I wanted to put a link into a hotel review of Hyatt Place Fremont. That was the first hotel I stayed at last year in my quest for Gold passport Diamond atatus and I think I went there three or four times in three weeks.

Turns out the post I re-read from March 2008 is much more pertinent to this current post regarding the value of elite status rather than being a Hyatt Place Fremont review.

http://boardingarea.com/blogs/loyaltytraveler/2008/03/17/thank-you-hyatt-im-going-to-bruce-springsteen/

You are correct that it should have stated December 31. Hyatt keeps me confused with overlapping promotions.

I have changed the thread title to remove January 31.

My quick estimate of the value of points is subjective and based on what I would expect to get from a good value redemption. It is certainly open to debate and it is certainly easy to get less value from hotel points.

Hilton $6-9/1,000 points
Hyatt $15-$20/1,000
IHG Priority Club $7-$10/1,000
Marriott Rewards $7-10/1,000
Starwood Preferred Guest $35-$50/1,000

This is what I quickly estimated points are worth based on going hotel rates and the cost for free nights in different categories and brands.

I am going to see my Hilton Gold status disappear in 2010, but might switch my HHonors Amex to the Surpass card to retain it at the cost of $75. I’d have to spend a lot more in mattress runs. Gold gave me very nice breakfasts and an awesome view at the Tokyo Conrad earlier in the year. Lounge access would have been nice, but frankly I didn’t go all the way to Tokyo to spend a lot of time “lounging”, so when they told me at checkin that they didn’t have any club room upgrades, it didn’t bother me too much.

My wife is the SPG gold holder in the family and was able to renew (thanks to my careful planning), though the benefits have really been faily minor so far. We did get a nice suite in Amman, Jordan earlier this year, but the check-in clerk idiotically said he didn’t have a room in the category we booked (thus essentially telling us we didn’t get it because of loyalty/status).

I don’t think I had ever stayed at a Hyatt until October, and thanks to their recent promotion I am now a Platinum with 11 stays (many double-stays, of course), and my MR this weekend will earn me my third free night. I’ll probably use the Costco certs and some cheap rates at the Fremont HP to renew Plat status through 2012, but I don’t have aspirations to go much beyond that, since I also feel the urge to burn miles/points next week.

I know you’ve posted many hotel points value tables in the past but could you post one that summarizes them with dollar values? It might look something like this.

Hotel Program Value per 1000 points
Starwood (SPG) $28
Hilton (HH) $9
Hyatt (GP) $20
…

I know they’re subjective but they can probably be figured out from both a redemption rate (how many points needed for room) and an accrual rate (for credit cards, SPG is 1 point per $, Hilton is 3 points per $).

Paul