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Confirmed: Soft landing to Explorist from Diamond in new World of Hyatt
I loved being a Hyatt Diamond, but unfortunately I didn’t complete enough stays or nights last year to re-qualify. I’m all for mattress runs, but living in Los Angeles doesn’t really equate to many affordable or “value positive” opportunities to mattress run with Hyatt. When Hyatt announced last year that they would be revamping the Gold Passport program with a new World of Hyatt program they intimated that some Diamonds who had failed to re-qualify would soft land into the mid-tier level of Explorist. Well good news, I just spoke to a Hyatt rep and he confirmed that I would indeed soft-land to mid-tier Explorist.
*This information isn’t showing up on my account, I had to call in to inquire 800-400-2261
I stayed 7 times and 11 nights last year.
- Park Hyatt Washington D.C.
- Hyatt Regency Cleveland at the Arcade
- Hyatt Regency St. Louis
- Hyatt Ziva Puerto Vallarta
- Hyatt Regency SFO
- The Driskill, Austin Texas
- Grand Hyatt Washington D.C.
- Non Qualified points stay at Grand Hyatt Taipei
I wrote a breakdown of the entire program when the news broke, but here’s a quick look at what’s needed to qualify and then the benefits I’ll have as an Explorist.
To qualify:
Staying at 5 different brands will net you a category 1-4 free night award.
Resort fees waived on free award nights…upgrade to best room aside from club and suites.
Out of everything listed here…the 4 club lounge visits are the most valuable to me.
I do love a good club level: like the Grand Hyatt Washington D.C.
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What’s the deal with the free breakfast? I’m in this situation where I’m an expiring diamond, hopefully moving to explorer. Diamonds are meant to get free breakfasts at the Andaz and Park Hyatts, but I don’t see this listed in the benefits list. What will happen when it moves to explorer? I’ve checked flyertalk and it is vague, as it only mentions free breakfasts with a club lounge but what happens if there is no club?
I had 5 stays, 20 nights in 2016 and they told me today come 3/1 I’ll just be a peon member. No soft landing for me. Even told them Hilton gave me Diamond last year to pull me away from Hyatt and extended it until 2018. Hyatt didn’t care so I’m switching to Hilton. I haven’t stayed at anything but Hyatt for the last 5 years. They’re going to lose a lot of their loyalty people with their change.
Larry – You should have at least qualified for discoverist with 20 nights. I’m not really sure how Hyatt is determining who soft lands and who doesn’t…but seems like you should be higher than “member.” I’m also interested to see what Hyatt does with the new program…will members be able to challenge again?
I emailed asking again and this time they replied:
“On reviewing your Gold Passport account number, x, I see that your Diamond Tier will be valid till Tuesday, 28 February 2017, hence you will be Explorist member effective Wednesday, 01 March 2017. ”
I’m sure going to miss the 4 suite upgrades and free breakfast all the time. I’ll at least be looking at Hilton (Diamond) and Marriott (Gold) in the future. The 4 suite upgrades is the main thing that kept me loyal to Hyatt. I think they’re going to lose a lot of people who can’t qualify got Globalist. They also told me they won’t be doing any status matches or challenges any more in the future but I have a feeling they will if they lose enough business.
Crap. How do I edit that reply.. Want to get my GP# out.
Larry – thanks for the update – I deleted it out. I think there will be matched at some point as well. Yes going to really weed out top tier
Including those who got Diamond through a status match?
Hey Frank – I actually achieved Diamond through a status match http://monkeymiles.boardingarea.com/miles-got-his-wish-hyatt-diamond-status-achieved/
It’s not 5 different properties to get a free night, it’s 5 different brands.
Jodi – correct, I mis-typed and will update.