wiwi

Hello Flyertalkers...

I am thinking to join Hyatt's Gold Passport program. I am mainly interested in the Diamond benefits...

Can some experienced Diamond members shed some light on the following questions?

1) Upgrades: How often do you get upgrades? Are the upgraded rooms worth the efforts? How about non-US properties?
1a) Upgrades in NYC, LA, San Francisco and Boston?

2) Do AmeriSuites stays count for status?

3) Does early check-in (9-10am) really and reliably work? What about late check-out?

4) Regency Club access?

5) Can I actually redeem my points when and where I want to? Are there black-out periods even for diamonds?

Thank you for your help!

wiwi

davidjdewey

Wiwi,

Let me see if I can help with some of your questions:

1) Upgrades: How often do you get upgrades? Are the upgraded rooms worth the efforts? How about non-US properties?
1a) Upgrades in NYC, LA, San Francisco and Boston?

* As a Diamond, you will be upgraded to a Club room if the property has them. They are usually like the normal rooms, but on higher floors and near the Regency Club if they have one. Most hotels will upgrade you to a preferred view and high floor. This doesn't usually make a huge difference except places like Hawaii where that gets you an Ocean View room if you are lucky.

* I have stayed at a couple props. in SF, 1 in LA, and in NY. All hotels had Regency Clubs which is nice for cont. breakfast and evening snacks. Room upgrades were basically to higher floors and better view as mentioned above.

2) Do AmeriSuites stays count for status?

* Amerisuites stays will earn you Gold Passport points, but no stay credit or Diamond amenities. Many of the Amerisuites are being turned into Hyatt Place's and those do give you stay credit (After the change is official per the Hyatt website)

3) Does early check-in (9-10am) really and reliably work? What about late check-out?

* Early check-in and late check-out are subject to availability and are bo no means guaranteed. I would notify the hotel in advance if you need either.

4) Regency Club access?

* Yes, if they have a club. If they don't, or if it is closed on a weekend you will get breakfast coupons good for a continental breakfast in the hotel restaurant. Those can be used as credit towards full breakfast (Usually only a few dollars more).

5) Can I actually redeem my points when and where I want to? Are there black-out periods even for diamonds?

* Award nights are subject to availability and definitely do have blackouts. If you plan ahead it is usually not a big problem, but some of the more popular hotels (Hawaii, Europe, etc.) can be hard to get award nights.

I hope this helps. Being a Diamond is pretty nice and it's worth the effort if you can do it. It will not get you the suite upgrades that some hotel chains might offer, but the treatment is fairly consistent. Let me know if you have more questions!

PhillyPhlyer40

I have another ? to add to my list. Do Diamonds get FREE WIFI? I have asked 3 seperate times, and have been told NO!

Usually I use my aircard..but if the signal is weak, I end up BUYING WIFI!

holtju2

The T-Mobile handles the wireless Internet at most US properties and charges accordingly.

IMHO eventually the Internet charges goes the way the telephone went at hotels. Nobody will use it.

OPFlyer

As per free wi-fi, I believe all Hyatt Places offer it for free.

davidjdewey

I have found that the cheaper the hotel, the greater the chance that you will get free high-speed internet. Something seems backwards about that, but that is the way it is. That being said, both of the above posters are correct. Free wifi at Hyatt Place, Usually $9.95/day at Hyatts. They do usually have free access in the Regency Clubs though.

agrater

What exactly does "availability" mean? It can't mean physical availability, because one of the Diamond privileges is guaranteed 72-hour room availability. So as far as physical availability goes, if it's available on the guarantee, it should be available for an award.

richee

Availability for award nights has a similar meaning as availability for airline saver awards.... both subject to capacity control.

Aircoco

Lounge access is not available at Hyatt Resorts worldwide and hotels outside the U.S. and Canada.

peteropny

Not available if the upgrade to the Club/Lounge level is not available - if upgrade to that level is available, then you get access.

davidjdewey

I have stayed at Hyatt Resorts in Maui and Kauai (On award stays) and always had full lounge access. I haven't stayed at too many Hyatts outside the US, but every one that I have stayed with has given me something. Like Peter said, the ones that had lounges (Cancun, Berlin) gave me lounge access. The one that didn't (Paris Vendome), gave me free breakfast.

Tummy

I find the free wifi at Hyatt Place often a joke. Bad signal, very slow connection. Using a packet sniffer I think most of the traffic was porn, and it wasn't from me.

The HP I frequent recently replaced their WiFi with a new service which requires a login screen and it appears to work much better.

T-Mobile has a monthly Wifi Plan for $20 / month (no contract) if you have a Tmobile cell plan, or $30 / month with contract otherwise. Even better if you have a cell plan, you can add wifi online and take it off your plan when you're done. So it can be less than $1 / day if you only use it briefly.

azepine00

So if I have 2-3 stays per month I can activate it in my T-mobile account for a day or two then disconnect and repeat the process whenever needed paying $1-2 per activation?

Tummy

If you have a postpaid TMO cell phone plan, it should still work. It's also bundled with their "T-Mobile Total Internet" data plans so you may actually already have it.

That's what I did for a while, though eventually I just left it on my account. Saving a couple dollars per month wasn't worth the hassle of remembering to take it off my account every Thursday and putting it back on on Monday.

Since the beginning of the year, I've been staying at Hyatt Place so I stopped needing to do it, but there are days I wished they used TMO instead of their sometimes useless free Wifi.

rfrost

The general rule outside the US is that, if the room upgrade to the club floor is not available, you are not entitled to club access (this was a change from the policy several years ago, allegedly adopted as a result of club overcrowding). In that case, you should get a breakfast coupon. But a hotel could certainly give you access if they so desired; it's just that they are not required to do so. IM(limited)E, they don't.