August 8, 2015

Protip: Use Your Diamond Suite Upgrades at the Andaz Peninsula Papagayo

My wife and I are wrapping up a quick four night getaway to Costa Rica and we chose to check out the Guanacaste region for our visit. I was flush with Hyatt points and with one remaining Diamond suite upgrade, it was a natural choice to choose the Andaz Pensisula Papagayo for our stay.

I’ll do a full review of the hotel when I’m back but I wanted to share the suite we received as a result of our DSU. This is the best upgrade I’ve received using a DSU and I whole heartedly recommend using one when visiting here.

My wife took a video of our suite as pictures don’t do this room justice. Sorry if this feels a little MMS but enjoy!

August 1, 2015

Quick Deal: 500 Bonus Hyatt Points for Each Mobile Booking

Update: No landing page for the offer but it now appears everyone should be eligible.

Hyatt recently announced a special 500 point bonus offer to entice customers to book hotel stays through the Hyatt App or Hyatt Mobile Web Site. This offer is good for all stays through September 30, 2015. I don’t believe any registration is required.

It appears that each stay booked via a mobile method mentioned above, except for stays at M Life hotels and resorts, is eligible for the 500 point bonus with no limit of how many bonus points one can earn. The only limitation is you can only earn one 500 point bonus per stay, even if you book multiple rooms. Award reservations are not eligible for the bonus.

This is a nice little bonus offer from Hyatt just for booking via a phone instead of a computer or calling Hyatt customer service. If you have any upcoming stays with Hyatt in the next 2 months, make sure to book them via your mobile device. And if you have a stay previously booked and the rate hasn’t changed, I would cancel it and rebook via a mobile device to pickup an extra 500 points.

Here are the complete terms of the offer:

“To earn 500 Hyatt Gold Passport points under this offer, you must book a new stay on an Eligible Rate through the Hyatt App or the Hyatt Mobile Site. Both reservation and stay must be made and completed August 1, 2015 through September 30, 2015 at any Hyatt hotel, excluding M life resorts. Eligible Rate is defined in the Hyatt Gold Passport terms and conditions. All hotel reservations are subject to availability and must be made in advance.

Hyatt Gold Passport membership at time of stay is required and members must provide their membership number and be a registered guest of the room. Membership is free and enrollment is available at goldpassport.com or at a participating hotel. Only one 500 point bonus may be earned per member, per stay, regardless of how many rooms are booked. This offer is subject to the complete terms and conditions of Hyatt Gold Passport. Please allow 2-3 weeks after stay is completed for points to be credited to account. “

June 18, 2015

I’m Gonna Recommend You Don’t Stay at the Park Hyatt Maldives During the Holidays…

…unless you want to pay $570 PER PERSON for a buffet dinner.

I have an upcoming stay at the Park Hyatt Maldives in October so I have been following the Flyertalk thread on the property pretty religiously. Yesterday I noticed that someone who is booked over New Year’s was informed of a mandatory dinner that night which ran an astounding $570 per person. Don’t believe it? Here it is listed here on the hotel’s website.

I’ll concede that the food sounds great but for a couple you are looking at $1,140!! for a buffet dinner. And since the hotel is its own island, there is literally no other food options available that night. The best part is that this doesn’t even include an open bar! Notice no mention of spirits or other liquor included.

For Christmas, however they give customers a little bit of a break at only $320 per person for dinner! And this dinner doesn’t even include beer or wine.

Look, I understand many hotels around the world have a mandatory or some sort of set dinner on holidays and they are generally overpriced. And I know food costs in the Maldives are expensive. But in this specific case, these prices are criminal. Seriously I can’t even comprehend the mere thought of a buffet that costs over $1,100 for two of us. I just can’t wrap my head around it. Imagine if you booked this hotel for the week covering both Christmas and New Year’s eve? I actually feel bad for you.

Gary over at View From the Wing just posted about his top 10 pet peeves about hotels. I don’t know how mandatory holiday dinners didn’t make the list especially when they are this egregious.

April 28, 2015

Question of the Day: Would You Consider This a Partial Ocean View?

I’m at the Andaz Maui right now with my wife celebrating our second first anniversary trip (that’s not confusing at all) and I used points + cash combined with a diamond suite upgrade for our stay. We stayed here last year on our second honeymoon trip and used the same points + cash combined with a diamond suite upgrade. Last year, we got room 539 which had a great, almost full view of the ocean. This year, we got room 138 and this ocean view.

Last year, not from our room but same sightline

This year…

As you can see, just a little bit different. I have my own theories on how we got the worse suite in the resort (I’ll explain in a different post) but I did mention my disappointment to the hotel and their response was they could move me to a normal room with a better ocean view or stay in my suite.
We chose to stay in the suite but to all of you, would you consider this an acceptable partial ocean view? Would you have switched to a normal room with a better view?

April 10, 2015

Good Deal Alert: The Only Daily Getaways Deal Worth Buying Is Today

If you’ve read almost any other points & miles blog for the past few weeks, you’ve probably noticed a steady stream of posts on daily deals via Daily Getaways. I haven’t posted anything about it as I haven’t found any exceptional deals until today. Even though the packages are advertised as buying hotel nights, you are actually buying Hyatt points for around a penny each which is actually a great deal for many luxury hotels as I’ll show you below.

There are 4 distinct packages for sale:

24,000 Hyatt points for $260 (95 packages available) which is ~1.08 cents per point.
30,000 Hyatt points for $330 (35 packages available) which is 1.1 cents per point.
40,000 Hyatt points for $415 (15 packages available) which is ~1.04 cents per point.
72,000 Hyatt points for $775 (15 packages available) which is ~1.07 cents per point.

I’m an avid fan of Hyatt hotels and I find they have a great collection of luxurious yet affordable (on points) hotels around the world that match my travel style. Last year I stayed at the new Andaz Maui and I am returning there in two weeks. A free night costs 25,000 Hyatt points which if purchased in this deal via one of the packages would actually end up costing me ~$270 a night. Not free in this case but look at the rates for a random weekday in July – almost $500! And other luxury hotels in Wailea are even more expensive so $270 would be a great price to pay for this hotel if it fit your travel style and travel goals.

Andaz Maui Suite

Let’s try another location – Costa Rica. There is a relatively new Andaz property there, the Andaz Pensisula Papagayo Resort, which only costs 15,000 Hyatt points a night. A bunch of us are staying here in August so I’m excited to try this property out. By purchasing points in this deal via one of the packages a night would actually end up costing me ~$162 a night which is a steal and more than half off compared to the retail rates.

Andaz Papgayo

I could go on and literally find dozens of examples but basically buying points today is a great way to save on future Hyatt stays if you were ever going to pay the retail rates for these types of hotels. These packages will go in a split second at 1pm EST today – it is essentially a lottery to determine whose mouse click will get the chance to buy the points – so be ready. I would have the website open and ready to click once the clock strikes 1pm EST. Good luck!

PointsCentric

Points & Miles Travel Consulting

Hyatt