My diamond staus expires 2/11 do I have tio reqalify by Dec 31st or Feb 28th?

You need to requalify by the end of 2010.

Only got 15 stays this year - and prospects not looking good. Any chance that promo from earlier this year might be applicable late in the game, and to someone who is currently a diamond?

There's always a chance they'll run a double credit promotion or something like that, but since the current 10K promo ends 12/15 I'd be surprised if they offered that before 12/15 (if they do it at all). And I doubt they would extend that other offer earlier this year for fast track diamond to someone with diamond status already, but you never know. If business is still suffering, they might, but it sounds like occupancy rates are beginning to recover.

If you live in the SF area, the safest way to make sure you keep your Diamond status is to do some mattress runs to Hyatt Places in the area. You can find prices in the low $70s and with the 10K promo going on it's not a bad return.

So you do the 10 mattress runs you need for roughly $70 each ($80 including tax)

Each stay would cost you $80 total (parking and breakfast are free) and you would get roughly 3,000 points per stay (500 diamond amenity, 2,000 for the current $10K promo, 455 for base spend plus diamond bonus, and an extra 240 if you have the Hyatt Card).

So by spending $800 total (plus gas and some wasted time) you would get a total of between 29,550 points and 31,950 points (depending if you have the Hyatt Credit Card) plus another year of Diamond which I personally value at higher than $800 even without 30K points.

If only Hyatt offered rollover like Marriott, would make keeping diamond a lot easier.

This debate comes up every year. There are 3 months left to the year. If you need 10 stays that is only 3 stays a month which is less than one a week. If Diamond is that important to you then spend the $ to stay (and before anybody starts flaming me, I pay for all of my stays out of my own pocket). You have Platinum already with your 15 stays. Perhaps your travel patterns have changed for the next few years and that's all you really need?

If only Marriott would give Plat status for 25 stays like Hyatt does.