In the field of marketing, there’s an old adage that advertising may earn you business but good service is what keeps it. Frequent readers of this blog may have noticed that I book a majority of my hotel stays with Hilton. Over the last couple of years, I’ve been dipping my toes into the World of Hyatt program as well. Thanks to travel in 2023, I qualified for Explorist status and earned a sizable amount of points,
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Customer Service Issues
I logged into my account and found that I had a free night award and 4 club upgrade awards available. I decided to call World of Hyatt’s customer service.
My goal was to book a 3 night stay at the Hyatt Regency Dubai Creek Heights for an upcoming stay. I called customer service and asked if I could book a three night stay in the following format.
- Book the first night using the free night certificate
- Book the second and third night using World of Hyatt points
- Upgrade the booking to Club level by using club upgrade awards
Going around in circles
The agent didn’t seem to be very clear about Hyatt’s own policies. Initially, she told me that the booking could be done in the format that I’d requested.
However, she later told me that since the first night was booked using a certificate, she cannot upgrade that part of the stay to club level. She assured me that the remaining two nights booked with points could be upgraded to club level. I said that was okay and asked her to proceed. She sent me confirmation emails and told me that I was good to go.
Thankfully, I checked the email and found no mention about a club level room. At this point, I asked her to verify if the club upgrade was confirmed.
More Confusion
This is when it started to get really time consuming. She said that since I’m staying at the same property, it will be counted as a ‘continuous’ stay. Therefore, she cannot apply the club upgrade even to the second and third night. Luckily for me, I quickly checked the cancellation policy and found out that the booking could still be canceled without penalty.
I asked her to cancel the entire booking and ended up booking with Hilton instead. Thanks to Diamond status from the Hilton Aspire card, I was upgraded to the Diplomat Suite at the Habtoor Palace hotel. American Express is offering some amazing limited time bonuses on the Hilton Aspire Card and Surpass card. These offers end tomorrow!
Click here for the 180,000 points + 1 free night certificate offer on the Hilton Aspire Card
Click Here for the 170,000 points offer on the Hilton Surpass card
The Pundit’s Mantra
While I still love Hyatt hotels and their brands, this customer service interaction ended up being a complete waste of time, consuming well over 30 minutes. The agent kept stating that something was a policy, only to walk it back later or do a complete 180.
Also, it’s a bit odd that a customer service agent attending to mid-level elites didn’t know the ins and outs of the World of Hyatt program well. She seemed to be in a hurry to complete the booking instead of checking the requisite policies before processing the booking.
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Hyatt doesn’t currently support applying more than one “award” to the same reservation. A free night certificate is one, and a club upgrade is as well. So they both cannot be applied on the same stay. This really is something Hyatt should solve – there is no good *business reason* for the restriction. However you could certainly have two separate reservations, one with certificate and one with points, and the latter upgraded with a club upgrade certificate… just not inside the same reservation. You’d have had to make separate bookings, and work directly with the property to avoid checking in… Read more »
That’s a great tip. I was pressed for time as I had a flight in 3 days. Will definitely keep this in mind the next time!
You basically got an inexperienced agent who didn’t yet know the ins and outs of the program fully. That’s disappointing but not horrific. Also, as Taylor mentions I always book mixed back-to-back awards with the most beneficial one in the beginning. That way the hotel may leave you with the same upgraded room or benefits afterwards rather than going through the hassle of change or rechecking in or changing rooms.
Yes, if she’d told me right out of the gate that it cannot be done, I’d be fine with it. What was a complete waste of time was the fact that she first said it could be done, booked it, then said it couldn’t be done. So had to cancel everything after spending 32 minutes.
I found a way around this a few years back when I was still an Explorist. I booked a week in Paris combining points and free night certs (5 with points, 2 with certs). The agent suggested I put the certs at the end. That way, she would be able to apply the club upgrade for the first five nights but assumed that the hotel would likely give me club access for the full seven days. It worked: I got club access for the full stay. Again, not a great business practice and doesn’t give guests assurances prior to arrival.… Read more »
That’s great. You were lucky to get a knowledgeable agent. In the past, even with Hilton, I’ve combined FHR and Hilton cert bookings. In almost all cases, the hotel has allowed me to use the FHR credit for the entire stay.