skj

Your Cat 1-4 certificate will be expired before your March stay so you don't have anything to worry about ...

craigthemif

Do you realise that the suites in Vancouver are nothing more than two standard rooms with an unlocked connecting door, with a sofa in one instead of a bed. Just about the worst use of a TSU imaginable.

And unless you're referring to a 5-brand certificate, it won't be valid in March.

I would put the free night at the end, unless you arrive so late on night 1 that you just want the bed anyhow.

MarkOK

I double checked, I will get the Cat 1-4 certificate after a stay at the end of November (so 'soon' might have been a bad choice of a word). I will have until March 26th thus to use it.

And 1. Yes, I know that the suite at HR Vancouver is a basic 2 room set up, I read the entire thread on HR Vancouver before committing to going there over spring break. And 2. I don't have DSU's (only explorist this year, will only be getting globalist-20-night thanks to CC-light this year), so I am paying cash for the suite.

To me, a suite is all about putting a door and a wall between two areas so that when we travel with the kid, both of us are able to get some work done while letting the kid watch a movie in the other room. Putting a 7 year old on a pull out (or a cot for $20 a night) in a regular king room can make a week long trip miserable for all.

Though we can totally disconnect from work a couple well-chosen weeks during the year, typically, combining some work with pleasure makes for a happier and less stressful vacation for us.

The 'worse' suites to me are the ones that are really just 'bigger rooms', a simple 2 room set-up is worth a lot. So much so, that even with globalist next year and the 'chance' to get upgraded at check-in, I will be spending the extra $50-100 a night on the trips with the kid to guarantee that I have a suite

factory81

I will be at 59 nights as well. In my last hotel booking of the year that I need to make, the Hyatt I could pick from is only a Hyatt Place, in a worse location.

If award stays would count, I would have been at like 70+ nights. If c+p was more widely available..might make it easier for us trying to actually burn points.

777topdog

Originally I thought that there would be a promotion in the fall. But of course the new World Of Hyatt program doesn't really see much of a need to incentivize its loyal customers. I sort of feel duped into chasing Globalist this year, but stupid me and I tentatively booked 15 nights late Sept. to October. After next weekend, I will halt my Hyatt stays and stay with Marriott/SPG until December.

I will be at 59 until December to hold off, and give the Cat1-7 certificate a little more value. However I wonder how much value I can get especially seeing that the 10 or so Catagory 7 properties around the world, many I don't really see a desire to visit in February for example.

Best case, I may get to use the Cat7 cert at a catagory 5 hotel in the winter.....we will see. Still wondering why I do this.

SpeedRicer

Just booked my 60th night for next week. I had 59 nights back in April, so that was about 70-80 additional nights that Hyatt could have gotten from me, which instead went to Starwood, Marriott and IHG.

Didn't United already try this with GPUs back during the merger? IIRC, they had the same type of expiration policy and then reverted it back to "valid from qualifying date to Feb next year" within a year or two.

NJNY

I too stopped staying at Hyatts when I got to 55 nights last spring - went to other chains for a full half-year and just now adding the other 5 nights in December.

JackE

Idea: If Hyatt insists on timing out TSUs, then they should revert to being confirmable online the day before check in. (The way Groupons expire but are then good forever for a lesser value.)

Let the downgrade-TSU never expire so long as an account is active. Obviously they'll be good for an upgrade less frequently, but the upside is we'd have them and have them long into the future.

Hot Pocket

Low-level operative checking in with nights 59-60

MSPeconomist

I don't know about UA, but DL changed their GUC policy so that the flights must occur before the certs expire versus the previous rule that the upgrade just needed to be confirmed (with ticket reissued in business class) before the expiration date. BTW, DL GUCs are a DM choice benefit and expire 12 months after they are selected, so you can earn them and then postpone the selection for at least thirteen months, depending on how early in the year you (re)qualify.

mahasamatman

UA has always had that policy, but they're now always good for at least 14 months (matching the pre-merger policy).

CIT85

UA grants the GPUs as soon as you reach 1K status, and then expiration date is the following 1/31, so good for at least 13 months and could be as long as 24 months (for the rare flyers who fly 100K PQM in Jan.). UA also will extend expiration of 2 GPU to following 4/30 sometime in November if you requalified for 1K.

CloudCoder

I'm a 200+ night per year traveler, for many years.

Last year, I made the mistake of qualifying in March. As a result, I ended up with a bunch of rewards with ridiculously short expiration dates. Live and learn. Next year, I will purposely shift 150+ nights AWAY from Hyatt so that I will qualify later in the year.

I sent an inquiry to a few other chains, to see if by chance they are interested in picking up 150+ nights a year. The net result is that I'm now top tier in TWO programs, and Hyatt lost 150+ nights a year due to World of Hyatt.

It's a WIN-WIN-LOSE situation. Starwood won 150+ nights a year. I won by gaining a choice of two programs (instead of being insanely loyal to just one program). Hyatt lost because they set up rules which penalize ONLY their most frequent customers. The takeaway is that "identify and discourage your most frequent customers" is probably not the best way to increase corporate profits.

As near as I can tell, Hyatt doesn't care. I used to stay 16+ nights a month in Hyatt, and have done so for a long time. For the last 4 months, I've stayed ZERO nights at Hyatt. You'd think they'd reach out, or perhaps inquire about when the funeral is scheduled, etc.

The single biggest flaw in WoH is that the awards expire too soon. Awards should last as long as the Status year lasts (i.e. February 2019). That's the one and only reason I shifted a bunch of nights away from Hyatt. If Hyatt fixes this one flaw, I'll might give them all my nights again. But until this flaw is addressed, they'll get 100 nights a year (with 45 of those nights in the last two months of the year).

MarkOK

Congratulations on the free top-status from shopping around!

I might be missing something here though. How many free night certificates does SPG give you? How many confirmed upon booking TSU's does SPG give you?? How about Marriott?? How about Hilton??
The only thing I can find is that at 50 nights, SPG gives you the -choice- of 10 nights of suite upgrades -or- one free cat-1-5 night (so, it excludes their top 2 tier levels). They do have a better expiration policy (end of the next year). I can't find anything about Marriott and Hilton that has anything comparable.

So, let me isolate down to this one issue only because I think it is worth-while to try to compare in what situations SPG might offer a better benefit in terms of confirmable suite upgrades and free night certificates vs Hyatt.

The cake can be cut in a few ways, but essentially it seems to make sense to go to SPG (all else equal) if you can't use the Hyatt free cat1-4 in 120 days, can't use the Hyatt free cat1-7 within 120 days, and can't use the 4 Hyatt TSU's within 12 months for at least 9 nights. Then, the SPG 10 nights of suite can outweigh the Hyatt cat1-4, cat1-7, and 4 TSUs. Or, if you don't care at all about suite upgrade awards and/or don't/can't use any of them with Hyatt and you can't use Hyatt's free night certificates in time, then SPG can at least give you a free cat1-5 with a better expiration date.

But Hyatt wins if you can use at least use the Hyatt TSUs for more than 10 nights (if that is what matters) even if you don't use the free night certificates. Hyatt wins if you can use a free night certificate and at least 1 TSU. Hyatt wins if you can use both free nights and no TSUs.

I can imagine this would break down differently for different types of people with different types of travel, travel planning abilities, and preferences. I don't have a large confidence that I will always be able to use my free nights within 120 days, and I doubt that my Cat1-7 will very often get used at more than a Cat 4. The 4 TSUs are very valuable for me though and even with a 365 day expiration policy, I feel quite confident that I will be able to redeem them for 3 or 4 stays up to 21-28 nights. I feel that even in the worse of years for usability, Hyatt's program in this regard will best SPG anyways. When I earn my first four next September or October, I will have a winter break, a spring break, and all of the next summer to find places to redeem them (and I will likely book all 4 TSU stays, up to 28 nights, the day I earn them instead of waiting until the week before my trips and then getting mad about not being able to find availability to use them). I will also likely hit 70 (and maybe even 80) to pick up another 1 or 2 TSUs by year's end (which if I don't feel like I could use, I can at least grab 10,000 pts). If the program doesn't change in this regard, Hyatt Lifetime gives a full set of TSU's and a cat 1-7 each year with ability to still earn them again at 60 nights. The TSU's, even with a 12 month expiration, is really where WoH shines. If you can't use them (or use them well) within 12 months or don't care about them, then the WoH program doesn't really have any hard advantage.

I am using my 30-night Cat1-4 earned last month at a Cat 4 next week though on a pre-planned trip where I was able to shorten my cash-reservation 1 night and add the free night reservation (When I emailed to link my reservations, this hotel -- GH DFW -- reached out to see if I wanted to go head ahead and have a suite reserved for me as they will have them available -- Ultimately, the terms and conditions can mean less than on the ground customer service with any program anyways). I was hoping to use my cat 1-4 for my HR Vancouver trip in March (which is much more expensive), but since I booked my original reservation the prices there are now ~150$ more a night on 'guaranteed availability' pricing, and they aren't taking certificates and my rebooking a 1-night shorter stay would have raised my costs way up anyways.

(of course, SPG might have specific advantages over Hyatt anyways -- frequent short stay customers can certainly rack-up welcome-Starpoints at SPG which might make the earning/burning there more favorable than at Hyatt, Delta flyers without Delta status can get some fringe benefits with SPG, and your24 can matter to certain travelers for sure. For me, none of that matters that much, but everyone is different and no program can reasonably be expected to work the best for all types of travelers). Happy sailing at SPG.

Actually, no, I wouldn't think that. I just don't think a corporation that is having no problem filling hotel rooms under good economic conditions will think any particular person no matter how frequent of a customer is all that special.

CIT85

You're missing the point regarding the validation period of the WoH awards. Some of us have restrictions on when we can take our vacations when TSU or free night certs are useful. A very simple example is my case where I have a reservation for Grand Kauai for Dec. 27, 2018 to Jan. 2, 2019. My TSUs expire Dec. 14, 2018 (I delayed my 60th night as much as I could) so they cannot be used on this reservation when suites are available. If and when I requalify for Glob in 2018, it'll be late in the year and suites are very likely not available. My Cat 1-7 cert expires Apr. 13, 2018, so I will probably "waste" it at PH Washington DC, as opposed to when I'll be on vacation with family. The old DSU would have been perfect and very generous.

The whole point of the awards is to be able to use them when you want to, not because you have to use them or lose them due to expiration.

SPG's 10 SNA are not as generous as Hyatt TSU and not confirmable at booking, but at least they expire at the end of next calendar year, so far more flexible.