HP), Summerfield Suites (SS), Hyatt Vacation Clubs (HVC)

What levels does the program offer their members?

Gold is the base level
Platinum is the mid-level elite – requires 5 stays or 15 nights in one calendar year
Diamond is the top-level elite – requires 25 stays or 50 nights in one calendar year
An unpublished level called Courtesy Card - requires a nomination (other criteria unpublished) - similar to UA's GS & AA's Concierge Key levels.

What benefits are offered to members?

Gold – 5 points per eligible $ spent - http://goldpassport.hyatt.com/gp/en/...rship_gold.jsp

Platinum – 15% bonus points, best room in category reserved, internet access for free - http://goldpassport.hyatt.com/gp/en/...p_platinum.jsp. Platinum extras certs have been discontinued.

Diamond – Platinum benefits with these “improvements” 30% bonus points, upgraded room to best room including Regency/Grand Club (excluding suites), confirmed suite upgrades (4x a year on eligible paid stays subject to availability), breakfast for all registered guests in room (up to 4 - note that this is for REGISTERED guests which may entail a higher charge for the room – in RC/GC if available otherwise in restaurant), welcome amenity (choice of food & beverage or 1,000 points at domestic GH & HR or 500 points at HP & SS - in "Hyatt Speak" known as 1W). Recently Hyatt introduced a 2500 point bonus (DN) in "compensation" at properties that have a RC/GC but it is temporarily closed (due to occupancy, day of the week, season etc) or so full that complimentary access for Diamonds is denied - http://goldpassport.hyatt.com/gp/en/...ip_diamond.jsp .

Courtesy Card - Diamond benefits plus routine upgrades to suites (including Presidentials) on lowest rates available at the property. See http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hyatt...l#post14492196 for more discussion. This level used to be only for owners of Hyatt locations as well as selected people (mostly people in a position to direct "lots" of stays to Hyatt). Apparently this was expanded in July 2010 on a trial basis and again in early 2013.

How do I find out whether or not a potential stay has a Gx bonus?

Go to http://goldpassport.hyatt.com/hyatt/...RIT_CODE&Nty=1 and input the area you are interested in (for example for all Chicago area properties, put in Illinois). It was announced in March 2011 that these bonuses have been "suspended" pending review at least through July 2011. It has been recently confirmed that the Gx bonuses will not be returning.

Can non-guests earn points for hotel purchases (restaurant, bar, spa, etc)?

In the past you must be a registered guest to earn GP points. In 2012, Hyatt is rolling out a program where you can earn (and redeem) points for dining and spa charges even when you are not a registered guest at the property. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hyatt...available.html is a listing of locations that are currently offering this (rollout is gradual through the entire company).

Ways of earning Hyatt Gold Passport Points other than hotel stays?
Originally, the only ways to earn Hyatt GP points other than hotel stays are Avis and Sixt car rentals and Diners Club credit card usage. A co-branded credit card through Chase (a Visa) was launched in late 2010 - please see http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hyatt...ard-chase.html for discussion on this. Chase's Ultimate Rewards program (from some of their credit cards) can also be transferred into Hyatt now. Hyatt is rolling out earning points on Food & Beverage spend when not a registered guest in the property.

Do Gold Passport Points Expire?
As long as there is activity at least once a year, the points do not expire. Hyatt's T&Cs call for the expiration of points / deletion of account if there is not activity on the account each year. However, this is not enforced in practice. There are accounts that have no activity for years that are still intact (both the points and the account itself). Two examples, my account was closed in early 2000's due to no activity, however, the account was reopened and points reinstated upon request. My partner's account that only had activity back in 1998 was still intact with the original points earned last year. That said, Hyatt has the right to do expire points and delete accounts. If you have quite a few points (eg enough points for redemption for an award) but do not have activity, you can reset the clock by buying points (https://buy.points.com/PointsPartner...EN&product=BUY is directed to from Hyatt.com - cost is $24.00 / 1,000 points). If you don't often earn Hyatt points (only have points from a very occasional stay), I would not worry about it.

Does Hyatt match the status of other hotel programs?
Effective 11/10, Hyatt will no longer routinely match status from other hotel programs - please see discussion at http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hyatt...formation.html . The "old" status matching program discussion is at http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hyatt...-thread-8.html .

What do I need to do to choose airline miles (credits) rather than Hyatt points?
There is no automatic way for you to choose to earn miles for your stays rather than Hyatt points. For each stay that you want to earn miles on (along with any applicable mileage promotion that may be running), you must inform the front desk at check-in that you want miles and give your airline account number. It is certainly possible that the stay will still post as points (especially at Hyatt Places). This can be easily corrected by contacting Customer Service to convert the stay to miles from points (the reverse conversion of a stay that posts as miles to points must be done very quickly before the miles are transmitted to the airline otherwise it's not possible). Choosing miles will result in not being eligible for any Gx bonus that may be running at the property. However, the Diaimond Amenity (1W) and Closed Club bonus (DN) are applicable; however, many Customer Service agents do not know how to do it and may tell you that you are not entitled - tell them that it needs to be entered as a separate entry from the stay itself.

APPLICATION OF STATUS PERKS

What stays are status perks applicable?

Status perks are applicable to all stays – paid (all rates), award stays (points, promotional awards) and even Hotwire/Priceline – make sure your Hyatt Gold Passport membership number is attached to the reservation by calling Customer Service if the stay was not booked directly with Hyatt. The exception is the annual 4 confirmed diamond suite upgrades that are only applicable on “eligible” rate revenue stays.

Are status perks extended to more than one room?

While not officially in the T&Cs of the program, most properties will extend status perks to 2 rooms including upgrade, breakfast, welcome amenity.

What do I need to do if I’ve achieved a higher elite level prior to my stays which were previously booked?

Hyatt’s computers attach the status at the time of reservation to the reservation record. In order to ensure that the property recognizes your upgraded status, a call to Hyatt CS or the property is required. For Platinum level, this is probably not necessary since the benefits for Platinums do not generally involve room allocation or upgrades. For Diamond level, this is pretty important since room assignments are often done before arrival especially for RC/GC upgrades and/or access.

How do I use the 4 annual confirmed suite upgrades for Diamonds?

These confirmed upgrades can only be used in conjunction with a revenue stay (most rates bookable directly with Hyatt qualify). Each of the confirmed upgrades may be applied to stays up to 7 days. These upgrades may only be booked for the “entry suites” as defined at the properties. Booking can only be done by calling a Diamond CSR. There could be inventory limits on the application of these suite upgrades - meaning that it is not required for a property to honor these suite upgrades if there is an entry suite available for revenue booking - this has not been confirmed but taken from reports in the forum. Advice would be to check back occasionally up tochecking in as inventiry does change and properties tend to loosen up closer to the date if they havent sold the suite. There are 9 properties that do not participate in these confirmed suite upgrades: Park Hyatt Beaver Creek, Park Hyatt Sydney, Hyatt Regency Kyoto, Hyatt Regency Paris Madeleine, Park Hyatt Maldives, Hyatt Santa Barbara, Key West Resort & Spa, Hyatt Regency Wichita, Hyatt Regency Tulsa as well as Hyatt Place, Hyatt house, and Hyatt Residence Club properties.

DEFINITION OF “ELIGIBILITY” OF STAYS

What are “eligible” rate revenue stays?

All revenue stays booked directly with Hyatt (on hyatt.com) are “eligible” – this includes prepaid, “packages”, Senior, AAA, Corporate rates – this has been confirmed with GP executives (and they are aware that problems exist especially with “packages” and Travelzoo rates). Whether or not a stay is “eligible” is crucial for promotions (bonus points, various other promotions that are run on occasion such as Faster Free Nights (FFN)). Unfortunately, stays booked through a third party (Travelocity, Expedia, Orbitz – and other booking sites) are not eligible for stay credit / points.

What are “eligible” charges?

Eligible charges are room rates (if booked with Hyatt) and incidentals (should include room upgrade charges) that are not paid to third party providers (food & beverage are normally eligible while parking rarely is).

What is a definition of a stay?

A stay is defined as any number of consecutive nights at one property whether the nights are booked under one reservation or multiple reservations. In maximizing stay credits (for qualification/requalification of status or for promotions that are dependent on stays such as FFN) you can utilize the same property but not on consecutive nights (eg for 3 nights you can alternate properties A B A to obtain 3 stay credits). Award stays (either regular points or promotional free nights) do not earn stay credits.

You cannot earn more than 1 stay credit per night no matter how many rooms you pay for (you will earn the points for multiple rooms if you are paying for them) or how many properties you are paying for that night (however, if you are able to convince a CSR why there was a good reason why you were in 2 properties for the same night (eg you were already checked into a property on the East Coast but had to travel to the West Coast and checked into another property there), you may get 2 stay credits that night).

Do you have to physically check-in for a stay to be eligible?

Yes you must physically check-in (doing web check-in or 800-check-in is not sufficient - you need to check-in at the property either front desk or kiosk and get the keys) for a stay to be "eligible" for points / stay credit (and therefore any promotions that may be running such as the Faster Free Night type of promotions - bonus miles / points etc). It doesn't matter if the stay is pre-paid or you've checked in via the internet or 800-check-in - if you do not physically check-in, may be considered a "phantom" stay (or a "no show") and not earn you stay credit / points and all that implies.

Do you have to physically check-out of the property for the stay to be eligible?

No you do not need to do this (unlike physically checking in). For properties that participate in web check-in/out, you can checkout via the internet in the morning and you should receive a folio in your email. Some people call the property to checkout. Doing either checkout via internet or telephone is usually a good idea so that the room that you "occupied" can be checked and cleaned so that its ready for the next guest (who could be arriving early to check-in). However, if you aren't able to do this (or the property doesn't participate in the internet check-in/out like Hyatt Place or Summerfield Suites), they'll automatically check you out when housekeeping checks the room and finds it vacated / not occupied).

What effect does Hyatt Gift Certificates have on stay eligibility / points?

Payment using $ denominated Hyatt Gift Checks or Gift Cards have no effect on stay eligibility / points (this depends on the underlying reservation). Stays utilizing Stay Certificates (booked using the stay certificate codes) are not considered “eligible” and therefore will not earn stay credit or points (except for incidentals that earn points).

BOOKING OF AWARDS

Are there capacity control on awards?

Hyatt, in April 2009, eliminated capacity control on awards so the new rules are if the basic entry level room is available for revenue bookings (excluding elite guaranteed availability bookings) they are available for award redemption. However, a property may declare “extraordinary demand” period or require a large number of nights as a minimum stay and opt out (eg Park Hyatt Sydney for the period around New Year’s). Currently, the Hyatt website does not allow people with sufficient points in their account to search for award availability. However, with the 2009 elimination of capacity control on awards, you can use as a proxy whether or not the "base entry" room at a property is available for revenue booking (eg at the Park Hyatt Paris Vendome, it's the Park Twin or Park Queen only and not Park Deluxe etc), it will be available for award redemption.

Can you book awards for more than 1 night and/or more than one room?

There is no restriction for "regular" award reservations using points - you can even "give" an award to a family member / friend by booking the award in their name (however you cannot do this online - a telephone call is required). For certain promotional awards (like Faster Free Night type promotions), they are not transferable to another person (even if its a family member - there are some work arounds that may work but can be risky) but is sharable (you may book 2 or more rooms using your promotional awards provided that you are personally occupying one of the rooms). You may book awards for any block of nights that you desire; however, in recent rounds of Faster Free Nights there is a software glitch that requires these awards to be booked one night at a time (eg you cannot book a range of dates even though each individual night is available - they must be booked individually - some Reservations agents may not be aware of this and claim that the award nights are not available - ask them to check the nights individually).

How much ahead of a stay do awards need to be booked?

Assuming that there is availability per the above criteria, an award stay may be booked at anytime prior to a stay (even minutes before checking in). Prior to 8/10, if an award is booked less than 7 days prior to arrival, booking the award can only be done by telephone and not by website. Since 8/10 this requirement is no longer in place and the awards (either points or promotional night awards like FFNs) are now immediately deducted (compared to the prior method which we believe is done manually by the property itself).

What are “Passport Plus” awards?

These were awards for elite members (Platinum & Diamonds) that “cost” an extra 60% in points when awards are not available at the base level for the property since all “entry level” rooms are sold out. These awards should not be bookable anymore even though they may still show up if the "regular" award rooms are sold out.

The following is the excellent advice on bonuses and posting of stays that was originally written by San Diego1K.

We’ve been seeing an incredible amount of angst in this forum over the past few days by newcomers, frustrated when their points don’t post concurrent with leaving a property. I thought it would be useful to have a thread devoted to how you get your points and miles. I welcome some of the experienced Hyatt members weighing in on what I have missed.

Hyatt rarely gets bonuses right the first time
Seasoned Hyatt pros expect missing bonuses. Hyatt Place properties are particularly bad, though even full service properties often get it wrong. Hyatt is one of the worst hotel chains at getting the extra points the first time, but is the best hotel chain at making it right.

Here is what you do:

1. When you book your stay, book using the proper Gx bonus. You can only book using one bonus, but there might be a couple that are available. If so, note the second one in the notes field.
2. When you check in, make sure that the agent adds all bonuses to your stay. If you are choosing miles for your stay, you will not be eligible for the Gx bonus. If you are a diamond member, you can chose a points bonus for North American properties as your welcome amenity. They will use the code 1W to enter this. It is 1000 points for full service and 500 points for Hyatt Place.
3. When you check out, check your invoice. There is a field which shows which bonuses are listed. You can ask for a correction at this point – or simply wait to call. Don’t even struggle with Hyatt Place on this.
4. Hyatt stays typically post in 2 days. Til recently, Hyatt Place stays only posted 1 or 2 days a week. Hyatt has recently sped up the posting. When your stay posts, check to see if you got the appropriate choice of miles or points. In either case, if you are diamond, you are entitled to your diamond bonus. If you chose points, you are entitled to any Gx bonuses.
5. If you wanted miles but points posted, call Hyatt. It is very easy for Customer Service to reverse a points stay and make it a miles stay. It is not as easy to do the reverse. Once the miles are sent to the airline, it cannot be reversed.
6. If you have missing bonuses, ask Customer Service to post them. Any Gx bonuses should post at the time of the stay posting. If they haven’t, it is very simple to correct with a call.
7. You have to chose points for your stay in order to get any Gx bonus. You have to chose miles for your stay to get any Ax bonus.
8. If you have chosen miles, it requires a manual posting to receive your diamond amenity. Many agents do not realize that you get your diamond amenity when you chose miles, but the Gold Passport Concierge has confirmed that we do.

Faster Free Night credits
Hyatt sweeps for FFN credit daily. It is not concurrent with your stay posting but generally within a few hours. If you don’t receive your credit, check your account summary. Look at the details for the individual stay. You should see something like this:

Qualified Night(s): 1

If it says 0, then you need to call Customer Service and determine why the stay did not qualify. Priceline stay or a stay made on an alternative booking site to Hyatt are examples of nonqualifying stays. In those cases, you would qualify for incidental expenses but not the stay credit.

You can easily see how many FFNs you have been credited. Look in your account:
• Awards
• My promotional awards

If you are a diamond, you will see your suite awards listed first, then the HP award we were recently given. Below that is the accounting for FFNs.

You can then book any unredeemed awards online. There will be a blue box saying BOOK NOW when you have FFNs available. Click it, then chose your location and your date. If there is a FFN award available, you will see something like this:

The Next Big Thing Rede Twin Room
BOOK
Rate Details
The Next Big Thing Rede King Room View Room
BOOK
Rate Details

If you see a price given, the property is out of standard rooms. Thus, no FFNs are available.

Airline Bonus Miles:
You need to request airline bonus miles at the front desk for any stay where you prefer miles. You will need to provide your airline number at that time. Hyatt offers no way to permanently chose airline miles. Further, Hyatt Place employees seem to have no way to request airline miles. Some have reported being able to chose miles at Hyatt Place by using the check in kiosk. If not, request the airline miles after your HP/SS stay has posted.

Hyatt sweeps for airline bonuses daily. It is not concurrent with your stay posting but generally within a few hours. This has always occurred automatically for me.

The airlines extract the bonus miles from Hyatt only a couple times a month. It can then be several more weeks before the airline posts the miles.

Gx and Ax bonuses
Many hotels offer promotional points to encourage members to stay there. A Gx bonus is for Hyatt points. An Ax bonus is for airline miles. In order to earn Hyatt points, the stay must be credited to Hyatt. It will then be eligible for the Gx bonus. (Note that some bonuses are restricted to specific nights of the week.) You must chose airline miles in order to get an offered Ax bonus.

Points when property has a Regency Club and it is closed (Diamond members only)
From the Gold Passport Concierge, posted 12/28/09:
Diamond members will be awarded 2,500 Gold Passport points if they do not receive Club access during their stay. This includes the club being closed to all hotel guests (renovations, weekend closure,etc) or if access is not permitted due to the occupancy levels or other circumstances.

Credit Card Bonus:
Hyatt has historically had a strong relationship with Mastercard. We recently finished a promo period with MC. Each stay will indicate if it was paid with MC. IT for Hyatt Places did not discriminate between Visa and MC, and required a call.

Advice:
Chill. Hyatt Customer Serivce is great. Is it annoying that things don't post properly the first time? Sure. But Hyatt is extraordinarily generous with its promos and bonuses, as well as having some stunning properties. It is worth the effort. Make a list of anything you are missing and call periodically. There really is no need to call after each and every stay. Hyatt has always been very customer focused, and will handle these things for you. They handle it for you while you are on the phone, right then and there. There is no contacting the hotel and waiting for a week or more for points to straggle in.
Priceline and Third Party Bookings
If you are on an award stay or third-party channel stay (like but not limited to Priceline bidding channel, consolidator one-price pre-paid vacation product, or anything were you are paying somebody other than Hyatt for a Hyatt stay), you should still get Diamond recognition, Diamond arrival points, and points for incidentals. (Stay credit, G bonus, and pick of rooms probably not).

You much improve your odds of actually getting them without hassle if you make sure and create a transaction for your stay. Meaning, never run a zero balance. One or more dining or drink charges are better, even if primarily dining elsewhere (the server wants the tip and will be sure to run it through), and throwing in a few phone calls can't hurt. Otherwise a well-intentioned not-fully-versed back office person may think there is no reason to upload the stay history at all just to save work.

Call Hyatt and add the GP number well before arrival and most likely the Diamond packet will still be waiting for you. Ask for the points and club access if its not. Eventually you may get an attitude either on the phone or at check-in, but do it anyway.