Hyatt Diamond Status Challenge is Back, Now Open to Everyone

Hyatt has been exceptionally generous in being willing to give elite members of other hotel chains temporary top tier status in the Gold Passport program, while offering an expedited way to keep that status. And they even gave these temporary Diamond full confirmed suite upgrades as though they had earned the status for a year.

This was exceptionally game-able.

Plenty of folks signed up for a credit card that gave them Hilton Gold status and leveraged that into Hyatt Diamond — maybe transferred some points into Hyatt from Chase Ultimate Rewards, booked cash and points award stays, upgraded them to suites at booking and enjoyed free breakfasts during their stays.


Suite at the Park Hyatt Chennai

Complimentary Diamond Room Service Breakfast at the Park Hyatt Vendome, Paris

Complimentary Diamond Room Service Breakfast at the Andaz 5th Avenue, New York

That super-easy Diamond status offer ended October 31.

It’s hard to dispute the strong value of Hyatt Gold Passport Diamond status:

So it’s desirable and plenty of frequent flyers want a jumpstart towards these benefits. But Hyatt doesn’t want to give away the benefits to people who aren’t going to stay loyal to the chain and become frequent guests.

(The downside to Hyatt of course is that they have about 500 hotels, half the size of Starwood and orders of magnitude smaller than Marriott, Hilton, and IHG.)

At the beginning of the year it appeared that Hyatt had brought back an expedited qualifying method for Diamond status but after speaking with Hyatt’s Rene Mizwicki back in January I learned that while some people had gotten added to the challenge by calling customer service, that’s not how it was supposed to work. They were requiring that nominations for the challenge come from one of their hotels or their sales department.

Today Hyatt confirmed for me that they’ve opened up these challenges for everyone.

The Elite Tier Offer continues to be a sales tool in which Hyatt colleagues provide a form to eligible clients in order to experience the benefits of elite Hyatt Gold Passport membership. However, members who call the Hyatt Global Contact Centers and request the elite offer will also be able to receive it.

Here are the details:.

• There is not a Diamond Trial period. Members have to complete the 12-night requirement before receiving Diamond status.
• No competitive tier statement is required to qualify for Diamond fast track offer.
• New and current base members can register to earn trial Platinum status and if they achieve 6 nights during their 60 day promotional period they will earn Platinum until 2/2017. The member will also be automatically registered to receive Diamond status through 2/2017 if they complete another 6 nights, for a total of 12 nights, during their 60 day promotional period.
• Platinum members can be registered to receive Diamond status until 2/2017 if they complete 12 nights in 60 days.
• Offer registration valid June 1, 2015 through April 30, 2016.

So there’s no more ‘instant Diamond’ status offer, you actually have to stay 12 nights within 60 days for Diamond.

But you don’t even need to have status with another chain to sign up, you just need to ask for the challenge.

It’s great to see expedited status back for those interested in it and the criteria is reasonable. If you have 12 upcoming hotel nights within a 2 month period you’ll want to do this if you can make those nights work with Hyatt.

(Thanks to The Trip Sherpa whose post on the Diamond challenge prompted me to query Hyatt.)

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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  1. This is a pretty good offer. I’ve found my Diamond status (a product of last year’s challenge) at least somewhat more valuable than my Hilton Diamond status. Even if someone didn’t have 12 nights of travel planned, they could find an out of the way Hyatt Place for ~$75/night and get Diamond status for 20 months for about $1k.

  2. Hyatt does not have the best suite upgrade benefit. Intercontinental Royal Ambassador does.

  3. Paid nights including cash and points nights. Not full points awards. And recent history suggests not MGM M life nights.

  4. Ridiculous! Hyatt has the “best upgrade benefit of any chain”, except that they award only 4 “confirmable” ugrades that are subject to availability like all such upgrades, whereas as a HHonors Diamond I enjoy UNLIMITED suite upgrades, of which I confirmed 12/12 or 8 more than GP Diamonds could “confirm” last year before they had to pay out of pocket to see the inside of suite again. That’s “best” only as redefined by travel bloggers!!!

    All I can say about the return of GP Diamond Challenge is that it is now just another garden variety diamond challenge… 😉

  5. “And recent history suggests not MGM M life nights.”

    Hopefully we’ll get less contradictory opinions than were provided last time…

  6. @DCS your ‘confirmed’ suite upgrades with Hilton were provided at check-in and as you’ve acknowledged involved you having to push to get some of them. That’s not the same as actually reserving a suite at time of booking, e.g. book a week on cash and points and confirm a suite.

  7. @Gary – what diffence does it make when upgrades do get ‘confirmed’ if availability is the determining factor?

    In May I was upgraded to suite at Conrad Chicago without asking. As I write this I am sitting in the lobby bar at Hilton Toronto where I was upgraded to a nice corner suite, without asking. By now, a GP Diamond would have only 2 more suite upgrades to go. Mine are unlimited, as long as there is availability…now, that’s a generous upgrade policy 😉

  8. @Gary can you please advise what time of year this could be done in order to trigger two years of Diamond status?

  9. @Howard this isn’t a permanent program as of now, and if you succeed you’re Diamond through Feb 2017, so I’d do now.

  10. @DCS certainty is a huge deal. You don’t want to walk up to the desk on your family vacation hoping for the room you want, you want to have had it confirmed rather than to be disappointed. I’ve had plenty of suite upgrades from Hyatt without using a confirmed suite upgrade certificate. Most of my stays I don’t care. But when I do want the better room, I really want it, and I want it guaranteed.

  11. @Gary — It is a huge deal only in your mind. And another canard that people are repeating because they read it here is this “guarantee” business: GP suite upgrades are NOT guaranteed. They are ‘confirmable’ at booking depending on AVAILABILITY. Period. So, no availability no upgrade regardless of whether it is at booking or at check in. More to the point is that if things were as great as you claim with GP suite upgrades, there would be fewer posts of folks complaining about not being able to use their 4 DSU certificates!!!

    You’ve simply gotta tone down the superlatives. GP suite upgrades are not at all what you claim they are, and, for someone like me who values suite upgrades above most else, the GP DSU’s biggest shortcoming is that there are ONLY 4 them…

    G’day!

  12. @DCS Confirmed suite upgrades are a big deal, period. Hilton, Marriott, and IHG do not offer them. Starwood only confirms 10 nights a year 5 days out for 50 night Platinums. Hyatt gives their Diamond members 4 confirmed at booking suite upgrades a year valid for up to 7 nights each. And Hyatt has the cheapest points-confirmable suite upgrades as well.

    The notion that Hilton’s suite upgrade benefit comes close to Hyatt’s — or even Starwood’s — is a joke. If a Hilton property has every single suite available when a Diamond member checks in, and that member is the only Diamond staying on property that night, and the Diamond member does not receive anything better than a basic room on an executive floor then the hotel has not done anything in violation of the Hilton HHonors program rules. Period.

    Just because you keep repeating it, doesn’t make it any more plausible that Hilton has a strong upgrade benefit. They don’t.

  13. DCS — glad you enjoy your Hilton staus, but this debate is one you’re flat out losing. I am a Hilton diamond and have been a Hyatt diamond in some years. The latter is much better. There are times when I want to know in advance I will have a suite, like when my family has just flown 14 hours. Hilton is pretty good with upgrades, although it’s often front desk bingo. And I’ve found the longer the stay the worse my chances with Hilton, which is exactly backwards from what I need. Yes, my batting average on Hilton suites is pretty good when I stay one night, which is exactly when I don’t give a crap. That said, my upgrades at check in for Hyatt are good too, so the four suites are pretty good to have too. Last, since Hilton diamond is so easy to get, blog posts featuring harder ones are welcome.

  14. @Gary — You have been pushing this stuff forever so I do not blame you for falling for it. For instance. You keep going on and on about this: “Hyatt gives their Diamond members 4 confirmed at booking suite upgrades a year valid for up to 7 nights each.”

    What is the big deal if the suite upgrades are good for up to 7 nights? What happens when you book an 8-night stay? Use two ‘confirmed’ certificates for just that one stay? My longest recent stay was a 9-night stay at Conrad Hong Kong, where I was upgraded to a suite without asking for all 9 nights. Try that trick with your ‘confirmed’ GP DSU and then tell me how getting JUST 4 upgrades a year that are good for ONLY up 7 nights can be better than having UNLIMITED upgrades that are good for the duration of a stay NO MATTER HOW LONG? See how silly that makes your superlatives sound?

    You’ve simply got to be willing to reexamine your assumptions if you are to be the self-proclaimed “thought leader”, rather than to keep repeating things that might have had merit at some point but no longer do…

  15. @Larry sez with a straight face: “glad you enjoy your Hilton staus, but this debate is one you’re flat out losing.”

    My stays at Hilton properties are usually long (average 5 nights), and, yet, I batted 100% on suite upgrades last year:

    https://milepoint.com/forums/threads/diamond-suite-upgrade-reports.67743/page-2#post-2513107

    So, forgive me if I am not at all impressed by claims about how just 4 upgrades per year that are good for only up to 7 PAID nights can be better than having unlimited upgrades that are good for stays of any duration, including AWARD STAYS!!!

    Stop drinking the GP kool-aid!

  16. I can be critical of Gary’s stuff. Like, I think taking advice about how credit cards affect your credit score from places that have something to gain from a person applying for credit cards is a bit of a conflict.

    But, I gotta say, DCS, there’s really only one person in this post and thread that needs to re-examine their assumptions. Your points are borderline incoherent.

  17. @Larry sez: “But, I gotta say, DCS, there’s really only one person in this post and thread that needs to re-examine their assumptions. Your points are borderline incoherent.”

    I did respond to you but the comment has to be moderated since it contains a link that makes my point.

    Meanwhile, which of my points are borderline incoherent? The one about upgrades that are unlimited in number and are good on stays of any duration duration, including AWARD stays, being better than just 4 upgrades/yr that must be on PAID stays of no more than 7 nights?

    I urged you stop drinking the GP kool-aid in my comment that has not yet posted. Let me do it again: Stop drinking @Gary’s “GP is best in business” kool-aid. It’s an old and toxic brew 😉

  18. It’s always hilarious to see DCS argue with bloggers in boarding area. 🙂 It’s one of my weekly happy hour. I even try to learn more English here. Thanks to both of you!

  19. I’ve been an IHG Royal Ambassador for years. I always am upgraded to a suite, have lounge access with breakfast, snacks, light dinners and drinks. Have been Hilton and Hyatt Diamond in the past, but nobody beats IHG.

  20. Hi Gary,
    Did you confirm with Hyatt that Diamond status would be valid until Feb 2017? Just completed the diamond challenge (registered by phone June 25 and completed two days ago) and my status says diamond expires Feb 2016. Have not heard back from Gold Passport regarding the matter. Any idea what could be going on? Thanks!

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