Once I booked my October honeymoon in Madagascar roughly six months prematurely, I knew my journey to the East African island would contain an 11-hour layover at Chicago’s O’Hare Worldwide Airport (ORD). As a Hyatt loyalist who holds the World of Hyatt Credit Card, I booked an evening in a Hyatt hotel near the airport with factors. Then I sat again to get enthusiastic about my journey, figuring out the planning was finished.
Think about my shock when, the morning we have been supposed to go away for our journey of a lifetime, I acquired an automatic electronic mail asking me to examine in on-line — on the Hyatt Place Chicago/Halfway Airport, a 45-minute drive from ORD. How may I’ve made such an apparent mistake? And will I rebook us on the proper lodge with out forfeiting my factors?
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What occurred?
To chop myself some slack, the reserving course of for our flights had been slightly difficult. After reserving our flights to Madagascar on factors, we might had plenty of bother discovering flights residence on account of a quirk in Ethiopian Airways’ associate award flight coverage. It had taken a number of days of on-line looking out to get our returning flights squared away — and in that point, I had forgotten the main points of our outbound flight. I knew we flew by means of Chicago, however I forgot which airport.
This is likely one of the few downsides of taking part in the factors and miles recreation. Once you use factors and miles to ebook free journey, issues can get somewhat extra difficult, making it simpler to miss small errors like this.
Fortunately, my flight left late within the afternoon, giving me loads of time to handle the problem.
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Hyatt’s cancellation coverage
I instantly logged into my account to have a look at my reservation. I had redeemed 8,000 World of Hyatt factors for a “commonplace” night time on the Class 2 Hyatt Place Chicago/Halfway Airport. There was an virtually an identical property close to ORD: the Hyatt Place Chicago/O’Hare Airport. This lodge can be Class 2, however apparently it classified my date as “peak,” so it value a barely increased 9,500 factors for one night time.
I had no drawback paying a number of extra factors to get a lodge the place we may simply crash after our flight landed round 11 p.m. Nevertheless, in accordance with the lodge’s cancellation coverage, if I canceled inside 24 hours of 11:59 p.m. native time, I might be charged one night time’s payment. Oh, nicely — I figured I might slightly pay 8,000 factors for my mistake than the $264 I might have paid with money.
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However after I referred to as a World of Hyatt consultant, I realized the cancellation coverage is somewhat totally different from what I anticipated. Apparently, once you cancel a factors reserving after the deadline, your factors might be refunded — and your card on file might be charged the present room fee for one night time’s keep. Yikes.
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Assist from Hyatt
However simply in case there was a approach to keep away from paying this cancellation payment, I attempted explaining the state of affairs to the consultant. I did not need to cancel my reserving, precisely; I needed to switch it to a property nearer to the best airport.
The consultant began by checking with the second lodge to verify they’d availability. Then she referred to as the primary lodge to clarify that I used to be rebooking at one other Hyatt, and so they agreed to waive the cancellation payment. They canceled my unique reservation, and the 8,000 factors instantly appeared again in my account. Thanks, Hyatt!
I did not have sufficient factors in my World of Hyatt account for the consultant to ebook the brand new 9,500-point lodge (I had spent all of them on my upcoming European Christmas trip), however I instructed her I may switch them from my Chase Ultimate Rewards account. Fortunately, due to Chase’s (usually) superfast transfers, the additional factors I wanted have been in my World of Hyatt account a couple of minutes later, and I used to be in a position to ebook an evening on the Hyatt Place Chicago/O’Hare Airport. The money fee was $295 earlier than taxes and charges, giving me a superb worth of three.1 cents per level (in comparison with TPG’s December 2024 valuation of 1.7 cents for Hyatt factors).
All the course of took lower than an hour, and I had the remainder of the morning to pack and put together for my Madagascar journey earlier than we headed to the airport. General, I am glad Hyatt despatched me the check-in electronic mail and I spotted my mistake early. If I hadn’t seen it till we arrived on the airport at 11 p.m., it may have been a lot more durable — and extra anxious — to repair.
What if I hadn’t been in a position to get my factors again, or the Hyatt I needed had been absolutely booked?
My husband and I would not have needed to begin our honeymoon by spending the night time in ORD, Tom Hanks-style. There are many lodges close by. I may have transferred Chase points to Marriott Bonvoy to ebook an award night time on the Marriott Chicago O’Hare, for instance, or paid money on the Hilton Chicago O’Hare Airport. Worst case, if there had been completely no rooms open round ORD, I may have merely paid for a 45-minute Uber journey to and from my unique Halfway lodge.
However because of Hyatt’s customer support and some additional Chase factors, I used to be in a position to make our night time in Chicago as streamlined as attainable with out spending a dime.
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Backside line
Lesson realized: Do not assume {that a} metropolis has just one airport or just one worldwide airport. Do not ebook the primary lodge with “airport” within the identify, like I did. And once you end reserving a visit, double-check all of your reservations to ensure the dates and areas line up.
Additionally, if this occurs to you, do not merely rebook on-line and pay the cancellation payment. It is price attempting the telephone helpline first — they might be extra beneficiant than you count on.
Lastly, it is all the time a good suggestion to have some additional transferable points saved up for conditions like this. And we advocate setting up any hotel and airline accounts it’s possible you’ll use sooner or later and linking them to your transferable factors account now, as it will pace up the method if you find yourself needing to switch your factors final minute.