Generally, I'd agree with your assessment here.

Given the often much better Mlife member rates, it's almost a wash with FHR when you add in the resort fees & extra taxes that it'll trigger. For the time being, I suspect the resort fee waiver on FHRs will be inconsistently applied, at least until such time there's some uniformity on its application. My interpretation is that FHR rates should not qualify for the resort fee waiver which specifically denotes "booked directly."

My recent experience was reservation probably booked before Feb and during a time when Vegas rates were very low. I just booked a couple to use my $200 Amex credit. During checkout I was just going to pay the resort fee--the only charge on my folio--for the free night (compliments of Amex) and triggering the 2,022 Hyatt promo points & EQN. Well, just before everything was finalized, another FD person whom I'm relatively well acquainted with (this was Bellagio's VIP lounge) strolled over and told her colleague to waive the resort fees because of the new policy. Of course, in this case, I'm better off paying it, not only for the 2,022 pts rebate but also the EQN. I didn't want to seem unappreciative and just said something like I had forgotten about it and thanked her profusely for catching it. She just replied with something like, "don't worry, I've got you covered."

My folio was a negative $5 or $6 because of the wifi refund. This is a first for me and I can't ever recall having a negative bill upon checking out. I'm awfully curious if it'll show up on my Hyatt or if I'll get an EQN for it.