Hyatt Suite Upgrades Help Plan and Save Money on Vacation
One of the best values of the Hyatt Diamond Challenge is the frequently overlooked Diamond suite upgrades that you automatically get when signing up. Svetlana is currently going for the Hyatt Diamond Challenge. As part of the challenge, she receives four Diamond suite upgrades that can. Every year, Hyatt Diamond members receive four Diamond suite upgrade certificates and those that sign up for the Hyatt Diamond Challenge do as well… it’s like an added bonus just for trying. I previously explained exactly how the suite upgrades work, how to use them and when they expire. Essentially, they can be used on any paid point earning stay (including Points and Cash stays) of up to seven nights to confirm to a suite at the time of booking.
For people who travel in groups of two, a suite upgrade is just a “nice to have”. For bigger groups, it makes a huge difference. Once you go from two people to three, there are more things to consider. Now you can’t just put everyone into a single king or two twin beds – you may need a roll bed or certainty that one of the beds is big enough for two people. Once you reach four travelers on a single vacation, there’s no longer a question of how many beds, but how many rooms. It’s frequently difficult to fit four people into a single room and you consider booking two – unless, of course, you know ahead of time you will have a big suite with plenty of space.
Hyatt suite upgrades have the advantage that they are confirmed at the time of booking. That is, if you book your hotel room and the designated upgrade suite is available, you can have it. Even better, you know exactly what kind of suite you will get. This is an advantage over the Starwood Preferred Guest program, for example, where the Platinum suite upgrades are only confirmed five days prior to the stay. Being able to secure a suite far in advance makes the planning stage of the vacation that much easier. It certainly saves a great deal of money when you know you will have a suite with plenty of space for a family of four or five.
As an example, Svetlana and her family will be spending two nights at the Park Hyatt Aviara Resort in a few weeks. She will be traveling with a total of five people, including her little niece. There’s no way they’d be able to fit everyone into a single room, but a one bedroom suite with a separate sofa bed makes it completely doable.
She booked a Hyatt My Elite Rate of $223 for a simple Park King room. After taxes and resort fees, it will cost her $550. Of course, she’ll be paying for the stay by redeeming her Citi ThankYou points for Hyatt gift checks (10,000 points = $100).
As soon as she booked, she was immediately able to apply her Diamond suite upgrade for a confirmed upgrade to the Park Suite, which costs $160 more per night. After taxes, the total cost would be $950. She really does need two rooms so, without the Diamond upgrade, she’d likely be paying for the suite anyhow. We can consider this as an immediate genuine savings of $400.
Want to read more about the Hyatt Diamond Challenge? I have plenty of posts about it!
- Hyatt Diamond Challenge Suite Upgrade Certificates and When They Expire
- Finally Going for the Hyatt Diamond Challenge
- Farewell, Hyatt Diamond Status… And Our Top 5 Moments Together.
- Natalya’s Stay at Hyatt Regency Monterey and The Hyatt Diamond Treatment
- My Winter Trip to Asia and Hawaii: The Andaz Maui at Wailea
- Miles to Milan: My Stay at Park Hyatt Milan for 22,000 Points a Night
Just wanted clarification on the suite upgrades… you said it costs $160 more per night. Is that what she *would have* paid if she just paid without the suite upgrades that came with the Diamond status or is that what she did pay with the suite upgrades in forms of taxes/fees?
Using the suite upgrade and getting the suite costs nothing extra over the regular room. So upgrading to the Park Suite had no more charges above regular room. However, if she had paid for the Park Suite upgrade herself, it would have cost $160 per night… a cost she avoided :)
Can I apply the diamond upgrade later? Say, I book my room now, can I apply the upgrade say two months from now (depending on availability of course) or do I need to do everything together? Thanks!
You can apply it anytime before your stay. Provided a suite is available, it’s yours!
Awesome! Thanks TMP =) Hopefully I can get a suite at the Andaz Maui/Tokyo and Park Hyatt Tokyo later this year.
Good luck with those :)
Hi TMP =) Sorry to bother you with another question. Can I book my stay at Hyatt with my points (transferring my UR to my Hyatt account), but I put my bf’s hyatt account number instead of mine so we can get the diamond benefits? My bf will be doing the diamond challenge at the time. Or is that not allowed? His account has enough for our 2 weeks in Hawaii, but we have a trip to Seoul/Japan later in the year and he doesn’t have enough UR to book those hotels, but I do. I guess it would be easier to transfer my UR points to his Hyatt account, but I’m not sure if that’s allowed and if the spouse rule will kick in. Thanks in advance =)
It’s no problem to book a Hyatt night using one set of points and then putting another Hyatt number on it for the benefits. The only thing you cannot do is use his Hyatt Diamond Suite upgrades on a Points + Cash reservation if the points did not come from his account. I had to rebook my whole stay for Vienna from our Svetlana’s Hyatt points to be able to use her suite upgrades. That said, I would not transfer UR points between accounts themselves as that’s a violation, but I’ve been transferring to others’ miles programs and Hyatt accounts and haven’t had any issues with that nor haven’t heard of any. My experience is never a guarantee, but I generally feel it’s pretty safe.
You’re awesome as always! I will try it and transfer my UR points to his Hyatt then. It will make life much easier! Thanks =)