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For the past few days, I’ve been debating what I should do concerning my Hyatt Free Night Certificate (FNC) that is due to expire in the next few days. I mentioned my conundrum several days ago when I answered a reader question concerning a possible solution to the expiring Hyatt Free Night Certificate (FNC).
LET IT EXPIRE OR GET POINTS?
Each year, I receive a FNC that I can redeem at any Hyatt hotel in the world as a perk of having the World Of Hyatt Credit Card. The certificate is valid for Category 1-4 properties which open the door for a lot of great redemptions.
Typically, the certificate would’ve been redeemed by this point, however, I just hadn’t gotten around to it. No biggie! But as you are well aware of, COVID-19 has thrown a wrench in everyone’s plans and my certificate expires in 2 days.
As I said in my previous post, I had read several data points suggesting Hyatt was converting certificates to points but I was hoping that Hyatt would announce an expiration extension for the certificates before I exchanged mine for points.
Unfortunately, it did not happen. Instead of allowing my certificate to go “poof” and follow up with Hyatt with an uncertain destiny, I decided to contact Hyatt and exchange it for points.
The phone lines for travel companies are extremely busy so I decided to use one of my go-to tools; twitter.
Anyway, I sent @HyattConcierge a direct message on Twitter with my World of Hyatt number, name and email address and received a response in 11 minutes. After confirming my information, my certificate was converted to points. I logged into my account and the 10,000 points were already there. Wow!
FINAL STAMP
In light of the current pandemic, World of Hyatt has led the way and been the most concise and generous hotel brand.
Considering I value Hyatt points at 1.5 cents each, those few seconds of work netted me points worth $150 — far more than the World Of Hyatt Credit Card‘s $95 annual fee. If you have a certificate that is expiring soon, this may be your best option.
While I could’ve technically could’ve gotten up to 15,000 points in value from the certificate – the standard rate for a Category 4 hotel – there’s simply no way I would have been able to use it before it expired.
However, this was a great exchange considering I can use the 10,000 points toward any redemption at any hotel in the future with no deadline. Another benefit to the situation is I’ll be receiving another FNC in the next few days valid through the March of 2021.
Does anyone have a certificate expiring soon? What are your plans?
HT: Miles Quest
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