I am not sure what it must be like in Hyatt HQ, but the once invincible company seems to have put together more mis-steps than United Airlines recently.

First they gave away Diamond status in Gold Passport for a tweet (and another hotels elite status), including 4 Diamond upgrades on the change of status plus 4 more at the end of next month. Diamond members who didn’t get status this way have to do 25 stays or 50 nights to secure top tier at Hyatt. After a while Hyatt rowed back on this offer, matching only to Starwood Platinum. Nevertheless, it seems they made over 10,000 new customers Diamond, handing out 80,000 new Diamond Suite upgrades in the process. There are already reports on Flyertalk of customers finding it much harder to use their upgrades, even at unpopular properties where upgrades were normally available. Of course, this could just be these properties cutting availability but it could also be the #twittereffect .

Then came the credit card problems with Hyatt finding skimming software on their back office systems. Having checked the list of properties with the virus, I had to spend a few hours checking credit card statements. Joy!

Next comes the Diamond Suite upgrade change announced this week. Until now you could redeem your Diamond Suite Upgrades against a stay beyond their expiry date of 28 Feb each year. This is being removed and you now have to use them in the year that they earned. This applies from 2016, so those upgrades issued to qualifying members on 1 March will expire on 28 Feb 2017 without fail.

Lastly, it’s nearly the end of January and there’s no promo for the spring. Hyatt, once one of the most promo friendly companies has become promo adverse as rates climb and hotels are full again. Other hotels – Starwood, Marriott and Intercontinental all have their promos in the field. Come on Hyatt, and make it decent – you need to make it up to us all.