Hyatt Diamond Status – My Favorite Benefit

At the beginning of December I was one of the lucky people who was given a status match to Hyatt Diamond tier status (courtesy of my Marriott Platinum status) and I’ve since been moving a lot of my stays over to Hyatt….which is pretty much the point of a status match.

Before my status match I hadn’t really done much research into Hyatt Gold Passport (Hyatt’s loyalty program) because Hyatt’s footprint never seemed big enough to warrant looking into. On top of that, I already have top-tier status with Marriott as well as Hilton Gold and Starwood Gold status (both courtesy of Amex) as backup, so I really wasn’t looking  around for another hotel loyalty program.

Nevertheless I saw the status match was being offered, I’d heard a lot of good things about Hyatt Gold Passport and Hyatt’s properties from other people and, if I’m being honest, I loved the idea of easy Hyatt Diamond Upgrades….so I went for the match.

The full benefits of Hyatt Diamond Status are as follows:

• 30% point bonus on stays
• Upgrades to the best rooms available upon arrival, excluding suites
• Access to the Regency Club or Grand Club lounge featuring complimentary continental breakfast and evening hors d’oeuvres.
• Daily complimentary full breakfast in hotels without a club lounge
• 4 Diamond Suite Upgrades per year (on eligible paid nights)
• Welcome point bonus or food and beverage amenity during each stay
•  Nightly room refresh
• Complimentary premium Internet access where available
• Expedite check-in at a dedicated area for elite members
• Guaranteed room availability with a 48-hour guarantee
• Late check-outs up to 4pm
• Book reservations through an exclusive Diamond line
• Two complimentary one-time-use United Club passes annually
• Guest of Honor – share your Diamond benefits with friends and family when you redeem points for a free night for them.

Out of all those benefits the one I was convinced I’d like the most was the 4 Diamond Suite upgrades.

I’ve never paid for a suite in my life (which probably goes a long way to explaining why I’ve stayed in so few), and complimentary upgrades are very thin on the ground when your primary hotel status is with Marriott (I think I’ve had 2…and both were at the same hotel).

The living area of a suite at the Marriott West India Quay

I was looking forward to using the suite upgrades but I wasn’t about to waste them on short stays so, for my first Hyatt stay of 2016 (2 nights at the Andaz West Hollywood) I didn’t request a suite upgrade.

I actually had two reasons for not requesting the upgrade:

• Two nights was a little bit too short of a stay to use a suite upgrade

• I knew I would be returning later in the year for a 3-night stay and, if I requested an upgrade for that stay it would (a) be better value and (b) mean that I would have tried out two different types of room at the Andaz West Hollywood.

During my first Andaz WeHo stay, my Diamond status earned me an upgrade to a “King View” room which I really enjoyed.

The “sun room” portion of a King View room at the Andaz West Hollywood

The room was a very good size, had some nice views towards Downtown LA and it was very bright…which made it a very pleasant place to stay.

I’ve recently just finished my second trip to the Andaz West Hollywood and enjoyed my first Hyatt Diamond Suite upgrade (review coming soon) and, while the suite was nice (actually nicer than I was expecting), I realised that it wasn’t all that important to me.

The “living area” portion of A suite at the Andaz West Hollywood

It wasn’t that I didn’t like the suite upgrade…far from it, it was simply that I realised I didn’t need it. I was traveling by myself and really had no use for all that space (and there was a lot of space).

Instead it was another Hyatt Diamond benefit that I realised I like a lot. Actually, that really doesn’t cover it.  It’s a benefit that I absolutely love.

The 4pm late checkout is a game changer for me because it has, without doubt, improved the quality of my trips enormously.

Most of my travel is between the US and the UK and, because of that, most of my flights take off in the evening – typically somewhere between 7pm and 10:30pm depending on which coast I’m flying to the UK from.

Most hotels have you check-out by 12pm and, if you’re lucky, you may get an extension to 1pm…but not until they’ve made a big deal of what a favor they’re doing you. That usually means packing up in the morning and dropping off your bags at the bell desk before walking around whatever city you happen to be in feeling like a bit of a hobo…or at least that’s how I feel.

The extra 3-4 hours that Hyatt Diamond Status gives you changes all that.

This past trip I had a flight at 7pm and, because I didn’t have to vacate the room until 4pm, I had a room right up to the point where I needed to contemplate making my way to the airport/rental car drop off point.

Where in the past I’ve felt in limbo on the last day of a trip, this time I felt great. My last day didn’t feel like a day waiting for the clock to tick around to airport-time, it felt like another day on the trip. I felt like I had gained a day that I didn’t have before….and that feels fantastic.

Bottom Line

Bloggers love to witter on about Hyatt Diamond Upgrades but to me the late checkout is the star of the Diamond status offering.

Hyatt Diamond Upgrades are definitely useful if you’re traveling as a family (and I’ll be using them for just that purpose later in the year) but they’re also, quite often, an unnecessary perk. Unless you need the extra space a suite gives you to sleep another person then the regular upgrades you get at check-in are probably more than enough for most people.

I can’t believe I’m going to say this but, if Hyatt asked me which of these two Diamond perks I’d give up, I’d probably give up the suite upgrades – the late checkout makes a difference on every trip and, for me, that’s not the case for suite upgrades.