Well I sort of did that by saying I wasnt interested in staying in Manhattan. Im new to Hyatt (as hard as that may be to believe) after playing around for another location I found out Costco at times is the best, as it gives me the adv rate with being able to CX the day before.(Yes I have a Costco card with my pic and name on it).

Its just I love being able to go to say SPG.com and see all the hotels that are available what the $ rate is,pts and C&P and then decide which works best for me both hotel wise and how to pay for it. Also could be with C&P the bed type may vary. All in all its alot less of a pita if it was all avaialble on Hyatt.com at least just for availabilty even if we still had to call up to book it.

Count me as one who doesn't eagerly anticipate this "feature." I'd estimate that I'm well over a 90% success rate getting P+C when and where I need it. For a sizable chunk of the other 10%, I just email the revenue manager of the hotel and ask if they'll open it up for me. 5/5 night success rate doing this.

If P+C is widely available online, I see my success rate plummeting as these rates will be easier to snatch up.

Concur. I have always figured that whatever comparative advantage I have in this points game comes from semi-efficient systems. Totally inefficient systems and there's no real information and no profits worth the time. But a totally efficient (transparent) system and we're all in the same boat with the same low expected value on our efforts. It's discontinuities, non-linearities, and specific knowledge -- as per your example -- where you can pop-up some benefits worth enjoying!

At least in my case, I can say you are right on. I have only once called to ask if there was C&P Availability (there was) and I am someone who hates making inquiry phone calls. If the feature was available online I would use it at least on a moderate regular basis.

My last two Hyatt Place stays in the US were both Cat 2 P&C. In both cases, I received HGP points based on a $90 room rate, rather than the $55 co-pay. I only really noticed because both stays were quite recent and almost back to back.

I find it hard to believe that Hyatt reimburse HPs for an additional $35 per night on top of the cash portion, but that might explain why the hotel has a higher "eligible spend" for points purposes.

Obviously not complaining and not planning to reach out to HGP for comment, but was wondering whether anybody else had seen something similar...

The hotels get the standard points reinbursement. Usually less than a cent per point. I've been billed for the points before at international properties. I'd much rather keep my points and pay this low rate. (On mine it was .8cpp, I think).

The standard practice is to award points on just the cash portion of the P&C reservation. I've never had an instance where points were based on any other amount, however your experience does not surprise me. I have had instances where points AND stay credit were posted for an all-point reservation. Nothing surprises me nowadays. :)

One other question/point about Points+Cash. What the heck is the random $35 fee that the last couple properties have tried to tack on my bill and claim is part of the rate? I went through literally 10-12 P+C stays at all different properties over the last year, and this never happened. Now, it's starting to crop up this year, but only at the HR Houston and HR Columbus.

Is this, I'm guessing, the amount that HGP reimburses the property for my rate? If so, why are these properties trying to pass this charge onto me? Is it just incompetence or cluelessness as to how to figure out the rate?

Yes, the system prints out TWO bills for a P+C stay. One bill is to the guest and the other is to HGP. For a P+C reservation at a category 2 hotel, the guest pays $55 plus tax (typically ~ $62) and HGP pays $35 even.

Month of May I had 2 "award certificate" stays (VISA annual free night ans the "50 unique properties" thingy).
My Hyatt VISA bill that month had charged me for both stays (I had $0 in incidentals).
The charge for the Driskill in Austin was about $129. I'd much rather keep that rate and have it count as a "stay" than burn a certificate :p

I'd bet this was the "internal rate" that the hotel could bill to GP, but was accidentally posted to my VISA instead. The fact that it happened on 2 award stays in the same month is disturbing. Hearing what sounds like the same going on for GP's contribution to P&C means this charging customers for internal charges needs to be investigated NOW.

Gold Passport Concierge eventually got it cleaned up for me but not until a few back-n-forth exchanges. Two reps kept insisting that what I was seeing were "pre-auths". I eventually had to email a copy of my cc statement to prove to them that I do actually know how to read the statement.

By any chance do you know the HGP reimbursement rates for the other categories?

This is a first for me. No C&P availability unless using a DSU.

Not sure I want to use a DSU for the 2 nights in question but it's a hotel we've been to enough that I'll inquire about removing the DSU on our next stay (which is not the stay in question).

P&C When No Award Rooms Available?
 

Curious whether anyone has succeeded in getting a room on points and cash when no all-points award rooms were available at a given property - and presumably no standard rooms were either.

If so, please provide a few details. Thanks!

There are four distinct inventories at play:

A. Standard Room Standard Award
B. DSU Suite Paid Rate
C. Standard Room C&P
D. DSU Suite C&P

Now, as far as I know, C will always be a subset of A, so if there is no A, there won't be any C either. (Answer to Explore)

However, D is not related to C, and is managed as separate inventories. In other words, when the agent books a C&P+DSU, s/he doesn't firstly book the C&P Standard then apply the DSU on top of that - s/he will book the C&P+DSU inventory directly.

As such, D may be available where C is not. The flipside to that, of course, is that (unless the hotel creates inventory for you) you cannot go from D to C simply by "removing" the DSU, because it was not booked that way. You would have to put the inventory for D back, and attempt to take a room out of the C inventory. (Answer to dsquared37)

(Also, in reponse to some people who mentioned that the standard DSU suite is available for sale but C&P+DSU was not available, this is also due to the same reason - in some hotels, B will be managed separately to D, whereas others will treat them the same. It is the former scenario that you may get the aforementioned issue)