Tag Archives for hyatt.
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I love using Google Chrome as a browser. It’s light, powerful, and has lots of good plug-ins… er, extensions.
Some of them have elevated to near-constant use territory.
I’ve written about useful apps because I love time-saving productivity stuff like a good millennial lol.
These 4 Chrome extensions come with my highest recommendation. They’ve helped me save a lot of time, money, and clicking around.
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I’ve written about the incredible value you can get with the annual free night from the Chase Hyatt card at Hyatt Category 4 hotels.
A hotel I listed as an “honorable mention” is the Hyatt at The Bellevue in Philadelphia.
For my last weekend as a New Yorker, I’ll actually be in Philly, at this Hyatt. Jay and I both recently got our free night certs and I’ve been itching to burn them.
We got a super deal on a weekend getaway.
Hyatt at the Bellevue
This is an awesome example of how easy it is to get value from the Chase Hyatt card. The annual free night makes it well worth keeping!
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To begin, I must say I’m disappointed I wasn’t one of the lucky ones to receive Hyatt Diamond status. Although I did luck out with Hilton Diamond status.
I realize I’ll likely sound like a spoiled brat whining about something I didn’t get for free. Especially when others have spent much more time and money to actually earn the status. That said, the way Hyatt handled the Diamond status match – from free-for-all to the later restriction to only match SPG Platinum members, and all the missteps in between- was very mishandled.
Booooo
Hyatt had an opportunity to capitalize on the SPG/Marriott merger and they blew it – unless you got the match, then you win. I likely would’ve gone out of my way to stay with Hyatt more in 2016 and beyond. This whole thing has left such a bad taste behind that it makes me want to actively avoid Hyatt, and only use them for free award night stays.
Although I think what Hilton is doing is genius, at least from a marketing perspective. And, let’s face it: Hilton has a much larger footprint than Hyatt (4,100+ hotels compared to ~600). And Hilton is in every place there’s a Hyatt with few exceptions.
For example, there are NO Hyatt hotels in Barcelona (where I’ll be in a few weeks). But there were 4 Hilton options:
Furthermore, the next time Hyatt has a Diamond status challenge to stay 12 nights, I won’t even consider doing it (even though you can complete it with only 9 nights if you have Citi Prestige). Why would I spend $1,000 on something so many others got for free?
Anyway, that’s my preamble – just wanted to clear the air here. Again, I completely understand I don’t “deserve” the status in way. It just sucks to see so many get it for free, even though my credentials where enough – at one point – to get me in, too. A case of “early bird gets the worm” if there ever was one.
But now, I’m taking another look at Hilton, as I expect to have more paid stays there, at least for now. And, it’s not as bad as you’d think.
I’ve had some pretty good experiences with Hyatt points, even though the way they handled their recent Hyatt Diamond promo was a disaster. #jaded
Anyway, one can have a finite number of Chase cards, but I choose to renew the Chase World of Hyatt card year after year.
That’s because you get a free night certificate when you renew the card each year, and it’s good at Category 1 through 4 hotels. So obviously, I try to use them at Category 4 properties to get outsized value.
Last year, I gave my free night away to Jay’s grandparents for a night at the Hyatt Regency St. Louis at The Arch (which is a Category 2), because the certificate was about to expire and it was their anniversary. Jay and I both have the Chase Hyatt card, so we gave them 2 nights at the hotel. They loved it!
New year, new options!
I just renewed the card again and paid the $75 annual fee, so I thought I’d take a spin through the Category 4 hotel list to see where I might use the annual free night in 2016.
I found at least 6 hotels where you’ll recoup the annual fee 4x over… or more. It got me thinking.
Never change
Oh, and because these are all Category 4 hotels, you can also redeem 15,000 Hyatt points for a free night. In many cases, you’ll get over 4 cents per point in value!
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After staying at the Hyatt Place in “Austin”, I headed to Dallas to do some house-hunting.
Picking up the rental car was a nightmare, but once on the road, I was at the Hyatt House Dallas/Uptown in about 25 minutes.
The parking garage is beyond a gate where you have to swipe your room key, and there are maybe 4 parking spots outside the hotel, as it’s located off a major thoroughfare (Harry Hines Boulevard), which, if there are more than a few people checking in, creates a huge, annoying queue.
Thankfully, I got a spot, grabbed my wallet, and headed to checkin/get a room key within a couple of minutes.
After flying and driving, it hit me that I was super thirsty once I saw the water for sale near the checkin desk.
The desk agent greeted me warmly, and quickly found my reservation.
He acknowledge my Hyatt Platinum elite status, which is completely useless except for random scenarios like this checkin.
I didn’t know parking was an extra $14 a day, and had a 3-night stay… an extra $42.
For some reason, I thought it would be included as the hotel isn’t in downtown Dallas or in a particularly clogged area. Whatever, I asked if he could add it to my Chase Hyatt card along with… abottleofwaterI’msothirsty.
He validated my parking, gave me a room key, and said there would be no charge for the parking, and to enjoy the water. In fact, he gave me another bottle to take to the room!
I was bowled over by the gesture after getting through a flight and driving and parking and finding the place. It was very kind, and I was grateful. It really is the little things.
So, checkin could not have not any smoother. And the gracious service from checkin continued through the entire stay.
Hallways of the Hyatt House Dallas/Uptown
Everyone, from the cleaning staff to the bartenders to the other desk agents were attentive and professional the entire time.
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So, how many of us are newly minted AARP members after that insane deal for British Airways Business Class?
AARP heats things up starting with the homepage
I took a poke around the website and found some worthwhile member benefits that can more than make up the $16 spent to join – and this membership might be a good thing to keep!
File this under “Writing about it before I forget it happened.”
First impression: Wow – there are a LOT of chain hotels in Austin. I… had no idea there were so many.
In fact, there are three Hyatt Place locations in Austin:
But I’ll focus on the last one.
We passed many, many other hotels on the way to it.
I flew down to Austin for a work meeting, and that’s what I did most of the time. So I didn’t get to enjoy the amenities of the hotel, like the pool or gym.
I kinda flew down, checked in, and slept there in the evenings. Which was fine. Here’s my take on it.
Great! I was harried. I’d left my ID in the rental car, and was a mess of bags and random crap after traveling all day. But the desk agent could not have been more thorough or professional or welcoming.
My Hyatt Platinum elite status was acknowledged, and she asked which room I’d prefer. I opted for the bigger room on a higher floor near the elevator: PERFECT.
Hyatt Place Austin/Arboretum lobby
I got room 516 on the 5th floor, was given a wifi code, and was told about the free breakfast in the morning.
Random thought of the evening.
I’m going through my cards and want to dump:
And replace them with:
The hitch is that you have to wait ~8 days between applications with Citi, so I’m not sure which of their cards to get first. But I’m warming up to the idea of Category 1 and 2 Hilton hotels – there’s a ton of value to be had there.
Anyway.
Via The Points Guy, tomorrow is the last day to sign up for the Hyatt Diamond Challenge (something that’s always tempted me). You’ll have 60 days to complete it when you sign up (so until September 30th).
And via View From the Wing, the Citi Prestige card’s 4th night free benefit is “too good” to last. (I agree.)
Hyatt hotels are easily bookable with the Citi Prestige travel program. (Here’s the link to Carlson Wagonlit to search.)
A quick search in Dallas turned up 6 Hyatts, most under $100 a night
If you book a 4-night stay for $100 a night, you’d pay $300 (after the Citi Prestige statement credit).
Do this 3 times in 60 days, pay $900, get Hyatt Diamond status. Any many hotels are available for under $100.
If you have Hyatt stays coming up anyway, this might be something to mix-and-match with cash + points stays.
And hotels booked with the Citi Prestige card do earn elite credit.
Since the BOS-DUB flight on Aer Lingus tonight flies out of, um, Boston, I decided to build in a day to explore this culturally rich city. As a base, I decided on the Hyatt Regency Boston.
It’s a Hyatt Category 3 hotel, meaning it’s 15,000 Gold Passport points per night, and also eligible for use with the annual free night certificate given as a perk to cardholders of the Chase Hyatt Visa.
Since I’d already redeemed my annual free night certificate earlier this year at the Hyatt Regency in New Orleans for Mardi Gras, I redeemed 15,000 Gold Passport points.
Daily rate was $313/night
This saved me $313 for a one-night stay, which means I got a value of 2.1 cents per point – and meets my 2 cents per point minimum. However, since I’m a Chase Hyatt Visa cardholder, I’ll get 20% of those points back due to a promo they have going on right now until July 31st (but you had to register by March 31st). That gives me even more value out of the points redeemed – closer to 3 cents per point. Considering how easy it is to earn Ultimate Rewards points, I consider Hyatt stays one of the best uses of Ultimate Rewards – especially with this 20% discount going on.
After getting off the Amtrak train at Boston’s South station, it was a short 10-minute walk to the Hyatt Regency. The streets in Boston drive me absolutely batty. I’m a lover of the grid. Well-planned cities like Chicago and Phoenix appeal to my sense of order greatly. I can deal with New York’s mish-mash of a kinda-sorta grid. But Boston is something else altogether.
Once I found the Hyatt Regency, I entered through the sliding glass doors. You have to take an elevator up to the lobby on the 3rd floor, and from there, you have to take another elevator up to your room. So to enter and/or exit, you always have to take two elevators. This design feature/flaw was not my favorite thing in the entire world, and I can see how it could be confusing to some.
Ground floor entrance of the Hyatt Regency Boston
Check-in area on the 3rd floor
The desk agent was very, very welcoming and acknowledged that I was Platinum with Hyatt. After just a couple of minutes, we headed up to our room.
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Major change of plans is more like it.
Thanks to The Points Guy, I caught wind that an award I’d long had my eye on, BOS-DUB in business class on Aer Lingus, was widely available for booking with Avios points.
The good news: it still is.
I immediately transferred over some Ultimate Rewards and Membership Rewards (I love combining them when I can and British Airways is perfect for that – so is Singpore) to my British Airways account, and called in to book my dates.
Get ’em while they’re hot!
Throughout April and May, and possibly into the summer months, award availability is peppered here and there.
Business class award availability on Aer Lingus (Click to enlarge)
That screen shot was taken just now. There are still some flights out there.
The best way to book this is by checking availability on the United website, then by calling British Airways to book over the phone.
I called them post Avios-hack (to change a different set of flights), and my hold time was less than 5 minutes. In fact, I was all booked and set up with flights in under 15 minutes (pre-Avios hack).
If you’re interested in booking, you have either one month or when availability runs out, beginning today. The Avios program is changing on April 28th, and this particular award will go from 50K round-trip in business to 75K, which is a pretty staggering change.
I’ve been interested in experiencing Aer Lingus business class, and visiting Ireland, for a very long time, so it’s all very serendipitous.
Of course I had a pretty severe schedule change with Delta.
The mighty schedule change
I was willing to get down to DC to take advantage of an awesome fare that Delta had earlier this year. I was even thinking I could spend a day or two in DC, maybe catch the tail-end of the cherry blossoms. But when the Aer Lingus award availability came around, I was then willing to get myself to Boston, and am now thinking of spending a day there instead.
I called Delta and explained that I had a schedule change of over 4 hours, and that those times no longer work for me – could I please cancel and get a refund? They immediately canceled the ticket and said to expect a refund in 5-7 business days. Awesome. So those are done.
It was a great deal, but then again, so is the Avios redemption on Aer Lingus, and even more so now that it’s time-sensitive.
The 2 round-trip flights would’ve been over $10,000 had I paid for them. Instead, I got nearly 11 cents per point of value by booking with Avios. An incredible deal – get on it if you can!
BOS-DUB on Aer Lingus business class
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After leaving the Hyatt Regency New Orleans, we grabbed our bags (well, I grabbed my Tumi T-Tech) and wheeled them over to the Hyatt French Quarter.
Hyatt French Quarter exterior
It was the height of Mardi Gras. The day before Fat Tuesday.
All of the hotels were on a wristband system and checking them at the door. And the staff at this location could not have been any more welcoming or gracious. Especially Magen (hope I spelled her name right). She was at the check-in desk and consistently provided amazing hospitality service at every turn. Kudos to the check-in staff here!
As soon as we wheeled through the door, the concierge at the door verified that we had a reservation, and we were able to walk right up to our room within minutes. It was one of the best check-in experiences I’ve had at a hotel: fun, quick, welcoming, and thorough. Really, they couldn’t have done a better job, especially considering it was a holiday in the city.
Upon walking in, I noticed the beautiful decor, the wine bar and breakfast/cafe area, and the fact that this is a small boutique hotel of only 4 floors (a far cry from the 30+ floors at the Hyatt Regency from earlier that morning!).
Upon walking through the doors
View of the lobby
Powdered Sugar, the cafe/breakfast area
Seating inside Powdered Sugar
Batch, the wine bar/cocktail lounge
Hotel directory – only 4 floors
There is a new Hyatt promotion whereby they are offering 100,000 AAdvantage miles and a 3-night stay at either Ziva or Zilara all-inclusive resort.
To enter, you simply send a tweet with a link to the promo video, and the hashtags #HyattAllIn and #HZEntry.
The promotion has been open since February 17th and ends on March 10th, so you still have some time to enter – but not if you are a resident of either Florida or New York (hmph).
Here is a link to the complete rules of the promo. And here is my tweet that you are welcome to copy and/or modify if you’d like to enter (and feel free to follow me to Twitter, too!):
#HyattAllIn#HZEntryhttp://t.co/jHlmYZhYSQ I want to start packing and leave all this snow!
— Harlan Vaughn (@harlanvaughn) February 28, 2015
American is the only legacy airline left that doesn’t have a hotel partnership.
And American doesn’t have a hotel partnership yet.
Hyatt + American would be a dream come true for me, as I love Hyatt hotels, and am partial – for now, pending further changes – to American.
After the merger completes, American will be the biggest airline in the United States. And Hyatt is far from the largest hotel chain. Their imprint is tiny compared to American’s network. American needs a hotel partner with a similarly large imprint. The obvious choice would be Hilton: they are both linked to Citibank (and to American Express, kinda) and both do not have existing partnerships.
But this Hyatt + American promo is interesting because:
In fact, in the linked YouTube video, Hyatt put a little note to American at the bottom of the video’s description: Special thanks to our friends at American Airlines. How cute!
Not only is this a great promotion to enter if you haven’t already (it requires just 1 tweet, and the limit is 1 per day), but it interests me highly because Hyatt and American are starting to work together.
Realistically, we won’t see any changes to American – period – until after the merger completes, but after that, I plan on bracing myself for a whole spate of rapid-fire announcements, and I wouldn’t be surprised if this partnership is in the mix.
Good luck to those who entered the promotion! Would a Hyatt + American partnership be of interest to you? Do you think it’s a good idea, or would Hilton be a better choice?
Hello and welcome to Out and Out! My name is Harlan – I’m a points and miles enthusiast who loves to travel. I am interested in personal finance, the power of positive thinking, and the extraordinary journeys that make life worth living.