February 26, 2015

LAST CALL: Hyatt Suite Upgrades, United Partner Award Sale & More Ending February 28th

With March right around the corner (and hopefully an end to this awful winter for us in the Northeast), there are several deals and offers expiring at the end of month. I’d figured it would be helpful to do a quick roundup of 3 deals you should consider taking advantage of before February 28th.

1) Hyatt Suite Upgrade Awards – Each year Hyatt suite upgrade awards expire on February 28th before Diamond members get four new awards on March 1st. While you must make your reservation by Saturday, you don’t have to stay by then. You can generally book rooms a year out so if you have future Hyatt stays in 2015 or early 2016, I’d consider locking in those stays now. While most rooms are cancelable up until a defined period beforehand, please note that if you need to change the dates of your future stay at any point, you will lose the suite upgrade. Essentially there is no risk to lock in an award to use your suite upgrade now and you can cancel or change without issue All you lose is the suite upgrade which would have expired if you didn’t attempt to use it.

Andaz Maui Suite

If you are like me and lost Diamond status for 2015, this will be your last chance to use ANY suite upgrade awards until you become a Diamond member again. I made sure to use mine so I am staying at the Andaz Maui in April and the Andaz Peninsula Papagayo in August on points + cash stays. You can use a suite upgrade award in conjunction with a points + cash stay but not an award night booked solely with points.

2) United Partner Award Sale – United has been offering discounted award flights on partner airlines for the past month or so but that sale is officially ending on Saturday. Ever since United devalued its frequent flyer program, certain award flights on partner airlines in Star Alliance cost more than flights on United’s own planes. For example, a one way business class ticket to Europe on United costs 57,500 miles while a flight on a partner airline like Swiss, Austrian or Lufthansa costs 70,000. If you have been eyeing an award flight to either Europe or Asia on a Star Alliance partner, I highly recommend booking it before Saturday to save 10,000-12,500 miles each way! You can book flights for travel between now and January 2016, so you do a wide range of dates to work with.

United Award Sale

3) Citibank $400 Checking Account Bonus – I haven’t posted about this deal previously but Citibank has a promotion in which you can earn $400 for opening a Citigold checking account, depositing $50,000 and keeping it there for just 15 days. This promotion expires February 28th and while it requires you have to $50k in liquid capital, this could be a great way to make some quick money. You might get hit with a 1099 on this offer which reduces the value of it but you still come out ahead on this offer, especially considering it only takes 15 days. The good Doctor has a writeup here on this offer.

There are also others Citibank Citigold offers for 30,000 AA miles or 40,000 Thank You Points and you can fund all these checking accounts with a credit card.

Have I missed any other deals that expire February 28th? If so, please share in the comments and I’ll add it to this post.

February 18, 2015

20% Rebate on Hyatt Award Redemptions for Hyatt Visa Cardholders

Ok I’m probably the last blog to post about this offer (busy day job and all) but if you are a Hyatt Visa Cardholder, you can get a 20% rebate on Hyatt award stays through July 31st! This is a fantastic offer and in my opinion is one of the best hotel loyalty promotions thus far in 2015. However, since this is a rebate offer, you do need the full amount of Hyatt points in your account to book the award as the 20% back in points will only be posted after your stay.

Here is how to take advantage of this promotion:

1. You must register for this promotion by March 31, 2015. Here is the direct link to register.

2. Complete an award reservation between now and July 31, 2015. The best part is full award nights, points & cash and suite upgrades (with points) all qualify for this promotion.

3. Wait 4-6 weeks and you will see 20% of your points deposited back into your account. That’s it!

I love that Hyatt is allowing previously booked award stays count for this promotion as I have a points & cash award with a diamond suite upgrade attached at the Andaz Maui for this April that I wouldn’t be able to cancel and rebook since the Andaz Maui doesn’t release points & cash space anymore (or does very infrequently). So all I have to do is register for this promotion by March 31st and get 20% of my points back which amounts to 15,000 points for my 6 night stay. Thanks Chase & Hyatt!

Even better is that Hyatt has confirmed that new cardholders who get the Hyatt Visa now and register by March 31, 2015 will be eligible for this promotion per Frequent Miler (even though the terms & conditions state otherwise). And here is where I have a bone to pick with some bloggers. The best offer on the Hyatt credit card is 2 Free Nights + a $50 statement credit as I’ve wrote about previously. Any blogger that doesn’t mention this $50 statement credit offer is just plain awful. I don’t believe the Hyatt card pays bloggers but why not mention it to your readers? If the excuse is they aren’t aware of it they are most likely A) Lying and B) If not, too focused on pumping credit cards to know about this easy hack. I’m looking at you The Points Guy (pushing the standard offer on the Hyatt card) and Milevalue (pumping his link to the Club Carlson credit club in a post about a Hyatt promotion but not including links to the Hyatt credit card seriously?!?!).

February 15, 2015

Point & Center: Book AA Off Peak Awards with US Airways Flights, Two New Hyatt Diamond Benefits & a Southwest Devaluation

It was an exciting week in the points and mile world, highlighted by the craziness of the United first class mistake fare and then the announcement United will not honor those fares. Here is a quick look at what else I missed last week that you should know about:

1) American Airlines Off-Peak Awards Now Include US Airways – I saw this post last night, which now shows that American Airlines off-peak awards, which are a fantastic value, can now include flights on US Airways metal instead of just American Airlines. As a reminder, here is the list of off-peak award destinations and dates:

The best values to me are the Europe off peak awards since the off peak period is 7 months or over half the year, including early spring which is a great time to visit Europe. By including US Airways flights now, this opens up a lot of options to Europe from either Philadelphia or Charlotte. I also like the two month window for the Caribbean/Mexico in early fall and Hawaii isn’t bad as well though from the east coast. If you live on the west coast, Avios are a better and cheaper option.

2) Hyatt Adds Two Benefits for Diamond Members – In a time when you see programs devaluing, it is nice to see a positive announcement from Hyatt that Diamond members will get two new benefits starting March 1st. The first benefit is called “Guest of Honor” which allows Diamond members to book award stays for others and the guests actually staying will have Diamond status for the duration of their stay. Hyatt is basically encouraging Diamond members to treat non-Diamond members to award stays and will give non-Diamond members “a taste of the good stuff” which includes breakfast, chances at upgrades and a check-in amenity among other benefits. Hopefully you have some friends who are Diamond :).

The other benefit for Diamond members is 2 United Club one day passes annually. Certainly not a huge benefit but its nice to see Hyatt get involved with other partners in the travel space to offer a non-traditional benefit that could benefit some flyers.

3) Potential Southwest Devaluation – It’s never a good sign when an airline announces changes to its frequent flyer program, especially if the changes mentioned are little too vague and don’t give much insight to the actual changes. Southwest announced the following last week:

“Beginning April 17, 2015, the number of Rapid Rewards Points needed to redeem for certain flights will vary based on destination, time, day of travel, demand, fare class, and other factors. However, there are still many flights which will stay at the current redemption rate. And don’t forget that when fares go on sale, so do the points needed for redeeming for a reward flight on those fares”

To me (and other bloggers seem to be in agreement), this news isn’t good news for the value of Southwest points. Southwest points have a fixed value of about 1.4 cents per point when used towards “Wanna Get Away Fares” but this announcement indicates there will no longer be any standard value for points. Southwest will now have the ability to increase the points required for a flight based on “other factors” so my guess is flights to popular destinations (i.e. international destinations) will now cost more and offer a poorer value on a per point basis.

4) Daily Getaways Return Early This Year – The Daily Getaways program, which is a program initiated by the US Travel Association to get more people to travel by offering discounted rates on hotels, car rentals, amusement park tickets and even the opportunity to buy point at a discounted rates, is returning this year on March 23rd. In the past, the Daily Getaways have been offered later in the spring into summer and American Express is usually listed as a sponsor which would entitle American Express cardholders 10% off on any purchase. This year the sales are moved up to the end of March and it appears you can longer save 10% by using an American Express card. The deals and packages should be unveiled by March 16th and I will cover any solid offerings on the blog.

Enjoy the rest of this long weekend!

February 8, 2015

25% Discount on American Express Membership Rewards Redemptions for Hyatt Gift Cards

While I am not someone who redeems my points for gift cards, American Express is having a sale on Hyatt gift cards by offering a 25% discount on Membership Rewards redemptions for Hyatt gift cards. This sale is offered through March 31st and since these are gift cards (not gift checks), they can only be redeemed at Hyatt properties in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean.

Normally, you can redeem Membership Rewards points for Hyatt gift cards at the following rates, which is a redemption rate of ~.83 cents a point – not a good redemption at all.

$50 Hyatt Gift Card – 6,000 points
$100 Hyatt Gift Card – 12,000 points
$250 Hyatt Gift Card – 30,000 points
$500 Hyatt Gift Card – 60,000 points

And with this sale, the amount of Membership Rewards points needed drop to the following, offering a slightly better redemption value of ~1.1 cents per point.

$50 Hyatt Gift Card – 4,500 points
$100 Hyatt Gift Card – 9,000 points
$250 Hyatt Gift Card – 22,500 points
$500 Hyatt Gift Card – 45,000 points

I’ll be the first person to tell you that you should generally never redeem points for gift cards as transferring points to various airlines or hotel programs offer much more value. However, I know some people whose goal is simply to redeem points at a better than a penny per point and this offer qualifies on that basis. I’m not personally redeeming my points this way and don’t recommend it for many people. That said, I could see a scenario where someone is flush with Amex points and doesn’t have or exhausted all their Chase Ultimate Rewards points and wants to save some money on their upcoming Hyatt stay.

February 2, 2015

Award Trip Breakdown: Planning Our 2nd Anniversary Trip to the Maldives! Part 2 – Hotels

Earlier I published how to fly to the Maldives using frequent flyer miles from several different programs, including the miles I used for a $17,000!!! ticket to the Maldives flying Etihad in Business and First class. This post will go over some of the hotel options you have in the Maldives, the hotel points you need for free nights and how we booked our hotel, the Park Hyatt Maldives.

Even though it is a distant, hard to get to tropical destination, there are several hotels you can use points at from the major hotel chains. Some of these options are much better than others with the Park Hyatt Maldives being the best option in my opinion. At a cost of 30,000 Hyatt points a night (25,000 points a night if you booked it before 1/22), this hotel seems to be the most affordable from a points perspective. The Park Hyatt is a true 5 star luxury hotel that encompasses its own private island – that’s right there is literally nothing else on the island except the hotel. See the photo below.

The Park Hyatt Maldives

The Park Hyatt Maldives appears to me, at least based on the research I’ve done, one of the most luxurious properties in the Maldives you can use points at along with the W Maldives. So if your goal is true luxury, I recommend the Park Hyatt Maldives. Hyatt points are quite easy to obtain thanks to being a transfer partner of Chase Ultimate Rewards so any points earned from the Chase Sapphire or Chase Ink cards (hello 5x at office supply stores), can be transferred to Hyatt. This would also be an excellent place to use the two free nights you get for signing up for the Chase Hyatt Visa credit card. With room rates always over $1,000 (sometimes closer to $1,200) and this being a top tier Category 7 Hyatt hotel (there are only 6 others hotels in this category) this in fact might be the single best hotel in the Hyatt system to use your free night at. Free nights either via the credit card or points book into beach villas and you can upgrade to pool villas or over the water villas for $300-$450 a night.

Another option though significantly more expensive now after the big Hilton devaluation is the Conrad Rangali Island Resort. As a top tier category 10, this hotel costs 95,000 points a night! While it’s true that Hilton HHonors points are worth a lot less than Hyatt points and HHonors points can be acquired more easily and quickly, that is still a ton of points. If you have any form of Hilton elite status (and you definitely should if A) you are planning on staying here to get free breakfast and B) how easy it is to get status from one of their credit cards), you can get the 5^th night free on award redemptions, dropping the cost to 76,000 points a night on a 5 night stay. Free nights book into a beach villa and you can upgrade for similar amounts like the Park Hyatt. Cash rates can fluctuate between $550-$800 a night.

Conrad Maldives

The Starwood options include the Sheraton Full Moon and W Maldives but neither is a great option on points. The Sheraton Full Moon is a category 6 hotel that costs 20k to 25k SPG points a night. While I obviously haven’t stayed there, the reviews aren’t too great on this hotel and it costs a ton of SPG points for this level of hotel. The W Maldives, which by all accounts seems like a fantastic hotel, is a limited participant Starwood hotel, which means its costs a boatload of SPG points (upwards of 90k points a NIGHT!). With SPG points so hard to acquire, I don’t think either hotel is a viable option and other hotels in this post offer better value.

The IHG option in the Maldives is the Holiday Inn Resort Kandooma Maldives. This is definitely a lower tier hotel compared to others in this post but costs only 35,000 IHG points a night. Paid rates seem to range from $250-$300 for base level rooms. While not for me, this could be an attractive option for some looking to save money or save more valuable Hyatt or SPG points.

There are no Marriott nor Ritz Carlton hotels in the Maldives so you cannot use Marriott or Ritz Carlton points here. There were rumors of a Marriott property opening in 2015 but I can’t find anything on this.

Supposedly in July 2015, there will be an option to use Club Carlson points at the Radisson Blu Maldives Hulhumale but the projected opening date of the hotel has been pushed back many times already so I wouldn’t plan on this option until it actually opens (if ever).

As mentioned previously, we decided to book the Park Hyatt Maldives for our 2^nd anniversary trip since I had abundance of Hyatt points and two free nights from Andrea’s application for the Hyatt credit card. While we don’t need luxury on every trip we take (we’re quite content to stay in 3 star hotels), this is a special trip so I splurged points-wise for both the flights and hotel to have a more luxurious trip. If I didn’t have Hyatt points, I would most likely focus on earning Hilton points and getting free nights from the Citi Hilton Reserve credit card to stay at the Conrad.

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