Hyatt Gold Passport currently offers trial Diamond membership for top tiers of competitor loyalty programs.  Listed elite levels can request Hyatt Gold Passport Customer Service to participate in the Status Match Challenge.
Competitors Hyatt Gold Passport will match:

• Hilton Gold VIP or Hilton Diamond VIP
• Marriott Gold or Marriott Platinum
• Starwood Platinum Preferred Guest
• Priority Club Platinum

You will receive trial Diamond membership for 60 days. However, you must complete 12 nights in 60 days to maintain Diamond tier through February of 2013. Diamond level normally requires you to stay 25 times or spend 50 nights at Hyatt hotels in one calendar year.  Note: this is a one in a lifetime offer, you can only status match once.  Diamond membership provides you some valuable benefits:

When you enroll for trial Diamond membership you’ll receive all of the above benefits during your challenge period.  As the Hyatt Hotels Corporation has some incredible luxury properties in it’s portfolio, this offers some great opportunities.  Have a look at the Park Hyatt, Grand Hyatt and Andaz hotels worldwide.

My Strategy

At the beginning of 2011, I set myself the goal of achieving Platinum level at PriorityClub, the highest (free) elite level at the InterContinental Hotels Group.  As 60K points were easily earned (signing up for all bonus points offers helps!), it took me less than three months to achieve this goal.

Today, the Hyatt Gold Passport Status Match Challenge offers me the opportunity to not only enjoy the benefits of my Platinum level at InterContinental brands (Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, Hotel Indigo, …)  but also have the perks of a Diamond at the Hyatt brands.

As I’ll be staying in Seoul next week, I have my first opportunity to collect eligible nights for the Status Match Challenge.  Generally Hyatt hotels aren’t cheap, in fact Park Hyatt and Grand Hyatt hotels can be very expensive.  My two night stay at Park Hyatt Seoul will set me back 500 euro.  That’s a lot of money for two nights luxury.  In exchange I’ll get a Park Suite King and all the Diamond benefits. Note: I upgraded my Park DLX King booking using a ‘Suite Upgrade Award certificate’.  As a Diamond you receive 4 of those certificates each year.  You can use them to upgrade a stay of up to 7 nights to a guaranteed Suite.

For the remaining ten nights of my challenge I did some research for Hyatt properties with low room rates but at nice locations.  I decided to go for the recently renovated Hyatt Regency Cancun with a room rate of 80EUR/day (10 night stay, 1168USD)  Using two Suite Upgrade Award certificates, I exchanged my standard King Room for a Regency Suite (Value 10 night stay, 2878USD)

Conclusion

After my 12 night challenge, I’ll have spend 1300 euro at Hyatt properties and used 3 out of 4 Suite Upgrade certificates for 2011.  This will provide me with Diamond status until Feb 2013 (best rooms, free internet, club access, free food & drinks, etc.. on future stays) and 4 new Suite Upgrade certificates in Feb 2012.  Is it worth it?  Well, I didn’t cover the loyalty points yet.  I’ll earn quite some points during those 12 nights.  Hyatt currently has the ‘Possibilities‘ promotion until end of June 2011:  10,000 Hyatt Gold Passport bonus points after you stay five nights and 5,000 bonus points for every two nights after that.  Additionally, the Status Match Challenge will provide me with 1000 bonus points per night for the first 6 nights.  Diamond status also includes 30% bonus on my base points.  You see where I’m going with this?  At the end of the 12 nights challenge, I’ll have enough points for at least two nights at the most luxurious hotels of the Hyatt portfolio! (Value: easily +1000EUR)

Expect detailed reports and pictures of my upcoming Hyatt stays. 😉