Get Hyatt Diamond In The Easiest Status Match Ever

This first came out last night (when I was asleep – being 7 hours ahead of NY can be a pain sometimes!) – Hyatt’s Twitter account reached out to elite members from other programs who may want to give Hyatt a try. And they were/are matching those elites to Hyatt’s own Diamond status through February of 2017! That is the highest tier with Hyatt and for an entire elite year!

Get Hyatt Diamond In The Easiest Status Match Ever

When I had the time, I started going through the reports and checking what was going on. It turns out, though this may have been initiated by a desire to get disgruntled SPG and Marriott elites, that they are matching quite a bit more than just SPG Platinum and Marriott Platinum to their own top tier. If you have status with any hotel chain and at least 1 stay in the last 12 months at that chain, it would be worth it for you to contact them about a match – you could walk away with one of the best hotel status levels around.

What To Do

To start, take a screenshot of your status that you will try matching from. There have been reports of the following status levels and chains working (keep in mind that these reports have been posted throughout the day and Hyatt may have tightened the requirements on some of these statuses recently):

• Hilton Gold (all holders of the Hilton Amex Surpass card and Citi Hilton Reserve have that, as well as being accessible to Amex Platinum cardholders)
• Hilton Diamond
• Marriott Gold (accessible to United Platinum and 1K members) *I have not seen a report about this but it should work since this was undoubtedly a response to the SPG/Marriott merge.
• Marriott Platinum
• IHG Platinum (accessible to anyone with the IHG credit card)
• IHG Spire

That is all I have been able to find. If you have a status that is not mentioned above, still feel free to try and submit it.

Next, take a screenshot of your account page showing your status and your stay activity. According to the responses from Hyatt, you need to have 1 stay in the past 12 months. This is exactly the same as their old Diamond Challenge – I gained access to the challenge with Hilton Gold and a few Hilton stays. Except this time, you do not need to stay at any Hyatt to get Diamond as it is an outright match.

Send your Hyatt Gold Passport number and screenshots of your other chain status and stay(s) to the Hyatt Twitter team via Direct Message or by e-mail to goldpassport@hyatt.com. People have said they have heard back as soon as a few hours and received the match shortly after that.

And, yes – the Diamond Suite Upgrades (4) do come with this match according to those who have received it. This is certainly the easiest and fastest way anyone could go to earn Hyatt’s Diamond status and if you ever wanted to try it, this is your time.

Summary

To be honest, I am a bit torn about this. I am happy that other travelers get a chance to experience the joys I have as a Hyatt Diamond member. But, I am also a little discouraged by this. This isn’t just a chance through a challenge to earn the status for a year – this is giving it to people who hold a credit card (that gives status like the Hilton cards) and who have stayed a single night at a hotel in the past year. Hyatt Diamond requires 25 stays or 50 nights per year to get/retain. I am qualifying on stays and, believe it or not, my 25th stay that will clinch Hyatt Diamond status for me for the next year is December 31, 2015! Nothing like cutting it close!

But, a couple of those nights were manufactured so I could get to the 25 stays I needed to keep Hyatt Diamond. To see other people get it with only a single night, well, it makes it a little hard for me – that’s all. However, Hyatt sees some value in offering this and I can tell you this with certainly – if I did not have Hyatt Diamond status and had a Hilton credit card a single night, I would absolutely be asking for a match as well. So I really cannot fault any of you who take advantage of this very generous offer.

As for Hyatt, the big draw for them is going to be the Diamond Suite Upgrades. New Diamond members will certainly want to take advantage of them but they can only be used on paid rates or Points+Cash. This means that people that may never have considered staying at Hyatt will now be spending points and money to use these valuable upgrades. This could be huge for Hyatt! If they don’t use them, they likely will not be staying at Hyatt properties anyway. I think Hyatt has the best chain around and I think they are only too happy to show that to other elites. For Hyatt, this is a win-win.