Category 1-7 Certificate for 30K points
 

I recently called into the Globalist phone line to reserve a room for 1-night at a Hyatt Place that was a Cat2 property. I asked the rep specifically to apply one of my Cat1-4 Certificates and NOT use the Cat1-7 certificate. My stay was a week ago and now I was reviewing my account activity and notice that the Cat1-7 award night certificate was used instead of the Cat1-4.

I used Twitter to direct message the Hyatt team and they responded within a couple of minutes with the following. "While we're not able to swap out the certificates after it has been redeemed by the hotel, I have credited your account with 30,000 points to cover the cost of the agent error pulling the wrong award when booking your room. You should see those points reflected in your account at this time."

The 30K points posted immediately and I was satisfied with this solution because the certificates have an expiration date and points do not so getting 30K points seemed like a good fix. The only downside I can envision is what if I want to stay at a Cat7 property during Peak season? Starting in July 2021 Hyatt will implement the Off-Peak & Peak point awards redemption which means a Cat7 property during Peak season will require 35K points so I would lose out 5K.

I should have thought of this when I received the Twitter response to see if 35K was a solution given this reason, or do you think that is tacky?

30k is a pretty fair response to the situation.

The points don’t have a fixed expiration date and you now have added flexibility - eg 6 nights at a Cat 1 instead of a single night at a Cat7 - so in my view you are coming away better off than you were before.

What was the expiration date on the Cat7 award that was used?

Right - they didn’t also take your Cat 1-4, right? So you are definitely ahead of the game.

You can also use Suite Upgrade Awards on a point stay but not on a certificate stay...

Did Hyatt take one of your Cat 1-4 certs when they gave you the 30K points? If not, I think you came out far enough ahead to not worry/complain.

The Cat1-7 cert expiration date was November 13, 2021. I was awarded it when I hit 60 nights recently.

I agree, the 30K points are more flexible in how they can be used/combined compared to a straight up certificate.

Same happened to me, same resolution. It's an IT flaw that needs to be fixed. Until it is, best to have the FNA manually applied if you've got both 1-7 and 1-4 available.
They burn a 1-4. So no double recovery.

I think the system takes the certificate that is due to expire sooner. It happened to me as well, but I booked again using the cat 1-4 cert, then cancel the cat 1-7 cert and the 1-7 cert got put back to my account.

Yes that's what I was told as well. If there's a 1-4 and a 1-7 available, and you book a 1-4 property, the system should be programmed to pull a 1-4, not the 1-7.

Good solution. I didn't notice until post-stay.

So this is a backdoor way to convert cat 7 into 30k points? Call in to book a cert stay (cat 1 to 4) knowing that the system will pull a cat 7. Also hoping the agent is not aware of this. Finish the stay then complain about your missing cat 7, now Hyatt will issue you 30k. You get a free stay and 30k points in exchange for a cat 7 cert. Success.

Whenever I'm in danger of wasting a 1-7 on a 1-4 property, I just book a holding, cancelable night at a 1-7 long in the future to pull that out of my account, then book my 1-4 night (which then has to use the soonest expiring 1-4 cert), and then cancel the 1-7 to get that cert back. It's a little legwork, but it seems easier than calling Hyatt and worrying about it.

Basically, park the Cat 1-7 cert, do your business, and then get the 1-7 back into your account after.

Double post

Not always. Happened to me and I got a replacement certificate without the extended expiry so I lost a few months to use it.

I think you have to insist on 30k points and keep escalating. Worst case scenario you can send this ft thread to corporate and demand equal treatment.

hmmmm…. If they replaced your cert to its original state, what’s the problem?