Good morning everyone, I had a great weekend in Portland, full of hikes, Voodoo Donuts, craft brews, and Trail Blazers basketball. Enough about me, let’s talk about how to redeem your World of Hyatt free anniversary night certificate that comes every year when you pay the Chase Hyatt Credit Card $75 annual fee. If you have the credit card, you can see the free night award in your World of Hyatt account by clicking the My Awards tab. This is my dad’s Hyatt account and his award night was expiring in mid June and he didn’t have any Hyatt stays planned before then, so we decided to use it for a night near the Portland Airport (thanks dad!).
Here are the complete terms and conditions of the free night certificate. You must complete your stay by the expiration date linked to your free night certificate – there is no way to extend the certificate past that date.
Hyatt has a beautifully designed award search page where you enter the country, city, length of stay, and room type (select free night). All of these options are available via a drop down – kind of old school.
The only problem with the award search page is that it DOES NOT WORK! Basically, this tool says there are 0 Hyatt hotels available on awards in Portland anytime in the future. With that wasted time behind me, let me show you how to actually search, find, and book your Hyatt award night.
From the Hyatt homepage or from within your account, search for a 1 night reservation. In this case, I needed a Friday night stay by the Portland Airport.
There are only 2 Hyatt hotels available and I selected the Hyatt Place near the Portland Airport. The room rate was only $111, which was not a great value, but better than nothing if my dad let the free night certificate expire. In comparison, I used my free night last year for a stay at the Grand Hyatt Seattle and rooms were close to $350 per night.
There are a few different payment options for the hotel, but I am not interested in any of them.
Instead, I checked the box that said “Show World of Hyatt Points & Awards” and selected the 2 queen bed option listed with the Free Night.
I completed the reservation as normal and was ready to go.
Looking at the My Reservations tab, I can see the reservation listed with the free night certificate.
I am dissapointed that the World of Hyatt award search page doesn’t work, maybe it will in the future, but until then, follow the steps above to redeem your World of Hyatt free anniversary night certificate. If you have any questions, please leave a comment below. Have a great day everyone!
Do you ever have trouble using someone else’s chase free anniversary night?
I seem to remember letting my sister use one, and they were adamant about seeing me.
I put her name on the record as second guest – she checked in
Using someone else’s points are no issue, just had trouble with free night.
Have you had good experience doing it?
I’ve done it several times and never had a problem. You can call the loyalty program or hotel directly to add the second guest, but you should be fine with just adding a note to the reservation when you book online.
I read on one of the blogs that the problem is primarily with international “welcome” free nights (i.e. the 2 free nights you get when you initially apply for a new Hyatt card & complete minimum spend). In those cases, I read, the hotel actually needs to see the card owner in person with ID.
Interesting, well that’s a good data point. Has anyone encountered this first hand?
Thank you for the informative post. I’ve been trying to figure out a way to use my Hyatt free nights and this perfectly explains it.
You’re welcome. Hopefully you can find a good Hyatt property to use the free night certificate at :)
Tried to book the two free nights that came with the card this method and it didn’t work.
Did you check when your free nights expire? Are you booking a stay before that expiration date?
I am unable to book the free award nights either. And they don’t expire until March 2018, so that is not the issue. I see the option to use points but there is no free reward night option.
Hmm, strange, must be a glitch in the new Hyatt website. Search for the award nights you want online, then call Hyatt to book the 2 free nights.
Though there are 2 free nights awarded, they are 2 different free night certificates. You need to make the reservation one night at a time for the free night award to work on the website. This is what I was told by the customer service and it does work that way.
Yes, that is correct. You can book the 2 free weekend nights back to back or separately.
Very nice. In Hawaii and San Francisco I only ever see ADA rooms for free night redemptions. Good that the hotels you stayed had other room options.
Yes, I’ve noticed that too. Not sure why all the ADA rooms are available but none of the standard rooms show up.
ADA? I can’t find anything in San Francisco! Getting frustrated! I have two free nights, and I can only book with points!
Keep checking, Hyatt may open up standard rooms closer to your arrival date.
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Some ADA rooms are HUGE! And have dual master baths.
Not to be ignored out of hand…
Good point, but most ADA rooms are also on the ground floor, so they may not have the best views or be the quietest rooms.
I’m curious if anyone has had luck in booking anniversary night at category 5’s and higher? I was trying to figure out how to use my wife and my free night awards in combination with some points to book three nights at the Hyatt Capital Gate in Abu Dhabi. When I called the reservation line, the last night was completely sold out which left me researching more options. On a whim today, I went to the Park Hyatt Abu Dhabi property and when check the box to show points and awards it shows the Park King selectable as a free night. Thinking this was crazy or maybe had something to do with it being an international hotel, I searched for the Park Hyatt Beaver Creek and had the same option.
My experience is that nights that aren’t originally available open up as you get closed to your desired date. I make cancellable reservations elsewhere as a backup and keep trying for the hotel I really want on a daily basis online. Chances are that it will eventually become available. If I see a standard room available but no award nights, I call Hyatt reservations, and they call the hotel to remind them that if a standard room is available, an award night is supposed to be available. Usually, this opens up an award night. If not, I hang up and call again.
Thanks for this blog post and the detailed info! I was hoping to book the brand new Park Hyatt Bangkok for a night on May 26th, but my cert expires on May 12th. Maybe I keep the card and use the new cert for a May 26th booking :)
Sounds like a great idea. Enjoy your stay at the hotel.
Has anyone had experience lately in exchanging the expired certs for points as discoverist or globalist? DPs are kind of all over the place from when the system switched over.
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Thanks for this. I’ve always thought I was doing something wrong, and that the Hyatt site could not be THAT bad in terms of searching for rooms using the free night. But it is. I’m guessing it’s intentional (make it hard to use the night = less people use them) but it could be just incompetence.
I’m glad this post could help. Good luck booking you free night :)
Hi Grant, This was helpful, thanks. Booking my free night once a year means that from year to year I forget how to do it… but your guidance steered me right to where I wanted to go. Coincidentally, I was also booking the Hyatt Place at PDX so you instructions were particularly specific. Thanks!
Glad to help, enjoy your stay :)
Echoing the earlier comment – This was very helpful!
Booking my free night once a year means that from year to year I forget how to do it… but your guidance was great.
I totally agree. I even reference some of my old posts since I forget how to do stuff sometimes :)
Happy Fourth of July!
THANK YOU FOR THIS! the hyatt website is way more confusing than it should be, so i googled, and found your helpful guide :) so, thank you!
Happy to help, enjoy your upcoming Hyatt stay.
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