Tag Archives for hyatt.
I’ve written about the risk you run booking an award stay with Hyatt or Marriott, that if you cancel after the cancellation deadline (say, for instance, your flight is cancelled) you don’t lose your points – you lose a cash forfeiture amount instead.
And your cash penalty can be really high. Most people think you lose your points if you make a points reservation and fail to cancel by the deadline. But that’s not how it works.
The Hyatt Regency Aruba has a history of playing games with free night award availability. They made it nearly impossible to spend Hyatt points, assigning only 22 out of their 357 rooms as potentially eligible for redemption. This hotel is actually owned by Hyatt, and after I brought their shenanigans to corporate’s attention they adjusted the practice.
However Aruba redemptions again became a problem. Some time in the second half of December all award night inventory at the property for 2023 zeroed.
There’s no current first quarter promotion from Hyatt that all members can take advantage of across their brands. However Hyatt is running a series of targeted promotions. You can check whether you’re eligible, and offers include free night certificates, suite upgrade awards, bonus points and triple points.
The Royal Palms Resort Phoenix may be my new favorite hotel in the area. The grounds are beautiful, service is excellent, and the food is even good. My own quibble would be with the rooms, which could very much use a refresh.
Overall the property – from Globalist recognition, to details in the room, to the club lounge – exceeded my expectations.
The Hyatt Regency JFK at Resorts World will be my new go-to for New York JFK airport overnights, and the cost of a roundtrip Uber will be worth it for the speed and convenience compared schlepping over to the shuttle pickup and then waiting for a hotel shuttle.
An anonymous reader captures something in a guest post that I think is important, based on some pretty extensive experience on the road. Hyatt is great if you can stick to full service properties not owned or managed by bad actors, but there aren’t enough properties and too many limited service ones. So where you going to go? You’re stuck with Marriott, so Marriott can get away with failing to live up to promises and expectations. It’s still better than the alternatives.
American AAdvantage and World of Hyatt have a useful partnership that allows American status members to earn 1 AAdvantage mile per dollar spent with Hyatt, and Hyatt elites to earn 1 Hyatt point per dollar spent on American flights. In addition they offer regular status challenges to each others’ members.
The latest status opportunity for American Airlines elites with Hyatt ends Wednesday. There’s a new opportunity for Hyatt elites with American.
Though I’ve been to India many times, it’s been several years since I’ve made the trip. And while I’m familiar with Hyatt’s Alila brand, I haven’t yet visited one in the Mideast or India. So I was happy to hear from reader Doug Hess after his recent trip to India, and to have him share his experience at Alila Fort Bishangarh in Rajasthan. It looks fantastic. It wasn’t on my radar, but I’m inclined to check it out myself now.
I’d have been fine with the reservations being cancelled within a few days of bookings, and not several weeks after those reservations have been made. Simply cancelling reservations after this much time without further accommodation is unacceptable. At a minimum offer a discount rate at the hotel for a standard room or suite, or some points by way of apology – and find a way to address costs that customers are actually incurring as a result of the property’s long wait to decide to cancel the bookings.
Ben Schlappig from One Mile at a Time reviewed the Hyatt House/Hyatt Place LAX and offered “I wouldn’t stay again, because I have issues supporting the owner and developer of the property (Aaron Schock).” He did not explain further, so I thought I would offer ‘the rest of the story.’
Schock is a former Illinois Republican Congressman who was indicted (but paid a fine as part of a deferred-prosecution agreement) for misappropriation of campaign funds. He came out as gay in 2020, but had a zero percent rating from the Human Rights Campaign.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
