Tag Archives for hyatt.
There are some incredible hotels in the SLH portfolio, and it’s cool to be able to use Hyatt points for stays (though elite benefits don’t apply). Be careful on paid stays that you don’t overpay booking through Hyatt.
In general hotel rewards cards are good for their initial bonus offer, for status they give you just for having the card, and for an annual free night that’s worth more than the annual fee — making the card worth keeping.
That’s how I think about most hotel credit cards, but I go out of my way to spend on the World Of Hyatt Credit Card for 3 reasons.
American Airlines ConciergeKey members receive Hyatt Globalist status. It seems like Hyatt is extending a similar reciprocal benefit to some of their top tier Globalist members. Surprisingly, these Globalists – rather than rarified Courtesy Card members – are being given American Airlines Executive Platinum for 2020 (expires January 2021).
Hyatt free night certificates remain valid whenever award rooms are available even on nights where peak pricing applies.
A category 4 hotel is 12000 points off-peak, 15000 points standard, and 18000 points at peak. You’ll want to redeem these certificates during peak nights, and use points during standard and off-peak nights (while paying attention to certificate expiration).
In a change that mirrors what other larger hotel chains have done, Hyatt appears to be moving closer to revenue-based redemptions and delivering average rather than outsized value for points.
Starting in March there will be new off-peak and peak pricing levels for each free night award and In late January they’ll improve the value of points for in-hotel redemptions, getting at least a penny per point in value.
Hotels sometimes change from one brand to another. That means you may have a reservation at a hotel, it leaves the chain, and you won’t be able to earn points, elite stay credit, or receive elite benefits when that happens – although if the hotel joins a different chain you’ll be able to participate in the other program’s points and benefits.
Award nights are a little more complicated.
There’s an incredible redemption opportunity at Calala Island which is an SLH Hotel property in Nicaragua. Through Hyatt’s alliance with SLH you can redeem 40,000 Hyatt points per night there.
That’s a lot of points, however it goes from $2300 and up per night with cash; it’s all-inclusive, including flight and boat to and from the Managua airport and not just meals but alcoholic beverages too; and there are just 4 rooms on the private island, 3 of which are redeemable with points.
First we had deceptive resort fees – part of the room rate is hidden, called a fee, and you don’t see it included in the total cost of a room when you’re comparing hotel rates on a website. Resort fees spread to hotels that aren’t resorts. In cities they started to call resort fees urban destination fees.
I thought we had reached peak absurdity with the spread in Las Vegas of ‘venue fees’.
When I covered this new type of fee back in September I asked, ‘Karl Marx said history repeats itself first as tragedy then as farce. If venue fees is hotels repeating the resort fee as tragedy, can the farce be far behind?” Apparently we’ve already reached farce.
I just booked what I hope will be my last flights of 2019, and my last hotel stays as well. Looking back on the year I realize I traveled less – fewer days than I’ve spent on the road in recent times since the birth of my daughter last fall.
Less time in the air and in chain hotels for me will still seem like a lot of time away to many readers. In 2016 I was gone half the year. That hasn’t been close to true this year. Still, I’m on track to renew several of my status levels.
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 »
