SkyTeam777

I thought these were eligible to book online. I want to use my points and a guest of honor award to pay for someone else. Is that phone only? Can I book and have a name change later?

erobinson32

Was gifted a GOH award from a family member. Applied it to a reservation I would like to cancel. Any data points on how quickly it will come back into my account so that I can re-use it for a different reservation? Working with a short timeline starting this weekend. Thanks.

SP03

The recipient of the GOH can book online. If you want to do it for them, you have to call and hope that they do it correctly.

skj

I would call in to cancel the reservation and make sure the award was returned to your account immediately. In a somewhat analogous situation, I had gifted a GoH award to a friend. I later decided (with the help of some here on FT) that a suite upgrade award would be a better choice. I called in to make the change and the GoH was in my friend's account before I got off the call.

josephstern

I've canceled (online) a few with GoH certs attached - they came back to the account immediately.

yitianjian

Have anyone had issues applying GOH to Prive or corporate rates? Prive you'd have to call in, but corporate shows no rooms if GOH is attached online, maybe calling in works too?

theroz

We went with the SUA @ 40 since later on its 10K in pts and not 5K, so if you will be hitting 70+ nights and want the pts grab them later on since you will get 10K

ArthurSFO11

I want to share my recent experience with Hyatt customer service fixing issues after the fact when GoH certs weren't applied correctly in case it's helpful to others.

Like others on the thread (I've read through a good chunk but not all), I had a lot of negative experiences with earning my EQNs for GoH certs that I gifted to friends and family.

The first couple of times I called in about these issues, I was told there was nothing that could be done. The PR confirmed the certs were still in those persons' accounts, and the certs could be used in the future, but that I would not receive my EQNs since the certs were not applied correctly.

More recently, I realized my wife had a screenshot of a past reservation that clearly showed "Guest of Honor" under the reservation confirmation page, but I still didn't receive the EQN, so I called to try again. On this call (3rd call over several months), the agent apologized, confirmed that the GoH certs hadn't been applied correctly, but then offered me some points (I didn't ask how many). She also said she could "open a case" (or language to that effect) and the relevant team/dept would look into it and potentially grant me the missing EQNs.

Since the EQNs are currently worth more to me than 5-10k points (just a guess of how much she was offering), I decided to try this route. Within a few days (maybe a week?) the missing 2 EQNs from 2 GoH certs were posted to my account (each one as a separate line) and I also received an email from [email protected] that stated: "I am happy to advise two tier nights for gifting two Guest of Honor Awards has been added to your World of Hyatt account!"

This was a pleasant surprise, even if it's annoying that I had to spend so much time and energy to get them to fix the issues. So, there's hope for those with missing EQNs, even if I don't have an exact playbook. I'm happy to answer questions and try to help anyone in a similar position.

After the first two negative experiences with having GoH certs applied incorrectly (through the Glob line), I started to call the concierge line. The two most recent stays that friends had with a GoH cert each granted me an EQN without hassle (within 1-2 days of checkout).

Context on the reservations with issues: my wife had a paid stay in the US in April. I called the Globalist line to apply the GoH cert after the reservation was made, and was told it had been applied. Closer to her stay, I called to confirm the details of the cert, and was told that the cert had not been properly applied previously. However, the agent (2nd call) told me they had done it correctly. After the stay, the EQN didn't post and the cert sat in my wife's account. The stay was at a Hyatt Place, so my wife didn't miss out on any benefits.

Back in May, my parents had a paid stay in the US. I called the Glob line to apply a GoH cert to their reservation. They received all Glob benefits during their stay (breakfast, upgrade, late checkout, etc). However, the EQN never posted, but I thought I just needed to wait longer.

The following week, they had a points stay in Europe. I called to gift them another GoH cert, but the agent told me they still had one in their account. I was confused, but didn't question it. The agent said they had correctly applied it to the reservation on Europe. The next day, my mom called after checking in and said they hadn't received any benefits at check-in. I called the Glob line again, was told again that the cert hadn't been applied correctly on the previous call, but the agent said they would take care of it. They also called the hotel to confirm everything. Soon after that call, my mom said the hotel front desk called their room, explained what happened, and confirmed all benefits for their stay (breakfast, late checkout, etc).

However, the EQN didn't post even after their second stay. They received benefits on both stays (though one took some work), yet the cert was never applied correctly by the agents on the Glob line.

I'm traveling less than normal this year, so the GoH EQNs are important for my requalification strategy. I'm glad everything got resolved in the end, but what a pain... The only silver lining is that my parents got to unintentionally and unknowingly double dip.

If I hadn't gone through the customer service route to earn the EQNs, my wife and my parents would've each still had a GoH cert in their accounts for future stays.
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ArthurSFO11

I'm posting this separately from my treatise above since it's a DP for a different topic related to GoH: I recently had a stay at the HR Palm Springs (yes, it was 118 degrees) where the front desk staff weren't trained in the GoH benefits and initially denied our friends almost all benefits. Besides that, the stay was great.

I mention this as a reminder to make sure your family/friends know what to expect and how to politely speak up for what they should receive (as annoying as it is to have to do that).

We were staying at the HR on a points stay, and our friends were staying on a paid stay. I gifted them a GoH cert and it applied correctly, but thankfully I was with them at check-in.

The agent tried to charge them for the resort fee (on a paid stay), said they weren't eligible for an upgrade, and was confused when I asked her to confirm the breakfast benefits for our friends. For each topic, I had to politely mention what the stated benefits were.

After the lack of upgrade, the front desk manager, who was standing nearby, came over, apologized, and confirmed all the benefits correctly (including an upgrade to a suite). I believe this was a genuine lack of awareness/training by the front desk agent, so I'm not upset by it. However, if I hadn't been at check-in, I don't think our friends would've known enough about Hyatt and Globalist benefits to advocate for themselves.

danger

I've had a similar disastrous experience with guest of honor awards as ArthurSFO111.

I've now applied five of the awards, all done over the phone the global contact centre and all showed "Guest of Honor" on the reservations. Only one has credited correctly. In one case, I was credited the points and nights for my guest's stay. On two others, it was a long battle over more than two weeks and seven different agents to get my night credits. On another, my guests stayed for six nights, got all the benefits and I got squat. I assume this leaves the hotel out of pocket. The upside is I get to use the award again. In fact, if I don't need the night credit, I don't mind hotel stuffing it up. My guests get the benefits and get to recycle the award.

jetsfan92588

Has anyone not received the ENC who transferred the GOH award using the recipient's name and WOH number, and the recipient applied that to their reservation? I thought that was the general consensus here on the best way to apply the award.

SP03

That is the best way to ensure you get your 1 EQN. I’ve only read sporadic reports but a tiny fraction compared to people who book from their own accounts

Clemson

I've given away 4 GoH awards this year and got credit for 3 of them. The only one I didn't get credit for was booked from my account. Ultimately that 1 night won't make any difference for me so I didn't bother to look into it.

HIFlya

I am pretty sure that I can't do it, but no way I can stack the 20N and 30N "2K bonus points on next stay" awards on a single stay right? I am finding the CAAs to be tough to use so definitely choosing the 2K award for the 20N, 30N I am debating. Unfortunately, I hit the thresholds like one month apart because of spend and those bonus EQNs promotion from over the summer so I have to choose my awards soon.

kauppias

only one will credit per stay