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Home » Hyatt » I’m Feeling Stupid for Messing up a Suite Upgrade
Hyatt

I’m Feeling Stupid for Messing up a Suite Upgrade

Matthew Klint Posted onSeptember 15, 2017November 14, 2023 4 Comments

Sometimes my carelessness is nothing short of amazing, and not in a good way…

I’m spending a few days in beautiful Carmel, CA at the Highlands Inn, a Hyatt Residence Club property. I booked the trip months ago and was particularly looking forward to it because Globalist confirmed suite upgrades are to a townhouse suite: a two-level 900 square foot townhouse with a fireplace and full kitchen.

Paying $16 for a $2 salad and $50 for a $10 steak or fish gets old after the first night in this pricey city, so I love being able to at least cook one meal a day in the room. There’s even a nice Safeway grocery store less than ten minutes away in the village.

Only, for whatever unexplainable and indefensible reason, I never called to apply the suite upgrade. I still have three suite upgrades in my account — it’s not like I needed to save them. I simply forgot to call.

Even sadder, this wasn’t my first time forgetting to call. Last time I also did not call, but there were plenty of rooms available and securing a complimentary upgrade to a suite was no problem.

Delayed Arrival

This time, we left LA later in the afternoon and the baby got sick outside of  San Luis Obispo, CA…making a huge mess in the car and delaying us a further 90 minutes. We did not arrive at the hotel until 11:30p.

At check-in, an agent informed me that not only were there no suites left, but there was only one room left in the entire property! It was a garden-view room, which itself isn’t bad, but the room smelled like mold.

The next morning we were moved to what the hotel classified as a suite, but it was a standard suite with no kitchen, fireplace, or terrace. Plus, it was under the hotel restaurant, meaning a lot of foot traffic on our ceiling late into the night and early in the morning.

But the views from our room are amazing–

a room with a view of the ocean and a table and chairs

a bathtub with a large window overlooking the ocean

a view of the ocean from a cliff

The townhouses were all occupied, even though this hotel has a huge inventory of them.

CONCLUISON

The sad thing is, I am 100% to blame. I was careless and missed out on a great upgrade that truly would have been useful. So the moral of the story is this: if you want to use an upgrade certificate, you actually have to call in to apply it. And if you think you have, double check now.

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About Author

Matthew Klint

Matthew is an avid traveler who calls Los Angeles home. Each year he travels more than 200,000 miles by air and has visited more than 135 countries. Working both in the aviation industry and as a travel consultant, Matthew has been featured in major media outlets around the world and uses his Live and Let's Fly blog to share the latest news in the airline industry, commentary on frequent flyer programs, and detailed reports of his worldwide travel.

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4 Comments

  1. Nathan Reply
    September 15, 2017 at 10:51 am

    Here’s my thought….. Us travel guys are generally perfectionists, a lot of guys ahí have mastered travel booking. But, here’s the thing we all make mistakes and we could go a little easier on ourselves. This is the second Boarding Area post about a travel booking mistake in the last day. I know I’ve made some doozy’s with a loss of 160K Thank you points, wrong dates on my hotel. But overall I do awesome and kill it so often that friends and family are truly impressed. So, let’s keep it cool and keep up the awesomeness

  2. henry LAX Reply
    September 15, 2017 at 11:10 am

    We all make mistakes. My dad just redeemed miles for some home appliances at horrific cpm valuation but his alternatives were (1) rapidly expiring miles with no extension possible, or (2) redeem for a very short-haul flight he’s not all that excited about.

  3. Doug Reply
    September 15, 2017 at 1:49 pm

    It’s my understanding that TSU certificates could not be applied to Hyatt Residence clubs . Is this no longer the case? If so, that’s good news.

    • Matthew Reply
      September 15, 2017 at 10:58 pm

      No problem with this hotel, at least. I got so mad I booked a new stay in November and have already confirmed the upgrade.

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