This past weekend, I attempted to check out of the Hyatt House in San Ramon after a fun night at friend’s wedding using a $100 Hyatt gift card that was issued to me directly from Hyatt back in February 2016.
When the front desk agent told me it had a $0 balance after he scanned it, I asked if he could try again, maybe by entering the number manually. Still – zero. It was my first instinct to blame mommy brain (or perhaps a hangover) for forgetting that I had maybe used it, but I still remained perplexed because I was darn certain I hadn’t.
Next, I resorted to another Hyatt gift card, in the amount of $50, that I had purchased in November from Amazon. Luckily that one was fine, and I was able to apply it to my stay.
Straightening It All Out
I did a quick Google search and found that I was not the only one with a Hyatt gift card that was possibly compromised. There are several FlyerTalkers sharing similar experiences, and fellow blogger FrequentMiler had his $1,000 Hyatt gift card hacked not only once, but twice!
Once I left the hotel, I called Hyatt to find out about this matter and it turns out that it showed that the $100 was used recently at a property in Texas. I was told that my case would be investigated, and that they put a new gift card in the mail for me that should be arriving tomorrow. They were really on top of making it right.
The bottom line is that this seems to unfortunately be an on-going issue with Hyatt gift cards (especially electronic versions), and until their systems are revamped, I’ll steer clear of buying them for now.
If you have any unused Hyatt gift cards in your households, I suggest checking the balances ASAP and perhaps finding a way to use them soon.
Have you ever had an issue with Hyatt gift cards being hacked (or others?).
I used a $200 gift card recently that I bought on eBay with no issue. It was a physical gift card. Anyway, I’m really interested in buying more cards online for the financial benefit, but super concerned about security of it. I’m totally torn, as I have a couple mattress runs to Diamond.
I purchased a $500 GC on eBay for $450 and it was hacked too. It was a complete pain to get this all dealt with and since it was off eBay Hyatt said they can’t do anything. eBay has now removed purchase protection via PayPal for gift cards.
I will not be buying Hyatt gift cards anymore. Not worth the brainache.
I have the same issue. All my $250 gift cards I bought last Oct have 0 balance for no reasons. I called Hyatt and they were very helpful. At the end, they sent me the physical gift cards
hope this helps,
I bought a Hyatt gc on raise.com in the Fall, and when I went to use it I was told it had %0 balance. I contacted Hyatt and they were very helpful. They investigated the matter and sent me a brand new gift card. Raise indicated that Hyatt gift cards issued around that time had activation issues. I don’t know what happened, but at least Hyatt came through for me and I got my money back on a new gift card.
Yup! Mine got nailed too and of course I didn’t notice until I went to use it to check out as well. They’re going to send me a new one but it’s still a pain…
Ick! Will Check mine when I get home. Bought a $500 a few weeks back direct from Hyatt’s site.
I bought two $500 electronic gift cards on eBay. Never an issue before, but this time one was hacked for $240. Hyatt would not help. I even asked if they would take the $500 from the one that was intact and put on a physical gift card. They said no. Not sure why. If they take the $500 and issue a new gift card the original gift card would have a zero balance, so no one could use it. So, since I had no immediate use for the card, and since chances were that one would also be hacked, I ended up spending the whole thing at a Hyatt spa. I now have enough lotions and potions to last a couple of years! Not exactly how I had hoped to use them, but at least I have learned a big lesson about these gift cards.
Yep had one that was hacked back the beginning of the year. Seems to be a neverending issue with Hyatt.
Same thng happened to me. However, Hyatt would not investigate or do anything as I did not have the purchase receipt. You see, it was a gift card! Weasels.