Each hotel loyalty program has different rules regarding free night certificates. Some hotels require that the guest who earned the free night be the one to check in, while others allow you to book a free night for someone else.
Recently, I needed to reserve a last-minute hotel room for my wife, Sharon, who was heading out of town for a solo trip. When I searched for hotels in the area, I found that most were already booked or had exorbitantly high prices. However, I discovered a Hyatt hotel with available rooms. Since it’s a Category 2 property, I decided to use the free night certificate from my World of Hyatt Visa, which was set to expire in a few months.
Since I wasn’t traveling with her, I wanted to book the room in Sharon’s name. The World of Hyatt program states that there are 2 ways to book an award stay for someone else:
You can transfer an award to another member.
Guest of Honor Awards, Club Lounge Access Awards, Complimentary Suite Upgrade Awards, Category 1-4 Free Night Awards, Category 1-7 Free Night Awards, Miraval Extra Night Awards, and Ultimate Free Night Awards (all as defined below) – and any other Program award the terms for which expressly state that it is eligible for transfer – may, while valid, be transferred to another World of Hyatt Member. When transferred, an eligible award is removed from the transferring Member’s World of Hyatt account and added to the recipient Member’s account for future redemption.
You can book the award for someone else.
Members may use certain awards for another Member by booking the award stay in the recipient’s name. Free Night Awards, certain Room Upgrade Awards, Points + Cash Awards, and Guest of Honor Awards are (unless otherwise specified in applicable Supplemental Terms for particular properties) currently eligible to be booked in the name of another person, as permitted under this provision – as is any other Program award the terms for which expressly state that it is eligible to be booked for another.
The difference between the two is that to transfer an award, the other person needs to be a World of Hyatt Member, but once the award is in their account, they can use it for whatever eligible stay they can find. It’s unnecessary to provide a hotel or the date of the stay. When booking an award for someone else, they do not have to be a World of Hyatt member.
My experience
I called World of Hyatt to book a room for Sharon using my Category 1-4 free night certificate. I spoke with a representative from World of Hyatt, who took my information and looked up the hotel to make sure that an eligible room was available. She said she would make the reservation in my name and change it to Sharon’s.
It took a few minutes, but the process was straightforward. I only forgot to provide Sharon’s World of Hyatt number so the reservation would show up on the Hyatt app. A quick chat with the Hyatt Concierge on Twitter took care of this for us.
Final Thought
I’m going to add the ability to gift a free night award or booking to someone else as another reason why Hyatt and the World of Hyatt program are the best. Unlike Marriott and Hilton, which only allow the member to utilize this benefit, Hyatt offers greater flexibility. Honestly, if I earned the free night or received one as a co-brand cardholder benefit, what does it matter to them who’s staying at the hotel?
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