Death of the Hyatt Diamond Challenge
The Hyatt Diamond Challenge has been one of the best hotel elite status tools around for travel hackers. You could gain elite status with another chain through a credit card and then match it to Hyatt to gain their highest level of status.
Earlier this year I completed the Diamond Challenge and have really enjoyed the benefits. Having Diamond status with Hyatt has had its intended effect. I always look to stay at a Hyatt property first over other chains.
Goodbye Challenge
The Trip Sherpa is reporting that the Hyatt Diamond Challenge has been discontinued as of October 31, 2014. There is no word if another challenge will eventually be launched, however for now there doesn’t appear to be an option.
The fact that they awarded suite upgrades and the full status up front was too generous in my opinion. Sure I took advantage of it, but I really can’t fault them for reevaluating the program. Hopefully they will be able to find a middle ground which allows people to still earn the status, however will less up front benefits.
I know personally of many people who would do the challenge before a big family vacation just to get the benefits. These people often have no intention of completing the challenge, only of enjoying the status for that one trip.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Diamond challenge come back in a different form. SPG has a Platinum challenge which doesn’t award the status up front. That may be a more sustainable way of Hyatt allowing this to go on.
Concusion
As this hobby grows and more people become aware of these great deals, it is inevitable that doors will close. I am glad I was able to shortcut to Hyatt Diamond status, but I will do my best from here on out to hold on to it. If you were waiting to get in on the Hyatt Diamond Challenge, then it appears you are out of luck for now.
 Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is the old king of travel rewards cards. Right now
bonus_miles_full
Learn more about this card and its features!
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
I believe I started my challenge the same day you did. It had to happen sooner or later – for the first time I didn’t get in too late! Sadly, that only takes a tiny bit of the sting out of only getting about 30 days of Office Depot VR MS. This hobby definitely has a carpe diem component to it.
And here I was, literally having JUST wrote an article talking about how to do status matches / challenges at each of the major chains YESTERDAY! I knew that post would eventually get stale and out of date, but I was kind of hoping that I’d get more than a DAY out of it 😀
Thanks for letting us know!
At least it was timely. An easy update to your post! Your post is easily fresh again. I am sure they will bring it back, but I doubt it will be quite the same.
[…] first got the news from Miles to Memories, who left a comment on my post from yesterday talking about the ways to get status at each of the […]