Rumor: Hyatt Diamond Suite Upgrades – Change Coming

a room with a white tub and a chair

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I may have recently been given a status match to Hyatt’s Diamond Tier but the truth of the matter is that I know staggeringly little about Hyatt Gold Passport, the benefits of the program and how to maximise the status I’ve been lucky enough to be given. So I’ve been doing some homework.

I’ve already been through the main benefits of Hyatt Diamond status and worked out which ones will work best for me but I still don’t have more than a basic working knowledge of the program – and that’s bad. I’m quick to criticise people who don’t take the time to learn about the loyalty programs they belong to (especially when they then complain that they don’t see any benefits to the program!) so I’m making a concerted effort to learn all I can about Hyatt Gold Passport.

To that end I recently emailed Hyatt Gold Passport customer services a few questions that I couldn’t find the answers to on the web and, today, as it had been nearly five days of silence, I called them up to put the questions to them over the phone.

I’ll write a separate blog on the questions I asked as they may be of use to others in my position but, for now, I’m going to concentrate on one question in particular:

“If I don’t requalify for Diamond status for 2017 and if I have suite upgrades booked/confirmed past February 2017 will those suite upgrades be cancelled?”

The question was based on the notion that, although Diamond Suite Upgrades (DSUs) expire at the end of February of every year, as long as they have been applied to a reservation (even one that’s past the DSU’s expiration date) they are not lost.

hyatt-diamond-suite-upgradesMy 4 Diamond Suite Upgrades waiting to be used

The Hyatt Gold Passport customer services agent informed me that this would soon be a moot point.

While the 2015 DSUs (due to expire at the end of February 2016) will still be valid on reservations booked before the expiration date for stays after the expiration date, this will not be the case in the future.

The agent confirmed that there is a change in the pipeline that will mean that DSUs will have to be booked and used by the expiration date, and that this would be starting with the upgrades issued for 2016.

He couldn’t tell me when the change would be announced (although he did say we would be given a lot of notice) or if there were other changes to the Hyatt Gold Passport program in the pipeline, but he seemed very sure about this change to DSUs.

Considering I’m extremely fortunate to have even one DSU to use I can’t really complain, but it does ruin my plans for my upgrades. I was hoping to eek out my 4 DSUs that expire in February across the rest of 2016 and then use my 4 DSUs that expire in February 2017 across the whole of 2017…but, if the HGP agent is to be believed, that now can’t happen. And that’s a little annoying…I’ll have to come up with another plan 🙂

Featured image courtesy of Park Hyatt Sydney

5 COMMENTS

  1. This change is pretty much a go. So all the people wanting to upgrade to suits for March 2017 reservations will have to wait until March 2017 to do so.

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