Originally Posted by
madbrain
Yes, if it costs the same, of course I consider them. I just have never seen that situation.
It's perhaps more common if your home program is a U.S. program. I see it once or twice a year when I'm redeeming awards on AA.
Cash price = high (which make using Thank You Points, the AA parallel to UR, expensive)
Coach award = 40k-60k R/T
F award = 50k R/T
Common spot to see these is U.S./Canada transborder or Caribbean (with slightly different miles required in some cases). Haven't tested it often on TPAC, as my go-to for TPAC were US Airways J awards pre-merger. (Most FTers would agree that those awards rocked and were a solidly better value than anyone's Y awards!!)
I don't know, I don't think I have ever stayed in a Hyatt in my life before.
I'm not expert on Hyatt and have never reached Diamond with them so can't comment on what the top-tier treatment is like. But in my limited experience as a Platinum (technically a low-tier elite, but barely) they've been okay. 2 cpp on points for simple one-nighters is about what I've experienced, although no doubt some Hyatt experts can do better.
Originally Posted by
madbrain
Worse from what point of view ? Not from a cost point of view, it costs fewer points or fewer dollars in every case I have seen so far.
I'd argue that it's sometimes worse, sometimes not. Depends on the program, award chart, quality of the Y and J services, sometimes equipment type, actual availability of each award, etc. I find any blanket statement here like "never redeem Y" or "never redeem J/F" to be too restrictive. I want to look at all the options and decide where the optimal value lies.
Certainly an advantage, but that doesn't factor in to the redemption value (cpp), only more flexibility in earning the points.
The flexibility *is* part of the value. If you've ever used a flexible currency (mine is SPG) to top off an award, you know how valuable a few thousand of the *right* points at the right time can be.