After 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 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, understanding the planning was finished.
Think about my shock when, the morning we had been supposed to depart for our journey of a lifetime, I obtained an automatic e mail asking me to verify in on-line — on the Hyatt Place Chicago/Halfway Airport, a 45-minute drive from ORD. How might 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 slightly difficult. After reserving our flights to Madagascar on factors, we would had loads of bother discovering flights dwelling because of a quirk in Ethiopian Airways’ associate award flight coverage. It had taken a number of days of on-line looking 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 way of Chicago, however I forgot which airport.
This is without doubt one of the few downsides of enjoying the factors and miles sport. Once you use factors and miles to e book free journey, issues can get slightly 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 take a look at my reservation. I had redeemed 8,000 World of Hyatt factors for a “normal” evening on the Class 2 Hyatt Place Chicago/Halfway Airport. There was an nearly an identical 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 evening.
I had no drawback paying just a few extra factors to get a lodge the place we might 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’d be charged one evening’s charge. Oh, nicely — I figured I would slightly pay 8,000 factors for my mistake than the $264 I’d have paid with money.
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However once I known as a World of Hyatt consultant, I discovered the cancellation coverage is slightly completely different from what I anticipated. Apparently, while 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 evening’s keep. Yikes.
Associated: Your information to reserving refundable journey
Assist from Hyatt
However simply in case there was a technique to keep away from paying this cancellation charge, 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 fitting airport.
The consultant began by checking with the second lodge to substantiate that they had availability. Then she known as the primary lodge to elucidate that I used to be rebooking at one other Hyatt, they usually 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 e book the brand new 9,500-point lodge (I had spent all of them on my upcoming European Christmas journey), however I informed her I might switch them from my Chase Final Rewards account. Fortunately, due to Chase’s (usually) superfast transfers, the additional factors I wanted had been in my World of Hyatt account a couple of minutes later, and I used to be capable of e book an evening on the Hyatt Place Chicago/O’Hare Airport. The money fee was $295 earlier than taxes and charges, giving me a wonderful worth of three.1 cents per level (in comparison with TPG’s December 2024 valuation of 1.7 cents for Hyatt factors).
Your entire 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 observed it till we arrived on the airport at 11 p.m., it might have been a lot tougher — and extra annoying — to repair.
What if I hadn’t been capable of 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 evening in ORD, Tom Hanks-style. There are many motels close by. I might have transferred Chase factors to Marriott Bonvoy to e book an award evening 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 might have merely paid for a 45-minute Uber trip to and from my authentic Halfway lodge.
However because of Hyatt’s customer support and some further Chase factors, I used to be capable of make our evening 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 e book the primary lodge with “airport” within the identify, like I did. And while you end reserving a visit, double-check all of your reservations to verify the dates and areas line up.
Additionally, if this occurs to you, do not merely rebook on-line and pay the cancellation charge. It is value making an attempt 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 further transferable factors saved up for conditions like this. And we suggest organising any lodge and airline accounts it’s possible you’ll use sooner or later and linking them to your transferable factors account now, as this may pace up the method if you find yourself needing to switch your factors final minute.
