I often get made fun of when I mention to someone that I have "status" in a hotel or airline loyalty program. This is, I am sure, partly due to the fact that tiers for those above general membership are called "status levels" with associated names like "Elite", "Super Elite", "Diamond", "Platinum" etc...
After the person I am having my conversation with stops mocking me (which in some instances can be quite a long time), I usually follow up with a short story about a time when my "status" has helped me out of a jam, or has provided a great perk. But today I came across a situation where my "status" made all the difference in how a conversation with Hyatt Hotels Customer Service proceeded.
I was looking at my Hyatt Gold Passport account online recently, and noticed that although I have stayed eight times this year at Hyatt hotels, I had accumulated only seven qualified stays in my quest for renewing my Diamond level status for next year. I finally got around to calling today, to get this taken care of, and dialled the number on the Contact Us page of the Hyatt website. What a mistake.
