Registration is required by March 31.

Hyatt nights completed during the promotion period and prior to registration count as long as member registers by March 31.

Don’t delay. Sign up now!

Interesting to me is the main promotion page makes no mention of the 25% bonus points for being a Hyatt Visa card member that was referenced in last week’s informal announcement. The 25% bonus is being communicated privately to Hyatt Visa card members by email. This proved to be a contentious bonus based on FlyerTalk comments from international Hyatt Gold Passport members. The problem is the Hyatt Visa card is only available to residents of the U.S. 50 states and D.C.

Full-service Hyatt hotels outside the U.S. are typically far more expensive than Hyatt Place and HYATT House properties meaning this bonus is likely far costlier to earn for travelers staying at Hyatt properties outside the U.S.

Promotion Offer

• after 4 nights = 4,000 bonus points.
• after 8 nights = 8,000 more bonus points = 12,000 points total.
• after 12 nights = 12,000 more bonus points = 24,000 points total.
• after 16 nights = 20,000 more bonus points = 44,000 points total.

This promotion offers the potential of earning 44,000 bonus points after 16 nights or 55,000 bonus points for Hyatt Visa card members (25% more bonus points).

Loyalty Traveler Promotion Analysis

In my original post last week I called this Hyatt 44,000 bonus points promotion offer a 3-star value meaning I think it is good value, but not a high value or great offer for most members who do not regularly travel that frequently with Hyatt Hotels. 16 nights in 90 days is a high hotel stay pattern for the average traveler.

This is a better value offer if you are elite with another program and decide to go for a Hyatt Diamond Challenge requiring 12 nights in 60 days. The Diamond Challenge will match you to Diamond status immediately and if you complete the 12 nights in 60 days your status will continue through February 2013. Read last week’s Loyalty Traveler post to learn more about combining this promotion with a Hyatt Gold passport Diamond Challenge.

Diamonds may want to go for the points

I do not recommend frequent guests of any hotel chain stay 16 nights in a cheap Hyatt hotel just to earn the 44,000 points bonus. Instead the numbers show me a Diamond member staying 8 or more nights anyway during the February 1-April 30 promotion period should consider buying extra Hyatt hotel nights if you have proximity to a cheap Hyatt and you want to earn cheap points and even a little padding for your elite membership requalification in 2012.

The analysis I provide here is a more detailed look at the numbers for actual hotel stays showing 16 nights is possible at the Hyatt Place Fremont for $1,250 all-in where weekend rates are $64 to $71 per night. There are some other places in the USA with hotels under $75 per night and even full-service Hyatt regency hotels at under $85 per night.

Hyatt Gold Passport is a program with two distinct property tiers. Hyatt Place and HYATT House (extended-stay) are limited service hotels. The main benefits of Hyatt Diamond are complimentary full restaurant breakfast and room upgrade potential (without using upgrade certificate) and 2,500 bonus points for Regency Club closure which happens on weekends at many business hotel locations. These are not benefits that typically apply to Hyatt Place and Hyatt House properties.

While Hyatt Place and HYATT House are likely to be the lowest rate hotels, these are not the kind of hotels that will get you thrilled about being a Hyatt Gold Passport Diamond member. Elite status does not offer much at these two Hyatt brands.

Diamond Challenge and 16 Nights Bonus by the numbers

– 8 Friday-Saturday stays

My regional go to cheap Hyatt stay is Hyatt Place Fremont, California.

Hotel rates over the next 8 weekends in this Silicon Valley hotel nestled up against Interstate 880 has weekend rates from $64 to $71. The AAA rate is $71 and may be canceled up to 4pm day of arrival.

Assume Diamond elite membership already or starting a Diamond Challenge.

Weekend stay = $71 Friday and $71 Saturday. 10% tax rate.

Two night weekend = $142 + $14.20 = $156.20.

Points earned per weekend 2-night weekend stay at Hyatt Place Fremont:

• 710 base points = $142 x 5 base points/$1.
• 213 bonus points = Diamond elite 30% bonus points.
• 500 bonus points = Diamond welcome gift per Hyatt Place stay.
• Total Points = 1,423 per $156.20 2-night weekend stay.

Project this data with a hotel rate of $71/night over 16 nights with the 4 night bonuses of the Hyatt Gold passport promotion.

Hyatt Promotion Bonus

First Round of 4 nights

4 nights  = $312.40 total hotel rate.

• 4,000 points = 4 nights Promotion bonus.
• 2,846 points = 4 nights at Hyatt Place Fremont.
• 6,846 Gold Passport total points after 4 nights.

Second Round of 4 nights

8 nights = $624.80 total hotel rate.

• 8,000 points = 8 nights Promotion bonus.
• 2,846 points = 4 nights at Hyatt Place Fremont.
• 17,692 Gold Passport total points = 10,846 (Round 2) + 6,846 (Round 1)

Third Round of 4 nights

12 nights = $937.20 total hotel rate.

• 12,000 points = 12 nights Promotion bonus.
• 2,846 points = 4 nights at Hyatt Place Fremont.
• 32,538 Gold Passport total points = 14,846 (Round 3) +17,692 (rounds 1,2)

Fourth Round of 4 nights

16 nights = $1,249.60 total hotel rate.

• 20,000 points = 16 nights Promotion bonus.
• 2,846 points = 4 nights at Hyatt Place Fremont.
• 55,384 Gold Passport total points = 22,846 (Round 4) + 32,538 (Round 1,2,3)

Spending $1,250 for 55,384 points is equivalent to buying points from Gold Passport for about $22.57 per 1,000 points. Hyatt Gold Passport normally charges $24 per 1,000 points.

My primary point being this is a cheap way to pick up Gold Passport points and earn plenty of nights for 2012 Diamond renewal or meet a Diamond challenge. One-night stays is better if you plan to qualify on hotel stays, but in the San Francisco Bay Area the hotel rates are only low on Friday and Saturday nights.

Hyatt Place Fremont is just one example of a Hyatt hotel where cheap rates make this a good value promotion.

Strategy for the Gold Passport member with only 8 nights planned during the promotion.

Using the outline above the Diamond member who has 8 nights planned can use a similar strategy to pick up the bigger bonus points earned from 12 and 16 nights during the promotion period.

Find a cheap Hyatt hotel where you can buy nights for less than $75 per night. My example with Hyatt Place Fremont is $312 for 4 nights.

A Diamond member buying 8 additional nights for $625 (and up to 8 hotel stays for elite credit)  earns an additional 37,692 points. This brings the cost of points down to $16.59 per 1,000 points.

This is a strategy you may want to consider if you have Hyatt stays planned, but you will not be staying 16 nights. This offer gets better if you need to buy fewer than 8 nights to reach the maximum bonus points.

If you just need 5 additional nights to reach 16 nights then the cost of points drops down to really low levels.

$400 for 5 additional nights earns about 36,000 points and the rate of earning points drops to $11.11 per 1,000 points. Buying points at a rate that low is a good investment in Gold Passport points.

Conclusion

This promotion is a good opportunity for trying the Hyatt Diamond Challenge. This is also a promotion value worth considering additional low-cost nights at Hyatt hotels if you are Hyatt Diamond and you need only 3 to 6 more nights to reach 16 nights during the Feb 1-April 30 promotion period. The bonus points earned for reaching 16 nights by April 30 can be considered a good discount rate for buying points.

There is even a 25% bonus for stays paid with the Hyatt Visa credit card members. [update: Jan27, 4:00pm Pacific - Gold Passport Concierge posted on FlyerTalk that all Hyatt Visa card members earn bonus. There is no need to pay for the hotel stays with the Hyatt Visa.]

Register by March 31 for Hyatt Promotion.

• after 4 nights = 4,000 bonus points (1,000 more points if Hyatt Visa payment).
• after 8 nights = 8,000 more bonus points for 12,000 points total (2,000 more bonus points with Hyatt Visa).
• after 12 nights = 12,000 more bonus points for 24,000 points total (3,000 more bonus points with Hyatt Visa).
• after 16 nights = 20,000 more bonus points for 44,000 points total (5,000 more bonus points with Hyatt Visa).

This promotion offers the potential of earning 44,000 bonus points after 16 nights or 55,000 bonus points for Hyatt Visa card members.

Loyalty Traveler Analysis

This promotion provides incentive for staying more nights in February, March and April. The more you stay the bigger the bonuses.

A few months ago when Jeff Zidell, VP of Hyatt Gold Passport, held a chat on Milepoint.com I made a comment that Hyatt is ‘whale’ hunting and this promotion seems to be another example of that kind of hotel loyalty marketing. Whales are what the high roller gamblers are called who are quite profitable for the casino industry when they blow loads of cash.

Hyatt seeks frequent guest whales.

44,000 points is a good bonus opportunity, but 16 nights in a 90 day period is a very high threshold of hotel stays. That exceeds the level of nights needed for Hyatt Gold Passport Diamond at 50 nights per year. I would like to have seen the bonus increments at 3, 6, 9 and 12 to be more in line with quarterly stays needed annually to reach Diamond elite level.

Basically this offer is best for Hyatt Diamond members or those seeking to be Hyatt Diamond. This is a good time to go for a Gold Passport Diamond challenge if you are looking at Hyatt Gold Passport Diamond membership for 2012 and 2013. The challenge requires 12 nights in 60 days and you will earn Diamond elite status through February 2013 and a good run on Gold Passport points. Here is the FlyerTalk Hyatt Challenge link with discussion by people who started challenges this month. The good thing about Hyatt is the Diamond status is instantly granted at the time you start the challenge so you will have the benefits, including suite upgrades, while completing the hotel nights.

I am currently Hyatt Diamond and the best use of this promotion for me would be two 6-night stays where I can have a confirmed suite using the four Gold Passport suite upgrades for Diamond elite members. That would earn three levels of the bonus while staying a week in a suite with complimentary daily breakfast and internet. Two vacation stays or a total 12 nights would earn 24,000 bonus points (30,000 bonus points if Hyatt Visa payment).

Assume $150 per night x 12 nights = $1,800 in Hyatt hotel spend.

• $1,800 x 5 points/$1 = 9,000 points
• Diamond elite 30% bonus = 2,700 points
• Hyatt more nights bonus = 24,000 points
• Hyatt Visa bonus 3 points/$1 = 5,400 points
• Hyatt Visa More Nights bonus = 6,000 points

Hyatt Diamond member with 12 nights and $1,800 in spend earns 35,700 points or 47,100 points if payment is made with Hyatt Visa. That is quite an additional bonus for using Hyatt Visa.

Completing more than 8 nights in February to April is unlikely for me. This offer looks like a potential 12,000 bonus points and I don’t view that as anything really significant. SPG, Hilton HHonors, IHG Priority Club also have mediocre 3-star promotions this quarter.

I still favor Marriott’s MegaBonus for a free night after two stays and Best Western for a free night after three stays for the highest earning promotions on fewest hotel nights.

Hopefully there will be more enticing offers in the next round of hotel loyalty promotions in April.

Perhaps Hyatt Gold passport will run a promotion to promote its new HYATT house brand created from the former Summerfield Suites and Sierra Hotels.  Hyatt Gold Passport has run brand specific promotions in the past for Summerfield Suites and Hyatt Place.

I’ll post this more nights, more points Hyatt Gold Passport offer again when the official promotion registration page is available.

P.S. Update 9:00am Pacific -  I should add that the title 3-star promotion and the reference to the other hotel loyalty promotions as 3-star offers means I think this is a “good value” hotel loyalty promotion. I am just not convinced it is a high value promotion for this Hyatt offer unless you go in all the way for 16 nights.

I’ll follow up this post with a look at the value of bonus points for someone with lots of one-night stays.

Loyalty Traveler Five ***** Promotion Scale

Loyalty Traveler ranks the consumer value of some hotel loyalty promotions on a Five ***** Scale.

Five ***** = one of the best hotel loyalty promotions of the year.

Four **** = high value rebate on the cost of hotel stays.

Three *** = good value hotel loyalty promotion or rate offer.

Two ** = a bonus value if you play, but not necessarily worth going out of your way.

One * = There is limited or no value. You are likely paying more than the bonus value.

Passports with Purpose 2011 Statistics

• Fundraising Goal was $80,000. Actual funds raised = $89,699.
• 137 bloggers signed up for 2011 PwP.
• Nearly 1,000 donors contributed 54% of the total $89,699 for chances to win 89 prizes.

Here is a message from Pam, Debbie, Michelle, Beth and Meg:

We raised a grand total of $89699.00 for Room to Read. That’s $9699 over our initial goal of 80k. We are continually honored and totally blown away by your support and participation in this initiative. We are so proud to work with you on PwP and more than that, we love it. We freaking love it. We love that it takes everything we do — traveling, telling stories, blogging, social media, making connections around the world — and creates something that makes the world a better place. Those libraries in Zambia, they’re yours and they are a lasting gift to those who will learn to read and write and share their own stories and make their own connections.

Hyatt Gold Passport 110,000 Points prize winner.

I asked the prize winner of the Hyatt points if he would care to share some information about himself for Loyalty Traveler readers. While I will keep his identity undisclosed, the winner is no stranger to Hyatt Gold Passport.

Here is a brief description of the winner’s travel style. He also asks for suggestions about where to spend those 110,000 points?

Although I’ve stayed at a few Hyatts, I’d been dividing my loyalty beween SPG and Hilton due mainly to their large number of properties. However, the Hyatt Chase offer brought me into the fold. I got one in early 2011 followed by another for my wife. Shortly after that, I surprisingly scored both 69,000 points for $778.00 and 24,000 points for $250.00 in the DiscoverAmerica giveaway.

We’ve stayed at The Churchill in London twice, had a fabulous suite at the Park Hyatt in Chicago, stayed a few days at the Clearwater Beach Property and enjoy both the Andaz properties in NYC. We used to live by the South Street Seaport so usually make the Andaz Wall Street our base of operations when in town.

Winning the 110k points is very exciting. Also timely, as I’m reclaiming my Executive Platinum AA status in January with a number of Mileage Runs that will involve several stays at the Hyatt at DFW. My wife has always wanted to visit Italy, so we’re planning a trip there on miles & points in November.

I’d love to hear any suggestions from your readers on places to stay. Definitely looking at Hawaii as well, so I’d also be interested in the consensus on the best Hyatt there.

Can anyone comment on some of the Tier 1 properties? I see a couple in Asia that might be interesting at such a low point cost.

Please leave a comment on this post if you would like to make some Hyatt hotel stay suggestions for spending 110,000 points.

Thank you to all who donated for a chance to win the Hyatt Gold Passport 110,000 points prize and the other prizes offered through the 2011 Passports with Purpose raffle.

Big thanks to Hyatt Gold Passport for the generous donation of 110,000 Gold Passport points to sponsor Loyalty Traveler for the 2011 Passports with Purpose fundraiser. There is no disclosure about the amount of money individual prizes earn, but it was indicated to me that the Hyatt prize was very popular.

And a big thanks to corporate sponsors of PwP who contributed greatly to reaching this year’s $80,000 goal.

• RTW with Us,
• Traveller’s Point
• HomeAway.

Highway 1 runs by my house in Monterey and becomes the Big Sur coast road just about five miles south once past Carmel. Highway 1 Big Sur driving can be 100 miles of highway bliss or hell, mostly depending on the weather.

California rainy season is generally October through April. 90% of the annual rainfall occurs in these months. You do not want to drive Highway 1 along the Big Sur coast during a Pacific winter storm. When we get one to two inches of rain in Monterey, the Santa Lucia Mountains of Big Sur generally get four to ten inches of rain. The cliff-hanging Highway 1 pavement has a tendency to wash into the sea when heavy downpours mix with the roadside sandstone. There were several weeks in 2011 when the road between Carmel and Big Sur 37 miles south was closed for repairs.

The best thing about the central coast California rainy season is the beautiful weather when it is not raining. Days usually reach a high near 60 degrees. Summer months are about ten degrees warmer along the coast and it is entirely possible to drive the Big Sur coast and not see anything but gray fog when you visit in August.

Highway 1 Big Sur

Ninety miles south of Monterey-Carmel is Hearst Castle. The Hearst Ranch is 82,000 acres of forest and cattle range land in operation since 1865. Hearst Castle is a 165-room estate designed by architect Julia Morgan from 1919 to 1947 for all around wealthy guy and newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst. The estate is now part of Hearst San Simeon State Historical Monument. This place tends to be crowded and guided tours at $25 per adult are required to see the estate grounds.

Hearst Castle on the hill seen from Highway 1.

I actually drove up to the visitor center only to learn the next available tour was a two hour wait on a weekday in November. Highway 1 turns inland from the coast about thirty miles south of Hearst Castle at Morro Bay and only skirts the coast briefly one more time at Pismo Beach for the next 80 miles. Vandenberg Air Force Base is a major Pacific region missile base that controls and restricts public access to a huge section of coastline in northern Santa Barbara County.

Google maps - Highway 1 goes mostly inland from Morro Bay to Gaviota State Beach

I continued south to Santa Barbara and my reservation at the Hotel Mar Monte.

Hyatt Mar Monte, Santa Barbara

Hyatt Santa Barbara

Hotel Mar Monte was acquired by Hyatt in 2010 and there was remodeling going on while I was there. I haven’t been back in 2011. Pictures of the guest rooms on the hotel website indicated the room furnishings may have changed, but my photos look quite similar to the photos The Points Guy showed in his post from a stay last month.

The roof was being retiled during my stay in November 2010. The lobby in the Hyatt Santa Barbara website photos looks upgraded.

The Room Dilemma – Should I Stay or Should I Go (and ask for a different room)

This was one of the few times where I went back to the front desk twice to ask for a better room. The first room given to me overlooked the construction waste dumpsite. The room actually had a decent view of the ocean, but I couldn’t take my eyes off the parking lot garbage patch.

The front desk then told me they had a room with a balcony and since I was a diamond member I could take that room upgrade. Great I thought. Turned out though the balcony room did not face the ocean and provided a nice view of the parking lot and Motel 6 across the street.

Hyatt Mar Monte balcony rooms.

Mountain view room and Motel 6 across street from Hotel Mar Monte.

Back to the desk for the third time and I received a room that was to my liking. I generally don’t complain too much about the rooms I am given, but I felt I needed an ocean view room when staying as a Hyatt Gold Passport Diamond member at an uncrowded hotel across the street from the beach. Although, I still received the only room in the wing without a balcony.

Hyatt Santa Barbara sunrise.

The room itself was a standard room with a comfortable bed and all modern conveniences.

Hyatt Santa Barbara

Hyatt Santa Barbara - TV, microwave and refrigerator in cabinet.

Hyatt Santa Barbara is a historic beachfront hotel built in 1931 in a Spanish Colonial style.

Hyatt Santa Barbara exhibits many Spanish Colonial architectural elements.

Hallway to Bistro 1111 at Hyatt Santa Barbara.

Hyatt Santa Barbara Bistro 1111.

The pool is a nice feature of the hotel. The roadside location can mean a bit of street noise at times.

Hyatt Santa Barbara pool.

Hyatt Santa Barbara is across the street from the beach.

The bad thing about waiting a year to write up a hotel stay is remembering details. I had two gorgeous photos of the pool and lobby, but then remembered that these were actually photos I took at Fess Parker’s Doubletree Resort which is just north of Hyatt Santa Barbara. I didn’t even realize I had walked over to the Doubletree Resort until I jogged my memory writing this post and realizing the pool and lobby photos were a different hotel.

Fess Parker's Doubletree Resort pool at night.

Fess Parker's DoubleTree Resort Santa Barbara lobby.

Hyatt Santa Barbara Fitness Room

Hyatt Santa Barbara Fitness Room.

There actually wasn’t that much to the grounds of the Hyatt Santa Barbara with most of the landscaping gardens located alongside the beach road. The interior area was mostly parking lot when I stayed at the hotel.

Hyatt Santa Barbara ocean view balcony rooms.

Hyatt Santa Barbara garden bench across from beach.

Parking

Brian Kelly mentioned a $20 valet/$15 self-parking fee to park at the hotel in Nov 2011. This is another hotel where I scored free parking on the street next to the hotel during my Nov 2010 stay. I don’t know if the parking regulations have changed since 2010. The rules during my stay were unrestricted parking except for 1-3pm Mondays when street sweeper comes through the road.

Unmetered parking on block with Hyatt Santa Barbara entrance if you are lucky.

Passports with Purpose: There are still two days left to enter the Passports with Purpose raffle for a chance to win 110,000 Hyatt Gold Passport points with a $10 donation to Passports with Purpose by Friday, December 16. We are trying to raise $80,000 within the Travel Blog community to build libraries in Zambia with the organization Room to Read.

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).

This Costco special offer is for stays completed by February 29, 2012 in the U.S., Canada and Caribbean and is not applicable for Park Hyatt or Hyatt Summerfield Suites. (The similar AARP rate is good for Park Hyatt hotels.)

The Costco link books through Hyatt website channels so these rates are eligible for points and promotion credit.

Hotel charges must be posted to your room to use the $25 daily credit. Travel purchases are not included in the Costco Executive membership 2% rebate program, so you will not be getting a kickback at the end of your Costco membership year on Hyatt stays booked through this offer.

Hyatt Promotion Code Costco for 10% off + $25 nightly hotel credit.

Now Hyatt Hotels compelled me to join AARP ($16/year) for this holiday travel season with an offer of 10% off the Hyatt Daily Room Rate plus $25 stay credit per night. That offer calls out to me as a free dinner at the Hyatt hotel restaurant.

Hyatt’s AARP special offer is for stays from November 14, 2011 through February 29, 2012 at Hyatt Hotels & Resorts in the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean. This offer is not valid for stays at Hyatt Summerfield Suites.

$25 daily credit may be used for dining, spa, golf and other hotel operated activities and services charged to your hotel room. The daily credit may not be applied to room rate, taxes, resort fees or alcohol.

Update: 11/21 See comments for this post where readers reveal almost identical promotion offer exclusive for Costco members and link to potentially free AARP membership for one year.

Participating Hotels for Hyatt AARP promotion

I love the Hyatt offer, but I need to give a loud shout-out that I do not like the way the list of participating properties is shown for this offer. Come on hotel loyalty program promotion designers.

Considering the average American’s geography is a bit weak, is it too much to ask to list hotels by state and country? Just about every hotel program plops down a list of hotels by any random order their database makes easy to print when it comes to showing participating or non-participating hotels in promotion offers.

This is not too consumer-friendly when we need an atlas or a lot of computer searches to figure out where a hotel is located and we need to pore over hundreds of hotels searching for ones in the vicinity of our destination.

Here is the Hyatt participating properties list, in order, as shown on the website:

• Hyatt Regency Albuquerque
• Hyatt Regency Orange County
• Hyatt Regency Aruba Resort
• Grand Hyatt Atlanta
• Hyatt Regency Atlanta
• Hyatt Regency Suites Atlanta
• Hyatt Regency Austin
• Park Hyatt Beaver Creek Resort
• Hyatt Regency Bellevue
• Hyatt Regency Bethesda
• Hyatt Harborside Boston
• Hyatt Regency Cambridge
• Hyatt Regency Boston
• Hyatt Regency Buffalo
• Hyatt Regency Baltimore
• Hyatt Regency Calgary
• Hyatt Grand Champions Resort
• Hyatt Regency Chesapeake Bay
• Hyatt Lodge McDonald’s Campus
• Hyatt Regency McCormick Place
• Park Hyatt Chicago
• Hyatt Regency Chicago
• Hyatt Regency O’Hare
• Hyatt Regency Woodfield
• Hyatt Regency Cincinnati
• Hyatt Regency Santa Clara
• Hyatt Regency Cleveland
• Hyatt Regency Columbus
• Hyatt Regency Curacao
• Hyatt Deerfield
• Hyatt Regency Tech Center
• Hyatt Regency DFW
• Grand Hyatt DFW
• Hyatt Regency North Dallas
• Hyatt Regency Dallas
• Hyatt Regency Dearborn
• Hyatt Dulles
• Hyatt Regency New Brunswick
• Hyatt Fair Lakes
• Hyatt Regency Bonaventure
• Hyatt Regency Pier Sixty-Six
• Hyatt Regency Greenville
• Hyatt Regency Greenwich
• Hyatt Regency Long Island
• Highlands Inn, A Hyatt Hotel
• Hyatt Regency Waikiki Resort
• Hyatt Regency Houston
• Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach
• Hyatt Regency Indianapolis
• Hyatt Regency Irvine
• Hyatt Regency Jacksonville
• Hyatt Regency La Jolla
• Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort
• Hyatt Key West Resort
• Hyatt Regency Century Plaza
• Andaz West Hollywood
• Hyatt Regency Lexington
• Hyatt Regency Long Beach
• Hyatt Lisle
• Hyatt Regency Miami
• Hyatt Regency Crown Center
• Hyatt Regency Milwaukee
• Hyatt Morristown
• Hyatt Regency Monterey
• Hyatt Regency Minneapolis
• Hyatt Regency Montreal
• Hyatt Regency Coconut Point
• Hyatt Regency Jersey City
• Hyatt Regency Newport Beach
• Andaz Fifth Avenue
• Andaz Wall Street
• Grand Hyatt New York
• Hyatt Regency Maui Resort
• Hyatt Regency Orlando
• Hyatt Regency Palm Springs
• Hyatt Regency Phoenix
• Hyatt Regency Clearwater Beach Resort & Spa
• Hyatt Regency Pittsburgh
• Hyatt Regency Princeton
• Hyatt Regency Reston
• Hyatt Regency Newport
• Hyatt Regency Rochester
• Hyatt Rosemont
• Hyatt Regency Sacramento
• Andaz San Diego
• Hyatt Regency Hill Country
• Hyatt Regency Mission Bay
• Park Hyatt Aviara
• Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego
• Grand Hyatt San Antonio
• Hyatt Regency San Antonio
• Hyatt Regency Savannah
• Hyatt Regency Scottsdale
• Hyatt Regency Louisville
• Grand Hyatt Seattle
• Hyatt at Olive 8
• Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport
• Hyatt at Fisherman’s Wharf
• Hyatt Regency San Francisco
• Grand Hyatt San Francisco
• Hyatt Vineyard Creek
• Hyatt Regency Sarasota
• Hyatt Regency St. Louis at The Arch
• Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort
• Park Hyatt Toronto
• Hyatt Regency Toronto
• Hyatt Regency Tampa
• Grand Hyatt Tampa Bay
• Hyatt Regency Trinidad
• Hyatt Regency Lake Tahoe
• Hyatt Valencia
• Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress
• Grand Hyatt Washington
• Park Hyatt Washington
• Hyatt Regency Crystal City
• Hyatt Regency Washington
• Hyatt Westlake Plaza
• Hyatt Regency Wichita
• Hyatt Regency Vancouver
• Hyatt Regency New Orleans
• Hyatt Escala Lodge at Park City
• Hyatt Regency Tulsa
• Hyatt Miami at the Blue
• Hyatt 48 Lex
• Hyatt Place Albuquerque Airport
• Hyatt Place Albuquerque/Uptown
• Hyatt Place Atlanta/Alpharetta/Windward Parkway
• Hyatt Place Atlanta/Alpharetta/North Point Mall
• Hyatt Place Atlanta Airport-South
• Hyatt Place Atlanta Airport-North
• Hyatt Place Atlanta/Buckhead
• Hyatt Place Atlanta/Downtown
• Hyatt Place Atlanta-East/Lithonia
• Hyatt Place Atlanta/Duluth/Johns Creek
• Hyatt Place Atlanta/Cobb Galleria
• Hyatt Place Atlanta/Duluth/Gwinnett Mall
• Hyatt Place Atlanta/Norcross/Peachtree
• Hyatt Place Atlanta/Perimeter Center
• Hyatt Place Austin/Arboretum
• Hyatt Place Austin-North Central
• Hyatt Place Baltimore/BWI Airport
• Hyatt Place Baltimore/Owings Mills
• Hyatt Place Baton Rouge/I-10
• Hyatt Place Bethlehem
• Hyatt Place Birmingham/Inverness
• Hyatt Place Birmingham/Hoover
• Hyatt Place Boise/Towne Square
• Hyatt Place Boston/Medford
• Hyatt Place Bush Intercontinental Airport (formerly Houston/Greenspoint/IAH
  Airport)
• Hyatt Place Braintree
• Hyatt Place Chantilly/Dulles Airport-South
• Hyatt Place Charleston Airport/Convention Center
• Hyatt Place Charlotte Airport/Tyvola Road
• Hyatt Place Charlotte/Arrowood
• Hyatt Place Charlotte/City Park
• Hyatt Place Charlotte/Uptown
• Hyatt Place Chesapeake/Greenbrier
• Hyatt Place Chicago/Hoffman Estates
• Hyatt Place Chicago/Itasca
• Hyatt Place Chicago/Lombard/Oak Brook
• Hyatt Place Chicago/Naperville/Warrenville
• Hyatt Place Cincinnati Airport/Florence
• Hyatt Place Cincinnati/Blue Ash
• Hyatt Place Cincinnati-Northeast
• Hyatt Place Cleveland/Independence
• Hyatt Place Coconut Point
• Hyatt Place Colorado Springs/Garden of the Gods
• Hyatt Place Columbia/Harbison
• Hyatt Place Columbus-North
• Hyatt Place Columbus/Dublin
• Hyatt Place Columbus/OSU
• Hyatt Place Columbus/Worthington
• Hyatt Place Dallas/Arlington
• Hyatt Place Dallas/Garland
• Hyatt Place Dallas/Grapevine
• Hyatt Place Dallas/North Arlington/Grand Prairie
• Hyatt Place Dallas/Las Colinas
• Hyatt Place Dallas-North/by the Galleria
• Hyatt Place Dallas/Park Central
• Hyatt Place Dallas/Plano
• Hyatt Place Denver Airport
• Hyatt Place Denver-South/Park Meadows
• Hyatt Place Denver Tech Center
• Hyatt Place Des Moines/Downtown
• Hyatt Place Detroit/Auburn Hills
• Hyatt Place Detroit/Livonia
• Hyatt Place Detroit/Utica
• Hyatt Place Dublin/Pleasanton
• Hyatt Place El Paso Airport
• Hyatt Place Fair Lawn/Paramus
• Hyatt Place Ft. Lauderdale 17th Street Convention Center
• Hyatt Place Ft. Lauderdale/Plantation
• Hyatt Place Fort Myers/at The Forum
• Hyatt Place Fort Wayne
• Hyatt Place Fort Worth/Cityview
• Hyatt Place Fort Worth/Hurst
• Hyatt Place Fremont/Silicon Valley
• Hyatt Place Grand Rapids-South
• Hyatt Place Greensboro
• Hyatt Place Greenville/Haywood
• Hyatt Place Herndon/Dulles Airport-East
• Hyatt Place Houston/Sugar Land
• Hyatt Place Indianapolis Airport
• Hyatt Place Indianapolis/Keystone
• Hyatt Place Kansas City Airport
• Hyatt Place Kansas City/Overland Park/Convention Center
• Hyatt Place Kansas City/Overland Park/Metcalf
• Hyatt Place Lakeland Center
• Hyatt Place Las Vegas
• Hyatt Place Lexington
• Hyatt Place Long Island/East End
• Hyatt Place Louisville-East
• Hyatt Place Madison/Downtown
• Hyatt Place Memphis/Wolfchase Galleria
• Hyatt Place Memphis/Primacy Parkway
• Hyatt Place Miami Airport-West/Doral
• Hyatt Place Milford
• Hyatt Place Milwaukee Airport
• Hyatt Place Milwaukee-West
• Hyatt Place Minneapolis Airport-South
• Hyatt Place Mt. Laurel
• Hyatt Place Mystic
• Hyatt Place Nashville Airport
• Hyatt Place Nashville/Brentwood
• Hyatt Place Nashville/Franklin/Cool Springs
• Hyatt Place Nashville-Northeast
• Hyatt Place Nashville/Opryland
• Hyatt Place New Orleans/Convention Center
• Hyatt Place New York/Midtown-South
• Hyatt Place North Charleston
• Hyatt Place Oklahoma City Airport
• Hyatt Place Oklahoma City-Northwest
• Hyatt Place Ontario/Rancho Cucamonga
• Hyatt Place Orlando Airport – Northwest
• Hyatt Place Orlando/Convention Center
• Hyatt Place Orlando/Universal
• Hyatt Place Philadelphia/King of Prussia
• Hyatt Place Phoenix/Gilbert
• Hyatt Place Phoenix-North
• Hyatt Place Pittsburgh Airport
• Hyatt Place Pittsburgh/Cranberry
• Hyatt Place Pittsburgh/North Shore
• Hyatt Place Portland Airport/Cascade Station
• Hyatt Place Princeton
• Hyatt Place Raleigh-Durham Airport
• Hyatt Place Raleigh-North
• Hyatt Place Reno-Tahoe Airport
• Hyatt Place Richmond Airport
• Hyatt Place Richmond/Arboretum
• Hyatt Place Richmond/Chester
• Hyatt Place Richmond/Innsbrook
• Hyatt Place Riverside/Downtown
• Hyatt Place Roanoke Airport/Valley View Mall
• Hyatt Place Rogers/Bentonville
• Hyatt Place Sacramento/Rancho Cordova
• Hyatt Place Sacramento/Roseville
• Hyatt Place Salt Lake City/Downtown /The Gateway
• Hyatt Place San Antonio Airport/Quarry Market (formerly North Star Mall)
• Hyatt Place San Antonio-Northwest/Medical Center
• Hyatt Place San Antonio/Riverwalk
• Hyatt Place San Jose
• Hyatt Place Santa Fe
• Hyatt Place Sarasota/Bradenton Airport
• Hyatt Place Saratoga/Malta
• Hyatt Place Scottsdale/Old Town
• Hyatt Place Seattle/Downtown
• Hyatt Place Secaucus/Meadowlands
• Hyatt Place South Bend/Mishawaka
• Hyatt Place Sterling/Dulles Airport-North
• Hyatt Place Tampa Airport/Westshore
• Hyatt Place Tampa/Busch Gardens
• Hyatt Place Tempe/Phoenix Airport
• Hyatt Place Topeka
• Hyatt Place Tucson Airport
• Hyatt Place UC Davis
• Hyatt Place Uncasville
• Hyatt Place Vista/Carlsbad
• Hotel Sierra Rancho Cordova
• Hotel Sierra San Jose Silicon Valley
• Hotel Sierra Shelton
• Hotel Sierra Alpharetta
• Hotel Sierra Raleigh Durham Airport
• Hotel Sierra Charlotte Center City
• Hotel Sierra Fishkill
• Hotel Sierra King of Prussia
• Hotel Sierra Falls Church / Merrifield
• Hotel Sierra Richmond West
• Hotel Sierra Washington Dulles
• Hotel Sierra Bellevue
• Hotel Sierra Redmond
• Hotel Sierra Green Bay
• AVIA Long Beach
• AVIA Napa
• AVIA Savannah
• AVIA The Woodlands

Hyatt AARP special offer is 10% off BAR + $25 daily hotel credit.

Use Special Offer code C48H11 to search for discounts from 15% to 30% at participating hotels. These are prepaid and nonrefundable rates.

Each hotel has its own set of dates for stays using these sale rates. The hotel with the earliest availability appears to be November 27 (Lake Tahoe, California) and the latest stay date through February 29 (several hotels). Some hotels have as small as a two week window for stays at these discount rates.

Some hotels offering only 15% or 20% off Best Available Rate will likely be a small savings over a refundable AAA rate that generally offers 10% off.

Here is one randomly selected example of the Hyatt sale rate compared to AAA rate.

Hyatt Westlake Plaza, Thousand Oaks, California

48-hour sale rate is 20% off Best Available Rate for this property based on $139 BAR.

Terms and Conditions of this sale require full hotel stay prepayment. You lose the entire cost of the hotel stay if you need to change or cancel the reservation. This is not so bad on a $111 rate, but could be a significant loss if you book a $1,000 vacation getaway hotel stay.

Hyatt 48-hour sale rate terms for Hyatt Westlake Plaza.

Compare rates carefully. AAA rate for Hyatt Westlake Plaza is $125.10, or only $13.90 more per night. The AAA breakfast rate is only a 10% discount on BAR,  compared to 20% discount for Hyatt 48-hour sale rate.

The AAA rate includes breakfast for two.

Personally I try to avoid prepaid nonrefundable rates at hotels. I have a strong risk aversion to losing my entire deposit.

In this example the AAA rate includes breakfast for two, but I already get that benefit as a Hyatt Gold Passport Diamond member. I’ll gladly pay the extra $14 though to have a no penalty cancellation policy up to 3pm day before arrival for the Hyatt Westlake.

Compare the Hyatt 48 hour sale rates to other available rates. There might be a hotel rate savings deal with this Hyatt sale that falls within your risk tolerance.

Hyatt 48 hour sale link.

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 promotion registration is required for 1,500 AAdvantage miles per stay. You can register online or by phone at 1-800-30-HYATT and request promotion code AA001.

Gold Passport members have the opportunity to earn both miles and 5,000 points every three nights at Hyatt until November 15. The current Hyatt Possibilities promotion offers 5,000 bonus points every three nights and the promotion terms include Gold Passport members earning miles on hotel stays. You can earn triple miles and promotion bonus points, but you will not receive regular Gold Passport points or elite points.

How to Request Miles from Hyatt Gold Passport

Hyatt Gold Passport does not have a way to change your earning preference to airline miles instead of Hyatt points through online account preferences. Gold Passport members need to request American Airlines AAdvantage miles (or any airline miles) at check-in and provide your frequent flyer number. Even when you request miles at the hotel there is the likelihood your account will post Gold Passport points instead of miles.

Don’t panic if you earn Hyatt points instead of AAdvantage miles when your hotel stay posts. This is common for miles earners. A call to Hyatt Gold Passport customer service can easily get the Gold Passport points changed to miles.

Loyalty Traveler Analysis

Triple miles with American Airlines AAdvantage promotion can be combined with the 5,000 Gold Passport points every three nights promotion that runs concurrently through November 15, 2011.

Hyatt Gold Passport points are typically worth $20 per 1,000 points.

The combination of 1,667 Gold Passport points per night (about $27 value) and 1,500 AAdvantage miles per stay ($20+ value) is a nice rebate on Hyatt hotel spend.

Hyatt Gold Passport offers good value hotel rebates for frequent guests this fall 2011.

Related Post: Southwest Airlines 1,800 Rapid Rewards points per Hyatt stay, up to 18,000 points October 1-January 15, 2012. Loyalty Traveler post September 23.