Jan 16, 2014, 2:16 pm
Last edit by: coleslaw
Update in Hyatt BRG policy (April 2019): If your BRG claim is approved, you can choose either 5,000 World of Hyatt points or an additional 20% off the matched rate for your stay (defined as consecutive nights at the same location). Rates available on websites that require membership which is free of charge, or where membership is automatically created as part of the booking, are eligible for BRG claims.
.................................................. ..........
Recent Experiences Using the BRG (2018 and later)
YES
MAYBE
Update in Hyatt BRG policy (July 2017): if your BRG claim is approved, Hyatt will match the comparable lower rate, but will no longer offer a further 20% discount on the matched lower rate. Instead, after your stay on the BRG approved rate, you will receive a US$50 credit (or equivalent amount in the currency of your country of residence) to use on a future stay (completed within 12 months) booked on a Standard Rate, Advance Purchase Rate or Member Rate on Hyatt.com.
Q. How do I receive the $50 credit?
A. About 3-4 days after your BRG stay, Hyatt will email you a unique rate code to apply for your new reservation. You can either click on the link in the mail to book the reservation or manually enter it into the booking at Hyatt.com.
Q. Can I use the code more than once?
A. No. The code is invalid when it has already been attached to a reservation.
Q. Can I use the code to lower a rate like AAA or Double Points?
A. No. The BRG code books into its own unique rate class and can't be used with any other promotional rates.
Q. What happens if I cancel my reservation with the BRG code applied?
A. The code will can be re-used for another reservation. For this reason, DO NOT DELETE THE EMAIL FROM HYATT UNTIL AFTER YOUR STAY.
Q. What happens if a lower base rate appears available after I book the BRG rate?
A. You can cancel the first reservation (assuming there's no penalty) and then rebook using the code for the lower rate.
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If you are dissatisfied with the response to your BRG claim, and it was processed by the Hyatt Service Desk in Omaha (9805 Q Street), you can consider filing a consumer complaint (link to online form) with the Nebraska Attorney General's Office (Consumer Protection Division). Note that the online complaint form requires you to fill in a correspondence address in the US (though you can state a preference to receive correspondence by e-mail rather than by post). As reported in Post # 2691, if the AG's Office decides to investigate, it is possible that Hyatt will review your BRG claim again and, in addition, offer points for the inconvenience.
If your BRG claim was processed by the Hyatt Service Desk in Marion (1120 North Carbon Street Suite 70), you can consider filing a consumer complaint (link to online form) with the Illinois Attorney General's Office.
From Post # 12:
.................................................. ..........
Recent Experiences Using the BRG (2018 and later)
YES
- Hotels.com - April 2019
- Booking.com - May 2019
MAYBE
- Skoosh - April 2019 (initially rejected as "membership site" but approved on appeal)
- SnapTravel
Update in Hyatt BRG policy (July 2017): if your BRG claim is approved, Hyatt will match the comparable lower rate, but will no longer offer a further 20% discount on the matched lower rate. Instead, after your stay on the BRG approved rate, you will receive a US$50 credit (or equivalent amount in the currency of your country of residence) to use on a future stay (completed within 12 months) booked on a Standard Rate, Advance Purchase Rate or Member Rate on Hyatt.com.
Q. How do I receive the $50 credit?
A. About 3-4 days after your BRG stay, Hyatt will email you a unique rate code to apply for your new reservation. You can either click on the link in the mail to book the reservation or manually enter it into the booking at Hyatt.com.
Q. Can I use the code more than once?
A. No. The code is invalid when it has already been attached to a reservation.
Q. Can I use the code to lower a rate like AAA or Double Points?
A. No. The BRG code books into its own unique rate class and can't be used with any other promotional rates.
Q. What happens if I cancel my reservation with the BRG code applied?
A. The code will can be re-used for another reservation. For this reason, DO NOT DELETE THE EMAIL FROM HYATT UNTIL AFTER YOUR STAY.
Q. What happens if a lower base rate appears available after I book the BRG rate?
A. You can cancel the first reservation (assuming there's no penalty) and then rebook using the code for the lower rate.
.................................................. ..........
If you are dissatisfied with the response to your BRG claim, and it was processed by the Hyatt Service Desk in Omaha (9805 Q Street), you can consider filing a consumer complaint (link to online form) with the Nebraska Attorney General's Office (Consumer Protection Division). Note that the online complaint form requires you to fill in a correspondence address in the US (though you can state a preference to receive correspondence by e-mail rather than by post). As reported in Post # 2691, if the AG's Office decides to investigate, it is possible that Hyatt will review your BRG claim again and, in addition, offer points for the inconvenience.
If your BRG claim was processed by the Hyatt Service Desk in Marion (1120 North Carbon Street Suite 70), you can consider filing a consumer complaint (link to online form) with the Illinois Attorney General's Office.
From Post # 12:
If you can’t solve your issue (please mind Hyatt's Consumer Affairs Department assists us at 1-800-323-7249) here are some other resources:
Sound Off
Conde Nast's Traveler's "Ombudsman" column features a traveler's complaint column. Send in your complaint to Ombudsman, Conde Nast Traveler, 4 Times Square, New York, NY 10036.
Legal Options
Sound Off
- Contact Consumer Traveler (my pick: Christopher Elliott)
- Consumer Tools (My3cents.com is a leading source of consumer advice)
- Post a complaint for public view
- Consumer Comment Form (please mind: If you file a complaint it becomes property of “Consumer Affairs” and they are not obliged to remove it if you solve the issue)
Conde Nast's Traveler's "Ombudsman" column features a traveler's complaint column. Send in your complaint to Ombudsman, Conde Nast Traveler, 4 Times Square, New York, NY 10036.
Legal Options
- File a complaint at you state's attorney general's office
- Small Claims Court (link provides also a helping hand on how to resolve problem without going to small claims court)
- Federal Trade Commission (The FTC does not resolve individual consumer complaints.)
Hyatt - Best Rate Guarantee - Experiences - MASTER THREAD - WIKI
Jul 18, 2014, 4:58 am
#961
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: BKK
Programs: World of Hyatt Globalist; Marriott Bonvoy LTP; IHG Plat
Posts: 2,232
im done with hyatt brg department.
very disappointed. moved all my stays back to starwood. almost signed up for diamond status challenge.
Glad I didn't.
ps. sorry for my poor English.
very disappointed. moved all my stays back to starwood. almost signed up for diamond status challenge.
Glad I didn't.
ps. sorry for my poor English.
Jul 18, 2014, 5:32 am
#962
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2011
Programs: Hyatt Discoverist, SEIBU PRINCE CLUB Silver, Marriott Gold
Posts: 20,434
Jul 18, 2014, 6:26 am
#963
Join Date: Apr 2007
Programs: QF, VA, AC, Hyatt, Marriott
Posts: 3,783
Has anyone ever had a BRG approved then Hyatt phone you later to retract that and say they can't honour it?
Earlier today someone at Hyatt in Nebraska (I have the person's name) called my home and spoke with someone else (I am travelling) to say that they could not possibly honour a particular BRG I had approved because it was so, so low. They wanted to speak with me to discuss 'compensation'. Due to the absence of a Skype headset at my office and the time difference I won't be able to phone for another 12 hours or so.
The BRG was approved nine days ago and I've received the confirmation email. Prior to the call more than one Hyatt phone agent has confirmed that the reservation is in place.
Is this acceptable? I certainly don't won't Hyatt to go broke but, seriously, over a week later and with several people having confirmed it. It doesn't sit very well with me.
Earlier today someone at Hyatt in Nebraska (I have the person's name) called my home and spoke with someone else (I am travelling) to say that they could not possibly honour a particular BRG I had approved because it was so, so low. They wanted to speak with me to discuss 'compensation'. Due to the absence of a Skype headset at my office and the time difference I won't be able to phone for another 12 hours or so.
The BRG was approved nine days ago and I've received the confirmation email. Prior to the call more than one Hyatt phone agent has confirmed that the reservation is in place.
Is this acceptable? I certainly don't won't Hyatt to go broke but, seriously, over a week later and with several people having confirmed it. It doesn't sit very well with me.
Jul 18, 2014, 6:31 am
#964
Join Date: May 2013
Posts: 27
I just wanted to detail my experience, in the hope that it was save others some hassle as this forum has certainly helped me.
First I submitted my online claim, I wanted to do this before booking just in case it wasn't approved. It took about 21 hours for them to get back to me. In their email it said they had approved my claim and that I had to make a booking with hyatt directly, then contact them (BRG place) within the next 24 hours.
So I made a booking on Hyatt's website, and responded by email as the BRG place is in America (I live in Australia so call costs are high). I never got a reply, so I called within the 24 hrs. It took 30 minutes (mostly on hold) but they gladly gave me the discounted rate and sent a confirmation email with the new rate. They said that it would've been too soon for the original rate to be charged to my card and so only the discounted rate would be charged.
Of course this wasn't the case, it took three phone calls to the grand hyatt in melbourne and two people telling me they would call back but never did to sort it out. This was after telling me that as I had booked a prepaid, no cancelation, advanced rate that I had to pay the original rate (despite acknowledging that the discounted rate was on the reservation), one person even tried to tell me that the difference was to be spent during my stay!
The assistant manager even tried to tell me that it was prepaid so they couldn't do anything blah blah blah
But can you believe his story quickly changed when I read him the terms and conditions of their own policy:
"If you have already booked a prepaid stay on Hyatt.com, and find a Competing Rate that meets these terms and conditions set forth here, then Hyatt will refund the full amount originally charged to your credit card for the rate booked on Hyatt.com and charge your credit card for the full stay based on the new rate."
Bam and difference was refunded!
Oh my goodness. If the stay is anything like the customer service I received, then I definitely should've gone with another hotel! It's hard to convince myself it was worth the fuss!
My suggestion is once you have the claim approval, make a booking with the BRG place over the phone or book the higher priced daily rate that is refundable if cancelled (I never wanted to cancel my booking mr hyatt!).
I would say submit a new claim after you've booked, but my rate went up in the meantime so this wasn't an option (it wasn't a problem that the rate rose after approval).
First I submitted my online claim, I wanted to do this before booking just in case it wasn't approved. It took about 21 hours for them to get back to me. In their email it said they had approved my claim and that I had to make a booking with hyatt directly, then contact them (BRG place) within the next 24 hours.
So I made a booking on Hyatt's website, and responded by email as the BRG place is in America (I live in Australia so call costs are high). I never got a reply, so I called within the 24 hrs. It took 30 minutes (mostly on hold) but they gladly gave me the discounted rate and sent a confirmation email with the new rate. They said that it would've been too soon for the original rate to be charged to my card and so only the discounted rate would be charged.
Of course this wasn't the case, it took three phone calls to the grand hyatt in melbourne and two people telling me they would call back but never did to sort it out. This was after telling me that as I had booked a prepaid, no cancelation, advanced rate that I had to pay the original rate (despite acknowledging that the discounted rate was on the reservation), one person even tried to tell me that the difference was to be spent during my stay!
The assistant manager even tried to tell me that it was prepaid so they couldn't do anything blah blah blah
But can you believe his story quickly changed when I read him the terms and conditions of their own policy:
"If you have already booked a prepaid stay on Hyatt.com, and find a Competing Rate that meets these terms and conditions set forth here, then Hyatt will refund the full amount originally charged to your credit card for the rate booked on Hyatt.com and charge your credit card for the full stay based on the new rate."
Bam and difference was refunded!
Oh my goodness. If the stay is anything like the customer service I received, then I definitely should've gone with another hotel! It's hard to convince myself it was worth the fuss!
My suggestion is once you have the claim approval, make a booking with the BRG place over the phone or book the higher priced daily rate that is refundable if cancelled (I never wanted to cancel my booking mr hyatt!).
I would say submit a new claim after you've booked, but my rate went up in the meantime so this wasn't an option (it wasn't a problem that the rate rose after approval).
Filled a claim without a reservation made, got an approval email with note to make a reservation and call them. I send a reservation number by replying to the email I received but never heard back, so I called. It took almost an hour with an agent while she consulted with a supervisor several times and finally said she would call me back later.
When she called back, she said she would adjust a rate as approved, but she would also adjust a cancellation terms. I booked a flexible rate and a lower rate on competing website allowed free cancellation. But the agent said she could not see it and she would only adjust a rate if I agree with prepaid, non-cancellable rate. I was in a car at the moment, so I did not have a chance to send her a screen shot confirming free cancellation on a competing website, so I agreed as a discount was really high.
After coming back home I sent a screen shot and requested to change cancellation terms back to free cancellation, but again never heard back.
I usually stay at Marriott hotels and I got used to their good customer service. I was really disappointed with such customer service at Hyatt.
Jul 18, 2014, 6:25 pm
#965
Join Date: Jul 2014
Posts: 1
I'm new to Hyatt and the whole points game in general. So this was my first time attempting a BRG booking. I stayed at the Hyatt Regency Indian Wells This past Sun-Tues. Hyatt rate = $112/night, Hotels.com rate $97/night. I submitted the request online and was approved the next morning. Booked it and paid $76/night. Pretty Sweet.
Jul 18, 2014, 8:46 pm
#966
Join Date: Jun 2012
Posts: 177
I have to say I am also disappointed by the new BRG.
At first I was happy to see that I do not have to call in to BRG anymore. After a couple of trials, I changed my mind.
Begin rant.
Agents are now playing the same games as other hotel groups.
They promised 24 hour get back and almost always get back to me at the 23 hour 30 min time mark.
They often have difficulty to find the lower rate, totally ignoring the screen shot they asked for, and just claim that the rate is the same as the ones on hyatt.com.
Today they changed my refundable reservation to non-refundable and asked me to call to confirm. When I called to ask to get matched to the lower refundable rate on the 3rd website, the agent made up a rule saying BRG has to be non-refundable. I told him that this is not my previous experiences with Hyatt BRG but just received a cold and strong respond saying "this one has to be non-refundable" :
:
End rant.
At first I was happy to see that I do not have to call in to BRG anymore. After a couple of trials, I changed my mind.
Begin rant.
Agents are now playing the same games as other hotel groups.
They promised 24 hour get back and almost always get back to me at the 23 hour 30 min time mark.
They often have difficulty to find the lower rate, totally ignoring the screen shot they asked for, and just claim that the rate is the same as the ones on hyatt.com.
Today they changed my refundable reservation to non-refundable and asked me to call to confirm. When I called to ask to get matched to the lower refundable rate on the 3rd website, the agent made up a rule saying BRG has to be non-refundable. I told him that this is not my previous experiences with Hyatt BRG but just received a cold and strong respond saying "this one has to be non-refundable" :
:End rant.
Jul 19, 2014, 7:50 am
#968
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: SNA and BNA depending on work and time of year
Programs: UA Silver/ AA EXP/Hyatt Globalist/Marriott Lifetime Titanium/Hilton Diamond
Posts: 2,189
Well once again we find ourselves having to reach out to Dana on this new format. This time response was "site shows no availability" (false because I checked again after receiving the email and found rooms) and "because your screen shot was unreadable" we deny your claim.
I sent PDF's as an agent advised. Before rolling out a full scale change Hyatt should have given an option for people to submit online or call. Then the online submissions could be used to work out the system bugs before rolling it out as brand standard.
I think Dana and her staff are working overtime now because of the inconsistency of the staff and system.. Very frustrating.
ETA after about 24 hours one of Dana's people got back with me and the claim wa approved. I'm really grateful for Dana's participation on this thread because she and her staff is saving the brand for me.
I sent PDF's as an agent advised. Before rolling out a full scale change Hyatt should have given an option for people to submit online or call. Then the online submissions could be used to work out the system bugs before rolling it out as brand standard.
I think Dana and her staff are working overtime now because of the inconsistency of the staff and system.. Very frustrating.
ETA after about 24 hours one of Dana's people got back with me and the claim wa approved. I'm really grateful for Dana's participation on this thread because she and her staff is saving the brand for me.
Last edited by chicaloca453; Jul 20, 2014 at 11:54 pm
Jul 22, 2014, 4:43 pm
#971
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Seattle, WA, USA
Programs: AS MVPG, Hyatt Diamond
Posts: 983
Get used to them...
Jul 27, 2014, 9:00 am
#972
Join Date: Feb 2014
Location: UK
Programs: Gold Hilton-Starwood-ClubCarlson-LeClub /Amex/ Gold Cathay-Silver BA-Etihad Silver
Posts: 78
Andaz Hyatt London
I think since Hyatt moved their BPG into claim forms it is going downhill ,their staff either have no clue what they are doing or are just bored.
I have made twice claims that both times they were rejected for petty reasons. The first time I wasn't bothered I moved to Hilton! Even though i would have preferred Hyatt. The second time was today after making claim it was rejected because the BPG Assistant didn't read the form that goes along. I had requested 2 rooms 2 people in each room she emailed back saying number of people don't fit in the room!!!!
I called and after 40 minutes on the phone trying to locate my claim she said they tried to put them all in one room. She was a lovely lady who manged to find the rooms and book them for me.
Onhotels.com 27/07 - £166 before discount £133 after discount
I much prefer the human interaction if I have to keep submitting claims that will be rejected for silly reasons.Though they should be faster as I think business will go downhill if they keep it this way. I move my stays to Hilton just for this reason.
I have made twice claims that both times they were rejected for petty reasons. The first time I wasn't bothered I moved to Hilton! Even though i would have preferred Hyatt. The second time was today after making claim it was rejected because the BPG Assistant didn't read the form that goes along. I had requested 2 rooms 2 people in each room she emailed back saying number of people don't fit in the room!!!!
I called and after 40 minutes on the phone trying to locate my claim she said they tried to put them all in one room. She was a lovely lady who manged to find the rooms and book them for me.
Onhotels.com 27/07 - £166 before discount £133 after discount
I much prefer the human interaction if I have to keep submitting claims that will be rejected for silly reasons.Though they should be faster as I think business will go downhill if they keep it this way. I move my stays to Hilton just for this reason.
Jul 27, 2014, 10:40 am
#973
Join Date: Jan 2010
Programs: Virtuoso, Marriott Stars/Luminous, Hilton Impresario, IHG Luxury & Lifestyle, Hyatt Prive etc
Posts: 2,004
Jul 27, 2014, 9:14 pm
#974
Join Date: Oct 2013
Programs: Aeroplan Elite, JAL, SPG Gold, Hyatt Diamond, IHG Platinum, Le Club Accor Platinum
Posts: 11
Hyatt is clearly trying to reduce the number of successful claims. I submitted one for the GH Singapore, 349 on Hyatt.com and 255 on otel.com. Apparently because you have to create a profile on otel.com it makes it a member only website.
Submitted a claim to SPG for the St. Regis, also found a better rate on otel.com and got accepted within 2 hours.
I hope the savings are enough to compensate all the customers they're losing with this new process. They used to have the best BRG out there!
Submitted a claim to SPG for the St. Regis, also found a better rate on otel.com and got accepted within 2 hours.
I hope the savings are enough to compensate all the customers they're losing with this new process. They used to have the best BRG out there!
Jul 28, 2014, 2:45 am
#975
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: SNA and BNA depending on work and time of year
Programs: UA Silver/ AA EXP/Hyatt Globalist/Marriott Lifetime Titanium/Hilton Diamond
Posts: 2,189