Hyatt has never been on the vanguard of user interface when it comes to its website or app, leading to the old joke, “there’s no IT in Hyatt.” You still have to fill out an actual document and e-mail it back for manual processing when you transfer points to someone else, for Pete’s sake.
That said, Hyatt has been trying to bring itself more in line with the times recently. For years, in order to apply Milestone Rewards like Guest of Honor, Club Access and Suite Upgrade awards to a reservation, you had to call or message an actual agent. Last year, Hyatt added the ability to transfer the aforementioned Milestone Rewards to other members online, in addition to allowing folks to apply Guest of Honor certificates to their own reservations online. Now, it has also added the same ability to Club Access and Suite Night Awards online, allowing members self-apply them even if they were transferred/gifted from another member.
What’s New
- World of Hyatt members can now apply Suite Upgrade Awards and Club Access Awards to new reservations online or in the World of Hyatt app.
How to apply Hyatt awards online
Guest of Honor, Club Access and Suite Upgrade awards can all be added as a part of the normal booking process.
On the website, there is now a menu at the top of the search results screen that allows you to apply existing awards to the room results listed beneath. You simply choose what you want to use and finish the booking.
When booking through the app, there is a dropdown menu called “Available Awards.”
By expanding this menu, you can see all the awards that are currently live in your account:
Once you select an award, it will automatically be applied to the room and rate that you choose. When you’re choosing to use a Suite Upgrade Award, the display will change to show you the new rate for a suite with the award applied:
Quick Thoughts
Nothing about this is earth-shattering, but it does make applying these awards a whole lot easier, since there’s no need to call reservations or DM the team formerly known as the Twitter team.
The one thing that you can’t do is apply an award to a reservation that you’ve already made, for instance in the event that a standard suite wasn’t available when you made your booking but becomes available later. In that case, you’ll need to contact a physical agent to apply the award for you.
Now, if we could just add online point transfers, our joy could be complete.
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What happens if you cancel the reservation? Do you lose these awards?\ or do they get returned to your account?
Can I apply Guest of Honor to an existing reservation?
The one thing that you can’t do is apply an award to a reservation that you’ve already made, for instance in the event that a standard suite wasn’t available when you made your booking but becomes available later. In that case, you’ll need to contact a physical agent to apply the award for you.
Does this mean that when you apply a Suite Upgrade that you will be able to confirm the room type you are upgraded to at the time it is applied?
You should be able to, yes. This is the way it works if you apply a SUA with a customer service rep, so it should be the same if you apply it yourself.
So to have a club lounge award applied to someone you just need to gift it to them and then they can apply it themselves?
My joy won’t be complete until they allow Club Access awards (and others) to be applied to free nights booked via Cat 1-4 certs.
This is absurd. There are already so few opportunities to use them. The forced choice here is annoying.
Can you apply SUA to an existing reservation?