I am so sick and tired of being loyal to a particular brand of hotel only to be told repeatadly that my EARNED free night certificate is not good for the night I want to use it!!!! How many rooms do they set aside? You know, I wanted to stay at the Hyatt Beaver Creek in Colorado in September, preferably the middle of the month. So I call in JULY to make reservations at a ski resort, outside of their peak season, 2 and a half months in advance and they do not have ANY free rooms for that certificate available for the ENTIRE MONTH OF SEPTEMBER! I have been calling almost daily to recheck the status. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if the people at the call center weren't so bitchy. If I am going to be dissapointed, at least they could be nice about it. Anyhow, thanks. I feel a bit better.

Ask to speak with the hotel manager. Discuss that you appreciate being rewarded for your loyalty but if you are unble to use a certificate in the off season when canya?

I'm sure you realize, jojo, that the basic game here is that the airlines/hotels lure you with the 'free travel' carrot, but then reserve only very few rooms/seats for freebie redemption, usually at undesirable times, for undersold flights, etc. That way they don't lose potential revenue. If the flight was 70% full and they let a few FF passengers on for free, no revenue lost.
If they guaranteed you could redeem at any time, you may well select popular usually sold out dates which would actually bump reveue generating travelers out oif their system. That would be bad for them.
They want to have their cake and eat it too...you think you're getting a deal, they're not losing any money.
Due to this fact, frequent travelers know that they must compete for those precious few freebie spots. So people start calling to reserve them LONG before their travel dates.

I'm glad to hear of your experience, since I was thinking of using Hyatt again. I've been a loyal Marriott customer due to their rewards program, and have been very happy. I have already used my points for hotel stays, and just recently booked a trip to Hawaii with all expenses coming from my Marriott points, including first class airfare, and a week and a half in Hawaii. I had no problem with any of my requests. After hearing of your experience, I will stick with Marriott!

Frustrating. I agree.

With Marriott, I've almost always been able to get around it by calling the hotel directly, making a reservation (normal), obtaining the certificates (via mail), then calling the hotel back (direct line) and changing the reservation to note I will use the certificate. Call at night or overnight hours when the clerks are more susesptable to working with you (to satisfy you).

Their rewards service never has rooms when I need them.. .. but the individual hotels have never cared.

Last time we used 2 certificates in Alaska on day of arrival/departure. A basic room was $170. The certs saved us nearly $400.

Remember, you must work the hotel over as much as they work us over.

That is a great idea IKNOW! I think I will try that! I did get to use one of my certificates for the Hyatt Waikiki in December. Their system just makes no sense to me. Hawaii in December is okay but Colorado in September is out. I know how these reward progrmas work. this is my first experience with Hyatt and I have to say I think it stinks. Why would anyone plan 10 months ahead to stay one night in Colorado MID WEEK at the Hyatt Beaver Creek? Hawaii I could see! Oh well, I guess I will get over it. Thank you for your advice.

I used to stay often in Hyatt hotels but switched to Marriott and Westin because of their better award redemptions. Westin/Starwood has bent over backwards to accommodate me. Hyatt's Gold Passport program is woefully bad compared to the others, I think.