Any word on another Hyatt Diamond Challenge? It's been a looong time and I think we're due for one

Probably not till February if next year. After the diamond match debacle earlier this year I think they're trying to get rid of some of the "fake" diamonds.

I reckoned this thread would head quickly towards "no match/challenge. do it the regular way"...

25 stays or 50 nights is not actually hard for anybody who values Hyatt status and plans to use it. Like many on FT, I pay my own way to Diamond each year, in part because I know up to 28 nights are guaranteed to be in a suite.

That said, we probably will see all of the chains chase ex-SPG Plats once the loyalty programme merger terms are clear in 2017 or so and hopefully that will take the form of a challenge rather than a straight match.

Agree.

I agree with this assessment.

On the moderator front, I've deleted several posts that is just bickering and off topic. Please discontinue this line of posts.

Peteropny - co-mod - Hyatt

There has to be a difference between people who were Diamond matched, used their dsus and then didn't stay at a hyatt again so they weren't real Revenue generators, and people like me who qualified based on a challenge and then stayed at regencies instead of hyatt houses consistently, because of the diamond treatment, and just by virtue of that became Revenue generators. Also, for the record, still haven't used a single DSU this year.

I qualified based on a challenge that was last summer, I think. But even without the challenge I would have qualified by the end of the year. If I could use my stays from last year (2015) they themselves would have qualified me for diamond. But it doesn't work that way. And this year because of assorted of family insanity, it looks impossible to meet 50 nights or 25 stays.

:-(

Agreed, you do not need to be a corporate road warrior to hit 25 stays.

I maintained Diamond last year exclusively on my own nickel. This year my business travel is up so about half my stays will be paid by someone else.

The DSUs are nice but most important Diamond perk for me is the "best available room" at check-in. Particularly if I'm burning points. In fact, my main motive in keeping Diamond this year is so I get decent rooms as I burn off my Hyatt point balance . . . .

I partially disagree. If you don't travel for pleasure a lot, it's harder to hit 25 stays. If it were that easy, then there would be no such thing as a mattress run amongst status travelers. I'm over halfway to requalifying now but that includes extraneous stays that I would not have made otherwise (read mattress runs) and a couple via corporate pay. I consider myself a moderate traveler. Not a lot but not a little.

I always maintain diamond on my own dime. As a matter of fact, I think over my entire diamond life (over 10 years) I may have done 1 stay on my company's dime. Some years it may mean doing 20 mattress runs and often I start early in the year so I'm not running around in the fall when I know how many real stays I'll have.

It was only last year that I actually made it on nights via my vacations.

You have to do the math and see how much you're paying for the upgrades and perks. For me, it's always less expensive to do mattress runs and get the nice upgrades on vacation than to pay for them out of pocket, particularly if you factor in the cost of the RCs.

On your own dime would you actually pay for the RC admission if you didnt have diamond status? And... why?

Doing 20 mattress runs a year is pretty extensive, no? That means you only do 5 real stays a year? I mean I understand that they may be week long stays but 5 isn't that much. Sorry but what are RCs?

I might, depending upon where I am and the cost of doing so. If I'm paying for the upgraded room, and I would, the extra cost of the RC may be worth it as well.

But I do factor in not having to buy breakfast, at a minimum, when on vacation. For 2, that could easily be $25 if we do continental at their quick service location, and far more if we go to the restaurant. Water and drinks, particularly coffee, is also factored in.

I would say the club easily saves us $50 a day - and most likely - more.

Yes it is. But it's not unusual for me to do them. 5 "real" stays could be anywhere from 1 night to 10 nights, depending upon where I"m going.

RCs = Regency Clubs.

What non-hotel costs do you people incur for a mattress run? For me, a mattress run would involve a 500 mile round trip (almost all interstate highway, thankfully). That strikes me as excessive. Am I too sensitive or am I just cursed by living in flyover land?

You live in flyover land.

I have numerous local to me. Plus, if I'm visiting an area, even for the day, I may run into one that happens to be inexpensive enough.

500 miles is waaaay too far.