Hyatt Gold Passport changes for 2015 announced

Hyatt Gold Passport announced a few changes last week, none of them life-changing on their own but worth summarising.  

Award chart changes for 2015 announced

Hyatt has published this list on their website of hotels which are moving up or down the Gold Passport category chart.

Compared to a year ago, when Hyatt brought in a new 30,000 points category and promptly put its best hotels into it, these changes appear modest.  A lot of hotels are actually reducing in price.

The only European moves of note are the well-regarded Andaz in Amsterdam and the Hyatt in Nice, both of which move from Category 5 to Category 6.  This means they will now require 25,000 points for a free night.

Hyatt is always very fair with its category moves.  You can book until 22nd January at the old rates which gives you plenty of time to lock something in.  If you are booked into a hotel which is reducing in price, you will automatically be refunded the difference.

‘My Elite Rate’ is dropped

Hyatt is scrapping the ‘My Elite Rate’ deal which it trialled in 2014.  This gave Platinum and Diamond members of Gold Passport a 20% discount on bookings made at Best Available Rate.

Whilst I never took advantage of this myself (my wife dropped down from Platinum last year), it does remove a hard and definable cash benefit of pushing for Hyatt status.

5,000 points for not getting your preferred bed type dropped

Finally, Hyatt has dropped its promise to give you 5,000 Gold Passport points (worth around £50) if the bed type you booked was not available when you checked in.

The small print of this is rather odd.  At present, only Platinum and Diamond members benefit from the guarantee. 

From 2015, ALL Hyatt Gold Passport members will be ‘guaranteed’ the bed combination they booked.  Except, if the hotel fails to honour this ‘guarantee’, there is no penalty and no compensation – it is not clear what you are meant to do if you book a twin bedded room and all they have at check-in is a double.

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