Introduction
I’m only a Hyatt Explorist for 2017 since I had status matched to Diamond in 2016 and with the new rules, I only fell down 1 tier. This meant no free breakfast, but I do get 4 club room upgrades. I had assumed that a club room upgrade meant you get access to the club lounge and thus get breakfast in the lounge. However, when there is no club lounge, I wrongly assumed I could use a club room upgrade and then get free breakfast in the restaurant. I didn’t know that last fact, so I fired off an email to my hotel, which will remain nameless, if I could use a club room upgrade as an Explorist to get free breakfast since there was no club room.
Hotel’s response
After I sent the email, Hyatt’s Twitter account told me it’s not possible. However, there was no need for me to email again and correct myself. So I waited for their response:
“Good morning,
Warm greetings from xxxxx!
We are pleased to extend breakfast to you on a complimentary basis. Given that we do not have a Lounge we would like for you to save your certificates for other Hyatt stays.
We look forward to welcoming you soon to xxxxx.
How awesome is that?
Conclusion
I do need to point out that between my email and the reply, I was able to get a friend to convert my points stay to a Guest of Honor stay, so technically I still would have gotten free breakfast. However, from the tone of the email, I do believe they gave me the comp just because they are being nice, else they would have just stated that my rsvp was a GOH, and I had already qualified. I don’t think they were being shady and trying to earn brownie points. The lessons learned here are 1) play dumb, 2) ask nicely, and 3) you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.
I’ve had a rule of thumb for decades, used in many different kinds of situations. I always say/think, well,
“The worst thing I’ve ever been told is, NO.” So it never hurts to ask and as you indicate, always ask nice. That rule even got me to Seoul on a non stop instead of a one stop once, no extra charge. It can pay of!