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Hyatt points award, but no free night certificate availability in Savannah, Georgia

Today I tried to redeem my category 1-4 free night certificates for Andaz Savannah. Turns out the hotel has no Standard Award rooms available for the dates I will be in the city. The experience revealed some interesting aspects to Hyatt’s free night certificates.

Hyatt Savannah rates

I can still book a room at Andaz Savannah for $167.20 paid rate, a 20% discount with Hyatt’s My Elite Rate. Apparently the room I can book for cash is a higher category than the standard room available for award certificates or points at this Hyatt Gold Passport category-4 hotel.

Andaz Savannah rates

$167.20 for Andaz Queen, but Award night is unavailable.

Ariana at FrugalTravelGuy.com published a piece yesterday: Top 10 Places in the US to Redeem Your Hyatt Visa Annual Free Night Certificate.

Andaz Savannah is #2 on her list. Hyatt Regency San Francisco is #3 which is where I plan to use my category 1-4 Hyatt free night certificates, if I can’t use them in Savannah. Hyatt Olive 8 in Seattle is #1.

When I checked the box ‘Show Hyatt Gold Passport Points’, this message posted:

Andaz Savannah no rooms

“The special offer/rate you have selected is unavailable during the dates you have selected, or it is not offered at this property. Below is a list of rates available during your requested dates.”

Savannah also has Hyatt Regency Savannah, another category 4 hotel.

Hyatt Savannah

Hyatt Regency Savannah showed availability for a points award at 15,000 points per night.

Yet, when I tried to redeem my free night certificate for this stay, this message resulted.

Hyatt Savannah no rooms

“The hotel is fully committed over your requested award travel dates.”

As a Hyatt Gold Passport Diamond member, Hyatt offered me a guaranteed room with 2 Double Beds for $299 per night.

I went back to the earlier screen where the rate was $167.20 and I was able to book an award night using 15,000 points.

Here is an example where a King Bed standard room was available for points, but my free night certificate would not pull up award night availability.

After making my award reservation, the rate changed for Hyatt Regency Savannah from $167.20 with the ‘My Elite Rate’ to $224 for advance purchase, nonrefundable rate.

No award night availability shows now for either Andaz Savannah or Hyatt Regency Savannah for dates I will be there.

Looks like I cracked the award wall in Savannah.

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10 Comments

  • Matt B April 24, 2014

    I think some hotels are playing games to avoid some of these points and/or Cat 1-4 redemptions. I recently tried booking Hyatt Escala Lodge in Park City. I was trying to book 10-11 months out, a couple weeks after calendar opened. The lowest category room was available, but only at an advanced purchase rate, not at the standard “best available rate”. As such, it was unavailable to book with points or cat 1-4 certificates. Seems to be the game they play now, as speculation when I posted this on flytertalk was that the points redemption availability is tied to having the standard room category available at BAR rates.

  • scott April 24, 2014

    Happened to me in Nashville Downtown Hyatt Place…had plenty of rooms available…could use points ..but hotel and online would not allow me to use a free night certificate

  • Joe April 24, 2014

    I think it is a bug in the online reservation system. I ran into the same issue as well.. If you call, the agent should able to make the award reservation.

  • MSPDeltaDude April 24, 2014

    If Hyatt is showing rooms for points, does that mean cash and points would work as well. Are they tied together? Seems like it would make sense as I’m sure they net more on C & P then a just a points stay.

  • Vince April 24, 2014

    Same thing happened to me; for PH Hamburg in September. Points and Cert wouldn’t book and then 2 weeks ago points came up and last week certs were available to book.

  • Ariana April 24, 2014

    Thanks for the link back, Ric. It sounds like redeeming these is a real hassle. This is making me reconsider whether keeping the card past the first year is worth it.

  • Daniel April 24, 2014

    “Hyatt Olive 8 in Seattle is #1”

    Perhaps #1 hardest to get in to. I have attempted many times to no avail using my certificate.

  • TerryH April 25, 2014

    If you really want to try one of the Savanna Hyatts, you might try calling Gold Passport and having them check availability for the free night certificate – hyatt.com often has weird, buggy things that may or may not be true.

  • Ric Garrido April 25, 2014

    @TerryH – I did contact Hyatt by phone and there were no rooms available at the time. Now that I have a points reservation at Hyatt Regency Savannah, I will call back and try to get it changed to a certificate reservation.

    I spent yesterday afternoon observing seal pups born this week on the beach of Point Lobos six miles south of Monterey. That was more important to me than dealing with hotel reservations.

  • A.F. April 27, 2014

    So, I had the sillier thing happen to me in Chicago. The “explanation” was the although the standard rooms are pretty much the same, the are a limited number of standard room “available” for free nights. Thats why you would have standard rooms available, however can’t get them for the free nights. Its pretty much crap. They cannot tell you how many rooms. So this give me to the opportunity to leverage collateral to influence, and complain to a supervisor to get your free nights for the dates you need.

    speaking of the free nights, I know theses are for standard rooms, however, has anyone used their free nights and had them upgraded using standby? I have a 3 night trip coming up on the 4 of July which I am purchased my first night, then using my two award nights. Once booked, I received an e-standby offer for deluxe room, or suite upgrade.

    Please let me know you the e-standby worked with award nights as a work-around to getting a “suite deal” using e-standby.

    thanks!

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