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Hyatt offers to boost registered travelers: paying loyal guests' smart card fees.

Article Excerpt
Hyatt Hotels & Resorts last month announced it would offer complimentary Verified Identity Pass smart cards aimed to speed travelers through airport checkpoints to its Gold Passport Diamond tier members, representing the largest single purchase of Registered Traveler cards to date and the first supplier to offer complimentary membership to such a program.

This and other travel industry partnerships suggest such jointly marketed programs are poised to flourish as the Transportation Security Administration's planned June 20 nationwide Registered Traveler rollout approaches.

Steven Brill, CEO of Verified Identity Pass, told the senior travel executives at the Masters Program in Washington, D.C., last month Hyatt has purchased "tens of thousands" of memberships for the hotel chain's best customers. "Looking around the room," he said, "I'm seeing some other upcoming partnerships."

Thomas O'Toole, Hyatt senior vice president of strategy and systems, said the hotel company in the coming months will notify Gold Passport Diamond tier members--those who boast 50 Hyatt stays in a single year. Members then have a year to cash in on the onetime annual Verified Identity Pass membership. O'Toole said Hyatt would look to extend the program next year. "We can buy more and frankly we plan on doing so," O'Toole said. The cards will carry the core VIP smart card functionality, but will be co-branded with Hyatt.

Hyatt said its partnership with VIP was an exclusive among hotel companies for an unspecified, limited time--VIP said the frame was "very short"--and the chain plans to make the service available to other Hyatt guests through promotional...

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