Recourse for World of Hyatt point earning error?
 

Hi all, I made a post a month ago curious as to how my points were calculated for an early January stay at Hyatt Ziva in Puerto Vallarta. This group and my chat today with WOH Customer Service confirmed a few things, though I have a big problem with one of them in bold:

• Taxes are deducted from all inclusive bookings, but are not listed at the time of booking... this is because they are calculated in a complicated manner due to there being both a stay, and food/beverage/gratuities.
• Alcohol does not earn points (we paid for a bottle of Sake at one of the all inclusive restaurants as an add-on)
• Specifically when staying at a Zilara or Ziva, when taking advantage of the earn 1000 bonus American Airlines miles per night promotion, the property is required to ask you if you want the base earnings to be for AA or Hyatt, regardless of your standard earning preference. I was not asked.
  • I actually made the reservation in person at the desk, on site, because I wanted to see the property before booking and try to negotiate the costs for the second person in the room, as we did not plan to eat or drink much on site. I failed, none the less... the guy NEVER asked my earnings preference, which is OBVIOUSLY 3400 Hyatt Points over a measly 500 American points for the stay.
  • WOH Customer service put me on hold for 30-45 minutes, spoke with their supervisor, and together they confirmed they CANNOT fix the earnings... primarily because the 500 points were already submitted to American and they can't contact American to have them removed and then the earnings correctly applied... her suggestion? Contact the manager of the Ziva Puerto Vallarta, and maybe he can rectify. Does anyone have similar experience in doing this? Can that manager opt to "pay" corporate some sort of rate to have my account credited with the missing points as an effort of good will? I did email him today (he emailed me about my neutral review of the property... in which I said the people are very nice but the food sucks...doh!) and am waiting to hear back but I guess I am curious... does he really have power to give me points that WOH Corporate cannot do? Does his property have to pay for them for their mistake? Doesn't it seem crazy that corporate basically admitted it isn't my screwup but are unable to do anything?

If your concierge can't fix it then there's no recourse. Move on.

Did you suggest some form of compensation for their error that they can't fix? I guess it depends on how upset you are to decide whether it's worthwhile to continue the "relationship." I agree that it may be premature to suggest that option based on what you posted on this thread (not sure if OP had seen a history of complaints about Hyatt from you or not).

LAX

Honestly, this is probably the real source of your problem. I have never been asked if I wanted to earn miles or points at a Hyatt, including my stay at a Playa owned Ziva in the past two weeks for which I got the bonus 4,000 miles and my full earnings of Gold Passport points. The front desk did something funky when you made a reservation in person instead of through a Hyatt channel. I know that doesn't help you, but I suspect that your situation is not typical because you decided to do a walk-up reservation.

I agree that it is odd to not see taxes, fees, etc. broken down, it is actually a much more consumer friendly practice that they show the all-in price for these resorts. There is a note when you make the reservations through Hyatt that 'Changes in taxes or fees will affect the total price' that lets you know those things are included in the rate. For all the grief hotels get over resort fees and other charges, I find it hard to complain about the hotel showing a fully loaded rate from the start and just not getting points on stuff I don't get points on at any other hotel.

I don't think that a Hyatt Explorist is entitled to a concierge, my impression based on what I have read is that this requires 60 credited nights. However, I would agree that the OP has already spent a lot of time on this and gotten nowhere, so it is best to move on.

They would be able to fix it by simply awarding you additional WoH points. That they don't take this route tells me that you don't have the necessary clout. For this reason, any additional efforts on your part don't stand a high chance of success - I would just stop trying.

The alternative would be to lawyer up and sue them :)

How did they even get your AA number, even for the 500 miles?

In my experience it really messes things up when you don't reserve your stay online and instead handle it through the hotel. Don't do that again in the future!

I guess the ideal solution for this would be to offer the customer 2000 points as compensation to get the matter over with and move on. If Hyatt doesn't want to do it then there no recourse really.

If your solution is to go to a different provider every time you encounter one single issue then you'll find yourself running out of hotel chains rather quickly. :D

Other chains aren't much better. In fact it's exactly the same issue. You don't earn points on taxes and earning on alcohol depends on jurisdiction. OP should have reserved his stay online instead of "negotiating" with the hotel front desk.

Trust no one. I always ask the front desk if they have my GP# on file when I check in and double check to see my GP# printed on the bill before I leave.

As the person quoted above implies. If you look at your folio I'm going to guess your AA number is the Frequent Guest number attached to the folio; not your Hyatt number. Not sure how that happened, unless you gave it to the hotel as part of making the reservation or checking in, or, you are a repeat guest and have giving them the AA number before and that is what was on your local profile at the hotel.

What I don't know is how much influence the World of Hyatt program folks back at the mothership have over the indirect-relationship brands. (But apparently less). The pushback from the hotel may have been they reviewed the folio and had purchased the points requested. (Which is defensible if your AA number is what is on the final folio).


Also good advice. The one thing your Hyatt card is still good for is to hand to the FDC with the payment card. It is a prompt to them to check what loyalty points number they have on file. Seldom ever wrong anymore at a mainline Hyatt in the US with a system reservation made online. But I would think dropping the Hyatt card of some benefit at an affiliated brand elsewhere.

Not to mention checking for that like any other error when you review the running folio on the TV (and I know that is a presumption that the hotel in question has that feature available). It is much easier to fix the Hyatt number (and any posting errors) as you go rather than in a hurry as you are checking out.


Which brings me back to what a much older and more-experienced business traveler told me years ago when we were on a problem-solving trip I had arranged to see multiple clients. Which roughly translates I was trying to see too many people about too many things in too little time, so decide what is the one thing you are trying to accomplish above all others and don't mix apples and oranges. It sounds like you may have hit the fruit salad stage and time to call it a cheap learning experience.

Thanks Beckles, yes, I realized my need to be open/transparent that I booked on site in person. Even at the time I figured there was some risk, but was I supposed to tell the guy "Hey, I don't trust you'll do it right, so I'll just walk over here real quick, book online, and then you can finish up?" That just feels wrong. But, my (and your) intuition was right! Sigh...

Re the taxes, yes, I find it odd they weren't shown broken out like most reservations were, but I am not overly upset about this one. Much more so about the lack of being able to fix a human error on their part.

Honestly, the customer service agent made the suggestion, "let me call a supervisor and try to have your points fixed to what they should be for earning with Hyatt rather than AA." which is exactly what I wanted and what is right and fair.

That's what I thought, but her claim is that they can't because they have no way of getting AA to remove the 500 miles I should therefore not have earned. And yes, I suspect I would win said lawsuit if there wasn't a clause in most loyalty programs that they can actually do whatever the heck they want... and the lawyer fees would be much higher than the value of the points. Something they are counting on, I am sure ;)

They have my AA number on file because each stay, and each flight I take, earns miles or points on both, at a rate of 1 point or mile per dollar. Something to do with being AA Gold and Hyatt Explorist. The customer service agent confirmed that earning Hyatt Points, NOT AA miles, was marked as my preference, for all standard reservations. I absolutely won't book in person again, but see my above reply to another poster as to why I ultimately did it, it felt rude not to! The solution should be them sending me the 3300+ points I legitimately earned, subtracting 500 if they wish since I got them on AA and shouldn't have... and an update... supposedly while corporate cannot do this, the hotel maybe said they are issuing me these points? To be honest, I suspect English was her second language and the manager's assistant's email to me was very confusing, we will see if indeed she was able to make it right. How can the hotel fix it but corporate can't?

I don't think I have a physical Hyatt Explorist card, do they still issue those? I did give the guy my Hyatt number at reservation/check in. I never gave him my AA number, it is saved in my profile though. The customer service agent confirmed my profile is checked to earn Hyatt points and NOT miles, but also stated apparently there is a weird rule when at Ziva/Zilara they are supposed to ask how you want to earn - as they are currently giving away 1000 AA miles per night - regardless of your normal earnings and base request. Unfortunately, they never asked. Also, I did earn qualifying nights and the bonus part of the miles, so it's not like they didn't have my number. Alas. I like your fruit salad description, heh. Hopefully the hotel is finally fixing the problem, time will tell! Still weird to me that corporate can't but locally they could but that's why I asked this forum... Was Ziva and Zilara previously separate or owned by another chain and Hyatt purchased them loosely but they aren't as tight to corporate? To be honest, I'd never heard of them until I became a Hyatt person. Is that how points work, the individual hotels purchase them as part of a marketing expense to get customers?

I have that account linkage as well and never had this issue a single time in 150+ stays since it was initiated. I consider this to be a wild rumor people claim to be a reason why the FFP finds a way into their reservation because there is no technical reason for it.

You mentioned something with 1000 AA miles per night at these brands. What's up with that?

Actually the property isn't at all required to ask you that because they have no idea about what promotions are currently running. You as the guest have to tell them what you want to earn and double check your folio it's in fact correctly stated.

Well I can't prove it, but I made my reservation at the desk and I know for a fact I only provided him my Hyatt number. The World of Hyatt phone agent even immediately went to my online profile to check my earning preference, and said it indeed says Hyatt.
Hyatt Ziva and Zilara give 1000 AA miles per night, see here: https://world.hyatt.com/content/gp/e...page_en__sep20

After putting me on hold for what felt like 45 minutes but was probably 30, the agent chatted with her supervisor in length and after research, I was told this one particular promotion requires them to ask how I would want to earn, maybe American requested this as part of their deal... ? Maybe because people are earning thousands of AA miles they figure maybe you just want to earn the whole thing in miles? But I tend to agree with you, how would the front desk even know if I had signed up for that promotion or not? I never thought to tell the guy how I wanted to earn, because I assumed it would just be Hyatt as is standard and also marked in my profile.

If Hyatt wanted to put an end to this, it would simply provide you with the points as a customer service gesture and be done with it. You would have your AA miles "paid" by the program and the points absorbed by the program. But, it does not wish to do this and that really ends the issue unless you believe that you have a valid lawsuit in which case you will need to pursue that angle.

Whether this warrants dropping a chain is a personal decision for you. As others note, one runs out of options fairly quickly because whether or not this is a screwup, things like this will happen @ Marriott & Hilton too.

After finding the promotion link for you, I realized I should go read the terms a THIRD time, the first since chatting with the agent, and it might be what the agent and her supervisor were referring to...

"Member must choose either World of Hyatt Base Points or AAdvantage miles as their base earning. If a member selects to earn World of Hyatt Base Points at check-in, member will receive 1,000 bonus miles per night in addition to World of Hyatt Base Points earned. If member chooses to earn AAdvantage miles at check-in, they will receive the ongoing benefit of 500 AAdvantage miles per stay in additional to the 1,000 bonus miles per night as part of the Offer during the Offer Period."

If I had to take a wild guess but hoping someone here can confirm, when you book ONLINE, they send you an email or pop up in the app, asking?