This basically made it possible to buy Priority Club points for 0.6 cents each. The way the system worked was that if you made a cash & points booking your account would be credited those extra points, and the reservation would then be processed and charged the full number of points required. If you turned around and cancelled your reservation you would get the full number of points back but no cash back.

Back in November of 2010 Priority Club raised the co-pay amount for the 5,000 point discount from $30 to $40 per night, while keeping the 10,000 point discount at $60 per night.

Well it appears as if overnight, without any announcement, Priority Club has raised the cost of the 10,000 point discount from $60 to $70.

So that means Priority Club points now basically cost 0.7 cents each to “buy.” Between this and the award chart devaluation, it’s not turning out to be a great year for Priority Club.

(Tip of the hat to Stvr)

Hyatt

I love Park Hyatt properties. I mean, I really, really love Park Hyatt properties. The more I think about it, the more I realize that Park Hyatts are really what keeps me loyal to Hyatt. The ability to redeem no more than 22,000 Gold Passport points per night (or no more than 33,000 points per night for a suite) at a Park Hyatt hotel is really what drives my loyalty to the chain.

Park Hyatt Abu Dhabi

Don’t get me wrong, Hyatt gets tons of points from me for their consistency. There’s not a more consistent hotel chain, a chain that under promises and over delivers as consistently. But the more Hyatt hotels I stay at, the more I realize that aside from Park Hyatt and Andaz properties, most of their hotels are pretty boring.

Andaz Shanghai

But now that Starwood really stepped up the game, especially in terms of incremental benefits over initial qualification, I think it’s time for Hyatt to step up their’s. I actually don’t necessarily think they should start counting award nights towards elite qualification like Starwood does. I mean, I have no problem if they do, but I think what they really need are marginal benefits above the first 25 stays or 50 nights.

In the past Hyatt’s amazing promotions were reason enough to stay at their hotels since you could earn a free night at a Park Hyatt after every few nights. Obviously that’s not sustainable, so it doesn’t have to be that drastic. But I think where Hyatt is missing the boat is that marginal benefits actually decrease after the first 25 stays and 50 nights. You get four confirmed Diamond suite upgrades after qualifying, but then get nothing extra if you stay double or triple as many nights/stays. So they’re not giving any sort of an incentive to stay with them. It’s still a really solid program, though without the promotions and with Starwood recently stepping up their game, I don’t think it’s the clear winner anymore.

Starwood

I’ve always referred to Starwood as the chain that over promises and under delivers. This is because as a chain they offer “unlimited space available suite upgrades” to Platinum members, but in practice a lot of the franchised hotels don’t seem to be aboard and will do just about anything to avoid giving an upgrade. My frustration with Starwood was that as a Platinum member you could have a stay where you literally get no benefits except free internet, since breakfast wasn’t guaranteed either.

Fortunately back in March they revamped their program to add breakfast as a Platinum amenity option, and also to add incremental benefits for those that more than qualify for Platinum status. As usual with Starwood it sounded great on paper, though I was curious about the implementation. Surprisingly enough I have to say that in my experience so far the implementation has been excellent. While the breakfast amenity does have to be chosen in place of the 500 SPG point Platinum welcome amenity, for my stays thus far the hotels have gone beyond the minimum required. At Le Meridien Munich, for example, I even got access to the full buffet.

Le Meridien Munich breakfast

But what’s really tempting me about Starwood is the marginal benefits beyond the initial 25 stays and 50 nights, which really force me to stay at their hotels instead of at Hyatt properties. The most tempting of those benefits are the 10 confirmed suite night awards after 50 nights, which I’m aiming for this year. This allows you to confirm 10 nights in a suite five days before arrival, which is hugely useful in basically “jumping” the Platinum upgrade queue. With Starwood I seem to always get suite upgrades for my one-night airport hotel stays, but not for the “vacation” stays that really count. So being able to confirm those would be hugely valuable.

Furthermore, the fact that award nights now count towards elite qualification with Starwood make this even more of a no brainer, since I can redeem points for stays at mid-range hotels and have those work towards the additional benefits.

But that still doesn’t solve my major frustration with Starwood, which is the number of points required for their high end hotels. I value SPG points at over two cents each, so at 30,000+ points per night for a category seven hotel, there are almost no circumstances under which a points redemption is a good value. Worst of all is that all villa hotels like the W Retreat Koh Samui charge double of the normal points required given that they don’t have any “standard” rooms. I’ll never understand that, since the redemption category a hotel belongs to is already based on the cost of rooms, so you’re basically being penalized twice.

InterContinental

I also have Royal Ambassador status with InterContinental, though for me this is the program which is becoming less and less valuable by the day. InterContinental Royal Ambassador used to be the best top tier status by far, in my opinion, though over the past couple of years has decreased in value to me, partly because the competition has caught up and partly because InterContinental has done everything they can to “standardize” benefits, which is rarely a good thing.

Nowadays I’m not really loyal to the chain, but rather mainly to a few of their individual hotels, which make me want to keep Royal Ambassador status. For example, the InterContinental San Francisco and InterContinental Berchtesgaden are among my favorite hotels, and I’d hate to give up Royal Ambassador because of how much I love these hotels.

InterContinental Berchtesgaden — my favorite place on earth

At the same time, the status really isn’t sustainable. While they’ve continued to quietly reduce benefits they’ve also increased qualification requirements. While the requirements are unpublished, anecdotal evidence suggests it takes at least 60 nights per year to be invited to Royal Ambassador. If Priority Club had more “middle ground” between InterContinental and their other brands that might not be so bad, but as things stand now, I can’t see myself staying 60 nights per year with them. The most frustrating part of the program is the lack of elite benefits on award stays, which is the biggest slap in the face of all.

Finding value in short stays outside the main chains

Here’s the last challenge I’m having. I’m increasingly finding a lot of value in one to two night stays at Virtuoso and American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts properties that don’t belong to Hyatt, Starwood, or Priority Club. For example, if I see a Ritz Carlton available for $250 per night and it comes with a room upgrade, $100 food and beverage credit, and daily breakfast for two, I’d be hard pressed to book a Westin for $200. And while that’s not always the case, it certainly makes me a bit less “focused,” which is never a good thing when trying to requalify for status.

Ritz Carlton San Juan

The bottom line

There is no perfect hotel chain. I love Hyatt for the ability to stay at mid-range hotels and redeem for high-end hotels. I just wish their mid-range hotels were more interesting. I love Starwood for the benefits I receive when staying at mid-range hotels and the reasonable award redemption costs for mid-range hotels. I just wish their high-end hotels would be priced more reasonably for award redemptions.

My hotel decisions for the rest of the year will be dictated first and foremost by which chain gives me the best value on the promotion front. Unfortunately both Hyatt and Starwood‘s second quarter promotions are pretty lackluster. Barring decent promotions, my decisions will be driven by incremental benefits, which is where Starwood wins for now.

Who is everyone else favoring this year?

Registration is required on Priority Club’s Facebook page. After “liking” them you’ll be prompted to enter your Priority Club number and PIN to complete the registration process. Apparently this promotion will go “public” beyond Facebook on June 1, 2012.

This promotion is stackable with other Priority Club promotions, like the one offering a $50 prepaid travel Mastercard for a consecutive two-night weekday stay through August 2, 2012.

My stay in Singapore happened to be over a weekend, so the logical option on the hotel front was to book the InterContinental using an expiring buy one get one free weekend night certificate.

I ended up booking a shophouse club room for 385SGD (~$310USD), expecting that would get me a two category upgrade to an executive suite. With the second night free and all the Royal Ambassador benefits I’d get (late check-out, free internet, free minibar, etc.), it seemed like a steal at $150USD per night.

I took a taxi from the airport to the hotel upon arrival from Frankfurt, which took about 20 minutes.

Hotel exterior

Upon arrival I proceeded to the Ambassador check-in desk, where the agent promptly processed my check-in and offered me a money clip as a welcome gift.

She informed me I had been upgraded to a shophouse suite. While that’s only a one category upgrade, I wasn’t about to argue given that I was traveling alone so wasn’t all that concerned about how big of a suite I had, let alone the fact that I was using a buy one get one free weekend night certificate.

I do love the design of the lobby, which I think is one of the most beautiful yet classic designs out there.

Lobby

Lobby lounge

The doorman walked me to my room, 254, in the shophouse wing of the hotel. While the hotel has over 400 rooms, they have a small shophouse wing which basically overlooks an indoor shopping mall. Some people love it, some people hate it, and I’m kind of indifferent towards it.

Shophouse wing

My room

The entryway of the suite led to both the bathroom and the living room, and was also where the minibar was.

Entryway

Minibar

In the living room was a couch facing a flat screen TV as well as a desk.

Living room

Living room

There was also a further welcome amenity consisting of fruit, water, and chocolate.

Welcome amenity

Beyond that was the shophouse balcony. I do wish the balcony was a bit bigger, but then again since it faces a pretty hot indoor mall, I’m not sure I’d spend that much time out there anyway.

Balcony

View from balcony

The living room led to the bedroom, which featured a king sized bed and a couple of chairs with ottomans.

Bedroom

Seats

That led to the bathroom, which featured a tub, shower, double sinks, and toilet.

Bathroom

Tub

Toilet

Shower

The toiletries were from “The White Company.”

Toiletries

On the whole I think the room is classic without being worn, so I’m a fan.

There is a bit of noise from the shophouse even with the doors closed, which is why some prefer a room in the main building.

The club lounge, which I had access to, was located just down the hall from my room. I visited the first evening after landing just to check out the offerings (they serve appetizers from 5:30PM to 7:30PM), and frankly was shocked by how crowded it was.

Club InterContinental

Club InterContinental

Club InterContinental

Evening spread

Evening spread

Evening spread

Evening spread

Evening spread

The lounge is massive, but despite that every last seat was taken. People had their feet on the furniture barefoot, and it was about as loud as a live sporting event.

For me club lounges aren’t just about eating as much as humanly possible in a short period of time, but rather a nice place to get some work done on my laptop in a different environment than the room.

The lounge was so full, though, that I left right away. I really have to wonder what the deal is, since access isn’t cheap at 90SGD per night.

Fortunately as a club guest you can have breakfast in the hotel’s restaurant, Olive Tree. The spread was extensive, though not quite as impressive as those at the St. Regis Bangkok or Le Meridien Bangkok.

Olive Tree entrance

Restaurant seating

Breakfast

Breakfast

Breakfast

Breakfast

Breakfast

The club lounge also serves afternoon tea, which I found to be the most “relaxing” service of the day, since the lounge wasn’t as crowded during that time. They had finger sandwiches, cake, scones with jam and clotted cream, etc.

Afternoon tea spread

Given what I paid and that I used a buy one get one free weekend night certificate, I’d say I got a great value. That being said, Singapore has quite a few good hotels, so I’d probably try a different one next time just for variety.

For months I had a meeting scheduled in Singapore, and originally my plan was to first visit Singapore and then continue on to Thailand for about a week (Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai, specifically).

So while I had a ticket booked reflecting that schedule, I unfortunately had a schedule conflict on both ends of the trip. On the front end I was attending Starwood’s screening of “Mansome” in New York at the Tribeca Film Festival, and on the back end I had a family commitment back in Tampa.

Unfortunately this translated to a very quick trip to Singapore of just about 48 hours. While it’s not ideal, I was determined to at least get a few new airline products into the trip, and I’m proud to say that I think I succeeded in this instance.

For the outbound I’ve been dying to try Lufthansa’s new first class on the 747, which consists of both a seat and a bed. I’ve flown their other new first class product, which can be found on the Airbus 380, though never lucked out with the reconfigured 747, since only 10 of the 28 747s feature it.

In this instance the most convenient scheduled for the outbound was from New York to Singapore via Frankfurt in Lufthansa first class for 70,000 United miles one way (which I transferred from Ultimate Rewards).

The Frankfurt to Singapore flight was scheduled to be operated by the Airbus 380, so while it’s not a new product I didn’t feel too bad about flying it again, since I really do love the Airbus 380.

The flight from New York to Frankfurt proved to be a bit trickier. Lufthansa has two flights a day between New York JFK and Frankfurt, one at around 4PM and one at around 10PM. Initially I booked the late night flight, which I far prefer.

The thing is that Lufthansa flies the reconfigured 747s around pretty randomly, so when I woke up in the morning I looked up the tail numbers for the inbound flights from Frankfurt (this FlyerTalk thread is very useful for tracking them). As it turns out, the earlier flight from Frankfurt to New York (LH400) had the new first class, and that plane turns around to fly the early New York to Frankfurt flight (LH401).

So while I wasn’t looking forward to spending an extra six hours in Frankfurt, I decided it was well worth it for the new product. Fortunately the earlier flight had first class award space as well, so I called up to make the change, which took only a few minutes.

The return was also a spur of the moment decision. I initially booked a Cathay Pacific first class award from Singapore to Tampa via Hong Kong and Chicago, which is a tough value to beat at 67,500 American miles. Cathay Pacific has one of the most consistent first class products, though I’ve flown them well over a dozen times, so I was really hoping to try something new.

My flight out of Singapore was supposed to be at 1AM, and at around 4PM the previous afternoon I decided to get online and see if there were any other interesting alternatives.

I found Japan Airlines first class award space from Tokyo to New York in their new Sky Suite. While I flew their old product from Tokyo to New York several years ago, the prospect of trying their new suites proved too much to give up, so I canceled my Cathay Pacific award. The one-way award cost 62,500 miles in first class (flying out of Japan is 5,000 miles cheaper than flying out of Southeast Asia on American).

The issue was getting from Singapore to Tokyo. I had some Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles, so decided to book the Singapore Airlines redeye from Singapore to Tokyo in first class for 51,000 KrisFlyer miles.

While I’ve flown Singapore Airlines’ old first class product and new business class product, I haven’t flown their new first class product.

Now, some might say that Singapore to Tokyo for 51,000 miles on a redeye is a waste. But 90% of the people I know really have no clue how far Singapore is from Tokyo. When I’ve asked people to estimate the flight length, they usually say 2-3 hours. It’s actually blocked at over seven hours, and the distance is further than Boston to London. So when you put it into perspective and think of it as the equivalent of a transatlantic first class flight for 51,000 miles, it seems like a bit better of a deal.

Ultimately there’s no doubt the Cathay Pacific deal was a better one, though you guys are always telling me you want me to review new products, and I figured this would be the perfect opportunity, since three of the four airline products were new ones for me.

When all was said and done, the itinerary looked as follows:

04/26 Lufthansa 401 New York to Frankfurt departing at 3:55PM and arriving at 5:35AM (+1 day)
04/27 Lufthansa 778 Frankfurt to Singapore departing at 9:35PM and arriving at 3:50PM (+1 day)
04/30 Singapore Airlines 638 Singapore to Tokyo departing at 11:55PM and arriving at 8:00AM (+1 day)
05/01 Japan Airlines 6 Tokyo to New York JFK departing at 11:20AM and arriving at 11:25AM

On the hotel front I decided to book the InterContinental Singapore. Since I was staying over a weekend I was able to use an InterContinental Buy One Get One Free Weekend Night Certificate, which is an unbeatable deal in conjunction with Royal Ambassador benefits.

Stay tuned!

That’s why I think it’s pretty awesome that the InterContinental San Francisco (coincidentally one of my favorite hotels in the US) is adding the following milestones for frequent guests, per USA Today:

• 10th Milestone Stay: Your room will include a picture frame holding a favorite photograph. You’ll get an upgrade to a Junior Suite based upon availability.
• 25th Milestone Stay: Expect the above, plus an “I” logo pen, plus a plush, monogrammed InterContinental bathrobe that can either stay at the hotel or be shipped to your home.
• 50th Milestone Stay: Expect the above, plus a pair of monogrammed slippers and a digital picture frame pre-loaded with your selected photos. For the upgrade, you’ll get to stay in one of the hotel’s luxury suites such as the Presidential Suite.
• 75th Milestone Stay: Expect the above, a personalized iPod to keep in the room, including the extra-nice upgrade.
• 100th Milestone Stay: Expect the above, plus a complete linen sheet set that is embroidered with your initials. On future stays, your bed will be made with your personalized sheets.
• 250th Milestone Stay: All of the above, plus the hotel will name a suite after you (after all, you probably already “live” there!). The hotel would actually place a plaque outside the door with your name on it.

Having a suite named after you? I’m not gonna lie, that would be pretty awesome…

Regardless, it’s just nice to see a hotel recognizing guests that are especially loyal to one hotel, as opposed to just the chain.

(Tip of the hat to GeeEmm)

InterContinental is now working on construction for the new InterContinental Shimao Shanghai Wonderland, just 45km outside of Shanghai. It’s built in a 100 meter deep pit, and is projected to open in 2014 or 2015.

Check out the CNN Go article on it. In looking at the “before” picture and projected “after” picture, I’d be amazed if they manage to build this in 2-3 years without any major hurdles.

Anyone else going to make an effort to visit this place once it opens?

(Tip of the hat to David)

While there are several decent Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn properties on the list, there are also a few InterContinentals, including those in Cali (Nigeria), Mar Menor (Australia), Manila (Argentina), Ho Chi Minh City (Germany), Pyeonchang (Montana), and Qingdao (French Polynesia). Yes, I’m starting my new career as a US Airways call center agent tomorrow…

(So that no one is disserviced by my above comment, it’s actually Colombia, Spain, Philippines, Vietnam, Korea, and China)

The savings can be considerable, though, so are well worth it if you still need to make a booking. I need a room in New York for a stay for family members in May, and am booking the Crowne Plaza Times Square. The hotel used to cost 25,000 points per night, though went up to 35,000 points per night. I’d say a phone call of five minutes is well worth the savings of 50,000 points (given that they’re staying for five nights).

I’m also planning a trip to London soon (using a British Airways companion voucher) so am thinking of locking in the InterContinental Park Lane on points before March 18, given that the redemption cost went from 40,000 points to 50,000 points per night.

Either way, it’s an easy 250 points!

When you complete the survey you receive an email confirming that the points will post within 4-6 weeks.