Late Thursday night and into early Friday morning, Hyatt apparently started giving out Hyatt Diamond status to anyone with any kind of hotel status. At some point, the rules must have changed (once some Hyatt executives got together and realized how many people were applying), it looks like only those with SPG Platinum status were being matched to Hyatt Diamond – everyone else was being matched to Hyatt Platinum)
There are NUMEROUS reports of people being matched to Hyatt Diamond from SPG Gold or other mid-tier status, but others being only matched to Hyatt Platinum
Personally, I got my message late Saturday night …. I didn’t get my Hyatt Diamond status 🙁
The Hyatt Diamond whiners
You might have thought that my reference to Hyatt Diamond “whiners” was to people in the same situation as myself – people who applied but for whatever reason were not given Hyatt Diamond status.
But actually, I haven’t found many people in that situation acting inappropriately. I think that most people are just confused at the seemingly arbitrary way that things are being handled, and mildly disappointed, the way that anyone would be if they thought they had been given something only to see it “taken” away (while many of their friends in similar situations got it anyways)
Here’s an example of the arbitrary responses from Hyatt – from the reddit thread
I submitted mine first – spg, marriott and hilton gold. Submitted my husband’s maybe 20 mins later. He’s the same but also ihg spire elite. They replied to him first, matching to diamond. Replied to me a few hours later saying they were matching Marriott gold to Hyatt plat. Who knows!
Here’s one of the 7 places I will NOT be going since I didn’t get Diamond status
Personally, I am not outraged – I’m just mildly disappointed. I had already written about the 7 places I’m going with my new Hyatt Diamond status (which was probably definitely pretty silly)
No, it’s the OTHER Hyatt Diamond whiners
Actually, the people that I have found more annoying are the OTHER Hyatt Diamond whiners – those people who already have / had Hyatt Diamond status and are annoyed at tons of people getting things that you had to work hard to get.
Which is not to say that ALL current Hyatt Diamond members are being whiny. It’s totally fine and understandable that current Hyatt Diamonds are a little annoyed!
I liked Miles to Memories’ (a current Hyatt Diamond member) take on the subject – Is Hyatt’s Instant Diamond Match Disloyal to Current Members & Was it a Good Move for the Company? His take:
Then of course I think back to all of the statuses I hold. I personally hold SPG Gold, Club Carlson Gold, IHG Platinum, Best Western Diamond and HHonors Gold in addition to my Hyatt Diamond. How about all of the people who earned those statuses the old fashioned way? I simply got mine through credit cards and status matches. In other words, I would be a huge hypocrite for being too mad at Hyatt for this
Personally, I think that the effects of adding an undetermined number of Hyatt Diamonds to the rolls is bound to have next to little impact, but that’s just an educated guess on my part. But I’ve been amazed at some of the vitriol – Here are some comments, either from reddit or from some of my blog posts
Gotta love how so many are upset when their mid level status attained by CC purchase didn’t translate into top tier Diamond! Everyone is so entitled these days. DO the time honestly and then you are entitled!
I’m glad they shut off the fountain. As someone who earns Diamond by staying it’s annoying that they give it out for free. I feel the same way about airline matches. If you want the benefits, do the nights or miles.
Spare us the fake outrage. You likely are SPG Gold and IHG Spire elite because of credit card sign-ups, hardly demonstrating loyalty to any one brand or brands. I would go so far to venture to say that you probably have less than 5 paid stays in either program — combined. Oh, I now see that you “claim” in another thread that you had a combined 11 stays with SPG. Hardly a resounding display of “loyalty” befitting a status match.’Nuff said
So my message to these Hyatt Diamond “whiners” is that you know that if the shoe was on the other foot, you’d totally be doing the same thing! So stop yelling at people that are doing something that you know you would totally do too!
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
Wholeheartedly disagree. Credit card sign up bonuses are within the rules, and so is spending $40,000 on the credit card to get stay credits, which is what I did. I also hotel hopped like crazy this year to get the stays, even when it didn’t make sense or was inconvenient. I can’t speak for others but I personally stayed within the rules and even did mattress runs to get the status. I’m not mad at those within “our community” for getting in on the deal. I’m mad at Hyatt for throwing the rules out the window and just giving away the status. Let’s not pretend this was ok. Hyatt screwed up and they know they screwed up. Your proof is that they immediately went into damage control and stopped responding to requests for status. I don’t feel at all like a hypocrit for voicing my displeasure to Hyatt.
I actually agree with you. I don’t have a problem with current Hyatt Diamond or other elite members voicing displeasure to Hyatt. I’m mostly annoyed with current Hyatt Diamond people complaining to the people who tried to get in on the deal
I am a long term (20+ years) Diamond who has qualified every year; good years and bad years. This past weekend Hyatt have the same status as I hold to people with one stay at a competitor and a credit card which gives them status.
‘Whining’ I don’t think so.
What I’m doing is calling out Hyatt on why I should remain loyal to them, when they have made the benefits that I have earned, harder to use.
No, I don’t want elite status with Marriott, it does nothing for me.
I guess I did not clearly differentiate between people complaining to Hyatt and people complaining about other people. I’ve got no problem with Hyatt’s current customers expressing displeasure to what Hyatt has done, but what I saw a ton of was current Hyatt Diamonds telling the people that got in on the deal to be quiet and/or stop whining
Personally, I scored big time and got in early for Hyatt Diamond (matched from HHonors Gold and Marriott gold, both from CC’s). Clearly, Hyatt goofed.
“Don’t hate the player, hate the game”
In the words of the immortal sage Ice-T! 🙂
In reality it devalues the program by flooding the market with so many new DSUs which are already difficult to use. I recommend current Diamonds to complain to Hyatt.
I am not sure who appointed or anointed you our moral compass but you certainly don’t represent at least me, who for years has done it the old fashion way flew the miles or stayed in the hotels and go status. I just got a note from Marriott congratulating me on 32 years as a member! I am Lifetime PLT with them.
And NO if the shoe was on the other foot would I get free status on other programs I would not . If I wanted that status or felt I needed it for some strange egotistical reason I would do it as I always do earn it.
I suggest you get a life unless of course this is your life !
Should probably just leave the whole Hyatt topic alone after being publicly shamed for jumping the gun and planning all the cool places you were going to go with your “free” Diamond status. But no, you had to go call out the “whiners.” I wish BoardingArea had a “block” or “ignore” feature for blogs.
I could not agree more another free loader gibberish wonder what they would do if they really had to pay for it ? Hmm There are getting way too many of these blogger’s with worthless information. other than to see themselves in print.
I’m not at all worried about it. I earned my diamond this year and was delighted to do so. It was a goal I had specifically set for the year. I believe that Hyatt and myself are a really good fit. Since my wife has Platinum with SPG and is Inner Circle with Kimpton we thought all of our bases were now pretty much covered.
I’m quite disappointed that Hyatt chose to launch this debacle but it’s certainly not going to make a tremendous difference. Initially I do think that Hyatt will see an uptake in business and I do hope that is the case. Retention however is another thing. Many new diamonds will not find the small footprint to be as accessible to them as a larger chain. Some may have favored tried, true and trusted properties. Many road warriors already have established relationships along the routes. For them it will be about using it for a change or a just because it’s there. They won’t be hurting anyone’s status.
Many others will find it difficult to maintain the nights:stay numbers, so they will go away too.
Then there are the few who get it Hyatt and like so nsnhnifvusctealise hiw good itvrealkybus. They will minimally swell our ranks in upcoming years and deservedly so.
In the meanwhile we only have 15 months of probably no more than a slight inconvenience congrats our way. I can handle that.
“I personally hold SPG Gold, Club Carlson Gold, IHG Platinum, Best Western Diamond and HHonors Gold in addition to my Hyatt Diamond. How about all of the people who earned those statuses the old fashioned way? I simply got mine through credit cards and status matches. In other words, I would be a huge hypocrite for being too mad at Hyatt for this…”
I seriously doubt SPG Platinums would be up in arms because someone got Gold status through a credit card, and Best Western and IHG top elites are seriously not missing out on anything because someone else has the same status. Hilton Gold’s free breakfast doesn’t take away any food from Hilton Diamonds. We all have those statuses through a credit card precisely because they don’t offer anything substantial, other than free food at Hilton. Comparing that to Hyatt Diamond status is not the best analogy, and Hyatt Diamond members will now have to fight for the same suite upgrades with all the other members who got instantly upgraded.
In other words completing from freeloaders like yourself. I have seen you before arguing with the front desk at the PHV that you deserve a suite for free! Ah the ugly American at it’s best.
The good news is that Hyatt has a really good computer system that has us real Diamonds loaded in so that where ever we check in around the world that have our history likes and dislikes Which newspaper we prefer. Works well. Two years ago I did a long international trip that carried me around the world staying at Park’s all the way it was flawless checking in!
“…us real diamonds,” lol. Does anyone else sense hostility?
FYI – The qualification for Hyatt Diamond is only 25 stays, which would get you Marriott Silver (a notch above wood). Not very difficult to achieve. Furthermore, many hotels including Hyatt offered status matches/challenges long before the Twitter offer. Around the same time last year, Hyatt had a status challenge that offered instant diamond during the challenge (including 4 DSU). I hope you were as hostile then.
Bottom line is Hyatt had screwed themselves over this deal!! People are mad who did not get the status and who already had status through challenges and old fashioned way! They might get the business from few but they lost business from many!
I think your take on this is frankly hypocritical. You complain that “it’s a bit annoying that other people in similar situations did end up getting comped up to Diamond.” This sounds like your just a WHINER. You have SPG Gold, IHG Platinum, Hilton Gold, and Best Western Diamond which really takes no effort to attain because they don’t offer what arguably is the best hotel elite status (Hyatt Diamond) does. When you spend thousands a year to attain Hyatt Diamond and the market is flooded with new instant diamonds around the holiday, it becomes very hard to use our beloved DSU. So until you actually have Hyatt Diamond status please stop posting stupid blogs like this because you obviously spent more time writing this blog than getting elite status.
I have got to agree with John and the other posters who are critical of you Dan, it sure seems to me that you are the one whining about not getting the status match and the Hyatt Diamond members who are complaining about those who are being status matched into Diamond based upon phantom or illusory status — some at mid-tier level, are those who are accurately harmed by this decision.
You on the other hand, are whining about this having posted THREE – 3 SEPARATE BLOG POSTS ABOUT THIS DEAL.
The first was your post about where you were going to spend you Diamond status, the second was your post in Reddit announcing your failure to secure a match, and now your third here decrying those who think that Hyatt was too generous in the first place to offer this sort of match to mainly individual who hold status mainly by their simply holding a certain credit card.
I think that you should walk away from this as you this is not your best moment, nor argument or re-think your view based upon the sound advice of others up-thread…..
Hoererb
The most annoying comments I found were those diamond members who pointed out that they “paid” for their stays to become diamond but go off a tangent and complain about how this would crowd up club lounges and went as far as to suggest banning children, not taking into account that those people also “paid” for their stays and club access.
Count me among those who are mad at hyatt, but not those lucky souls who jumped in and got the gift. I worked hard and spent a lot of money (and heads in beds!) to get my status, and I am very angry that I will now have more difficulty using what I most value –my DSUs.
I am NOT mad at those who were quick and lucky enough to turn their simple, free cc status with another chain into hyatt diamond status. Good on ‘ya.
But, hyatt really messed this up, and I’m not sure whether I want to bother trying to retain diamond status again next year.
Frankly, you can also choose to be angry at Marriott for purchasing SPG, and at SPG for allowing themselves to be purchased by an inferior company and loyalty program. At AA for devaluing? At Alaska Air for no longer matching SW Companion Pass to 75k? At the weather today?
In other words…it happened. Get over it, whiners.