J. Zidell, VP Hyatt Gold Passport

Dear flyertalkers,

It looks like we got an unexpected holiday gift from our IT department this year with an early reveal of our Award Chart changes for 2015 – tis the season! I always like to be the one to personally share Hyatt Gold Passport news, but it looks like the Grinch beat me to it this year! In any event, this is a good time to talk about other noteworthy Hyatt news.

Yes, it’s true. We are making some changes to the Hyatt Gold Passport Award Chart. On January 22, 2015, 48 hotels will move to a lower category and 22 hotels will move to a higher category. Existing reservations for stays subsequent to January 21, 2015 will receive a refund for the point difference if the hotel moved to a lower category. A complete list of the changes and FAQs can be found on goldpassport.com.

I’d now like to take a moment and reflect on 2014. Overall, this year has been a very exciting one for Hyatt. In my opinion, some of the highlights are as follows:

• The Hyatt mobile App added new functionality, including more intuitive searching, booking and point redemption

• Park Hyatt opened its first hotel in Vienna, as well as the brand's flagship hotel in New York City

• Hyatt Place celebrated a significant brand milestone with more than 200 locations open across nine countries

• We have more than 250 executed contracts for Hyatt-branded hotels around the world, which represents potential entry into more than 100 new markets

With respect to Hyatt Gold Passport, this year we launched two new programs - Points + Cash and My Elite Rate. Points + Cash has been very successful, and we are looking at ways to enhance it even further. Points + Cash was launched with the full intention of making it a permanent element of the loyalty program; whereas, My Elite Rate was launched as a beta test for the calendar year. At this point, we have chosen not to roll out My Elite Rate on a permanent basis, and it will not be available in 2015. I realize that many of you enjoyed My Elite Rate and were strong advocates for its continuation; however, the results from our beta test did not warrant a permanent roll out. We are currently working on a variety of new programs to make your travels in 2015 more effortless, more personalized and more rewarding, and you will begin to hear about some of these initiatives in the first quarter.

One thing that will be changing effective January 1, 2015 is the existing bed type guarantee policy. Today, this is applicable to elite members only, and members are awarded 5,000 bonus points if the reserved bed type is not available upon check-in. Less than 0.1% of elite members did not receive their confirmed bed type – so in the future we’re guaranteeing that upon check-in all guests will receive the bed type confirmed, and there will no longer be any bonus points associated with non-compliance. Rest assured, the hotels are committed to getting this right!

As always, I appreciate your feedback, and I encourage you to continue to let us know how we can support you better in the coming year. You can always reach out to me via this forum or directly at [email protected].

Wishing you a warm and wonderful holiday season and safe travels.

All my best,

Jeff

P.S. Be sure to look out for our new, exclusive promotion launching in January!

elg26

My Elite Rate - RIP

That stinks

jerryhze

Bummer...No my elite rate any more?
costco/aaa/aarp etc members can usually get 10% off daily rate while a diamond won't get any discount

JackE

Thanks for the update.

When we have suggestions for further improving GP, what is the best way to communicate those to Hyatt? (including, if so, My Concierge for those fortunate enough to have one)

dtwdoc

Calling me a Grinch?

Thank you for what I feel was an extremely fair 'adjustment'

^
My only big complaint has been lack of properties in certain markets. Glad to see Hyatt is expanding

Perhaps by letting us search for availability without having to bother the customer service reps?

Hopefully open to everybody

skunker

If you are guaranteeing every bed choice but there are no points for non-compliance, then what's to stop the hotel from not giving a confirmed bed? How do you enforce the guarantee? As a GP member who has had to claim the bed guarantee twice let me say "Thanks for the 'enhancement.'"

steve65341

This benefit would be tremendously more useful if it had the same availability as traditional points only awards. Allowing individual hotels to decide if they want to offer it or not tremendously dilutes this benefit.

hailstorm

In other words, you're not guaranteeing bed type any more.

Does the bed type guarantee remain in effect for customers that made their reservations before January 1st?

peteropny

The effect of the category changes for awards is negligible which is great news.

What now backs up the bed type guarantee? Also, in the same vein, what happens to the smoking guarantee?

GUWonder

Given my confirmed bed types have not always been granted at check-in -- and often I've checked into Hyatt hotels for a 4-6 hour "night" and don't have it in me to do the whole drag the luggage back to the front desk and go to another room routine -- the elimination of a penalty against the hotel for messing up bed types is not inspiring my confidence that things will improve.

Just because the bed guarantee failure hasn't been reported and claimed doesn't mean that it hasn't taken place. IIRC, I've claimed it no more than once -- if even that -- and that is despite having been hit by messed up bed types at Hyatt way more than that.

The Delhi HR alone has messed it up for me on at least ten percent of my stays there over the last seven years. I'm sure I have not reported the hotel for this kind of failure most (if any) times when the hotel messed up my bed types.

How is Hyatt measuring that which isn't being reported by GoldPassport members? What makes Hyatt confident that the elimination of a penalty for failure to assign the booked bed type is going to make things better for GoldPassport elites?

austin_modern

I am pretty impressed with that growth number there... I look forward to more hotels to spend my $, points and time.

RTW1

So just bad news for GP members (no more MER and in practice no guarantees) compensated by just a promise of a new promotion..... Great going.

Kacee

Thanks for the update.

While I'm sorry to see MER go, this is a remarkably candid and comprehensive explanation of 2015 program changes and the underlying rationale.

You will hear no whining here

hailstorm

To be fair, last year's promotional promises worked out pretty well for us.

SCEflyer

Why not just join AAA? An individual memberhip nearly everywhere cost < $100, and virtually every hotel chain worthy of your business offers a AAA rate. There are also other benefits, starting with road service.