I just got off the phone with Plat Goldpassport.

I had a stay at Cincy HR on Thursday night for 1 night. As I have done many times in the past, I checked in with my corporate card, and checked out by splitting my room charge out from the rest of the bill and using my Master card to pay. The room reverted into an ineligible stay. I have been told by 2 reps (one said she was a supeverisor) that the interpretation is that you must pay for the entire bill with the mastercard. She states the program has changed and the last FFN promo was the same. I begged to differ because last promotion I did the same thing. The T&C's read:

...be a registered guest staying in the hotel (do you think this was input because of phantom stays), pay an Eligible rate, and make full payment on a valid MasterCard card for each separate stay. An eligible rate is any...

My interpretation is that the eligible rate (room) must be paid in full with a valid MasterCard, but GP says otherwise. I think the reason my room went into ineligible is because they have somehow coded their system to recognize less than full payment on a master card, which is ridiculous because FFN is a by-product of Goldpassport, not the other way around, so no matter what form of payment I choose, I still should earn my Goldpassport points, and if I had used a Visa on the room only portion (as an example) this would not have happened. This is their ridiculous (from a programming perspective) way to uphold their interpretation of their t&c's.

BTW, the supervisor went ahead and waived it for me THIS time. Just so you know the end of the story.

What will I do in the future? Just pay the whole darned thing with M/C, but this really sticks in my craw.

Also, someone who knows more about what the t&c may have said in the past may be more knowledgable, but I am curious to know if the staying in the hotel stmt is new, and they are trying to find a way around phantom stays.

Thoughts?????

I agree that if you pay the room rate with a MC, anything else charged to the room can/should be able to be paid any other way.

But, now I have questions regarding these situations, all of which I have

-$50 certificate from Grand Cypress for "activities"
-$100 certificate for any resort for food & beverage
-Gift checks (earned from mypoints)

Will using any of these invalidate the FFN? I have a paid resort stay coming up and I'd like to use the hotel specific certifcate without it effecting my FFNs - I can save the other certificates for a later date when I'm using the FFN.

I was under the impression that FFN was sponsored by Mastercard.

You asked for thoughts ... I believe that it is a Hyatt promotion and the rules, stupid or otherwise, are the rules. I want my FFN days so I am willing to abide by the rules.

Phantom stays have always been risky.

Thanks for posting this, I'm actually at the PH SF and was planning on using some $ gift checks to pay for the incidentals, but I guess I'll save myself the hassle and just use the MC and save the gift checks for later.

No, FFN is a Hyatt promotion, they are partnering with MasterCard. The promotion (under a different name I think) used to be partnered with American Express, which of course was a given for me because my corp card is AE.

I am in total agreement, I will use MC for the full stay in future. I will play by their rules, because I want the prize. (FFN)

I have never had a phantom stay, but just from reading about them here, would be interested in hearing what others think or have experienced so far this promotion. I would agree, however that it is a risk I probably would not be willing to take.

The bottom line, I think Hyatt is trying to plug all the holes that people like us (FTer) have found in the program, and as a result, have created somewhat of a nightmare. Oh well, again, I'll play the game their way.

Yes, and MasterCard gets plenty of exposure as long as we have to use it. $200 or $2 charged shouldn't really matter.

In my case the policy will lead to this scenario: $239 business stays will go to Hilton (since I am required to use corporate AMEX and without FFN qualification I feel that Hilton's 20 pt/$ is a better deal) and $79 neighbourhood Hyatt will qualify me for FFN.
Not sure if Hyatt really benefits from this arrangement.
I am certain I am not alone there: my SO has the same corporate AMEX requirement.
On a positive side there will be fewer FFNs generated and less redemption competition.

Did you have two separate folios for this???

Folio 1 - MC
Folio 2 - Other payment

The easy way around this would be to pay as you go for incidentals. I suppose that would not work for room service, and yes it is a pain, but they went to great effort last spring to upgrade the software to enforce every rule. I want my FFN and will be slightly inconvenienced to get it. Of course, based on the apparently-miscoded folio from my Florida stay last night the front desk couldn't comprehend let alone fix, I'm on a collision course with customer service over another issue next week anyway, so what do I know.

While I can understand where you are coming from, it does appear to me that full payment for the stay has to be on Mastercard.

I guess I have been lucky, as I don't have a need to split bills up across cards.

Agree 100%.

Yes.

I just got off the phone with Platinum Customer Service and was told that you can use Hyatt checks along with a Master Card to qualify for FFN credit.

Is there any recent experience regarding earning FFN (or stay) credit using Hyatt gift certificates, as long as incidentals are charged on a mastercard?

Diamond line rep just told me that stays using Hyatt gift certificates (e.g. $165/nite at premier level hotels) do not earn Hyatt points or stay or FFN credits. However, the T&Cs on the gift certificates web page only state that Gold Passport points are not earned but made no mention either way about earning stay or FFN credits.

Sfvoyage, Premier & other room-night cert.s are totally ineligible for anything--stay credit, night credit, points, & FFN--earning. But every so often someone gets lucky.

Dollar-amount gift cert.s & cards are eligible for everything (except FFN-earning??)
If U wanna try, I would recommend using them at the beginning. From another thread, I believe that we will earn FFNs if the MasterCard charge is the last item on the acct., which brings the balance to zero.

It worked! I just checked out of Hyatt on Capitol Square, Columbus, Ohio, yesterday, paying $300 with GCs & $5.60 with MC. I have just been credited with a MC stay valid toward FFN ^ . I even told the manager what I was doing: "My friends told me..."
She agreed that the final payment to goose-egg the balance must be with MC.

Great to know! Did you also get points while paying with the G/C's?

Would it be really pushing it to pay 99% of the bill with my corp. Amex, then the last bit with a MC?