Free Hotel Platinum Status with GHA Discovery

by Gary Leff

Reader Nils shares that GHA Discovery, the loyalty program for Global Hotel Alliance (14 hotel brands with 300 hotels in 53 countries) is offering mid-tier Platinum elite status at signup.

Clearly one of the smaller programs, but status benefits you with chains like Anantara Hotels, Kempinski, Omni, and Pan Pacific amongst others.

Benefits include free internet, bottled water, upgrade to next room category, guaranteed room availability with 48 hours notice, and 3pm late checkout.

They also have ‘local experience awards‘ earned each time you stay at one of their brands for the first time.

The offer is pitched to MasterCard World Signia Cardholders (their high-end version of the card outside the U.S. though rebranded in some places as World Elite). Status is valid for a year.

Limited applicability, probably, but I rarely turn down free status.

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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  5. what about us in US who don’t have MasterCard World Signia Cardholders?

    we don’t get this status?

  10. @goodguy – worked for me – I do have MC cards but not sure if it is that MC program. Give it a try.
    @Beer Hunter – worked for me in Firefox

  12. i have hyatt online account but no hyatt card and no status.

    will hyatt match my hilton gold or club carlson gold or priority club plaitinum membership and give me hyatt status?

    thanks for any info

  14. @goodguy – sometimes they will want to see stay activity with the other program, but in general they will offer status for 90 days and a challenge (reduced nights/stays during that time) to retain the status. What’s key though is that you do get the 4 confirmed suite upgrades when they give you the temporary status.

  17. @ GARY,i just opened hyatt online account but have no status and no hyatt card. transferred some points from CHASE for 3 nights stay at a Hyatt regency in asia. I already booked the award stay.
    Since I have gold account with club carlson, can I ask hyatt to give me any temporary status so I can get room upgrade on my already booked award reservation?

    will this work?

  18. @Brian@Brad
    I had the same problem.You might have to do some work on your curent account to get Platinum.
    If you have both business and home addresses listed on your current account, get rid of one of them and than hit submit or update.
    Use a different email address, different user name and password.If you have been using your home address on your current account, use your business address on the new account.Make sure you don’t list the same phone #’s you are using on your current account.I used my cell # as my main contact.
    You might have to make yourself a year younger or older to make it work. 😉
    If something is in your current account you will more than likely need to delete info from your current account so it differentiates itself from the new account you are setting up. If you get an eror message, which I did until I figured it out, just keep on trying until it works.

  20. FYI, they will email your USERNAME AND PASSWORD to you in the confirmation email. Make sure you pick unique ones for this account!

    Sheesh…

  23. Limited applicability, yes, but probably worth it if you travel to Europe or Asia. I can tell you from experience that the Kempinski and Pan Pacific properties are generally very nice (admittedly, with an equivalent rate to boot – but try to stay under a corporate discount)

  25. Well this is helpful as I have a conference at the Omni Dallas (one night). We’ll see if the benefits apply to conference rates.

    The “local experience” is a cookbook from their steakhouse. Not a wow, probably won’t even drop in to pick it up, but it’s a nice concept.

    Thanks Gary!

  26. Very expensive hotel! Can we use points/miles to book? I would never pay $250-$500 for a night.

  29. Can you redeem your “local experience” on the visit that you earn it on? i.e. My first ever stay at one of these hotels, let’s make it a 1 night stay, I’ll earn a platinum experience. Can I use it during that stay?

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