Hyatt has sent out e-mails to some members letting them know that due to COVID-19 their status and free night certificates have been extended. Previously these e-mails had only been sent out to those either residing in China or with a lot of stays in that region, but reddit user Do_I_Use_Reddit received the e-mail despite not residing there or having any stays in the region. Some loyalty members have also had success asking for their free night certificates/status to be extended due to COVID-19 even though they did not receive the e-mail with success as well. As COVID-19 continues to spread it will be interesting to see if Hyatt extends this to all members and what other loyalty programs do. Airlines such as Alaska & JetBlue are waiving change and cancellation fees for flights booked within the next two weeks or so for example.
I got an understanding/sympathetic rep last night after two unsuccessful calls to Hyatt and one to Chase. She put in a ticket, told me to sit tight and wait (up to 2 weeks), and mentioned that she’s seen these certs being extended to the end of the year.
Then first thing this morning I got an email from the back end processing people saying that they don’t extend these certs… huge bummer 🙁 But given the range of things I’ve read and been told, I’m not ready to give up yet.
Just an FYI, and a DP from an Explorist —
Not sure if this would be granted for many in the US… tweeted Hyatt Concierge (@HyattConcierge) about seeing if they would be able to extend the expiration to my 3 lounge access awards that expired 2/29/20, and this is their response, verbatim —
“Member that are eligible to have earned awards extended are all members (base and elite) who fall into one of the three audiences below are eligible and will have expiring awards extended.
I. Members with addresses in the defined Asia Pacific territories as of 18 February 2020.
II. Members without a mailing address on file who have a Simplified Chinese/Traditional Chinese/Japanese/Korean language preference on file as of 18 February 2020.
III. Members without a mailing address on file who enrolled through WeChat Mini App.
^Janet”
Of course this could be their way of circumventing granting me an extension of my expiration date. Who knows.
So… delete our mailing addresses and sign up for a WeChat account? 🙂
Counter DP- I asked today to extend my category 1-4 certificate but was rebuffed. “At this time, we are not able to extend this award as the US confirmed cases have been thankfully very low”. (Edit: I live in the US. Discoverist status with Hyatt. YMMV of course)
I also tried this via Twitter with Hyatt Concierge and they declined to extend my cert (expires in May). Explorist status. Though I did get them to agree to credit 10K points (not the full 15K) to my account if the cert expires. This was a separate conversation not related to coronavirus.
This is the right thing for Hyatt and other companies like it to do in order to maintain loyal customers in the future; however, they are not obligated by the contracts with guests/passengers, so ultimately if they wanted to hold our feet to the fire they could. Still, glad Hyatt and others are attempting to salvage what could otherwise kill off travel for the foreseeable future.
Actually IHG Hilton and Marriott all have similar extensions for greater China region members.
Yeah, but this isn’t limited to China, so that’s what makes it more interesting. Kudos Hyatt!
That date works with MLife matches, too!
I just matched back from MLife Pearl because we have a stay tonight (I got rid of the Hyatt card, and some status is better than none!) – and the Feb 2022 date appeared for me as well! I wish I had made it to Atlantic City to get a higher MLife status and get Hyatt globalist!
Oh well – looking forward to two sweet water bottles, 2pm checkout, and a better preferred room in the same class!
Marriott will be sending such an email next.
Ahahahahahaha
If it was Marriott Bonvoy.. they would probably have some *small print limiting it to use at the Sheraton Wuhan and the like…
Welp, I just used my certificate last week when I didn’t really need to because I didn’t have any travel planned before it expires. If I could have had it extended I would have been able to use it when I actually needed it.
Hey, we’re going to remember that Hyatt and others had our back when it came to extending status, certificates, etc. right? Let’s all try to throw as much business as possible to them during these tough times.
good call, transferring some of my UR points to them as we speak.
I’m at the Grand Hyatt Taipei now. 3 nights for the price of 2. Cheaper to pay dollars, than points. They clean hourly, and easy to use hand sanitizer for guests. I free comfortable. AND GREAT SERVICE. Great city.