Hyatt Gold Passport Introduces Restaurant and Spa Points Earning and Burning When Not Staying at the Hotel

Hyatt announced this morning that they’re rolling out Gold Passport earning and redemption at Hyatt property restaurants and spas even when you aren’t a registered guest.

This may seem like a small matter, but it’s something I’ve wanted for a long time. Starwood Preferred Guest offers points earning at hotel restaurants when you aren’t staying, and that’s great. In my home town of DC there’s the J&G Steakhouse at the W and Adour at the St. Regis that are worth visits in their own right. And since my office is right smack next to a Westin, that’s really convenient. Now, I’ll have one of my favorite restaurants in DC as a points-earning option, Blue Duck Tavern at the Park Hyatt.

They’ll be rolling out this benefit at some properties beginning this month, to be chain-wide by August, and with participating hotels updated at hyatt.com/diningandspa. Elite bonus points will apply.

Interestingly, Hyatt says they’ll require a photo ID to earn points. Starwood doesn’t, and you don’t even have to provide your number at a hotel restaurant, you can always forward your receipt later for retro-credit (or the receipts of your friends, hah!). Unlike Starwood, if points don’t post Hyatt says you’ll need to work the issue through the venue where you earned the points rather than through Gold Passport.

I’m a big fan of the earning option. This is a big incentive to choose a Hyatt restaurant, or head over for happy hour. And for those of you choosing a business reimbursable venue, your choice is obvious. Especially when it’s a good venue, like Blue Duck Tavern.

I haven’t yet looked into the redemption rates, though I’m skeptical they’ll be attractive, redeeming airline miles for anything other than airline flights is almost never a good value and redeeming hotel points for anything other than hotel room nights (or transfers to miles for some programs) is almost never a good value. That’s because airlines ‘sell’ award seats at a deep discount, and hotels sell their marginal room nights to their loyalty programs at a deep discount. But when redeeming points for merchandise or for in-hotel charges, the hotel program is effectively just buying the meal or service from the property, and generally not at anything close to a similar discount. I’d love to be wrong on this one.

So go forth and earn, like Starwood (and many don’t know that benefit exists!) you’ll be able to claim points for dining, drinks, etc. as a local or when meeting up out of town at other than your own hotel. More earning options are, of course, better!

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. […] Another notable Hyatt announcement that was made within the last week was that in the near future Hyatt will be introducing a program similar to the one that Starwood has in place where you can earn Hyatt Gold Passport points for dining at the hotel restaurants without being a registered guest of the hotel.  I think that is awesome!  Hyatt points are not handed out as freely as some other types of points, so having another way to earn them is a big victory in my book.  Hyatt also announced they would be introducing the option to redeem points for restaurant charges, but the redemption rates looked pretty crummy.  The rate I saw was 5,000 points for a $25 credit – no way.  To me, 5,000 points are often worth at least $100, so there is no way I would redeem them for $25 for food.  But, I guess having the option is better than not having the option.  Interestingly enough, the Hyatt website that announced some of the details of this upcoming promo is currently not operational.  You can read more about this upcoming program at View From the Wing. […]

Comments

  1. Awesome new way to earn points – you are right that the redemption rates are not good. 5,000 Gold Passport points for a $25 credit. No thank you, but I will happily earn extra points using this program. 😉

  2. You say: “This is a big incentive to choose a Hyatt restaurant, or head over for happy hour.” Just be careful about earning points for happy hour. Isn’t it illegal to earn points for buying booze in some states? I thought I always read that in the T&C. Not sure….

  3. Interesting change!
    Clicked on your link. URL looks strange. Also cannot find a list of properties (yet). Hope they roll this out internationally…

  4. I know when I tried to earn points at SPG at the dining option it was a huge pain. Nobody at the hotel resturant knew how to put my SPG number on the bill and I would always have to fax it to SPG and even then they would take their time posting it or end up messing up the posting or worse yet try to persuade me to give the hotel time to post it even though I told them the hotel didn’t even bother to write down my SPG number because they didn’t know how to post points. I hope the Hyatt program has their act in order better than SPG and at least trains the dining staff how to post points.

  5. I never ask SPG restaurants to post the points. I always take the receipt, scan it and email or fax it to the service line of SPG (Plat). This works for me every time and only takes a few moments of my time plus a few days until the points post. To go through each Hyatt restaurant could take long time and could be potentially embarrassing if you are with guests, clients or friends…

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