Hyatt’s Fall Promo: Good For Me, Others Disagree

Hyatt has announced their fall promo on Milepoint before general registration opens. The promotion generally calls for 10,000 bonus points for every 5 paid nights, though the first 5 nights only earn you 5,000 points.

5 nights= Earn 5,000 Bonus Points

10 nights=Earn 10,000 Bonus Points, Total 15,000

15 nights=Earn 10,000 Bonus Points, Total 25,000

20 nights=Earn 10,000 Bonus Points, Total 35,000

25 nights=Earn 10,000 Bonus Points, Total 45,000

30 nights=Earn 10,000 Bonus Points, Total 55,000

35 nights=Earn 10,000 Bonus Points, Total 65,000

As with a promotion earlier this year, Hyatt is again offering a 20% bonus for holders of their Hyatt credit card. This is fairly unique amongst the major hotel chains. I don’t recall seeing promos where it was required to have their co-branded card to maximize the promo.

For me, I don’t think my travel patterns will allow me to max out this promo. I’ll likely stay 25 nights, which would yield 45,000 bonus points from the promo plus 9,000 extra for being a Hyatt credit card holder. If I value Hyatt points at 2 cents for easy math (and I think I’d probably value them slightly less), then these points are worth about $180 to me (say $150 to be conservative).

Put another way, those extra 9,000 points are enough for a category 2 free night (8,000 points) such as Hyatt Regency Cancun or Hyatt Regency Toronto. 54,000 points is enough for 3 free nights at a category 5 property like Hyatt Regency Waikiki, Park Hyatt Buenos Aires, AVIA Napa, or Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress (a decent launching point for a Disney World vacation).

No doubt this promo is not as exploitable as the Faster Free Nights(FFN) promotions Hyatt has run in the past. Previous iterations had people earning a free night at most Hyatt properties after two paid stays. Hyatt hasn’t done a stay-based promo in a while, and these are generally more popular amongst hardcore mileage earners, hence the reason people aren’t thrilled in the Milepoint thread that announces the promo.

There was a time when I could switch hotels every night when I traveled for business. Heck, I could still do it now. But, I’m traveling too much right now to really want to change rooms every night to accrue more free nights. Plus, I actually prefer extra points I can use when I want. FFNs normally had a fairly short shelf life.

I think the more important observation is that Hyatt and other major hotel chains generally appear to be moving away from the more lucrative promos we saw a few years ago. They have most likely seen occupancy and rate increases which lead them to believe that things are getting better in the hotel industry so they have less reason to incent customers. And, they’re probably right, though that doesn’t make me stop wishing for better promos.

All in all, I think I would ultimately get more value out of another FFN promo if the terms were the same as previous ones. Since I think a current iteration of FFN would be less generous, this promo should end up fitting me fine.