Complete a two-night stay by September 12, 2010 at any of nine Hyatt Hotels in Northern California to receive a 5,000 points bonus. Rate code NCA5K includes 5,000 bonus points, 20% off lunch and dinner and 20% off spa services.

Nine participating hotels in this special offer are:
Grand Hyatt San Francisco
Highlands Inn – A Hyatt Hotel, Carmel Highlands
Hyatt at Fisherman’s Wharf
Hyatt Regency Monterey Hotel & Spa
Hyatt Regency Sacramento
Hyatt Regency San Francisco
Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport
Hyatt Regency Santa Clara
Hyatt Vineyard Creek Hotel & Spa, Santa Rosa

Book by September 9 and stay by September 12 for this offer.

Loyalty Traveler analysis:

Compare rates for this offer to determine its overall value for you. The rates tend to be higher than otherwise available. Sample searches showed rates up to $50 per night higher for hotels I checked.

5,000 bonus points alone may not make this a good deal due to the higher rates for this offer at most hotels. This can be an opportunity rate if you are planning to come to Carmel/Monterey, Sacramento, or the San Francisco Bay Area anyway, particularly if you plan to use the Hyatt restaurant or spa for your stay.

Weekend rates for Friday and Saturday are generally lower for most of these hotels, except in Monterey-Carmel where weekends are generally peak rates.

Labor Day weekend might be the lowest rates for this offer in San Francisco hotels. Santa Clara is typically the lowest overall price of these hotels with some weekend rates as low as $109 per night.

Hyatt Regency Santa Clara July 23-25 (Fri-Sun)

• $109/Night          NCA5K rate (5,000 BONUS POINTS)
• $109/Night          Hyatt Daily Rate  (AAA rate is $149)

Hyatt Regency Sacramento July 23-25 (Fri-Sun)

• $149/Night          NCA5K rate (5,000 BONUS POINTS)
• $134.10                 AAA rate 

Hyatt Regency Monterey August 20-22 (Fri-Sun)

• $229/night          NCA5K rate (5,000 BONUS POINTS)
• $206.10 AAA rate 

Highlands Inn, Carmel Highlands August 20-22 (Fri-Sun)

• $539/night          NCA5K rate (5,000 BONUS POINTS)
• $575                       AAA rate (includes breakfast for two) 

Hyatt Regency San Francisco September 3-5 (Fri-Sun)  

• $199.00 NCA5K rate (5,000 BONUS POINTS)
• $149.25                 AAA 

Grand Hyatt San Francisco September 3-5 (Fri-Sun)

• $199                       NCA5K rate (5,000 BONUS POINTS)
• $159.20                 AAA

Hyatt Regency San Francisco balcony room with Bay view

Six nights at the Hilton Diagonal Mar Barcelona and $5000 spending cash. Sound like a good vacation?

You must register for the sweepstakes at www.hilton.com/topchef before making a Hilton stay by September 15, 2010 to be entered into the sweepstakes. You can even get around the Hilton stay requirement and register by mail to enter the sweepstakes. HHonors reward stays are not eligible for entry. You may have a total of three entries by either method during the promotion period.

Hilton values this prize at $9,080. And this is another promotion only open to US residents.

Carlson Hotels Goldpoints Plus has a rare benefit in the hotel loyalty program world these days in giving bonus points for online bookings. The booking bonus of 1,000 points for any hotel reservation made online is available to any goldpoints plus member. And recently the online booking bonus was raised to 2,000 points for Goldpoints Plus Silver and Gold elite members.

Goldpoints plus Silver elite requires 10 stays or 15 nights in a calendar year. Silver elite members receive a 25% bonus on base points.

Gold elite membership takes 20 stays or 35 nights in a calendar year. Gold elites receive a 50% bonus on base points.

Goldpoints plus members normally earn 20 points per US$1 in the Americas or Asia-Pacific or 20 points per 1€ in Europe, Africa and the Middle East at Radisson Hotels or Park Plaza Hotels. Country Inn and Suites or Park Inn hotel stays earn 15 points per US$1 or 1€ in these regions.

Spend $150 at a Radisson Hotel in the USA and earn 3,000 base points + 1,000 online booking bonus points for 4,000 total points as a general goldpoints plus member. Silver elite member earns 5,750 total points. Gold elite earns 6,500 points.

Free nights with goldpoints plus start at 15,000 points for a Category 1 award night and go up to 60,000 points per night for a top level category 6 hotel award. A benefit of goldpoints plus in recent years is a periodic promotion for 50% off award nights. This promotion happened earlier in 2010 and hopefully will return later this year or in 2011.

A regular redemption benefit of Goldpoints plus are Cash + Points award nights starting at 5,000 points for category 1-3 hotels and a cash supplement.

Members seeking miles from hotel stays will find Goldpoints Plus has one of the best points-to-miles exchange rates of all hotel loyalty programs. Only Marriott Rewards tends to be better at higher transfer levels, but goldpoints plus has the advantage of allowing points-to-miles transfers starting at just 2,000 points for 250 miles with more than 20 different airlines. The rate improves to 18,000 miles when exchanging 100,000 points.

The current Goldpoints Plus promotion running through August 31 offers a free night at any Carlson Hotel worldwide with two stays at any Carlson Hotel worldwide. This is about the best deal currently available for travelers seeking to leverage paid hotel stays over the next six weeks into free nights you can use from September 1 through February 28, 2011.  

If you are wondering where the best hotel loyalty program deal is for hotel travel over the next several weeks, Carlson Hotels and goldpoints plus may be your best match. There are more than 1,000 Carlson Hotels globally with over 500 Country Inn & Suites properties in the USA alone.

Download the new Android app and earn 1,000 Priority Club points for each stay through September 30 booked on your mobile phone. You can check account balance, book rooms, cancel rooms, and redeem points for reward nights through your phone.

To download the new Priority Club® Rewards App for AndroidTM, visit the Android Marketplace from your mobile device and search for “Priority Club”, or use the QR Code image.

Hip Mama’s Place is another Marriott mommy with a 25,000 points giveaway to promote Marriott Instant Redemptions. The sweepstakes requires a comment on the blog. There are a variety of ways listed on Jocelyn Duncan’s blog to get additional entries in the giveaway. (I get five entries for this post).

To enter the Marriott points giveaway, leave a comment on this Hip Mama’s Place post and tell your favorite vacation spot within the U.S. and why.

Entries are accepted until 12 midnight EST Monday July 19. Giveaway is limited to USA entries.

Kimpton Hotels has a great restaurant option available for someone like me who hates the huge mark-up on wine when dining out. Through Labor Day you can bring two bottles of your own wine to a Kimpton Hotel restaurant and receive complimentary corkage.

Serrano Hotel San Francisco — here I come.

“We’ll have the Ponzu specials and here is my restaurant.com $25 dining coupon.”

A $2 coupon (purchased during 80% off Restaurant.com sale which occurs every few weeks) offering a $23 discount on a $50 meal and BYOW makes for the kind of hotel dining expense I can enjoy on my Loyalty Traveler budget.

Crab cakes with a view at Harry Denton’s Starlight Room on top of the Sir Francis Drake Hotel with my own bottle of wine.  That sounds like a delightful dinner date looking over Union Square San Francisco.

Harry Denton's Starlight Room (the building with the star) at top of Kimpton's Sir Francis Drake Hotel, San Francisco seen from the Grand Hyatt (Marriott Union Square at right)

Kimpton Hotels have restaurants in 23 cities around the USA, however, there are alcohol laws and this offer is only valid in the more liberal states of California, Florida, Illinois, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Washington, and the U.S. capital city of Washington, D.C.

Hyatt Gold Passport has some high value bonus miles offers for stays this summer. The 1,000 airline frequent flyer bonus miles per night promotion is from June 15 through September 30 for these nine airlines:

Monday, July 19 Update – American Airlines AAdvantage is not a participating airline for the 1,000 bonus miles per night promotion according to this announcement from Friday, June 16. Apparently members who had signed up for AA did receive the additional AAdvantage 1,000 bonus miles retroactive for stays since June 15, however, Gold Passport members will not be allowed to sign up for the 1,000 AA miles per night for the remainder of the promotion period. There is still the 3,000 AA miles per stay through October 15, 2010 for up to 20 stays. (See below)

Registration Links for 1,000 Airline Bonus Miles per Night (there are slight variations in the promotion period dates for different airline partners)

• American Airlines
• United Airlines
• US Airways
• Southwest Airlines (1.0 bonus credit per night)
• Amtrak
• ANA – All Nippon Airways
• Japan Airlines
• Thai Airways
• Jet Airways
• Lufthansa Miles & More (July 1-October 1)

The bonus can be earned for up to 30 nights for 30,000 bonus miles during the promotion period. Bonus miles are in addition to the regular 500 miles per hotel stay. Southwest normally earns 0.5 credit per stay, so a 1-night stay will earn 1.5 credits.

You can also register for this promotion by phone and ask to enroll in TP30K2010 for your preferred airline program.

Gold Passport 30,000 Bonus Miles Promotion Source: Hyatt Gold Passport 1,000 miles per night announcement on FlyerTalk by Gold Passport Concierge on July 13, 2010.

Choosing miles excludes earning 5 Gold Passport points per $1 for hotel stays. You also do not earn G bonus point offers when choosing miles.

Diamond members still can receive 1,000 Diamond amenity points for a hotel stay when choosing miles (500 points for Hyatt Place or Summerfield Suites). And even when choosing miles Gold Passport Diamond members are still eligible to receive bonus points Diamond benefit for a closed Regency Club (2,500 points) or bed preference unavailability (5,000 points).

Stackable Miles Bonus Hyatt Promotions for American Airlines and United Airlines

In addition to this offer there has been confirmation by Hyatt Passport Concierge that the 1,000 bonus miles per night may be combined with other concurrent promotions for American Airlines miles or United Airlines elite member mile bonus.

American Airlines 3,000 AAdvantage Miles per Hyatt Stay

Hyatt has a separate promotion for American Airlines to earn up to 60,000 AAdvantage miles for hotel stays from July 6 through October 15, 2010.

Gold Passport members choosing AAdvantage miles earn 2,500 bonus miles per stay in addition to the regular 500 miles per stay for a total 3,000 miles per stay for a maximum of 20 stays with this promotion.

Combine the two AA promotions and the Gold Passport member earns 3,000 miles per stay plus 1,000 miles per night through September 30. A one night stay earns 4,000 AAdvantage miles.

• 1-night stay = 4,000 AAdvantage miles
• 2-night stay = 5,000 AAdvantage miles
• 3-night stay = 6,000 AAdvantage miles
• 4-night stay = 7,000 AAdvantage miles

Hopefully you see the pattern here. One night stays are the way to max out this promotion offer at minimum cost.

There have been several postings on FlyerTalk in the past couple of days to clarify whether the 1,000 bonus miles per night promotion can be combined with the AAdvantage 2,500 bonus miles per stay promotion. Gold Passport Concierge confirmed these are stackable offers in this July 15 FlyerTalk post.

United Airlines

Mileage Plus elite members have had an offer for 2,000 bonus Mileage Plus miles per Hyatt brand hotel stay running all year from November 1, 2009 through January 31, 2011.

Gold Passport Concierge posted on FlyerTalk the new promotion may be combined with the older promotion for UA elites.

• 1-night stay = 3,500 Mileage Plus miles
• 2-night stay = 4,500 Mileage Plus miles
• 3-night stay = 5,500 Mileage Plus miles
• 4-night stay = 6,500 Mileage Plus miles

Hyatt hotel stays seem to be a cheaper way to earn miles than flying these days.

Hilton HHonors has a Golf Sweepstakes through September 6 with three Grand Prizes of 100,000 Hilton HHonors points and a 4 day/3 night trip for the winner and up to three guests at a hotel and 3 rounds of golf for four at one of five destinations.

• Waldorf Astoria Orlando in Orlando, FL (Celebration Golf Club, Waldorf Astoria Golf Club, and Eagle Creek Golf Club);
• Hilton Los Cabos Beach and Golf Resort in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico (Cabo Del Sol Golf Club, Palmilla Golf Club, and Cabo Real Golf Club);
• Arizona Biltmore in Phoenix, AZ (Arizona Biltmore Golf Club, TPC Scottsdale Stadium Course, and TPC Scottsdale Champion Course);
• Doubletree by Hilton Dunblane Hydro in Scotland  (Golf Course[s] to be determined by Sponsor);
• Grand Wailea in Maui, Hawaii  (Wailea Golf Club [Gold], Wailea Golf Club [Emerald], and Wailea Golf Club [Blue]).

Hotel accommodation is two rooms for three nights. Economy air travel for up to four persons is provided by United Airlines. Winner also receives a US$3,370.00 check. Total prize value is around $8,000 to $11,000.

Prize drawings will be around September 14, 2010. Trip must be booked 90 days in advance and trip must be completed within one year of prize notification or prize is forfeited.

First Prizes:

There are also four 1^st prizes of 50,000 HHonors points, a Taylormade driver and Adidas shoes.

Sweepstakes Entry

HHonors members get one online sweepstakes entry by registering at www.hhonors.com/golf between June 15 and September 6, 2010. Sweepstakes is limited to US 50 states + DC legal residents.

Additional entries: Each night you stay at a Hilton brand hotel through September 6, 2010 will create an additional entry into the golf sweepstakes.

Starwood Preferred Guest Rewarding Returns promotion is a choice between the offers of 25% off an award stay or 4,000 points or a $50 certificate after completing 5 hotel stays from July 1 to Dec 31.

Registration for this offer is required at SPG.com/rewardingreturns.

I had no hesitation choosing the 25% off award. The discount award is potentially worth 12,000 points in savings compared to the choice of 4,000 bonus points. Points are potentially a much higher value than the $50 certificate. The limitation of the 25% award discount is the discount is only valid for category 1 to category 5 hotels and the stay is limited to five nights. The best aspect of the award discount is the redemption period is good for one hotel stay up to five nights through July 31, 2011.

Update: 7:00pm, July 14

Well it turns out that SPG changed the terms and conditions on this offer yesterday to allow 25% off a 5th night free award. The original terms excluded the 25% discount on the 5th night free offer. I missed that change posted by Starwood Lurker (official SPG representative)  on page 21 of the FlyerTalk thread from July 13. The 25% discount in points for an award is now even a better deal.

To redeem the 25% award discount you must call SPG Customer Service 1-888-625-4911 and request award ID 485.

Blue colored cells are greater award discount than 4,000 points.

The best value for the 25% discount award is a four or five night Category 5 hotel stay for 36,000 points rather than 48,000 points – a savings of 12,000 points.

The 25% award discount is for one stay up to five nights, however, SPG normally discounts 20% points for any member booking a five night stay using points. There is only a slight savings using this discount for a five night stay since the discount is not combinable with the already discounted 5^th night free award option for any SPG member.

For example, the 25% discount on a five night Category 5 hotel stay only saves 3,000 points, reducing the cost from 48,000 points (5^th night free award) to 45,000 points (25% award discount). In this example the member is better off getting the 4,000 bonus points rather than the 25% award discount.

Basically any hotel stay of two to five nights at a category 4 or 5 hotel or a three to five night stay at a Category 3 hotel will save more than 4,000 points and is a better value than the 4,000 bonus points choice with this Rewarding Returns promotion offer.

The exclusion of category 6 and 7 is a relatively small number of properties. I can understand the restriction on category 7 hotels, but I sure would like to have seen category 6 hotels included for this offer.

In my opinion a nice touch by SPG would have been to offer SPG Gold elites up to Category 6 hotels in the 25% discount offer and SPG Platinum members the option of a discount on a category 7 award. There really has not been much from SPG this year to recognize SPG elite members with additional incentives. The SPG Platinum gift this year was a $25 hotel certificate when in the past there has been an offer of 50% off one award stay for Platinum members.

It is not too late SPG to recognize your elites with a distinctive offer.

Blue Whale sightings are at high numbers for Monterey Bay. Whales in the central coast area of California this past month are reported to be the most seen in the past decade in Monterey Bay.

Here is an amazing closeup of Blue whales and Humpback whales taken three days ago from one of Monterey’s whale watching cruises Princess Monterey Whale Watching 7-7-2010 Blue and Humpback Whales.

Princess Monterey Whale Watching is one of the major whale watching tour boats out of Monterey.  There are several other tour companies operating from the Monterey Fisherman’s Wharf.

For land viewing the coastline of Point Lobos is reputed to be one of the best places for seashore sightings of whales right now.

Sea Lions on the Beach at Fisherman’s Wharf, Monterey

They’re back !!!

The sea lions of the central coast left the region last year in high numbers. Food sources moved north and most of the sea lions of the Monterey Bay and San Francisco headed up to the Oregon coast. Then an unusual number of pups were born this spring in the cold waters of Monterey Bay. Normally they are born farther south in California. Apparently the trip south from Oregon was a bit too long for the moms.

The beach in Monterey near Fisherman’s Wharf has had hundreds of sea lions basking in the sun these past weeks.

Hundreds of sea lions on the beach below the path between Monterey Fisherman's Wharf and Cannery Row

Watching the young sea lions play and swim in the clear water is a treat. These large animals move incredibly fast under the water as they swim quickly around rocks and leap over other marine swimmers.

The sea lion barking is loud and their smell is strong. This is quite a spectacle to behold in Monterey. Come on down and check out the Monterey Bay wildlife this summer.

Who knows how long the sea lions and whales will hang around in such abundance and this close to people?