joe_miami

OsakaWino

No, per the T&C you cannot use a TSU with those Cat 1-4 or Cat 1-7 free nights, and if you attach it to a reservation on which you are using a TSU, the TSU becomes invalid for the entire reservation. In practice there are ways to try to circumvent this restriction, but that is what the T&C say, so your luck may vary.

OsakaWino

DUH, maybe you could try reading a post before quoting it...

OsakaWino

So you would pay 15,000 pts for one of these awards? Or are you saying the 41,000 to 82,000 pts (supposed average of 61,500 pts) would somehow be worth more than one Cat 1- one Cat 1-7 and 5,000 pts? PT Barnum would have a nice description of people like that.

I did not say that these award are worthless to everyone. But ask yourself how many pts you would exchange for one, considering a 6-month expiration, limited availability, and inability to combine with a TSU (or Club Access Upgrade) on the same reservation.

Go ahead, how much? People who think they are really worth a lot should be able to put a pt price on them. Would you be willing to exchange more than 5000-6000 pts for one of these Cat 1-4 free nights, especially WITHOUT BEING ABLE TO SPECIFY THE TIMING OF THE TRANSACTION?

escape4

I was completely unaware of this, thanks for bringing it up! ^

joe_miami

OsakaWino

where did I say that I have dozens of Hyatt stays a year. nor did anyone else you quoted. but of course that is irrelevant; it is simple economics, with the emphasis on simple. a cert with a max value of 15,000 pts but with a limited expiry, restricted availability, no control over exchange timing, and no sanctioned combinability with other instruments is simply not intrinsically worth 15,000 pts. To me, if I were given such a cert, at most times of the year I would consider it worthless.

Not sure what they teach in US schools, but it does not seem to be much emphasis on the 3 Rs.

MarkOK

I have yet to have trouble 'naturally' using a free night cert for anything less than a Cat 3 stay. I have actually earned and easily burned five certificates in the last 6 months at nothing less than a cat 3 (the 30 night cert, the 60 night cert, the first CC cert, the 15K spend CC cert, and the brand explorer cert). I would easily give a cat1-4 certificate a 12,000 pt valuation, but I know I would at least get that much value from it, with a decent shot of a getting 15,000 pts worth out of it.

Personally, I don't give any care about the amenity point system. I would have gotten a grand total of 25,000 points this year in 'amenity points', and all but four stays were at 'full service' hotels. Meanwhile, with WoH, my 100 nights for the year provided me with a Cat 1-4 (used at a cat 3 for 12,000 points), a Cat 1-7 (used at a cat 4 for 15,000 points), and 40,000 bonus points at the 70/80/90/100 levels. If I just counted my first 60 nights, I would have gotten only 17,000 worth of amenity points, meanwhile, I happily burned 24,000 worth of value from the two certificates.

But, nothing should be looked at individually. By leaps and bounds, I will take today's WoH (and their WoH CC) over GP.

And to swing back on topic, the only change a 'loyal' member like me incurs from the milestone rewards is that I will get an additional 5000 pt bonus at 40 nights, and a couple of TSUs a little bit earlier in the year. The 55/60 nights re qualification change makes no difference.

Just like other changes since WoH rolled out, this is just another UP-valuation of the program for a high-night stayer like me.

uppereastsider

The examples I brought up... these were all reservations I would have done with or without the award. I stay at the HR Boston 4-5x a year for pleasure, more than once every 6 months, so yes, I would gladly exchange 5000, 6000 or even 10k points for the Cat 1-4 nights with a 6 month expiration, because otherwise I would have spent 15k. I am able to charge my rent to a credit card, and I'm putting the first 15k on my Hyatt card just to get the free cat 1-4 night, vs putting it on my CFU paired with CSR, which costs me 7500 UR points... so yes, that's a price I'm willing to pay (15k points earned vs 22,500 UR points). I've never had an issue using my certificate if there was points space available.. and the one time I had an issue, my concierge had no problem securing the reservation.

I also use my points for guest of honor reservations, so saving points to get an award certificate would be great. People really enjoy being surprised with a hotel room, especially the infrequent traveller who gets my globalist benefits #BestWeddingGift #BestCelebrationGift

I also stay at the Andaz Amsterdam, Ziva Cancun, PH Zurich and GH Tokyo multiple times each year, all on points, so yes, I'd gladly spend 15-20k for an award with 6 month expiration to save the points!!

The inability to add a TSU sucks, but I'm just glad they count for elite credit... baby steps with Hyatt

Again, this is all YMMV, but I'm just sharing the experience of someone who finds great value in these awards. Many people won't get the same benefit or have the same travel patterns. For me, my work and pleasure travel just happen to directly align with Hyatt

joe_miami

Visconti

I hope the brand can find some consistency on implementing these restrictions.

Case in point: the PH Vendome refused my using a TSU when a Cat 7 free redemption was part of my stay, but allowed it for others. Here's my issue. If special treatment is based on merit (spending, value, relationship), fine--this is how the world works. But, for Glob tiers applying a standardized TSU, it should be uniform, and there shouldn't be cases where some Globs were allowed to "circumvent" this, while others were not.

antonius66

I have never had a tsu rejected because I used a free night. Frankly there is ZERO reason to justify that because you can apply tsu to award nights now, so there is absolutely NO logic to denying that type of use.

hailstorm

Saying that a Cat 1-4 cert is "the equivalent" of 15000 points doesn't imply that that's what the person who said that is willing to pay?

VegasGambler

I wish Hyatt would publish and standardize their policy of giving points for expiring cat 1-4 certs.

Actually, I just wish that they would give a choice of points or certs. Why are they encouraging someone who stays at high-end properties to stay at cheaper ones? Almost all my stays are at Cat 5 or 6 properties -- I have to really struggle to find a place to use a cat 1-4 cert. I'd rather pay to stay in a nice place -- why would Hyatt discourage that?

I am using 2 cat 1-4 certs for 2 nights at the HR Tokyo (out of 4 nights in Tokyo) I'm paying $500/night at the GH Tokyo for the other two. I'd be paying $500/night at the GH for all 4 nights if they didn't give out these stupid certs. Just offer me a choice, I'd take the 10k points per cert or whatever, and spend more money at the higher end property. Win/win.

gengar

Um, you even liked the post (66) that started this line of argument, in which the cert is literally stated as a "15k point equivalent".