How Long Does Hyatt Point Combining Take?
The miles and points community loves themselves some Hyatt, there is no doubt about that. There is a lot to love about the program and their elite status, even if I decided Globalist status isn’t my cup of tea. Even though they do a lot right, they aren’t perfect. I have shared in the past a few areas that have room for improvement and I have another such instance to share with you. The weird thing is this used to be an area of strength. But, for some reason Hyatt point combining is taking FOR-EV-ER now (where my Sandlot fans at?). Just how long does Hyatt point combining take and how long did it used to take? How does it compare to the competition? Let’s take a look at all of that after my recent frustrating experience moving points from my wife to my account.
What Is Hyatt Point Combining?
Hyatt allows members to combine points with other members in order to book an award. It is meant to allow you to split a check essentially, or pool points for a trip etc. The only real limitation is you can only send, or receive, points once every 30 days. There are no limitations to who you can send the points too, which is pretty great. The other downside to the process is you have to fill out a form and then email or fax (yes, people still fax I guess) it in. Then Hyatt has to manually process it. This is different from Hyatt’s main competition that allows you to do this online or call in to get it handled.
My Recent Experience Transferring World of Hyatt Points
In the past I would fill out the form for myself and my wife, then have her sign it, email it in and a few days later the points would be in my account. This is useful since we normally put spend on her Hyatt card each year to earn the $15K free night. The points are more valuable in my World of Hyatt account because I have status. We pretty much always book our stays under my account unless we are checking off a brand explorer hotel for her account.
I figured this time would work like it has in the past. That was a poor assumption on my part. I have gotten used to waiting a bit more for things with the pandemic, and continued staffing issues everyone has, but this was next level.
My Hyatt Point Transfer Timeline
Here is how it all played out:
- Initial email send with form attached on 9/7/22
- Follow up email sent, with same form attached, sent 9/19/22
- Third email, with the same form attached, sent 10/4/22
- Points finally transferred to my account on 10/15/22
There are a few things I would like to point out here. I actually needed the points to make a booking and had transferred points in from Ultimate Rewards a few times already because of this delay. I didn’t want to do it again if it could be avoided. That is why I kept following up. I ended up being able to finagle my desired booking another way, which I will share in a follow up article tomorrow. There was no communication throughout all of this, besides the automated email saying they received my email. I reached out to the Twitter team, who is great, and they said they are not able to help. There is a special department for these transfers I guess. It seems like it is a department of one person.
The Twitter team did say it could take up to 4 weeks to process. As you can see, my experience took five and a half weeks. And it was finally processed on a Saturday evening, which was surprising as well.
Side Note
If you have full Globalist status (60 nights) then your concierge can likely process this for you very quickly. For us regular plebs that isn’t the case though.
How Long Does Combining Hyatt Points Take: Final Thoughts
Nothing should take that long in 2022. Heck, if the government can process Passports in that time you should be able to move some points around quicker than that. If they are understaffed in the department then allow social media reps, and phone agents, to process the transaction. As Shawn said on this week’s upcoming podcast, if they can do instant transfers with Ultimate Rewards they should have an online process set up for this already.
In anticipation of this article I did reach out to our Hyatt PR contact to see if they were looking at moving points transfers online. The response was not a no, just that they couldn’t share anything on it at this time. I have a feeling they have something in the works for this and hopefully we see something some time next year. It would be a great improvement for World of Hyatt members that shouldn’t really cost them anything. Who knows, it may even save them money in payroll. I’ll let you know when I hear anything on the subject.
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Has anyone here actually ever do it via fax? Curious on the timeline of that route, if any different.
“Nothing should take that long in 2022.”
I am not sure I necessarily agree with that sentiment. This probably was true until sometime in 2021. Then every went to hell that we are in right now.
I’d argue that “EVERYTHING is taking long in 2022, We are out of EVERTYING and EVERYTHING is expensive in 2022”
My globalist concierge did it in 2 days, completing it and getting back to me on Saturday no less but she did say they are overwhelmed with inquries of all kinds and hopelessly understaffed for such workload. In the past I did the point transfer with regular customer service via email and it always completed in matter of 1-2 days but that was ‘Before’ time.
But I agree that the process is very old school… this can easily be automated but I guess they are weary of abuse so they probably wanted to see the hand signature of both parties?
I meant with technology it shouldn’t be this cumbersome on them or us. Hilton does it just fine so there are ways to protect against abuse etc.
I just did this a week ago. Took less than two days for the points to show up in my account which is in-line with previous timelines.
You must be touched from the heavens!
I sent a point transfer request to Hyatt by mail many months ago. I did it once before, maybe 18 months ago, it took pretty long, but the points transfer finally happened. This time I am assuming it will never happen. Embarrassing, but I’m so tech challenged that the snail mail option seemed easier, but clearly I need to figure out how to email the request. It’s a terrible system. As a comparison, just transferred points with Hilton, and it was instant.
Sorry to hear that. I would try taking a picture of the form with your phone and emailing it that way if you don’t have a scanner etc.
Well, chalk that up to one more benefit of going the distance and getting Globalist. It actually isn’t that hard – I am a 100% leisure traveler and instead of getting 15 credit cards, I got it from 30 nights through WOH spend + annual CC bonus, 10 nights cash stays and 20 nights award stays. My concierge did it for me while I was on the phone. I emailed it to her, she looked it over, I hung up, and the points were in my account by the next time I checked the balance later that day.
I never been tempted to put that much spend on my Hyatt to cover the gap – never was worth it to me. I can see why others do but just isn’t for me.
Also all info must match what on your hyatt account. had a different phone number and they kicked it back
That is true – could you imagine getting it kicked back after 5 weeks? Yikes!
This couldn’t have come at a better time. I am experiencing/have experienced the same thing. My first email was on 9/13 and I still don’t have the points in my account as of today (10/18). It’s beyond frustrating!
Additional comment: I was unaware that my concierge (I am Globalist) could take of this for me. Good to know. I guess I’ll be reaching out to her today and to see can be done. I’ll let you know what happens.
Hopefully she can get you rolling. It is sad that it is taking this long via the normal route.
Kinda unreal that you have to email or fax them to transfer points, seems like something from a decade + ago.
It is pretty bizarre for sure. Doesn’t seem like it would be super difficult to set up.
Oof, that sounds painful. Thankfully, my concierge has taken over this job and it happens much more quickly…five+ weeks is really indefensible!
I do wish I wasn’t a Globalist lite right about now 🙂