A year ago Hyatt started testing online redemption of suite upgrades. That feature is now live, and it works for both suite upgrades and club access awards, through both the Hyatt.com website and through the Hyatt mobile app as part of the booking process.
- Suite upgrades: Availability shows for standard suites and suite upgrade awards in a member’s account can be applied during booking. Suites are shown alongside the rate for a standard room. Applying a suite upgrade – or not – involves toggling selection of the Suite Upgrade Award on or off. (When off, all available room types will display, not just standard room and standard suite.)
- Club Access Award: As Hyatt explains, “[w]hen Club Access Award redemption is selected, Club Access Award room types and rates that already include Club Access will be filtered out and members can then select the room and rate that they’d like to add Club Access to.”
Park Hyatt Abu Dhabi
Club access awards are earned as a benefit choice at 20 and 30 elite nights (or 35,000 and 50,000 base points). Suite Upgrade awards are earned as a benefit every 10 nights starting at 40 nights (or 65,000 base points and up to 150 nights (all benefit options are included at 60 nights, no choice required).
- Confirmed suite upgrades at time of booking was first introduced way back in 2009
- The change from Hyatt Gold Passport to World of Hyatt made these upgrades valid on award stays, not just paid stays
- And they come out of revenue inventory. Whenever a standard suite is available for sale members can confirm the suite with an upgrade certificate.
Park Hyatt New York
Booking these has been reasonably cumbersome, although I surmise this has made it easier for me to gain the inventory that I want. I favor Hyatt largely because when I travel with my family I want to confirm a suite, and no program is better for this than Hyatt.
Traditionally you’ve had to contact Hyatt to confirm the suite. I used to email my concierge (a benefit at 60 nights) but they take too long to respond if at all. So I usually direct message @HyattConcierge on Twitter. They frequently have to contact the hotel to block the suite. Time zones can be a real challenge and the process can take a day or two for some properties, while I’d worry over the inventory disappearing.
Grand Hyatt Kuala Lumpur
Meanwhile, the three changes I’d still like to see even more to suite upgrades are (1) allowing use of an upgrade to a lesser room when no suite is available (for instance, to an Opera View Deluxe room at Park Hyatt Sydney which is exempt from the suite upgrade program) and (2) allowing use of suite upgrades on category 1-4 and category 1-7 free night certificate stays (I often do not want to use these certificates, as my redemption stays are usually with my wife and daughter where I want a suite), and (3) use of more than one suite upgrade certificate to confirm a premium suite, which can today be accessed via points but not upgrade certificate.
Park Hyatt Sydney Opera Deluxe Room
Online booking for these upgrades is a big advance in convenience for using them. I just wonder how much the convenience will increase their use and therefore deplete the inventory.
It’s only 2024. Way to go Hyatt. About F’ing time. Idiots. I’ve been a courtesy card member for years and the brand continues to go downhill and disappoint.
@Adam – unhappy? Switch brands
@Adam is a whiny tool. Good luck finding a better option with IHG or Hilton.
I thought I was going to rain on a parade, but there is surprisingly no parade to rain on, at least not yet,…
With (a) the announced ability to confirm suite upgrades online being limited to a subset of suites in each property and (b) anyone with an eligible SUA certificate being able to apply it online, just how this feature is likely to improve the chances of members to actually confirm suite upgrades ahead of time online remains a question big mark.
A few years back, United MileagePlus introduced a similar feature, “Skip the Waitlist”, which was supposed to enable Premier 1K members to confirm online cabin upgrades at booking or at any time before travel date. Itineraries eligible for “Skip the Waitlist” were supposed to display during flight searches. However, not once did I encounter an itinerary that was eligible. A wonderful feature conceptually that was essentially useless in practice. That the announced WoH feature may not be panacea either is, in fact, recognized in the post:
One thing that the announcement of this WoH feature lays bare is the fact that the canard, promulgated mainly by this site and repeated in this post, that “Whenever a standard suite is available for sale members can confirm the suite with an upgrade certificate” was yet another fabrication. Just like any type of award, so-called ‘confirmed’ suite upgrades are capacity controlled. While this announcement makes that very clear, that won’t stop accusations (by this site, I am sure) that properties are “playing games” with inventories of suites that are eligible for confirming online. Stay tuned!
I just used this feature for a new booking and noticed that it also gave me the option of using Guest of Honor online. It was instant and seamless, but I’m still going to stalk my WOH account to make sure that my earliest expiring cert has been used for the reservation.
What happens to points bookings, which in the past have required My Hyatt Concierge to contact the hotel for permission (presumably inventory controlled, but not even visible online to MHC in the past) to apply suite upgrade certs? Can we now apply confirm suite upgrades ourselves online, or must we still contact Hyatt and get the hotel’s permission for the upgrade?
So, what’s the point of a Hyatt globalist concierge agent?