Hilton and Marriott have extended expiring free night certificates. Hyatt has not. They’ve even said they’ll begin expiring points again December 31st. However they’ve quietly gotten much more generous in offering points for expiring awards, and in some cases even extending them on asking.
- For expiring suite upgrades my concierge tells me they can issue new suite upgrades. One thing to note here as well, if you earn 70, 80, 90, or 100 nights you can pick 10,000 points or a confirmed suite upgrade certificate at each of these thresholds. Where possible (since a choice must be made within 90 days) I push out the selection until the next calendar year and in so doing get an extra year of validity out of the certificate. That’s useful for making reservations the following year before I requalify for status (e.g. making a May 2023 confirmed suite reservation in June 2022).
- For expiring category 1-4 certificates they’ve been giving out 10,000 points. In prior years they’ve only been willing to offer points for certificates earned via a co-brand credit card but this year they’ve extended that to other category 1-4 certificates too (e.g. those earned for 30 elite nights and for staying at 5 unique brands for the first time). Some people have had luck getting these extended, or so they report, though I’ve had more reports of failure than success.
- For expiring category 1-7 certificates they’ve been giving out 20,000 points. A category 1-7 certificate can be redeemed for a free night worth up to 35,000 points (peak category 7) so this is less value, but provides more flexibility since a reward night claimed with points can be upgraded to a suite while a certificate cannot and points can be used for more than just a free night (such as a suite upgrade).
- For expiring club access awards my concierge initially offered me 500 points apiece. Others have been offered 1000 or 2000 points. I’ve even seen a 3000 point data point. Push back if you’re lowballed, one reader shared their story of calling and pointing out others had gotten more points – and the agent then spent about a minute typing, trying different amounts to see what ‘took’ and he got 2000 points per certificate. The higher amounts do seem to be intended for Explorists though (who in normal times might actually use them).
Getting any points at all for expiring club access awards is especially sweet because for a Globalist these certificates were (largely) useless to begin with. Globalists get access to club lounges when offered without a certificate. The certificates aren’t transferable. So they almost always just expired unused. About the only use case was where status expired (and wasn’t renewed) before the certificates expired. So these amount to free points. I sure this policy lasts a few more months.
In my experience Hyatt does a good job taking care of guests when an issue is raised. However it seems that by not publicizing the option they’re keeping their costs low here. It’s hard to think of another reason they’d keep this quiet.
3k points per club cert here—I had more luck with the twitter concierge than my globalist concierge.
Curious if this applies to those who did not requalify for Globalist? Anyone know?
Sorry, should’ve clarified I meant the suite upgrades specifically, not the club upgrades or free nights.
Has anyone been able to get their cat1-7 extended? If so for how long?
I have been working my globalist concierge very hard all month long. Not luck on extension but they will do 20k points for CAT 1-7 certificate after it expires.
3K per cert here as well through twitter and I’m a Globalist!
Hi Gary;
Good article!
Must one still be a globalist to use a TSU? I have a couple coming that I’m waiting on until after 1/1 to choose. But business travel is down half – luckily award stays count.
I had three nights booked, then my son came down with COVID. I reached out to them at the time and they said nothing they can do. I gifted them to a friend. He tested positive today, was supposed to use the first one tonight. He cancelled, they are back in my account.
Reached out again via chat and got this:
“Thanks for your patience. Unfortunately, I can’t issue points for your Chase free night awards, as your awards do not qualify, per the criteria selected by Chase.”
Mere Discoverist here.
I also had better luck with Twitter Hyatt Concierge vs. my personal concierge. My wife and I are both Globalist and I got 3,000 per Twitter and she only got 500 but when she asked the concierge matched it but said they are only supposed to give 500 per ACC.
Hi Gary,
I just hit 90 nights this year but may not even requalify for globalist next year. If I wait until January to claim the TSU award for hitting 90, are you saying I will be able to redeem it through Feb 2024, even if I lose my current Globalist status after Feb 2023?
had to wait until Dec 29 for the first useful post all year from this blog.
@Matt – that’s my understanding and how it has worked in the past
only a discoverist was told my expiring chase certificate is not eligible as I did not meet the criteria.
said chase has set the criteria not hyatt.
I just waited an hour for Hyatt chat to engage, trying to extend or convert my wife’s Cat 1-4 cert. Chase sets the requirement that you need to have 10 nights in your account to be eligible to convert to points. They didn’t offer a path to extension except to check back after award expiration.
I wasted an hour waiting for a chat rep, only to find out that my expiring certificate (from chase points) doesn’t qualify for points or extending them. Phfft!
I was told you have to have 10+ nights in your account and is currently holding a chase Hyatt card to be able to convert the cert to 10k points
I wasn’t able to get my expiring cat 1-4 free nt extended. Discoverist.
Tried multiple times to engage through WoH app Chat… but wasted loads of time and attention on that to no avail… Also DM’d via Twitter and emailed my concierge… Concierge granted 1000 pts for each Club award, which sorta sucked. But, I had 4 suite upgrades also expiring, and they extended _two_ of those through to the next expiration date (2/2023).
So with the two SU’s I just got (at 50 nights) and the two extended, I have four available again. Let’s hope 2022 is a traveling year! I make Hyatt points quickly and easily, so I’m less upset about only getting 4k pts (vs a theoretical max potential of 12k). Having two additional SU’s available has more theoretical value (or none! depending on how the year goes).
For data points, I’m multi-year Globalist, and just last week hit 50 elite nights for the year (half & half stays vs. spend),
Thanks for the information… I called and received 25K points for an anniversary night set to expire 12-31-21. Could not extend the expiration because it had already been extended once.
Based on my own experience and reading the various responses above concerning the Hyatt award night extension or exchange for points, I must say that Hyatt is not consistent in how they handle customers.
Some get a certificate extended while others do not. Some get points, while others do not.
I got nothing but a false promise.
What aggravates me is that I called Hyatt in late December (before the 12-31-2021 certificate expired) and I was advised to call back or use Twitter in January after the certificate expired and I would get either an extension or points for the expiring certificate.
Today I learned that I got nothing but a false promise and lost time communicating with Hyatt.
I am glad I have Diamond with Hilton and Titanium with Marriott. Although Hyatt has some nice properties, being told false information is not a good marketing practice. I will avoid using Hyatt whenever practical.
My cat 1-4 cat free night award expired 1/7/22 and had no luck today. Hyatt said points compensate only for certificate expired 12/31/21 only.
My cat 1-4 cat-free night award expired 1/19/22 and had no luck today as well.
HYATT SUCKS! FALSE PROMISES like other people said. Called/ Chat =waste time.
If the Hyatt res system online allowed me to make a reservation using a Chase 1-4 cert that expires by the time I’ll stay at that hotel, do you think I will get charged either in points, money or by a forced redemption of the new category one to four anniversary date certificate for the stay that the system erroneously accepted? I thought it needed to be used by making a reservation by the *expiration date,* not that I had to have already *checked out by the reservation certificate expiration date*. Now that I have read a lot, I hesitate calling the Hyatt. I have the reservation and it shows it was made using the now-expired free certificate.
Keep the reservation, show up and hope for the best?
Just received the new 2022 Cat 1-4 certificate and I’m hoping they won’t use that one instead or charge me. Presumably it won’t be a problem at the hotel, I’m just wondering if later I will be notified by Hyatt about the discrepancy. Thoughts?
Another article without the proper fact checking. Like most if not all other comments, Hyatt explained that Chase rewards are not handled by Hyatt. I was told nothing could or would be done. This website looses credibility when they state a highly YMWV situation as fact.
@Andrew – this was accurate at the time written, and your being told something by a Hyatt agent doesn’t make it correct 🙂