FFN earning, phantom, mattress stays to maintain diamond?
 

A few years ago, it looked as though my schedule business trips would not add up to 25 and was considering getting the remainder via "extra stays". Fortunately, my trips ended up going way over 25 stays.

I'm interested, how many of these stays have you done to get to/keep diamond? Obviously getting these in during the FFN promotion usually the best deal with some bang for the buck. A friend of mine was doing a business case involving just the FFN period ("20 $69 stays (up to $79 with taxes) would cost $1580 resulting in 10 FFN's used at room with a hyatt.com rate of $250 = $250+tx..."). Doesn't sound horrible if you would normally consider such a vacation anyway.

Doing large numbers of phantom/mattress runs outside of a promotional period would force the value question pretty quickly.

So what is the largest number of extra stays have you done to maintain status?

I consider any mattress run stays in the $100 vicinity a good deal for me.

But, everyone's situation is different and is based upon where you use your diamond status. In my case, we consider the money spent as pre-paying our vacation because we would pay for the upgraded rooms anyway, but, as with everything else YMMV.

Never have done the phantom nights, mainly because I didn't think of it when I was gonna be a no-show anyway!!! But extra stays...? Hm... Four, during FFN earning period. My two favorites are/were Hyatt Orlando before they folded the tent, and Hyatt San Jose, which apparently will do so before this year's FFN starts. Each @ <$70 (usually + GP bonuses) coincided nicely with the promotion between T-Day and Christmas (also known in the lodging industry as the "serenity season"). Next on the list, the HR SFO was usually in the $70s, weekends, during the period. And Fisherman's Wharf and Vineyard Creek were in the $70s on weekdays during the serenity season and the holidays -- except this last winter. OK, up to six, one year, but that included staying near a sick relative.

...And where did I use the FFNs? Vendome and Madeleine.

Really? I thought Madeleine didn't participate in FFN's?

Whoops. Caught out. Right you are. That trip, Vendome was all FFNs, and Madeleine was points-for-nights. Caught up in my story, I didn't intend prosaic license. I forgot.