MarkOK

I have pretty strict restrictions when I can really use TSUs for family vacations (I am a professor that teaches 1-2 classes a semester and a have a kiddo in grade school -- we pretty much have to operate on the school calendar). The hardest time to use a TSU would be the exact time of your case because you can't really trigger a TSU on Jan 3 the year prior -- the only two ways to have a TSU for that time period is to earn them earlier in the year (Cloud Coder has his TSUs by March, he would have 9 months lead time to reserve a suite at GH Kaui with a TSU) or have Lifetime Globalist (which gets their 4 TSUs in March 1 each year). (and needless to say, popular destination-resort properties will always have tough availability too.). For people like me, TSUs are valuable Winter Break, Spring Break, and Summer. Earning them Sept 1 is ideal -- It may be enough head-start to use it winter break (though, probably not Hawaii), probably enough lead time to use well during Spring Break, and I should have a fairly wide-open availability to apply the other two TSUs during the next summer. For me, waiting from Sept 1 until December 31 to earn them is foolish, in my opinion, as I would be risking losing availability to use them at choice properties for the time windows I can use them, only so that I have them available during the next Fall semester (when I may travel quite a bit for scientific conferences, but when I have less need/care to have a TSU). The thing is, in your example, if I earn my TSUs on Sept 1 and Hyatt pushed their expiration to December 31 the next year (that is how SPG expires their certificates), it does nothing still for a trip over the new years such as your example above. You are once again out of luck (*to edit, unless you only need to start a stay before they expire to use them?). Of course, I would love to have a longer TSU expiration policy, but it isn't exactly like there is a program (that I am familiar with) that gives any suite upgrade that is any more useful or nearly as generous.

The Free night certificates with 120 days is indeed harder - that I agree with. If I earn my Cat1-7 Sept 1 (when I would ideally earn my TSUs), I only have the fall semester to find a place for it. It will most likely end up getting used at a Cat 3 or 4 during Fall break, and if I earn it later in the year, then perhaps over winter break (or if even later, perhaps for spring break). In any case, there is only a small window where it has real value. A Cat-1-4 earned June-sh would have better possibility of being used, but 120 days is still a short window to use it WELL. But again, we have to compare it to other programs to be fair, and though SPG gives you until the next Dec 31 to use it which makes it easily usable, there is only 1 certificate (which still excludes top categories) and it must be chosen in lieu of 10 nights of suite upgrades. For some people, perhaps a well-usable SPG free night is more valuable than 2 short-expiration awards plus 12 months to use 4 suite upgrades. If that is the case, then that is the case -- Starward has some nice properties and SPG is a competitive program (IMO, only once the TSUs are taken out of the equation). But, I think it is irrational to choose SPG's single more usable award only because you are mad that you can't use all of the awards that WoH gives you. You only need to use 1 free night award plus 1 suite upgrade, or both free night awards, or more than 10 nights of suite upgrades for WoH to treat you better than SPG (in this specific benefit area). Of course, reward program choices aren't always rational, and maybe WoH has over-rationalized this out. If I lose a certificate here and there, I still know that I am getting a better deal than at other programs in the area unless the un--used rate crosses a certain threshold (layed out above), so I can't feel mad about it unless and until I know I can get better elsewhere.

1fan

I just switched 14 nights to either free night or other chains because I would have passed 100,000 base points by the end of March and don't want the TSU to expire that soon. At least if you qualify by nights early you can earn additional TSU but not by hitting additional spend