Hyatt has a promotion for 1,500 bonus points at AVIA, Hotel Sierra and Hyatt Summerfield Suites for stays from November 22 through January 8, 2012. Use Special Offer Code 1500GP when booking rates. There is no higher rate for using this code. 1500GP promotion works with AAA and AARP discount rates too.

There is no list of participating hotels. Every hotel I tried in these brands showed 1,500GP beside the rate code.

Hyatt AVIA Napa AAA discount + 1,500 bonus points per stay.

The Gold Passport Diamond customer service agent didn’t mention this offer when I booked AVIA Long Beach last week and the earliest mention I see of the offer on the web is November 26. I will see if I can get the bonus retroactively?

My AVIA Long Beach hotel review this week shows several photos of a master suite at the property along with the hotel facilities. The pool is a great hotel feature. Checking this 1500GP rate I see AVIA Long Beach has a special December 2011 offer for the master suite room category at $119. This rate also allows 1500GP bonus. That is a deal for this hotel. The lowest advance purchase rate is $171.15 for the Master Suite room.

Gold Passport Suite Upgrade rate AVIA Long Beach Dec 13, 2011.

This looks like a good Winter Hyatt Gold Passport Bonus Offer.

Winter Hyatt Gold Passport Bonus Offer AVIA, Hotel Sierra, Summefield Suites for stays Nov 22-Jan 8, 2012.

The promotion also mentions Hyatt House which is the new 2012 Hyatt brand being created from Hyatt Summerfield Suites and recently acquired Hotel Sierra extended stay properties. Four AVIA upper upscale boutique hotels were also acquired by Hyatt in the Hotel Sierra deal.

Passports with Purpose 2011 Reminder

Hyatt Gold Passport donated a 110,000 points prize to sponsor Loyalty Traveler for the Passports with Purpose raffle.

$10 per ticket can win you some really cheap points (Loyalty Traveler post Nov 30, 2011).

There was a live chat between Randy Petersen and Jeff Zidell, head of Hyatt Gold Passport loyalty program on MilePoint last night. This is the first MilePoint chat I have logged into and I was unaware the format is a computer version of a radio style chat, except no voices and limited audience participation .

First, let me sincerely give thanks to Jeff Zidell and Randy Petersen and the folks at the House of Miles for giving Hyatt Gold Passport members an opportunity to get some first-hand insight into Hyatt Gold Passport.

I don’t want to shoot the messengers – just the messaging system.

I should probably keep my critical comments to a minimum, but I am acting bipolar this week and I seem incapable of shutting my blog mouth. This past week I have ragged on Carlson Hotels, the J.W. Marriott L.A. and city of Los Angeles and now I’ll take on Hyatt and MilePoint.

Engagement with the Audience

While the MilePoint chat format was a window into a conversation, there was little opportunity for engagement as an audience member tuning in for the hour. I felt like I was being waterboarded with words dripping slowly onto the computer screen one sentence at a time. A question would be raised and then dead space for a couple of minutes until the next statement appeared.

I assume Randy Petersen was able to see what comments people were submitting to the chat during the hour. I don’t know if Jeff Zidell was getting a feed of comments.

As an audience member I was surprised to find the entire conversation filtered. I made comments and submitted questions during the hour, but nothing I wrote came up in the chat. This also happened to BoardingArea blogger MommyPoints who submitted a question during the chat.  Consider yourself fortunate if you were not sitting in front of your computer for the entire 60+ minutes of the live broadcast as you can read the entire chat transcript in ten minutes.

Jeff Zidell was good humored and opened up with a joke about MilePointers having the opportunity to “Occupy Hyatt Gold Passport” for an hour. The thing about the Occupy movement is the audience has a voice and opportunity to give immediate feedback to the speakers. There was little opportunity for audience participation here.

Here is my 3 minute summary of the topics covered:

1. Hyatt restaurants have rolled out a new hamburger bun – softer and richer.

2. Hyatt has about 125 hotels in development around the globe.

3. Cash & Points and Discount Award Nights are on Hyatt’s radar.

4. Faster Free Nights, the periodic promotion Hyatt Gold Passport ran every year until 2011 for a free hotel night after every two stays, does not seem to be on Hyatt’s radar now.

5. Jeff Zidell has been with Hyatt Gold Passport for 3.5 years. One year after he arrived Gold Passport made major changes in April 2009 to elite membership: complimentary Internet for our elite tiers, full breakfast for Diamond members, 72/48-hour guaranteed availability for Platinum/Diamond and four confirmed Diamond Suite Upgrades. This year additional Diamond member enhancements include 4pm late checkout and enhanced welcome amenities at Hyatt Place and Hyatt Summerfield Suites.

6. Earn points and redeem points for Food & Beverage and Spa services when not staying at the Hyatt property are being beta tested now. Expect more availability in 2012.

7. Hyatt Reservations system improvements are coming in 2012.

8. Hyatt Gold Passport Lifetime Diamond membership requirements are ten years as a Hyatt Gold Passport (no need to be Diamond) and 1,000,000 base points earned (equivalent to $200,000 hotel spend).

9. Jeff Zidell stated Hyatt wants to create “true loyalty, not operate a profit center.” He commented the credit card has increased loyalty. “In addition, we want to maintain a very compelling and competitive award chart, which comes under pressure if you flood the market with a lot of additional points.”

- My Loyalty Traveler reply is Hyatt had the leading edge competitive award chart prior to the creation of Category 6 hotel rewards and the hotel shift upwards in the system. The program is still competitive compared to most others in terms of the distribution of hotels with most hotels in the lower half of the reward categories. At the upper end the program is losing ground in terms of the cost for a Category 5 or 6 hotel reward based on the rate points are earned for hotel spend.

I take Jeff’s response to indicate a Hyatt Gold Passport shopping portal is not in the works.

10. Property level specific bonuses, so-called “G Bonuses” since the promo code started with the letter G, do not appear to be too big on Hyatt’s radar either.

Loyalty Traveler comment – I think I broke the story of G bonuses going by the wayside from a chat I had with Jeff Zidell in March 2011. At that time he stated they might be coming back in July. I guess not!

11. Why are Hyatt properties shortchanging the number of points posted from stays?

Jeff said this was unacceptable.

This is another issue I raised on Loyalty Traveler in December 2010 and my post even prompted a few back and forth emails with Jeff and Hyatt. This July-August 2011 thread on FlyerTalk suggests the issue is widespread and apparently has still not been resolved.

12. Are there additional benefits for Gold Passport members who spend 75 or 100+ nights per year? Are there benefits for reaching 2 million, 3 million and more points?

Loyalty Traveler comment – At this point, 40 minutes into the chat I had to get snarky and submit my question “Are we whale hunting with Jeff Zidell?” referring to the term whales used by casinos for the really big money spenders. Hyatt already has an uber-elite level called Courtesy Card. Here is a Loyalty Traveler post on Courtesy Card.

13. When asked if Hyatt is considering award stays for elite qualification, Jeff responded, “We are looking into this, but we don’t think that it would impact very many members.”

Then Jeff followed up with a question, “Would you stay more frequently with us if this option were part of the program? Again, feel free to Tweet us using the hashtag #HyattGP.”

I jumped on Twitter and found BoardingArea blogger Mommy_Points posted a tweet at the same time in response to this question.

I realized we could actually have a real time audience conversation on Twitter around the MilePoint chat as it was happening. But I think Mommy_Points and I were the only two using that media outlet for that purpose at the time.

14. Complimentary Internet – wired or wireless is up to the hotel. I wrote an article about that last year.

15. Stays Count Double Promotions – Promotions for double elite credit, like FFN, were another annual promotion offer from Hyatt Gold Passport until this year. Looks like we won’t be seeing these come back in the near future.

Jeff’s response: “This is something that we are always looking at, but we have found that these types of promotions undermine the integrity of our tiers. We hear from many of our members that tier integrity is really important.”

My response: Looks like all the Hyatt Gold Passport fast-tracking to elite status went from 60mph to 0. You can still possibly pull in a Gold Passport Diamond Stay Challenge if you are acceptable.

16. Diamond Breakfast – Will Hyatt Gold Passport standardize the complimentary breakfast benefit for Diamond members? Yes!

Hyatt Gold Passport Takeaways

My takeaways from the conversation is Hyatt is pulling back on the high value promotions that attracted many of us to the program over the past decade. The company went public, partnered with a bank for a co-branded credit card, gave top elite status for 18 months to anyone who asked prior to the credit card launch and since then has added a new top tier hotel category, shifted a large portion of hotels upward in category, and made Diamond elite a more beneficial status level, but removed the avenues to reach this level without 25 paid stays or 50 paid hotel nights a year.

Hyatt Gold Passport is still among the most generous hotel loyalty programs in my opinion, but reaching and maintaining top-tier Diamond elite is going to require more hotel spend and the free nights earned are likely to be less than in years past for many of us Gold Passport members.

Hyatt Gold Passport is currently offering 409 bonus offers at 273 hotels. That is an impressive number of points-earning opportunities for a hotel chain with just around 425 hotels.

Gold Passport points bonuses are often referred to as “G” Bonuses on FlyerTalk. These points and miles bonus opportunities contribute significantly to earning points quickly through Hyatt Gold Passport.

Most full service Hyatt Hotels offer a G bonus for 1,000 bonus points per stay, 1,500 points or 2,000 points per stay depending on the days of week. Some hotels limit the bonus to weekday stays, some hotels limit bonus to weekends and some hotels offer a bonus any day of the week.

Spend $200 and you earn only 1,000 Gold Passport base points at the earn rate of 5 points per dollar. Add on 2,000 bonus points per stay and this is like earning 3x points for a $200 hotel stay.

There are several regional promotions for 2,000 bonus points per stay for hotels in Europe, Africa, Middle East, Asia-Pacific and U.S. These regional offers are listed below. There are also over 200 hotels with an individual hotel G bonus points offer.

Loyalty Traveler Note: Hyatt promotion code links below go to a specific property offering the promotion. These links are provided solely to show a webpage with offer. These promotional offers apply to several Hyatt Hotels in the specific promotion region.

Southeast U.S.

• Promotion Code 10GPX2 = Double Points on Southeast Stays
• Earn 10 points per dollar.
• Rate includes 10% off hotel dining and bar.
• Book any eligible rate (AAA, senior are allowed.)
• Promotion offer dates January 19 – April 24, 2011.

Western U.S.

• Promotion Code 2,500GP  = Plot a Post-Holiday Winter Getaway promotion.
• 2,500 points for stays at participating hotels in California, Pacific Northwest and western Canada.
• Promotion offer dates January 19 – March 31, 2011.
• Minimum 2-night stay.
• Book Hyatt Daily Rate.
  • The 15% off spa services is valid at Hyatt Regency Calgary’s Stillwater Spa, Hyatt at Olive 8′s Elaia Spa, Grand Hyatt Seattle is valid at Olive 8′s Elaia Spa, Hyatt Vineyard Creek Hotel & Spa’s Vineyard Creek Spa, Hyatt Regency Monterey Hotel & Spa’s Accista Spa, Highlands Inn guests at either Accista Spa or for in-room spa treatments, Hyatt Regency Century Plaza’s Equinox Spa, Hyatt Regency Newport Beach’s Wellness Day Spa, Hyatt Regency Mission Bay’s Blue Marble Spa and Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego’s Kin Spa.
  • Lunch and dinner 15% discount is not applicable for tax, gratuity or alcoholic beverages, and is only valid for in-room dining at Hyatt Regency Bellevue and at Grand Hyatt Seattle for in-room dining or at Urbane restaurant at Hyatt at Olive 8.

Europe, Middle East and Africa

• Promotion Code GP 481  
• 2,000 points per stay at participating hotels in Europe, Middle East and Africa
• Book Hyatt Daily Rate.
• Promotion offer dates January 15 – April 15, 2011.

Germany:

Grand Hyatt Berlin, Hyatt Regency Dusseldorf, Hyatt Regency Mainz, Hyatt Regency Cologne and Park Hyatt Hamburg. 

• Promotion Code LH397  
• 1,000 Lufthansa Miles per stay. Must choose to earn miles instead of points at hotel check-in.
• Book Hyatt Daily Rate.
• Receive 20 EUR fodd and beverage credit per stay.
• Promotion offer dates January 15 – April 15, 2011.

Asia Pacific

• Promotion Code GP643 = Regency Club bonus
• 2,000 points per stay at participating Hyatt Regency hotels in Asia Pacific.
• Must book Regency Club room type rate (includes Regency Club access for stay).
• Book any eligible rate. [LT note: advance purchase, AAA, senior rates eligible, but must book Regency Club room type for bonus.]
• Promotion offer dates December 20 – February 28, 2011.

Asia Pacific

• Promotion Code GP647 = ‘Weekday Stays are more rewarding in Asia Pacific’
• 2,000 points per stay at participating Hyatt Regency hotels in Asia Pacific.
• Must stay a weekday Sunday through Thursday.
• Book any eligible rate. [LT note: advance purchase, AAA, senior rates eligible.]
• Promotion offer dates January 20 – March 15, 2011.

Australia/New Zealand

• Promotion Code GP646
• 1,500 points per stay at participating Hyatt hotels in Australia and New Zealand.
• No day of week or room type restrictions.
• Book any eligible rate. [LT note: advance purchase, AAA, senior rates eligible.]
• Promotion offer dates January 20 – March 15, 2011.

Master List of Hyatt Gold Passport Bonus Offers 

The Hyatt Gold Passport list used to be a much more condensed format enabling hotels to be searched significantly more quickly than the typically slow-crawl Hyatt website currently allows.

Hyatt has 28 pages with 273 hotels and 409 bonus offers at the time of this post. 

One of the issues I frequently have with Hyatt Gold Passport is missing G Bonus points from hotel stays. Simply call up Hyatt Gold Passport customer service a week or two after your stay if the points do not post. This generally works well for getting missing points added quickly to your account.

Hyatt GP Bonus Offers typically add 2,000 points to your hotel stay.

Book Special Offer Code 5000GP and earn 5,000 bonus points for a minimum two-night stay from September 25 through December 30 at 27 hotels in California, Washington, or Vancouver and Calgary Canada. You will also receive 15% off dining and spa services.

This offer is combinable with The Great 10K promotion for 10,000 points after 5 nights at Hyatt brands. Essentially you can earn over 10,000 points with a two-night stay.

Rates are 15% off daily rate and comparable or even lower than advance purchase and AAA rates for many of these hotels.

Participating Hotels

California

• Andaz San Diego
• Andaz West Hollywood
• Grand Hyatt San Francisco
• Highlands Inn, a Hyatt Hotel (Carmel/Monterey)
• Hyatt at Fisherman’s Wharf (San Francisco)
• Hyatt Regency Century Plaza (Los Angeles)
• Hyatt Regency Irvine (Disneyland area-Orange County)
• Hyatt Regency La Jolla (San Diego area)
• Hyatt Regency Long Beach
• Hyatt Regency Mission Bay (San Diego)
• Hyatt Regency Monterey
• Hyatt Regency Newport Beach
• Hyatt Regency Orange County
• Hyatt Regency Palm Springs Suites
• Hyatt Regency Sacramento
• Hyatt Regency San Francisco
• Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport
• Hyatt Regency Santa Clara (San Jose)
• Hyatt Regency Valencia (Los Angeles area)
• Hyatt Vineyard Creek Hotel & Spa (Santa Rosa, north of San Francisco)
• Hyatt Westlake Plaza  (near Ventura-Oxnard)
• Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego

Washington State

• Hyatt Regency Bellevue (Seattle area)
• Hyatt at Olive 8 (Seattle)
• Grand Hyatt Seattle

Canada

• Hyatt Regency Calgary (Alberta)
• Hyatt Regency Vancouver (British Columbia)

Hyatt Regency Monterey 5000GP rate for Nov 10-12, 2010

One catch is this offer is apparently not combinable with Hyatt G Bonus offers for the same stay according to this October 4 post by Gold Passport Concierge on FlyerTalk.

Speaking of Hyatt G Bonuses – the recent Gold Passport web redesign makes it more difficult to quickly find G Bonus offers. Now you have to search by state or country to see bonus offers and it is much more time-consuming than the former display.

Old G Bonus display from January 2010

Current G Bonus Display - October 2010

Stay 5 nights at any Hyatt brand hotel worldwide between September 15 and December 15, 2010 and earn 10,000 bonus points. This is a good and straightforward deal. You can earn up to 180,000 bonus points from this offer if you spend every night in a Hyatt Hotel during the promotion period.

No double/triple points threshold of 10 nights like Starwood Preferred Guest. No ridiculous 30 Saturdays or 75 nights like some IHG Priority Club members received. No targeted Hilton HHonors Diamond member bonus that could be either a free night anywhere or just 25,000 bonus points after ten nights this fall. No exclusive credit card tie-in like the Marriott Rewards MegaBonus offers requiring Visa payment.

Hyatt Gold Passport Great10K registration is required.

ELIGIBILITY/HOW TO REGISTER: To participate in this Promotion, you must be a Hyatt Gold Passport member and register for this promotion. Current member registration begins August 24, 2010 by calling 1-800-228-3360 or you’re nearest Hyatt Worldwide Reservation Centre.

Current member online registration is available beginning September 15, 2010 by visiting goldpassport.com/welcome10K. New member enrollments between September 15, 2010 and December 15, 2010 will be automatically registered for the promotion.

Hyatt Gold Passport follows the Promotion Nights Trend

The Hyatt Great 10K promotion rewards nights rather than stays, following the pattern for most of the hotel loyalty program promotions running this fall.

The advantage of a promotion based on nights is you have the ability to fulfill the promotion requirements with extended stays. Technically an extended stay is defined as four or more nights according to some document I saw last week. Promotions counting nights like the Hyatt Great 10K allow you to go to Hawaii for five or seven nights and still earn 10,000 bonus points tacked on to your regular stay points and other bonuses.

Many Gold Passport members were hoping for another few months of Hyatt’s Stay two times and earn a free night promotion. Hyatt Gold Passport marketing probably felt the time was right for a cease and desist of the free night offer after having run the free night offer for more than 11 months of the past 24 months. I suspect Hyatt Gold Passport needs to save some promotion firepower in reserve for a good roll-out promotion with the new Hyatt Visa credit card coming this fall.

A free night after two stays offer encourages hotel hopping as a strategy to maximize the free nights bonus. Free nights is a good game for those of us with highly flexible hotel arrangements, yet leaves some of the more profitable customers with multi-night stays feeling a little cheated when the $3,000 week-long Hawaii vacation does not earn a single Hyatt free night while someone hopping around Hyatt Place hotels picks up three free nights to use anywhere in the world, even Hawaii, for under $500.

Loyalty Traveler Analysis of Hyatt Great 10K Promotion

10,000 points after five nights is an additional 2,000 bonus points per night on top of base points, ‘G’ bonuses and elite bonus points if applicable. The Great 10K can still earn quite a few bonus points even for the one-night stand kind of traveler.

Sample Hyatt Stay itinerary:

Sep 17 Grand Hyatt San Francisco $175.20 (G Bonus = 2,000 points)

Sep 18: Hyatt Regency Santa Clara $84.15 (G Bonus = 1,000 points)

Sep 21: Hyatt Vineyard Creek Santa Rosa $151.20 (G Bonus 1,500 points)

Oct 8-10: Hyatt Regency Chicago $592.20  (G Bonus 2,000 points)

$1,002.75 base rate for 5 Hyatt hotel nights 

(Remember this is just an example. I could have just as easily pieced together five nights for under $400 staying at Hyatt Place hotels.)

$1,002 x 5 points/$1 = 5,010 base points + 6,500 G bonus points + 10,000 Great 10K bonus points

21,510 Gold Passport points earned for five nights.

If you are elite, then you also receive 750 bonus points as a Platinum elite (15% base points) or 1,500 bonus points as a Diamond elite member (30% base points).

You should be an elite member of Hyatt Gold Passport unless you are new to the Hyatt Gold Passport program or you squandered your opportunity for maintaining complimentary elite status since Hyatt Gold passport gave free elite membership to anyone who asked from mid-2009 to May 2010. Five stays at Hyatt and you will receive Platinum elite and its benefit of complimentary internet.

Hyatt Gold Passport Hotel Reward Categories

Hyatt has the majority of its 400+ hotel properties in the lower half of the Gold Passport free night award hotel categories in Category 1 = 5,000 points; category 2 = 8,000 points; and category 3 = 12,000 points. The upper tier properties are category 4 = 15,000 points; category 5 = 18,000 points and category 6 = 22,000 points.

In the example itinerary above the elite Gold Passport member earns enough points in 5 nights for a free night at any Hyatt in the world.

Earning Miles with Hyatt’s Great 10K promotion

Hyatt Hotels extends its generosity by allowing Gold Passport members who want miles to double dip with the Great 10K points bonus. There are some high value miles promotions concurrently running with the Great 10K offer.

Gold Passport Concierge posted Great 10K promotion FAQ on FlyerTalk. It says members who are earning miles rather than points will still be eligible to earn the Great 10K bonus of 10,000 points after five nights. 

Great 10K offer is combinable with current airline miles bonus offers

Hyatt currently has high value bonus mile offers for at least ten airlines. There is the American Airlines 60,000 miles bonus for 3,000 miles each stay through October 15, 2010. There is also the 1,000 miles per night promotion running through September 30 with a choice of nine airlines. 

Choosing miles means you are not eligible for Gold Passport base points or G bonus points offers. Some G bonus offers are actually for double miles so be sure to check. Basically you get the registered promotion miles bonuses and the 10,000 Gold Passport points bonus after five nights.

In the California and Chicago itinerary shown above, the Gold Passport earning AA miles would receive these bonuses:

$1,002 spent on 4 Hyatt stays (AA promotion stays must be by October 15, 2010)

• 12,000 American Airlines AAdvantage miles
• 10,000 Gold Passport points

or

$1,002 spent on 5 Hyatt nights with the 1,000 miles per night promotion (assume 5 nights for this promotion completed by Sep 30).

• 5,000 United Mileage Plus miles (or 5,000 miles in any other participating airline for 1,000 miles/night promotion through Sep 30)
• 10,000 Gold Passport points in Great 10K bonus

Hyatt Gold Passport’s Great 10K may not be as easy for some members to earn free nights as the Big Welcome Back promotion of spring 2010, but this is one of the best hotel loyalty promotions currently available for fall 2010. And if you actually need extended stays at Hyatt Hotels, then this is your opportunity to rack up more points than you could with the Big Welcome Back offer last spring for 5,000 points after every two stays.

Loyalty Traveler Post-Analysis:  

While many Gold Passport members were hoping for free nights and feel disappointment, there were eleven months in the past 24 months with the promotion for a free Hyatt hotel night after two stays. Hyatt was basically the only hotel loyalty program with a recurrent high value, low stay requirement free night offer open for general Gold Passport members these past two years.

The worst hotel recession since the Great Depression spawned free night offers across the spectrum of hotel loyalty programs for the past 16 months. These high value free night offers were an aberration in hotel loyalty program marketing in my ten plus years of following hotel loyalty programs. Hyatt Hotels is the standard-bearer in free night promotions and I suspect we will see another free night offer before too long.

Past Promotions for Hyatt Gold Passport Free Nights

Spring 2010 Big Welcome Back

Loyalty Traveler post, March 20, 2010

• Earn: March 26 – June 30 2010
• Redeem: April 1-Aug 31, 2010

Fall 2009 Hyatt Gold Passport Faster Free Nights Promotion and combined promotion offers

Loyalty Traveler promotion post , (Oct 1, 2009)

• Earn Oct 1, 2009 – Jan 31, 2010
• Redeem: March 31, but extended to April 30 general members, May 31 Platinum, June 30 for Diamond

Fall 2008 Faster Free Nights

Loyalty Traveler post, Aug 22, 2008

• Earn: Sep 1, 2008 – Dec 30, 2008;
• Redeem: Sep 15, 2008 – Feb 28, 2009

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.

My headache subsided as we reached the sea air of the city of Ventura around noon Sunday. The morning coastal fog was a little less brown traveling out of Los Angeles County.

SoCal is so crowded. Truly.

It is a fact that the SoCal area is densely populated. 17-million-plus people according to the 2000 census live in an area of about 3,000 square miles of urban sprawl. Development stretches solidly from Los Angeles County south to San Diego and east past Riverside. There are lots of mountain ridges surrounding the LA basin and Orange County valleys and there are views all over of the barren hillsides too unstable for development, and even some desert tracts without houses or businesses or freeways, but travel north or south on the I-5 or I-405 San Diego freeways and you drive for hours through a solid mass of tract homes, shopping malls, industry—light and heavy, surface roads and infrastructure to support the largest and most densely populated metropolitan sprawl in the USA outside of urban New York City.

Kelley asked where downtown LA is located as she looked out the car window for the tallest skyscraper on the West Coast. I pointed my finger in the direction where I thought the downtown skyscrapers were located relative to our position on the 405, but we couldn’t really see it through the coastal fog-smog.

In comparison to SoCal, the San Francisco-East Bay-San Jose corridor is around 5 million people living in a city on the peninsula that ends with the Golden Gate Bridge and under 1,000 square miles spreading primarily east and south of the San Francisco Bay and extending through the valleys. The primary difference between the two densely populated areas of northern and southern California is an abundance of natural space left around San Francisco’s dense urban development.

The San Francisco Bay area has plenty of access to the undeveloped seashore or just a short drive allows you to hang out in the forests of trees to the north of the Golden Gate Bridge or south along the eighty mile stretch of peaks and valleys in the Santa Cruz Mountains separating the Santa Clara Valley (San Jose area) from the sea. Kelley and I drove along Skyline Drive ten days ago where the road runs the ridge top and views of both the San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean provide a breathtaking vista on a clear day.

The Santa Cruz Mountains is the location for the Tour of California cycling race today from San Francisco to Santa Cruz. Kelley is a Lance Armstrong fan. My cheers go out for Luxembourg’s Andy Schleck. We can’t wait for the Tour de France.

Back to the OC

There were some beautiful moments and remembrances throughout the weekend. The view out the 16^th floor windows of the Hyatt Long Beach to what is a truly long strip of sandy beach is a Southern California dream. Kelley liked the water fountains on the coastal islands. I explained to her the islands a few hundreds yards out in the water are actually decorated oil wells. She had a clue after an hour walk on the sandy beach in the lapping water and five minutes scrubbing her blackened feet back in the hotel room.

Oil Drilling with Flair

I hadn’t been in Long Beach for nearly twenty years and I was impressed by the downtown and waterfront development. The area has appeal with brewpubs, restaurants, the Aquarium, the beach, the Queen Mary, walking paths, light rail, and entertainment spots.

Queen Mary in Long Beach harbor

Hyatt Long Beach is attached to the Long Beach Convention Center. The hotel was perfectly situated for the festivities of the weekend.

California dreaming in Long Beach

Long Beach was preparing for a gay day with 80,000 attendees projected for the Long Beach Pride Festival. I love a good party. Unfortunately, Kelley and I were both sick with a flu-type cold. I was so sick that I hardly took any photos of the Hyatt Long Beach hotel.

Hyatt Long Beach

On a foggy Saturday morning, a ray of light shone through a bright spot to illuminate a center portion of a bridge with a radiant white glow while everything else remained a subdued foggy grey. The day was not a day for me and Kelley to party anyway as my family gathered on the hillside of San Pedro above the sparkling Pacific in the cool afternoon sun of Saturday. We came to SoCal to memorialize my sister’s husband who died suddenly and unexpectedly at the young age of 52 in Seattle two weeks before.

Dana, my brother-in-law was a brilliant man and loving husband originally from the OC; a Renaissance literature scholar, www.Shakespeare.com founder, and computer science engineer educated at UC Santa Cruz and a doctorate from Yale University. He had a preference for quality over value in travel and fine dining while maintaining a progressively friendly sensibility to politics and the environment.

The artist's reflection

He and my sister help me maintain some sort of connection to the current pulse of the finer arts in terms of music, literature, theater and film. They never asked me for hotel advice. They were more focused on experiential travel rather than value travel. We generally met up in Las Vegas these past few years where I would visit them in their room at the Wynn or Bellagio and they would visit me in my suite at Planet Hollywood. I often had the bigger room but they generally had the more upscale room. They are the kind of guests hoteliers love.

“Ain’t it funny how you are walking through life and it turns on a dime.” – Vonda Shephard.

Enough of the personal remembrances and on to the hotels and my NoCal biased platitudes on SoCal life.

Hyatt Regency Irvine had us looking out over the 405 freeway where I surveyed freeway lights, wide streets, and the glow of office buildings.  The Marriott Hotel and Crowne Plaza in the distance, past the large low rise industrial warehouses next to the freeway are pretty to see at night. In the daylight Sunday I couldn’t help but feel I had the Orange County Blues again.

Hyatt Regency Irvine

For me, hotel stays in the OC are like a bad gambling run whether playing at the Hyatt, Starwood, or Hilton table. I keep thinking my luck will change, but I haven’t had a decent upgrade in an Orange County hotel in years. We really should just save our money and sleep on my sister’s couch.

This SoCal climate of six lane freeways and foggy morning skies that burn and meld into smoggy afternoon hazes kind of turns our NoCal  (Northern California) sensibilities rancid. We saw a bloodied man Saturday afternoon on the 405 in the center lanes of the six lane freeway and drivers were haphazardly accelerating across four lanes to cut me off as they sped around the injured man lying in the center of the freeway.

By Sunday morning I needed the northern California sea again so I could see again.

Driving 101 home I decided that San Luis Obispo County, 200 miles north of LA County is where northern California starts — at the point on the road where Highway 101 posts bear crossings. Yeah, real bear crossing signs are posted beside the freeway just south and north of San Luis Obispo. This felt like home again when we were back in a place where black bears can still survive in the wild in the large Los Padres National Forest and Ventana Wilderness region stretching from Los Angeles to Monterey.

I can complain about the Hyatt Irvine hotel view, but the hotel stay worked out okay. Kelley and I had a free breakfast on our AAA rate and 6,158 points with the 1,000 Hyatt Gold Passport Diamond amenity points + 2,500 points for a closed Regency Club on the weekend + 2,000 points for a G2 Bonus, and 658 points for the $101 room rate.

The Hyatt Regency Irvine had a prepaid rate of $83 per night for Saturday night, but I paid the $101.15 AAA rate to enable the use of my Costco certificates and the AAA rate includes breakfast in case you aren’t a Gold Passport Diamond member.

Hyatt Irvine and other places like Hyatt Santa Clara have some incredible value opportunities for the traveler with flexibility. The Hyatt Irvine rates during mid-week were $200 per night and the Regency Club bonus would be deducted from the total points. But a cheap weekend night and 6,000 points on a $100 room night and a two stays for one free night promotion period makes Hyatt quite the deal for May and June travel.

How long will Hyatt Gold Passport retain these lucrative high value incentives for Gold Passport members?

Live and stay for today while loyalty living is good.

Tomorrow is unpredictable.

Santa Cruz seashore looking south to Monterey

Hyatt Gold Passport is allowing members who earned Faster Free Nights during the Next Big Thing promotion from October 1, 2009 to January 31, 2010 the opportunity to redeem free nights past the original promotion date of March 31, 2010.

You must call Hyatt Customer Service prior to February 28 to request an extension of your earned free night awards at 1-800-304-9288.

New Redemption Deadlines:

• April 30, 2010 Hyatt Gold Passport General members
• May 31, 2010 Hyatt Gold Passport Platinum members
• June 30, 2010 Hyatt Gold Passport Diamond members

Remember – you must call to request the free night redemption extension before February 28 at 1-800-304-9288.

Source: Gold Passport Concierge FlyerTalk post

Redemption opportunity: I just called to check on free nights for Hyatt Highlands Inn in Carmel. Rooms were available for free night redemption for 5 nights next week from Monday, February 15 through Friday, February 19. Loyalty Traveler’s Hyatt Highlands Inn photo album on Picasa.

Paid Stay Opportunity: Hyatt San Francisco Fisherman’s Wharf

Special offer rate $99 + 1,500 bonus points + $25 Food & Beverage credit for stays Feb 1-28, 2010.

$119 per night for stays March 1 to April 30.

Book by March 17, 2010.

Request Special Offer Code SOLOGP.

The Monterey pines on the ridge between Monterey and Carmel darkly dot the tree covered hills like a Monet painting. Muted sunlight filters through the rolling fog on the upper part of the landscape and various shades of golf course green lay the foundation of this Monterey Peninsula natural canvas.  The window I am looking out from the bed is Hyatt Regency Monterey, suite 860. The nearly wall width windows outline the dimensions of the morning’s visual setting.

The only sounds I hear are surprisingly quiet riding mowers moving across portions of the golf course immediately outside the hotel room. When I arrived yesterday the room temperature felt to be in the 70s. I have both windows fully open and the fans running this morning. It is in the mid-50s outside, but this is Monterey and the room only has a heater, no air conditioning.

There are signs in the room suggesting guests open the windows and turn on the fans if the room is too warm. This was an adequate solution for me as the colder air outside on this January day quickly cooled the room. I dread to think what measures one would employ if this were one of our rare 85 degree days experienced five to ten days a year most years on the Monterey Peninsula. Some years the hot days occur in the middle of winter, although more likely to occur annually in September and October.

The Hyatt Regency Monterey resort has two pools. The pools are an oasis from the uncommon sporadic days of outdoor heat. Typically Monterey has 60- to 70-degree weather around 80% of days locally in this California coastal microclimate. The main pool by buildings 3, 4, and 5 was in use by a couple of families and some kids on a 59-degree, partly cloudy January afternoon in Monterey.

We take the weather as it comes in Monterey. 59-degrees with medium humidity in January can be warmer than a foggy, high humidity 59-degree day in July. The kind of July day that is relatively frequent in a typical year on the Monterey Peninsula. Most of the United States, aside from parts of Alaska, have extended periods annually when the temperature is over 80-degrees. In Monterey, as in much of the coastal Pacific north of Monterey, California and on up to British Columbia, the rare days when it reaches 80-degrees sustained rarely exceeds two to four days in a row. Of course this is only true for the immediate coast within a couple of miles of the Pacific Ocean.  Go inland five miles during summer months, or however deep the fog belt and Pacific Ocean natural air conditioner extends, and most of the west coast is regularly 90-degrees and over in the summer months. But this is winter in Monterey and 60 degrees is baking for people who have been living in snow and ice for the past couple of months.

I love this view from the Hyatt Regency Monterey.  The nearest houses are hundreds of yards away and almost entirely obscured in trees. From the bed I gaze to the hills and see thousands of pine trees, yet only a glimpse of a few houses. This setting is unique for Monterey hotels. The Hyatt Highlands Inn or Pebble Beach resort hotels have similar tree-filled views, but the Pacific Ocean vista for enhanced viewing pleasure at these other hotels means prices are typically $300 to $600 per night.

My sister stayed at the Hyatt Regency Monterey hotel last month. Her room was across the hall from the room where I am now. Her room was a standard size hotel room, limited space, basic bathroom shower/tub, and a window overlooking the parking lot. Highway 1 traffic sounds can be heard from rooms not facing the golf course when the window or patio door is open. Some rooms at the Hyatt Regency Monterey are within 50 yards of the freeway (Buildings 20-26). Building 26 even has balconies and patios facing the freeway side.

Last month I asked my sister if she would like me to book her room and secure her and her husband a suite or would she rather book her own room and go for the free Hyatt night after two hotel stays. She went for the free night offer. She had a surprisingly good rate of $119/night for a Friday and Saturday weekend stay. She does not have Hyatt Gold Passport elite status.

My main advice for the Monterey Hyatt Regency is book a golf course view room. This hotel is an old hotel locals knew as the Mark Thomas in the 1970s. The hotel is located on the southeast side of Highway 1. The ocean is about one mile away on the northwest side of Highway 1. The hotel location is secluded from the city of Monterey. A car is desirable to get to tourist parts of Monterey which is about a 30 minute walk to downtown.  Monterey’s Del Monte Beach can probably be reached by foot in 20 minutes.

Two words – “Elite Status”

Yesterday I checked into the Hyatt Regency Monterey on an $89 limited time offer rate using Corporate Code #13147. I used one of my complimentary suite upgrade certificates in my Diamond elite account and received advance confirmation for a suite. Diamond members receive four electronic upgrade certificates annually. A single upgrade certificate can be used for a stay up to seven nights.

I called the Gold Passport Diamond member customer service line and asked for the 2,000 point G2 bonus code to be applied to my stay. At check-in I opted for an additional 1,000 points Diamond amenity rather than taking a free pay-per-view movie or food & beverage credit for my stay.

As a Diamond member I received complimentary Regency Club access with free sodas, coffee, cookies throughout the day, evening appetizers, evening dessert selections, and complimentary breakfast. Two computer stations and a printer are also available in the Club lounge.

My sister would have had to pay a rate $40 more per night for access to the Hyatt Regency Club.

I regularly read articles from travelers who do not find value in chain hotels and hotel loyalty programs. They would rather pay for trending boutique hotels, Priceline stays, the hotel with the best TripAdvisor review, or even skip the chain hotel scene altogether for a more economical option.

Hotel loyalty program elite members can experience so much more of a hotel without spending so much more money. Hyatt Gold Passport offered complimentary elite status to members in 2009 and several fast-track elite options including stays count double from October 1, 2009 to January 31, 2010.

Hyatt Gold Passport and Starwood Preferred Guest both require 25 stays in a calendar year to reach top elite level within the hotel loyalty program structure. Hyatt Gold Passport’s Diamond members and Starwood Preferred Guest Platinum members receive complimentary suite upgrades and elite bonus point gifts per stay on top of the percentage differential points bonus for being an elite loyalty member.

$55 Million Renovation

The Hyatt Regency Monterey has just been through a $55 million transformation. The Stay Fit fitness club and Accista Spa are two of the biggest changes in the past year.

The Hyatt Regency has six tennis courts with complimentary access for guests. There are two pool areas, both with swimming pools and whirlpools. The pool complex near the lobby and TusCA restaurant and room buildings 3, 4, and 5 has ping pong tables and a large chess board.

The Garden Terrace pool complex is between buildings 24, 25, 26 (road side) and 12, 14, 15 (resort side). Golf course facing buildings are 6, 7, 8 and 9, 10, 11. Half the rooms in these three-story buildings face the golf course and half face the parking lot.

Before the renovation, the Hyatt Regency Monterey received numerous poor reviews from guests feeling ripped off by the high price and old style hotel set-up.  I have provided a photo album with nearly 200 pictures showing different parts of the resort. There are plenty of activities and facilities to make the Hyatt Regency Monterey a good vacation hotel.

My main tip for guests unfamiliar with the hotel is to pay the premium to secure a golf course view room. The two main detractors of this property are the rooms looking out over the parking lots and the rooms facing the freeway side of the resort where noise can be a disturbance. The room interiors are nicely decorated regardless of the room location.

I live close enough to the Hyatt Regency Monterey that Tiger Woods could probably reach the green in two or three shots from my place. This was my first actual room stay at the hotel.

I liked it.

Being a Hyatt Gold Passport diamond member with a suite upgrade certificate and complimentary Regency Club access certainly made this a better hotel stay than the average guest might experience. And that $89 limited time offer rate I booked is probably as rare as our 80 degree days for pricey Monterey.

Here is a link to my Hyatt Regency Monterey annotated photo album on Picasa with 175 hotel photos.

I also have a Picasa annotated photo album for the Hyatt Highlands Inn Carmel with about 200 photos.

Golf course view Hyatt Regency Monterey

Hyatt has added new G Bonus offers for hotel stays from March 1 to May 31. Hyatt Gold Passport members can frequently earn 1,000 to 2,000 bonus points by paying attention to G bonus offers prior to booking a Hyatt brand hotel reservation. Individual hotels have special bonus points offers (some hotels offer bonus miles) which are found on the Hyatt Gold Passport Special Offers page, but not under the Hyatt Special Offers tab. This can be confusing if you don’t know where to look for the link.

The link for Hyatt Gold Passport G bonus special offer points and miles is located in the dark shaded column area at the right of the Gold Passport Special Offers page.

Hyatt Gold Passport Special Offers page shows G Bonus link in right column

Over 200 hotels of 400+ Hyatt brand hotels globally offer some kind of G Bonus Points or A bonus miles offers with the current list of hotels.  Booking through the G Bonus link or calling customer service to add the G Bonus special offer to your reservation is an easy way to greatly increase the 5 points per US$1 earned from a hotel stay.

I typically book AAA group rates when staying at Hyatt Hotels. The G Bonus offer link will often show a much higher rate than the AAA rate and the G bonus offer does not show when booking a AAA rate.

No problem getting both the discount AAA rate and G bonus points. I simply book the AAA rate and then call Hyatt Gold Passport customer service to have the G bonus code added to my reservation.

This month I had reservations at five different Hyatt hotels where I received 2,000 G bonus points per hotel stay. Those bonuses were over 50% of the points earned for the five hotel stays. Along with 1,000 bonus points as a Diamond elite amenity, I earned 15,000 bonus points after five hotel stays, sufficient for a free night at a Category 4 hotel such as the Hyatt Regency San Francisco. Without bonuses, these five stays earned fewer than 4,000 points with my base points and 30% elite bonus.

G Bonus offers come in several versions labeled G1 (1,000 points), G2 (2,000 points), G3 (1,500 points) and may be restricted to certain days of the week as shown by the color code. There are sometimes “A Bonuses” for airline miles.

The current offers expiring February 28, 2010 even include R3 = Suite Upgrade for the Hyatt Regency Belgrade, Serbia and Hyatt Regency Kiev, Ukraine.

R3 Suite Upgrade offer for Hyatt Regency Kiev

And there is N5 = 5th Night Free from March 1 – May 31 for the Hyatt Regency Thessaloniki, Greece.

N5 5th Night Free Offer for Hyatt Regency Thessaloniki

Mileage Plus elites 5x United Mileage Plus miles per Hyatt Gold Passport stay through Jan 31, 2011.

Hyatt Gold Passport is offering United Mileage Plus elites 5x miles through Jan 31, 2011. The date for 2011 is not a typo. You can earn 500 base miles and 2,000 bonus miles per stay for every Hyatt paid stay over the next 13 months.  

You must register for the promotion and request United Airlines Mileage Plus miles at hotel check-in. Choosing miles means you will not earn Gold Passport points, however, you are still eligible for the Stays Count Double and free night after every two stays through January 31, 2010 with the “Next Big Thing” promotion running through the end of the month. You can always alternate your earning preference between miles and points for different hotel stays to take advantage of lucrative G bonuses and high spending hotel stays that would earn lots of points and be worth more than 2,500 miles.

2,500 Mileage Plus miles are like a $50 rebate on the cost of each Hyatt hotel stay. If you redeem your Mileage Plus frequent flier miles for good value tickets in business or first class, then you probably get around 2 cents per mile, possibly more. 25 Hyatt hotel stays in 2010 earning Mileage Plus miles can add up to a free domestic First Class ticket, international upgrade, or send you overseas in economy.

Hyatt Gold Passport registration link for 5x United Mileage Plus miles: http://www.goldpassport.com/gp/en/aa/offer1.jsp?me02_mbr_src=UAEL2

Virgin Atlantic Double Miles in Europe, Africa, and Middle East to February 28, 2010

Hyatt Gold Passport and Virgin Atlantic are celebrating the opening of the Hyatt Regency Oubaai hotel in George, South Africa with a double Flying Club miles bonus for hotels stays at 38 properties in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa between December 11 and February 28, 2010. Double Flying Club airline miles are equal to 1,500 miles per Hyatt stay. Promotion code VS335 should be given at time of reservation and member needs to request Flying Club miles at hotel check-in. This promotion expires next month.

A Virgin Flying Club member normally earns 750 Flying Club miles per Hyatt stay when the member chooses to earn miles instead of Hyatt Gold Passport points. Virgin Atlantic is more generous than most airline programs like American and United where members normally earn 500 miles per stay.

Passports with Purpose winner of Hyatt Gold Passport 50,000 points

Just a note to readers who may have donated to Passports with Purpose last month.  Hyatt Gold Passport generously donated 50,000 points as a raffle prize in the fundraiser to help build a rural school in Cambodia. The Passports with Purpose winner of the Hyatt Gold Passport points has been notified, she contacted me, and I will get her in touch with the people at Hyatt Gold Passport to collect her 50,000 points.

A big thank you from Ric Garrido, the Loyalty Traveler shouting out to Hyatt Gold Passport for sponsorship of Passports with Purpose, a social cause that brought travel bloggers and travel industry providers together to help bring about a positive change in the world and lives of children.

The original target of $13,000 for a school in Cambodia was doubled and over $26,000 was raised through the Passports with Purpose raffle. There will be a school, a nurse, and more.

It is my birthday today, Jan 5. I am 50. This is a great present for me today to be able to share the joy of someone winning a large points prize with Hyatt Gold Passport.

Wow! What an exciting gift of travel possibilities for the winner.

Congratulations to Jen (the winner) and Hyatt Gold Passport for sponsoring the prize.