Once I booked my October honeymoon in Madagascar roughly six months upfront, 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 score Card, I booked an evening in a Hyatt lodge close to the airport with factors. Then I sat again to get enthusiastic about my journey, figuring out the planning was executed.
Think about my shock when, the morning we have been supposed to go away for our journey of a lifetime, I acquired an automatic e-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?
Associated: Errors to keep away from when reserving vacation journey
What occurred?
To chop myself some slack, the reserving course of for our flights had been moderately difficult. After reserving our flights to Madagascar on factors, we would had a whole lot of bother discovering flights dwelling because of a quirk in Ethiopian Airways’ companion 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 small print of our outbound flight. I knew we flew via Chicago, however I forgot which airport.
This is likely one of the few downsides of taking part in the factors and miles sport. If you use factors and miles to ebook free journey, issues can get a bit of extra sophisticated, 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.
Associated: Chicago O’Hare vs. Halfway: Which Chicago airport ought to I fly into?
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 “normal” night time on the Class 2 Hyatt Place Chicago/Halfway Airport. There was an nearly similar property close to ORD: the Hyatt Place Chicago/O’Hare Airport. This lodge can also be Class 2, however apparently it categorised my date as “peak,” so it price a barely larger 9,500 factors for one night time.
I had no drawback paying a couple of extra factors to get a lodge the place we may simply crash after our flight landed round 11 p.m. Nonetheless, in keeping with the lodge’s cancellation coverage, if I canceled inside 24 hours of 11:59 p.m. native time, I’d be charged one night time’s charge. Oh, properly — I figured I might moderately pay 8,000 factors for my mistake than the $264 I’d have paid with money.
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However after I referred to as a World of Hyatt consultant, I discovered the cancellation coverage is a bit of completely different from what I anticipated. Apparently, once you cancel a factors reserving after the deadline, your factors will likely be refunded — and your card on file will likely be charged the present room price for one night time’s keep. Yikes.
Associated: Your information to reserving refundable journey
Assist from Hyatt
However simply in case there was a option to keep away from paying this cancellation charge, I attempted explaining the scenario to the consultant. I did not wish to cancel my reserving, precisely; I needed to switch it to a property nearer to the proper airport.
The consultant began by checking with the second lodge to verify that they had availability. Then she referred to as the primary lodge to elucidate that I used to be rebooking at one other Hyatt, and so they agreed to waive the cancellation charge. They canceled my authentic 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 journey), however I informed her I may switch them from my Chase Final 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 price 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).
The whole 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. Total, I am glad Hyatt despatched me the check-in e-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 tougher — and extra aggravating — to repair.
What if I hadn’t been in a position to get my factors again, or the Hyatt I needed had been totally 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 motels close by. I may have transferred Chase factors 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 experience to and from my authentic Halfway lodge.
However due to Hyatt’s customer support and some further 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.
Associated: Final-minute methods for incomes World of Hyatt standing
Backside line
Lesson discovered: 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 title, like I did. And once you end reserving a visit, double-check all of your reservations to verify the dates and places line up.
Additionally, if this occurs to you, do not merely rebook on-line and pay the cancellation charge. It is value attempting the cellphone helpline first — they might be extra beneficiant than you anticipate.
Lastly, it is at all times a good suggestion to have some further transferable factors saved up for conditions like this. And we advocate organising any lodge and airline accounts you might use sooner or later and linking them to your transferable factors account now, as it will velocity up the method if you find yourself needing to switch your factors final minute.
