The booking references (PNRs) generated by many airlines contain a combination of six letters and/or numbers. To avoid confusion, those issued by airlines using Amadeus (like Qantas) never include the numbers 0 or 1, nor the letters O or I, as these look too similar. Airlines using Sabre, like Virgin Australia, take this a step further and do not include any numbers at all.
Seems logical, right? Well, try telling that to whoever designed the loyalty program of Hyatt Hotels…
World of Hyatt account numbers contain a letter at the end
For some reason, the loyalty program of Hyatt Hotels has designed its membership numbers so that each one ends in a letter.
It’s not unheard of for loyalty programs to generate membership numbers containing both letters and numbers. There are more letters than numbers, so this frees up many more possible combinations.
United Airlines is an example of this, as its MileagePlus account numbers contain two letters followed by six numbers. American Airlines AAdvantage accounts also contain both. I guess that’s easier to remember than a longer combination of just numbers?
So, there’s nothing inherently wrong with World of Hyatt putting a letter at the end of each account number. But the implementation is woeful.
Many account numbers end in I or O
Remember how I said that Amadeus doesn’t generate booking references containing the letter/number O/I? Well, for some reason, many World of Hyatt accounts end in the letter I or O.
Why these letters? I have no idea. It makes zero sense.
What are the implications of this, you might ask? Well, they’re more than just theoretical.
This causes issues…
When you stay at a Hyatt hotel, the more experienced staff are generally aware of the quirk that all account numbers end in a letter.
But on numerous occasions, when I’ve dined at Hyatt hotel restaurants and quoted my membership number, I have not received the points. Why? Because the staff noted down the “O” (as in, the letter) at the end of my account number as “0” (as in, zero). If staff are new or inexperienced, they may not yet be aware of this quirk so it’s an obvious mistake to make.
It turns out that this also confuses lots of World of Hyatt members. Richard Kerr from Bilt Rewards, an American loyalty program that lets members transfer their points into World of Hyatt, recently revealed that members frequently mistype their Hyatt membership number. This results in the points transfer failing.
“Hundreds of members type a 1 or a 0 and spend days going back and forth with us on saying they typed the member number correctly when they didn’t. I have pleaded Hyatt stop using an O and I on the end of their numbers,” Kerr wrote in a Reddit post.
I tried to change my World of Hyatt account number
After missing out on points one too many times, I decided to call World of Hyatt and ask if I could change my account number to one that ends in a different letter to avoid future confusion.
I reached somebody in Hyatt’s Philippines call centre who immediately understood what and why I was asking. He thought it was quite funny and told me that most account numbers do in fact end in an O or I. He was lucky as his ends in W.
I was very polite and at the end of a long shift probably dealing with boring hotel reservations and complaints, I suspect my query was a welcome interruption to his day. I also saw the humorous side to my request, and we had a good laugh.
He took me through the options, but unfortunately it’s not possible to simply change your account number. He would have needed to create a brand new account for me, then cancel my existing one and move my points across. The new number would be randomly generated and he said there was still a good chance the new number would end in O or I. So I decided it wasn’t worth the effort.
Hyatt, please change your account number design
I realise this is a long shot. But if anyone from World of Hyatt is reading this, please consider changing the way you design your loyalty account numbers!
I’m sure the current system made sense to whoever designed it, many years ago. But from a member’s point of view, it really doesn’t. Unless you’re one of the lucky of members with an account number ending in W or L.
