Oops! I did it again with Hyatt. How to fix a credit card mistake.
After two lovely flights with the FirstClassQueen, we landed in Charlotte and sped to the Hyatt Center City.
I was kind of tired from our day of celebrating in the sky, so I was looking forward to heading up to my room and drinking a bunch of water and watching bad TV. (I’m so fun, I know). However, when I checked in, I realized that I had forgotten to bring my Hyatt Visa card. Dang it! This is the second time this month.
Luckily, I learned a tip from the last time this happened. If you decide that you want to use a different credit card after you’ve already checked out, you can contact the accounting department at the hotel you stayed in, and they can send you a form to fill out and fax back. I wish I had the form so I could take a photo and show you what it looked like, but unfortunately I shredded it days ago because I am a shredding/paper recycling fiend (I’ve accidentally recycled concert tickets more than once). So you’ll have to use your imagination to picture this form.
Bascially, you just have to enter a bunch of information: dates of stay, reservation number, name, address, phone number, credit card you actually used, credit card you want to use, and probably more.
While I’m annoyed that I made the same dumb mistake twice, I’m relieved that I won’t miss out on all the potential points.
Have you ever done this? Were you able to fix your mistake, or did you just chalk it up to experience?
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Yes, of course these changes are possible – IF the hotel or other vendor wants to be cooperative. One should understand that they are under NO OBLIGATION to do so and that it a complicated, annoying process for them. The short solution(s) are 1) carry the appropriate plastic with you or 2) in some secure fashion – like buried in a secure, password protected file on your carry along computer, have a record of ALL relevant credit card accounts, including any name/address variations, expiration dates, individual ‘card codes’ etc. Obviously, these data must be carefully protected, perhaps even encrypted, but you should have the details available at all times. It may take a minute or two to retrieve the information, but “Don’t Leave Home WIthout It.”
I do not have to use my Special List often, the keeping it up to date and having it available has saved my bacon more than once. Gawd knows that it is a lot easier than trying to reverse charges and then make new ones by the method that you’ve described. And I’ll say again, the vendor is under NO OBLIGATION to do what you’ve asked them to do. Even if you do not have the plastic at-hand, get the details right with the original charge. A lot of people will appreciate it.
This is good to know…but surely you had a Chase Sapphire card in your wallet?
While 3x Hyatt GP points might be marginally better than 2x UR points, I’m not sure that I would have gone to the trouble of faxing forms to achieve it.
Tokyo Hyatt Fan – Indeed, there are lots of ways to skin a cat/earn points. As you wisely deduced, the main point of my post was to present options.
How long can you go back? 30 days?
JustSaying – I honestly don’t know. I would assume that 30 days would be a good bet.