HoustonConsultant

Then the points at 10k points at 60 and 70 nights will come in handy, and the TSUs at 90 and 100 nights hits the "suite" spot for the family trip, also allowing allowing us to lock in the suites earlier than we would have if we received the new TSUs in March.

Plus, if we re-qualify at 55 nights in April-June of 2019, we have those ready for the 2019 family trip as well, and then can do the 10k points for anything above 55 nights.

I'm under no illusion that Hyatt is going to bend to our needs on this. I'd love for all the TSUs to be available through the entire reward "year". That would be the most flexibility, and the plan to "start the clock" upon use of the first TSU would be a great middle ground, However, even if Hyatt was willing to do that, I have little faith that Hyatt IT would be able to program it into the system.

They are absolutely counting on some level of breakage with these. My United GPUs and RPUs have breakage too.

After we get to the second year of the TSU cycle with the new rules, I'm just not sure there is any more breakage with these new rules than their was under the previous model.

MarkOK

Umm, not exactly. Globalists are supposed to get a suite if available. If you do 1 nighters all the time, you may hit a decent number of suites. If you stay for 7 days, the chances of a suite being available the whole week you are there is pretty much nil. For me, EVERY stay I have booked over three days from now until next December already has no standard suite availability showing in the system. Even for the shorter stays (for me, this really only includes HR Tulsa and GH DFW), it is somewhat scarce at HR Tulsa though GH DFW is much less so (both places are great in my experience to upgrade when available in the system).

Anyways, one consideration and bonus with the 70/80/90/100 TSUs is that they credit when you choose them (right? The thread on this seemed to conclude this). Thus, you can earn one of these the last few months of the year and use it for a stay over new years eve on the next year (assuming you wait to 'choose it' until after January). For the 4 TSUs at 55/60 nights, you couldn't do this. This is a peak travel week, where for me, a suite will be well used an well appreciated.

footastic

joe_miami

I still don't understand CloudCoder's obsession with this or why he'd shift business elsewhere starting at 54 nights if he'd really hit 100+ nights easily and, thus, qualify for many additional TSUs with staggered expiration. How many TSUs does one need for a once-per-year family vacation?

CloudCoder

Four TSUs are plenty. If they could expire at the end of the Status Year (i.e. February 2020) instead of one year after earning them (i.e. as early as February 2019), that would be great.

• The sooner you qualify, the sooner your TSUs expire.
• If given a choice, I prefer TSUs to expire later rather than sooner.
• Wait-a-minute, I just realized something: I _do_ have a choice! I can control when my TSUs expire!
• The longer it takes me to hit 55 nights, the longer my TSUs last in 2019.
• Hence Hyatt loses a ton of revenue nights

craigthemif

Hmmm... Let's allow our original 4 TSUs to expire unused (or wasted on short business stays), and instead of receiving 10K points at each of 70, 80, 90, 100 nights we can choose 4 more TSUs instead so that they run on a more useful schedule. Putting a value of $150-200 on 10K points, that means I have to shred $600+ of value by hitting 55 nights before I'm ready.

And it's not like those nights beyond 54 are being switched to independent hotels. They're probably going to SPG, Hilton, etc. and earning / requalifying status there, which is crucial given the limited footprint of Hyatt.

HoustonConsultant

There is a small gang of us going around in circles on this, and either we all are wrong, we all are right, or we all are right/wrong for our own particular circumstances.

I think the changes fit the travel patterns of some and do not fit the travel patterns of others.

If you hit 55 nights in Feb/March 2018, undoubtedly, those TSUs will expire in February/March 2019, but could still be used for your fall/winter family trips in 2018.
With your travel, it sounds like you'd hit 55 nights again in early 2019, and those TSUs would again be available for your fall/winter family trips in 2019.
Etc., etc., etc.

Ultimately, folks deciding to stop at 54 nights frees up more regular suite upgrades for me, so I'm not going to miss you folks, but I still don't see the logic unless (a) you expect a significant change in your travel patterns next year or (b) you want to stay at some other brand.

CloudCoder

Yes we have been going round and round on this topic. Fortunately, it has always been (and remains) a pleasant and intelligent discussion. Thank you for that.

While I currently travel a lot, it's every frequent traveler's dream to eventually get into a situation where we don't travel as often. Whenever that year finally hits, I'll be without TSUs for most of the year ... but only if I'm guilty of the crime of "qualifying early".

My first choice would be for TSUs to expire at the end of the status year (i.e. February).

Second choice would be to have some control over when the clock starts ticking. Hence the idea of starting the clock the very minute you use your first TSU out of your batch of four.

I prefer to stay at Hyatts. I do stay at other properties, and the main reason is to avoid qualifying too early. I believe other travelers are in this same boat.

Hyatt would gain more revenue if they altered their TSU expiration policy. Currently, their policy adversely affects ONLY the folks who qualify early. Well, those are the same exact folks who have a lot of hotel nights per year, and the same exact folks who are choosing to stay elsewhere (to avoid the penalty of losing your TSUs because you reached 55 nights too early).

All your other points are true. I "could" give up my points at 70, 80, 90 and 100 nights. But I choose to get points instead of TSUs, mainly because points (practically) never expire. Yes, I could hurry up and qualify THIS year and also NEXT year. But that causes a bubble which will burst some day.

Having said all of the above, I'm in a suite at just about _every_ stay. So I'm not trying to eke out a personal gain from the system. Instead, I genuinely want Hyatt to see that their policy costs them LOTS of room nights at the "most frequent guest" end of the scale. Their policy affects everyone, but it affects the Most Frequent Guests the most, because they're the ones are in the trap of "the sooner you qualify, the sooner your TSUs expire".

joe_miami

But if people travel that much, they'll always have a stash of unexpired TSUs. Seems like this entire discussion centers around the hypothetical situation of a road warrior suddenly no longer being a road warrior.

joe_miami

It's not at all clear that this is true. Are there really that many road warriors who are afraid that they'll suddenly no longer be road warriors and end up without TSUs for that last family vacation? How many road warriors can easily hit 55 nights by March 31 but then only hit 100 nights for the rest of the year? I'm sure there are some people whose travel is mostly in Q1, but it can't be that disproportionate.

craigthemif

This might seem like a perplexing discussion to some, but I guarantee that most, if not all, hotel chains can see how their elite members react to incentive structures. How do I know this?

Hilton Honors... Hit 40 nights, earn bonus points for each 10 nights thereafter. Plus rollover nights, plus gifting of status as an added perk.
IHG Rewards Club... Rollover nights
SPG... Improving benefits at 50, 75 and 100 nights

I could go on. Why such largess to people who are clearly already highly loyal to the chain? Because they can see from the data (and Flyertalk threads FWIW) that people sometimes say "job done" and spread their nights across 2 or more hotel chains once re-qualification is assured.

The only difference here is:

1. We are talking of stopping just short of Globalist re-qualification, rather than just after
2. Hyatt have screwed up the incentive structure so that it isn't undeniably advantageous to stay more than the minimum requirements. You might prefer a second status to SPG100, but there's no denying that SPG want to make it worthwhile to keep staying.

CloudCoder

After 60 nights, Hyatt essentially awards 1000 bonus points per night (with the net result of their 70-80-90-100 bonus scheme). So .... I do plan to max out that bonus by staying 100 nights in 2018. I also plan to max out the 55-night bonus (4 TSUs and a cat1-7) by delaying Night 55 as long as possible. I'll probably hit night 55 in late September, then max out at 100 nights in late December. Yes, Hyatt will get 100 nights out of me. But due to their strange quirk (where the sooner you hit night 55, the sooner your perks expire), they could have EASILY had 200 nights. Oh well, SPG gets 'em.

It's just strange that Hyatt's program is _specifically_ designed to encourage people to wait as long as possible to hit night # 55. That design flaw easily cost them 100 nights a year, from just one tiny little insignificant traveler. Multiply that by the number of road warriors out there, and I'm sure the aggregate cost is enormous.

craigthemif

Now you're turning into one of those 500 nights / $250K a year DYKWIA travellers @CloudCoder.

I do wonder, though, whether any hotel chain can truly understand what nights they are missing out on. But what is definitely in their power is offering incentives that are simple and sensible.

I do wonder whether rollover nights might be in the cards for Hyatt, if they don't fix the TSU issue...

joe_miami

You keep saying this over and over, but there's no evidence that it's actually true for more than a trivial number of people. Again, what percentage of Hyatt Globalists are obsessed with making sure their last batch of TSUs will be valid for an extra few months, if and when they're no longer road warriors? I doubt it's even 1%. On the other hand, I bet a much higher percentage of Globalists are happy that everyone's TSUs no longer show up on the same day, with the ensuing mad rush to book or change vacation reservations.

You see this as "the sooner I qualify, the sooner the benefits expire." But given the limited number of suites at the best locations, it's really "the sooner I qualify, the sooner I can book." The latter seems far preferable for the average traveler.