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 members earn 1,500 American Airlines AAdvantage miles per stay at any Hyatt brand hotel worldwide from October 1, 2011 to January 15, 2012. Normally Hyatt Gold Passport offers 500 miles with most airline partners for members who prefer miles to 5 points per dollar. Triple AAdvantage miles may be earned on ten stays for 15,000 total miles during the promotion period.

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.

Hyatt Gold Passport has provided me 5,000 points for a sweepstakes on Loyalty Traveler blog. 5,000 Gold Passport points are sufficient for a free night at these Category 1 Hotels.

This sweepstakes giveaway is in conjunction with the current Gold Passport Possibilities promotion offering Gold Passport members 5,000 points for every three nights stayed through November 15, 2011. Hopefully the Loyalty Traveler sweepstakes winner will be able to use the 5,000 points bump to book an even more spectacular getaway with Hyatt Hotels.

One of the best features of Hyatt Gold Passport Possibilities promotion compared to the competition this round is the inclusion of all Hyatt brand hotels worldwide for earning 5,000 bonus points evey three nights, up to 30,000 bonus points.

SPG and HHonors current promotions exclude many of the hotels in the San Francisco Bay Area region where I live. The Hyatt promotion for 5,000 bonus points every three nights  is applicable for all Hyatt brand hotels worldwide. Bonus points are additional to the regular 5 points per US$1 earned on Hyatt stays.

There are around 456 Hyatt brand hotels worldwide in Park Hyatt, Andaz, Hyatt Regency, Grand Hyatt, Hyatt Place and Hyatt Summerfield Suites to be renamed Hyatt House in the near future.

Loyalty Traveler’s Hyatt Gold Passport Sweepstakes Entry

1. Leave a comment on this Loyalty Traveler post stating which Hyatt Hotel you would most like to visit before 12 noon California time Sunday, October 16, 2011.

2. You need to comment using an email address where I can reach you to coordinate with Hyatt Gold Passport to deposit the points in your account if you win the 5,000 points.

3. Please only enter the sweepstakes one time during the 123 hours of the sweepstakes to give everyone a fair opportunity of winning.

4. Winner will be chosen randomly using random.org and posted on Loyalty Traveler blog by Monday, October 17.

5. Good Luck. I will forward the winner’s email address to my Hyatt Gold Passport contact and they will coordinate the 5,000 points prize deposit into your Gold Passport account.

How to Participate in the Hyatt Gold Passport Possibilities Promotion

To earn Hyatt Gold Passport bonus points, travelers must:

• Be a Hyatt Gold Passport member;
• Register for the promotion online at www.goldpassport.com/possibilities;
• Stay three eligible nights to earn 5,000 Hyatt Gold Passport bonus points through November 15, 2011;
• Provide their Hyatt Gold Passport membership number at the time of reservation and check-in, and;
• New members who enroll in Hyatt Gold Passport through November 15, 2011 will automatically be registered for the promotion.

Members can earn a maximum of 30,000 bonus points during this promotion. For full details, including terms and conditions, visit www.goldpassport.com/possibilities. Travelers interested in becoming a Hyatt Gold Passport member can enroll online at http://www.goldpassport.com/, by phone (1-800-51-HYATT), or at the time of check-in at any Hyatt hotel or resort worldwide.

Loyalty Traveler Disclosure: I am not receiving any Hyatt Gold Passport points for myself by running this promotion. This is solely a giveaway for Loyalty Traveler readers.

If readers feel inclined to help out Loyalty Traveler, then you can always follow me on Twitter and/or “Like” me on Loyalty Traveler’s Facebook page, although Facebook Ric Garrido has my Twitter and blog posts feed so it is actually more useful for readers.

View of Ferry Building from Hyatt Regency at the Embarcadero, San Francisco.

Related Loyalty Traveler post August 29, 2011: Hyatt 5,000 points every 3 Nights Sep 15-Nov 15

Hyatt Gold Passport offers Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards members 1,800 points per Hyatt stay worldwide from October 1 to January 15, 2012. This is triple points compared to the normal earning rate of 600 Rapid Rewards points per stay. A maximum 10 hotel stays may earn triple Rapid Rewards points for 18,000 Rapid Rewards points.

The value of 1,800 Rapid Rewards points has a set $30 value (60 points = $1) when redeemed for Southwest Airlines Wanna Getaway fares.

Hyatt Promotion Registration Required

Hyatt Gold Passport Triple Rapid Rewards points with Southwest Airlines registration page. You may also register by calling 1-800-30-HYATT (provide promotion code WN002).

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 Southwest Rapid Rewards points (or any airline miles) at check-in and provide your frequent flyer number rather than earn the normal 5 Gold Passport points per dollar. 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 Southwest points (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 Southwest Rapid Rewards points.

Loyalty Traveler Analysis

Triple points with Southwest Airlines promotion can be combined with the 5,000 Gold Passport points every three nights promotion that runs concurrently through November 15, 2011. The ability to combine the 5K per 3 nights with airline promotions was confirmed by Gold Passport Representative, Hyatt’s company concierge on FlyerTalk.

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

The combination of 1,667 Gold Passport points per night and 1,800 points per stay can be a rebate value around $190 after three one-night Hyatt stays between October 1 – November 15 when both of these offers are in effect.

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

Hyatt Gold Passport promotion begins today for 5,000 bonus points every three nights, up to 30,000 bonus points for hotel stays from September 15 – November 15, 2011.

Gold Passport Possibilities registration page is now live.

This promotion is based on cumulative nights stayed so this nights based incentive rewards both one night stay guests and extended stay guests. This is a simple promotion with all hotels participating globally.

The maximum bonus points a member may earn for the Sep 15-Nov 15 offer is 30,000 points after 18 nights.

• 3 nights = 5,000 bonus points
• 6 nights = 10,000 cumulative bonus points
• 9 nights = 15,000 cumulative bonus points
• 12 nights = 20,000 cumulative bonus points
• 15 nights = 25,000 cumulative bonus points
• 18 nights = 30,000 cumulative bonus points
• Bonus points are earned even if account preference is set to earn miles.
• Bonus points will be awarded for only one room per stay even if more than one room is booked by member.

Hyatt Gold Passport Possibilities promotional Terms and Conditions.

Hyatt allows a member to earn base points on up to three rooms per stay when one of the rooms is occupied by the Gold Passport member and all three rooms are paid by the member, however, only one room per night is eligible to earn the 5,000 bonus points from this promotion. In contrast, the concurrently running Starwood double and triple points promotion allows SPG members to earn bonus points for up to three rooms with its promotion.

This appears to be one of the highest value hotel promotions for the season with only Hilton and Wyndham remaining to post a fall offer. Hyatt Gold Passport free nights start at 5,000 points for category 1 hotels and increase to 22,000 points per night for a hotel like the Park Hyatt Maldives or Park Hyatt Paris Vendome.

Combining 5K Possibilities promotion with concurrent Miles Bonus Offers

There are bonus miles offers currently available to Gold Passport members. These offers may be combined with the 5,000 bonus points every 3 nights during the overlapping promotion periods as stated in the FAQ posted on FlyerTalk August 25 by Gold Passport Concierge, Hyatt’s company representative.

Earn 1,000 British Airways miles per night, up to 30,000 miles for stays from August 1 – October 31, 2011. Registration required.

2,500 Aeroplan miles per Hyatt stay July 1-September 30. Maximum bonus is 25,000 miles after 10 stays.

Hyatt Gold Passport offers a two month promotion period to earn 5,000 points every three nights, up to 30,000 points for hotel stays September 15 through November 15, 2011. These are cumulative nights stayed so this nights based incentive rewards both one night stay guests and extended stay guests. This is a simple promotion with all hotels participating globally.

Promotion registration is required. Registration page will go live on September 15, 2011 at www.goldpassport.com/possibilities.

At the time of this post members will only see the following page stating “This promotion has ended” when clicking on the web address above.

The maximum bonus points a member may earn for the Sep 15-Nov 15 offer is 30,000 points after 18 nights.

• 3 nights = 5,000 bonus points
• 6 nights = 10,000 cumulative bonus points
• 9 nights = 15,000 cumulative bonus points
• 12 nights = 20,000 cumulative bonus points
• 15 nights = 25,000 cumulative bonus points
• 18 nights = 30,000 cumulative bonus points
• Bonus points are earned even if account preference is set to earn miles.
• Bonus points will be awarded for only one room per stay even if more than one room is booked by member.

Hyatt allows a member to earn base points on up to three rooms per stay when one of the rooms is occupied by the Gold Passport member and all three rooms are paid by the member, however, only one room per night is eligible to earn the 5,000 bonus points from this promotion. In contrast, the concurrently running Starwood double and triple points promotion allows SPG members to earn bonus points for up to three rooms with its promotion.

Second verse, same as the first

One annoying aspect of this offer is the promotion and terms were announced Thursday, August 25 on FlyerTalk and MilePoint social forums and there is not even a live webpage yet to accompany the promotion announcement.

Personally, I find it inconvenient to announce a loyalty promotion three weeks before the promotion registration page is available. This offer requires members to register in order to earn the bonus points, yet there is not even a promotion web page posted on the Gold Passport website where a member can at least request an email reminder to register once the page is available.

It is not like Hyatt needs to design a new promotion webpage since this offer is exactly the same promotion terms as a targeted offer provided to some members earlier this month for 5,000 bonus points per three nights during stays from August 5 to September 30. I wrote about this targeted offer earlier this month in my post “Damn you Hyatt I’m not targeted, but give me the points anyway!”

I wonder if the members who were targeted for this earlier offer will receive 10,000 points for three nights during the overlapping period of Sep 15-30?

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

The short promotion period of two months seems odd to me and also gives some encouragement that Hyatt Gold Passport may follow up this promotion with an end-of-year “stays count double” offer. The consensus on FlyerTalk is Hyatt Gold Passport has put its marketing efforts firmly behind its co-branded Visa credit card while pulling back on its hotel stay promotions. The backlash being expressed over several mediocre promotions in 2011 seems like it might motivate Hyatt to offer an end-of-year promotion to boost member stays and provide an incentive for members to maintain elite Diamond status.

Then again, Hyatt may have a different strategy in mind by focusing on its credit card and the lure of Hyatt Gold Passport Diamond elite benefits like free breakfast and confirmed suite upgrades as its primary avenue for attracting higher spending Diamond elites.

Honestly, I have been telling readers since mid-2009 that the high value hotel loyalty promotions were unprecedented and get what you can while you can. The past two quarters of hotel industry financial data reveals most major hotel chains bragging about their positive growth and enhanced revenue. Business travel has picked up significantly, even as indicators continue to show a lagging leisure travel market, except for foreigners coming to major U.S. cities where travel is a bargain for many visitors due to our low value U.S. dollar in the global marketplace.

Combining 5K Possibilities promotion with concurrent Miles Bonus Offers

There are bonus miles offers currently available to Gold Passport members. These offers may be combined with the 5,000 bonus points every 3 nights during the overlapping promotion periods as stated in the FAQ posted on FlyerTalk by Gold Passport Concierge, Hyatt’s company representative August 25.

Earn 1,000 British Airways miles per night, up to 30,000 miles for stays from August 1 – October 31, 2011. Registration required.

2,500 Aeroplan miles per Hyatt stay July 1-September 30. Maximum bonus is 25,000 miles after 10 stays.

Hyatt Gold Passport members can earn 1,000 British Airways miles per night, up to 30,000 miles for hotel stays worldwide from August 1 to October 31. Earning per night makes this offer especially valuable for extended stays during this period with no particularly attractive points bonus promotions currently happening with Gold Passport.

Hyatt Gold Passport British Airways miles Promotion registration is required.

You must provide your British Airways frequent flyer  at check-in and request miles for your stay. This can be an inconvenience, but the advantage of this method is you can always change your earning back to points if some other good points bonus comes along before October 31; which I fully expect to happen before then.

500 miles per stay is the normal rate for earning miles with Hyatt Gold Passport. A three night stay using the British Airways promotion earns 3,000 miles or 6x normal earning rate. This is a good deal for British Airways Executive Club members.

Other Hyatt Miles Offers

Through September 30: Air Canada Aeroplan 2,500 miles per stay

There is also a good value Aeroplan mileage bonus of 2,500 miles per stay through September 30. This is 5x miles for one night stays at Hyatt. Registration is required for the Aeroplan bonus.

Through August 31: Southwest Airlines 1,800 Rapid Rewards points per stay. Registration required.

My title is in jest as a way to sum up the populist sentiment among Hyatt Gold Passport members recently bypassed by Hyatt’s targeted promotion for 3,000 points after 3 nights, up to 30,000 bonus points for stays from August 5 through September 30, 2011. This targeted Hyatt Gold Passport offer was posted on FlyerTalk on the morning of Friday August 5.

An even better Hyatt targeted promotion appeared within 30 minutes on MilePoint.com  for 5,000 points every three nights, up to 30,000 points for stays from August 5 through September 30.

In the 12 years I have followed FlyerTalk, I probably have earned more than 100,000 miles and hotel points from targeted promotions where I was not one of the targeted class. That being said, I have also seen dozens of promotions where outrage is expressed by frequent flyer and frequent guest members who feel slighted by not receiving a promotion bonus from a targeted promotion.

As a general practice I do not write about targeted offers on Loyalty Traveler blog. I see no reason to write about offers that readers are unlikely to receive. Certainly I miss sharing some good deals with readers that earn points or miles when the targeted class is expanded to include the whiners, but I frequently see deals mentioned on other travel blogs that are targeted and then readers are upset and complain when the points or miles do not post.

Case in point is the current Hyatt promotion for 3,000 points or 5,000 points every 3 nights. Hyatt Gold Passport Concierge started threads on both FlyerTalk.com and Milepoint.com yesterday to address the issue of these targeted promotions. The initial terms and conditions included the word “or” which some Hyatt Gold Passport members interpreted as a viable loophole in language that qualifies them for the promotion despite all the wording on the promotion pages stating these offers are exclusive to the email recipient and nontransferable.

Wording on the promotion registration page explicitly states:

Bonus points will be awarded exclusively to those members who were chosen to receive this offer.

The consensus deduced from FlyerTalk is this promotion targeted general members and Platinum elite members with fewer than 5 stays in 2011. No Gold Passport Diamond members, including me, appear to have been part of the target group for these promotions.

Another issue generating hope for points from Gold Passport untargeted members is the ability to register for the promotion and receive an immediate confirmation of registration from Hyatt Gold Passport.

Please remember that this offer is not transferable and will be awarded only to those members who were chosen to receive this offer.

Gold Passport members still hold out hope that Hyatt will expand the promotion to all who registered.

The Social Network Doesn’t Keep Secrets

One of the issues of social networking is the ability to access information about targeted loyalty program offers. Hundreds of thousands of frequent flyers and frequent guests share details of their interactions with travel companies.

Targeted offers can generate a backlash in social media. I have to say that a large part of my moving away from Hilton HHonors was several years of seeing lucrative targeted  offers for bonus points that I was ineligible to receive. I had the feeling that being Hilton HHonors Diamond was keeping me out of the most lucrative HHonors promotions. Eventually I moved on to other hotel loyalty programs where I could take advantage of better value offers.

The discussion on Milepoint and FlyerTalk shows frustration with Hyatt for launching a valuable points promotion targeted to a select class of Gold Passport members while the members with plenty of hotel stay activity have seen property specific bonuses for 1,000 to 2,000 points per stay disappear from Gold Passport over the past six months and Faster Free Nights where two hotel stays earned a free night at any Hyatt take its longest hiatus in years.

Hyatt Gold Passport has seen plenty of changes in the past couple of years as the loyalty program offered members incredibly lucrative promotions prior to Hyatt Hotels going public on the stock market in 2009 and launching a Hyatt Visa credit card in 2010.

Hyatt Gold Passport was the small fry loyalty program with blockbuster promotions among the major hotel loyalty programs of Hilton HHonors, Marriott Rewards, IHG Priority Club and Starwood Preferred Guest. Social media and round after round of high-value promotions helped the Hyatt Gold Passport loyalty program grow substantially in membership over the past couple of years.

“Damn you Hyatt. I’m not targeted, but give me the points anyway!” is the other side of living in the social media material world of loyalty programs.

I registered for the 5,000 points after three nights promotion anyway as the screen shots show in this post.

You never know.

This week Hyatt Visa added a card member anniversary benefit of one free night at a category 1 to 4 hotel. A common complaint about the Hyatt Visa card since it launched in late 2010 was the lack of any incentive to retain the card after receiving the high value enrollment bonus offer for two free nights at any Hyatt worldwide. This new benefit remedies that complaint to a large degree.

Hyatt Gold Passport has hotels assigned to categories 1 through 6. Category 5 and 6 are relatively small number of hotels, but these are typically the best of the best and include many of the Hyatt resort hotels. The enrollment bonus of two free nights at any Hyatt is still the premier feature of the Hyatt card.

Benefits of Hyatt Visa

• Enrollment Bonus = 2 free nights at any Hyatt to be used within one year (all new cardmembers)
• Enrollment Bonus for current Hyatt Platinum elites = 2 free nights + 2 suite upgrade certificates for use on paid stays.
• Enrollment Bonus for current Hyatt Diamond elites = 2 suite upgrade free nights with the exception of Park Hyatt Beaver Creek, Park Hyatt Sydney, Hyatt Regency Kyoto and Hyatt Regency Paris Madeleine that do not participate in confirmed suite upgrades.
• Earning rate = 3 points per dollar at Hyatt,
• 1 point per dollar for other transactions.
• No foreign exchange fees.
• complimentary Platinum elite status while a Hyatt Card member.

Which Hotel Credit Card is Best?

Hyatt ranks as one of the best hotel credit cards for persons who do not charge tens of thousands of dollars to a credit card. Ben Schlappig, Lucky at One Mile at a Time recently ranked best hotel credit cards and placed Starwood Preferred Guest American Express as his top pick followed by Hilton HHonors Surpass. The Points Guy surveyed hotel credit cards last week and based his analysis on $30,000 in credit card spend.

I see $30,000 on a credit card and think that might happen in five to eight years with my spend pattern. I could care less about SPG Gold elite after spending $30,000 in a year on the SPG American Express. I have been SPG Platinum for nearly a decade and rarely spend more than $3,000 a year at Starwood Hotels. Earning SPG Gold from hotel stays is something I can achieve for under $1,000 annually.

HHonors Surpass Diamond for $40,000 in credit card spend is an elite status I also held for many years with under $3,000 in spend per year at Hilton brand hotels. That is a more attainable route to HHonors elite for me.

5-Star Living on a 2-star Budget

For the low spender there is little benefit to the Starwood Preferred Guest American Express card despite it being exuberantly touted across the blog world.  Sure the SPG AmEx card currently has a 30,000 points enrollment bonus. Read the fine print and the actual enrollment bonus is 10,000 points with an additional 20,000 points for charging $4,500 in the first three months.

The SPG AmEx does not confer instant elite status which is a standard benefit for most hotel credit cards. You have to spend $30,000 a year on the SPG AmEx to receive complimentary SPG Gold elite.

Complimentary Elite with Hotel Credit Cards

• Hilton HHonors No fee Visa or no fee American Express = Silver 15% bonus points (normally requires 4 stays or 10 nights).
• Hyatt Visa = Platinum 15% bonus points (normally requires 5 stays or 15 nights in a calendar year).
• IHG Priority Club = Gold 10% bonus points (normally requires 15 nights or earn 20,000 points or pay $50 in a calendar year).
• Marriott Visa (Signature or Premier) = Silver 20% bonus points (normally requires 10 nights in a calendar year).

Low Credit Card Value for Low Spenders

SPG American Express is a popular card for the versatility of Starpoints conversion into airline miles at the rate of 1 point = 1 mile for about two dozen airlines. I argue this is a minor benefit for a person charging less than $5,000 per year on a credit card. The points-to-miles exchange feature of SPG is a great program benefit, but there is no need to have the SPG AmEx for that benefit.

SPG has a minimum transfer requirement of 2,500 points for SPG members without Gold or Platinum elite status when exchanging points-to-miles. At the rate of 1 point earned per dollar charged to the SPG American Express (2 points/$1 for Starwood Hotel charges), the low spending consumer needs $2,500 in spend to make the minimum transfer of Starpoints to miles.

Earning 20,000 points for airline miles with a 25% bonus (20,000 Starpoints = 25,000 miles) may be a goal that takes years of credit card spending to reach. In contrast to credit card spend,  I estimate I earn  about 50,000 Starpoints per year with $2,000 in hotel stays and often I earn the equivalent of many more points through SPG free night promotions.

Even though the SPG AmEx has one of the best earning rates in terms of point value per dollar charged to the credit card, the card member charging less than $5,000 per year is not getting that much benefit compared to the value of points in other hotel credit cards after spending $5,000.

$5,000 = 5,000 Starpoints = about $125 to $200 in hotel value when used for a Category 2 hotel night (3,000 Fri/Sat or 4,000 points weekday.) Use 4,800 points for Cash & Points Category 5 hotel with $90 cash and the value might be $200+ in savings for a $300 a night Starwood Hotel.

$5,000 = 5,000 Starpoints = 5,000 frequent flier miles = $50 to $100 value.

Best Credit Cards for Low Spenders Offer Annual Free Night

Priority Club Visa = 1 free night every anniversary year good for any IHG hotel globally. 30,000 to 80,000 points enrollment bonus has been offered in past year. I received the 80,000 points offer several times.

Hyatt Visa = 1 free night every year for a category 1-4 hotel. Enrollment bonus is two free nights at any Hyatt.

Marriott Rewards Premier = one free night every year for a category 1 to category 5 hotel. Enrollment bonus is a certificate good for just category 1 to 4 hotels and 50,000 bonus points which are sufficient for any top-tier category 8 Marriott globally and almost any Ritz-Carlton Hotel. One drawback of the free night certificates compared to Hyatt and Priority Club is a six month expiration after certificate is issued.

The value of a free night is worth more than the annual fee for these three hotel credit cards. There is no requirement to be a big spender to get good value from the Priority Club Visa, Hyatt Visa or Marriott Premier Visa cards. The fact that the earn rate in hotel points for general spend categories with these three cards is less than the value of general spend points for the Hilton American Express Surpass or HHonors no fee cards and the SPG American Express card is not a significant factor for a person who spends less than $5,000 per year on a credit card.

Comparing credit cards based on $3,000 in hotel spend annually

• HHonors Surpass = $3,000 x 9 points = 27,000 HHonors points (one category 3 hotel night)
• SPG American Express = $3,000 x 2 points = 6,000 Starpoints (two category 2 weekend nights or two category 3 Cash & Points nights).
• Hyatt Visa = $3,000 x 3 points = 9,000 points (one category 2 night).
• Priority Club Visa = $3,000 x 5 points = 15,000 points (one Holiday Inn/Holiday Inn Express night or 3 PointBreaks nights)
• Marriott Premier Visa = $3,000 x 5 points = 15,000 points (one category 3 night).

There really is very little difference in the value of points based on $3,000 of hotel spend on the hotel chain’s cobranded credit card. It is hard to argue any of these point values are significantly better than another in terms of the value of the free night earned from credit card spend.

Comparing credit cards based on $5,000 annual spend in general categories

• HHonors Surpass or no-fee AmEx = $5,000 x 6 points (cable, wireless, internet, gas, groceries, drugstores = 30,000 HHonors points (one category 4 hotel night, about $150 to $200 value).
• SPG American Express = $5,000 x 1 points = 5,000 Starpoints (one category-5 Cash & Points nights, about $200 value).
• Hyatt Visa = $5,000 x 1 points = 5,000 points (one category 1 hotel night, about $100 to $150 value).
• Priority Club Visa = $5,000 x 2 points (gas, groceries, dining) = 10,000 points (2 PointBreaks nights or Points & Cash, about $100 to $200 value).
• Marriott Premier Visa = $5,000 x 2 points (airline, dining, rental car) = 10,000 points (one category 2 night or category 3 PointSavers, about $100 to $150 value).

Final Word: There are some great value credit cards for the low spender. Hyatt Visa ($75), Priority Club Visa ($49) and Marriott Premier Visa ($85) are three cards that provide a high value annual free night incentive that more than pays for the credit card annual fee. Big spenders may find great value in SPG and Hilton HHonors American Express, but these three Visa hotel co-branded credit cards will give you a hotel free night value every year for a small fee.

Andaz, the luxury boutique brand by Hyatt, has a package rate for 1,500 bonus points and hotel local area extras for stays from July 27 to September 10 using special offer code ADZGP. This offer is available at five Andaz Hotels.

• Andaz Liverpool Street, London
• Andaz San Diego
• Andaz West Hollywood
• Andaz 5th Avenue
• Andaz Wall Street

The AZDGP rate is quite a bit higher than otherwise lowest rates for hotels I checked.

Andaz San Diego includes 1,500 bonus points, breakfast for two and a two hour harbor cruise for two at a price $53 per night more than the AAA rate for Friday, August 13. This is a decent deal if you do not have Hyatt Gold Passport complimentary breakfast as a Diamond elite.

Andaz West Hollywood includes 1,500 bonus points, cocktails for two, Sunset Strip VIP passes and a Starline Sightseeing tour for two at a nightly rate of $330. The AAA rate for the same night includes breakfast for two at a rate of $265.50. That is a $75 savings after tax with AAA if you desire breakfast more than VIP passes and sightseeing. 1,500 bonus points for $75 is not such a good deal.

Each hotel has its own special local package so check out the deals, but compare rates to avoid overpaying for package add-on items you might not use.