Help Me Decide Which Hotel Promo/Goal To Achieve
I need your help.
Unless my schedule changes, I have exactly 4 nights left in hotels between now and the end of 2014 for work travel. With my recent realization that I have Hilton Diamond status and the chance to earn 25,000 AAdvantage miles, I’m not sure how I should handle my last four nights. Help me decide! I’ll be tweeting out Starbucks to some folks with amusing/helpful answers. Here’s some potential choices:
- Stay 4 nights at Hyatt properties: This would leave me one night shy of the 15,000 point tier in their current bonus promo. I would need to do one mattress run for about $60 to get the 15,000 points. It would also be probably about $800 towards lifetime status with Hyatt, and I wouldn’t have to change hotels.
- Stay 3 nights at Hilton properties (and one night somewhere else): I would earn the aforementioned 25,000 bonus AAdvantage miles. But, I would have to “hotel-hop”, changing hotels each night.
- Stay 4 nights at Starwood properties: I’m shy of 100 nights for SPG Ambassador status and will likely burn some points to hit it again. It costs 2,000 points a night for the cheapest SPG property in my area. 4 paid nights would save/earn me 8,000 Starpoints, plus I’d likely 3,000-4,000 points on the stay (could potentially be 6,000-8,000 with the current SPG promo).
So, there you have it. Fire away with your comments and questions. Feel free to come up with other combinations of above if you think something makes more sense.
ETA: Based on David’s question below, I have healthy balances in Hyatt, SPG and AAdvantage. I do not value Hilton HHonors points very highly and have a small balance (not looking to collect more).
What would you do if you were me?
This should be good, I’m sure a lot of people have similar situations at this time of year. Good Luck. I’m in a bit of a decision myself. With my planned business travel I’ll be 3 stays short of Hyatt Diamond. Contemplating booking 3 mattress runs this month as points + cash at Tier 1 using the fall promo bonus points I’ve acquired in mind. I’ll be out $150 but in the end net Diamond Status and still come out ahead with 35K of the 50K fall bonus points.
Scott, there’s no question in my mind Diamond is worth the $150. I wouldn’t necessarily pay $150 for 15,000 HGP, though not a bad value. But, when you add in Diamond, it’s a must.
We can’t answer this without knowing the general status of your SPG, AA, and Hyatt account balances. If, for example, two were good and one was low, the answer would be obvious. If all three are healthy, then the decision is less obvious.
Apologies. I meant to include that. All have healthy balances.
Absolutely go for the Hhilton promo for 25K AA miles.
Based on the edit, I’d say the Hyatt one makes the most sense. It advances you towards a long term goal you have. It gives you 15,000 points which is worth a bit more than 25,000 AA points because they’re harder to accrue in bulk.