Earlier this week I posted about some fishy inventory management at the Hyatt at Olive 8 which effectively blocked any award redemptions for 91 consecutive days this summer, via a creative plan to make Deluxe King rooms available only in “packages,” and not at the Hyatt Daily Rate.
And then Travis, taking a different approach, posted that he was able to book a room at the Olive 8 with some persistent “HUCA”-ing (that is, hanging up and calling again) and a casual mention of “I’m a loyal Diamond.”
Whereas I feel like I need to try and change the system, Travis told me, “I assume I can’t change the system, I can only figure out how to beat it.” And that’s how we got to Olive 8-Gate and our different perspectives.
For what it’s worth, I loved Travis’ approach, and totally respect it. I see “injustice” and my lawyerly righteous indignation rears its head, whereas Travis sees an opportunity to solve a problem like an engineer.
I recognize, of course, that the blocking of hotel rooms from award inventory is extremely far down on the injustice scale, much more comparable to being short-changed at a Safeway than, say, Darfur or Ferguson or [SPOILER] Trixxie Mattel being kicked off Ru Paul’s Drag Race before Kennedy Davenport.
Anyway, the update is that Deluxe King award inventory is back online at the Hyatt at Olive 8 for this summer.
I actually tried HUCA-ing earlier this morning, spoke to the lovely reservations manager (who, to her credit, searched every nook and cranny of the inventory calendar and did so cheerfully), and was able to book a weekend at the Grand Hyatt Seattle, which is the Olive 8’s sister property. Since we were going to tack on a third night to our stay, I went online and searched the Hyatt website for space on a Friday night.
The Grand Hyatt had a Club King room available for 21,000 points a night.
And (drumroll), the Olive 8 had a Deluxe King room available for 15,000 Gold Passport points.
To be clear, that was for a night I had actually checked earlier in the week when the system showed me zero availability.
In any event, it’s the small victories, isn’t it? 😉
This should all be said with the caveat that Seattle in the summer is a very popular place to be, and that inventory is still very hit-and-miss, especially around popular events and weekends. Availability is pretty decent during the week. But the inventory no longer appears to be purposely blocked.
Bottom line: if you were planning on using miles and points for a trip to the Pacific Northwest this summer, your options have now improved.
Kudos to Hyatt Gold Passport and the folks behind the joint reservation desk at the Grand Hyatt Seattle and Hyatt at Olive 8 for resolving things in a customer-friendly way.
Gr-8 news!
@Jay - "Some of the comments here are bitchy as F***"
Like that one?
Some of the comments here are bitchy as F***, too bad if you do not like a particular writer's casual style probably from just writing as he would speak... it is not a huge issue... why bother talking about it over and over and over... GTFU over it...
I always understood it to be HUACA. Not HUCU.
So, what was the cause of the issue and how was it resolved? Was it a data problem or a hotel inventory issue? Has anyone contacted management of the property to get their side of the story and report in an unbiased way?
Nice to see that Travis and Nick are engaging like adults in bringing us this update, compared to some of the off notes earlier this week.
Glad it worked out for you Nick, although I feel your point remains - reward programs are only as good as they work in reality (so when there is a mismatch between policy and reality, it weakens the program).
By the way Nick, do you plan to write about...
Nice to see that Travis and Nick are engaging like adults in bringing us this update, compared to some of the off notes earlier this week.
Glad it worked out for you Nick, although I feel your point remains - reward programs are only as good as they work in reality (so when there is a mismatch between policy and reality, it weakens the program).
By the way Nick, do you plan to write about the Delta pizza party that happened this week at Atlanta due to weather delays. That's one good way to deal with onboard tarmac delays.
Congratulations. By over exaggerating, generalizing and having a hissy fit over a one off, Hyatt noticed and gave Nick back his vacation tradition. Which was the point of his original post all along.
I look forward to reading about future injustices endured by Lucky's other guest bloggers at the Mesa Hampton Inns and the Bangor Four Points by Sheraton. Points
Of course, the drama was pretty entertaining even if the content wasn't.
@Bill: By writing a post about it, Nick got the system changed and now a lot of other people will get to use points / certs in Seattle this summer.
Amazing what a travel blog will do
Glad it worked out. You should have kept trying the other day instead of writing that whiny blog post though.
Good job Nick. Glad it worked out.
@Travis: Couldn't have done it without your help!
Too bad you're not here this weekend --it's 80 degrees and absolutely gorgeous! Come see us up on Capitol Hill when you get to town. :)
Good point. We shouldn't expect to be able to use our points in popular places. ;-)
Swell.
But, seriously, thanks for the update.
Glad to hear! Thanks for bringing the issue up to catch Hyatt's attention. Could be that calling Jeff Zidell's attention to it as well (https://twitter.com/creditcardmogul/status/603758242741821440) might have helped. Now, if only they would fix this same issue for Andaz Maui! :)
It's HUCA, m8 ;)
@Abdel Rahim Abdallah: Ooops, fixed, thanks!