jennbar

BTW: I appreciate all the help. As you can tell, I am just diving into points right now and gaining more knowledge every day. You all are very helpful! Thanks for your patience.

iztok

How many nights a year do you stay at hotels? Marriott has rather high thresholds (Gold is 50 nights and Platinum is 75) to achieve. From the description it looks like you are barely making even basic elite status at Hyatt (and that is with Visa mostly). Why don't you just stay with Hyatt and let it be? It doesn't seem you have enough stays to be elite with two brands.

jennbar

That is very very true. The only reason I was thinking that the Marriott would be beneficial is if I could then change my status at Hyatt by meeting the Gold criteria because I could definitely do that by sticking with the challenge.

Thanks, I think I will stay with how I have it!

SkiAdcock

During the challenge itself you are considered that status level & immediately get the bennies of the status - in your case, gold. So you'd have free i-net & lounge access during the 90-day time frame of the challenge. However, in order to keep the status you'd eventually have to earn it the old-fashioned way.

There is no such thing as 'sharing' status. They're 2 separate companies. Marriott & Hyatt do not work hand-in-hand because they are 2 separate companies & are competitors. As you've discovered, Marriott has more brands & a larger footprint than Hyatt. However, if you're primarily staying where Hyatt has properties, then that doesn't matter.

Many on FT 'share the love' between 2 chains so that they earn points (and/or status) when staying at properties, and often will switch their stays to one hotel chain vs. another when certain promos are going on & then switch back.

If your travel isn't that much then of course focusing on one chain to get status makes the most sense & just collect the points when you need to stay at the other, to ultimately redeem for an award stay.

If you do sign up for the gold challenge, make sure you also sign up for the Megabonus promo to potentially get some free Cat 1-4 (or is it cat 5 now?) certs.

Cheers.

iztok

So let me get this straight.

You don't meet Gold at Hyatt because you don't have enough night stays. Now you want to take Marriott Gold challenge with 6 stays then match Gold back to Hyatt Diamond? One hit wonder?

SkiAdcock

I have no idea if Hyatt does a status match or a challenge from other chains, but if Hyatt does either you would still have to earn it the old-fashioned way at some point in order to keep the status.

If you don't travel enough to earn the mid or upper tier levels at any chain, then just focus on earning points to eventually redeem for awards. Make sure you track the promos the chain(s) you stay at offer to earn more points and/or get free night certs.

PS - Welcome to Flyertalk!

PSS - If you HAVE to stay at the SF Marquis in August at $600/night for a week (vs. staying at one of the SF Hyatt properties), then I'd still sign up for the gold challenge if I were you so that you'd get the extra bonus points, free i-net & access to lounge. I'd also sign up for the mega-bonus if you can get the stay 2, get 1 cert & get another stay in at a Marriott brand to get the free night cert. However, if this is the only time you really think you'd be staying at a Marriott & you have any leeway, then try to find a SF Hyatt to stay at instead.

Cheers.

dw

I would check the Hyatt forum but I don't think this will work as I believe that Hyatt no longer does status matches to Diamond but rather has a challenge.

jennbar

I think I may be confusing everyone. I just got involved with the point system (Hyatt Visa); therefore, why I do not have a higher status right now. I will meet the standards to get Diamond within a year. Because my next few conferences are at Marriott's, I was planning to stay at Marriott so I was seeing if I could do the gold challenge. If I did the gold challenge I would switch all my upcoming Hyatt stays (these are separate trips from the Marriott conferences) to Marriott's to fulfill the Gold challenge.

I am just curious if this is worth doing or if I should stick with Hyatt. The only way I could see this making sense if it it somehow benefited my Hyatt rewards. Otherwise, there is no point in changing my accommodations to meet Gold if it won't do much in the end because I do not plan on getting a Marriott Credit Card.

Sorry!

SkiAdcock

A few things. I think you're a bit hung-up on the credit card part when you should be focusing on your stay patterns.

First, to get Hyatt Diamond you need 25 stays or 50 nights per calendar year I believe, not 1/2 this year & 1/2 next year from when you joined. I'm not totally positive about the calendar year (but that's how most of the hotel programs work), but if I were you I'd check so you don't think you're getting something you won't actually get. Will you have enough stays/nights and/or are there Hyatts everywhere you'll be staying? If there are, then staying w/ Hyatt is the right thing to do. If there aren't, then consider switching to Marriott as your main program due to # of brands & more locations.

While the conferences themselves are being held at Marriotts, are there Hyatts in the near vicinity of where the Marriott conferences are held (there is in SF for example)? If so, stay at the Hyatts & then just go over to the Marriotts for the conference (be it walking, public transport, taxi or rental car).

I've done that before on multiple occasions. Attended a conference that was held at a non-Marriott property but didn't want to give up the Marriott points for a week, so found the nearest Marriott property & stayed there. Wasn't quite as convenient as being able to push the elevator button first thing in the morning & last thing at night at the conference property, but I got my points & that was worth a bit of inconvenience.

So check where your conferences are being held & find out if there are Hyatt properties nearby where you can stay instead & then just head to the Marriott(s) for the conference.

If you have to stay at Marriotts for your conferences but really don't plan on staying at them otherwise, then you have 2 options - signing up for the gold challenge if it will encompass the time frame you'll be staying for at least one of them (presumably the longest) just so you get the bennies for that stay, but continue to book the other stays at Hyatts to continue to go towards Diamond, or just don't bother w/ the gold challenge & book at Marriott as a Marriott member. Marriott points don't expire.

If you're not going to be able to meet the Marriott gold tier qualification post-challenge, then there's no reason to switch your Hyatt stays to Marriott just to meet the gold challenge. You get the gold bennies just by enrolling in the challenge for those 90 days. If you don't hit the stays required, the worst that happens is you drop back to basic status.

Hyatt has a Diamond challenge of 12 nights in 60 days. Have you considered asking them to enroll you in that (if you think you can meet the criteria)? I don't know if it's just for folk from other chains or if they allow their own members to do the challenge.

Whether you do a Marriott or Hyatt challenge, consider the timing of when you sign up for the challenge. The best time to do either is just before your stays/nights will start, in order to extend the challenge for the longest part of the timeframe. For example, if you've got Marriott conferences in August & October, signing up now won't help you w/ the October conference/status, but if you signed up in August it would encompass both. Similar for Hyatt.

The other thing you need to consider when determining chains (and not just the credit card) is what is important to you/what are you trying to accomplish when staying at them. That will help you determine what is the best chain(s) for you, not the credit card.

PS - It's always good to have 2 chains in your portfolio, one as the primary & one as the back-up for the times when you're in locations where one might not be or the rate is too high for the primary.

PSS - If you're attending a conference in SF where the room rate is $600/night, that's a crappy meeting planner. Conferences get reduced rates, not higher rates! Did you just call Marriott to book a room for that night w/o mentioning the conference? If so, call them back & tell them you're attending the conference & to book you at the conference-negotiated rate.

Cheers.

jennbar

Thank you so much for this info! It has been really amazing to help me evaluate what is going on.

Real quick, the reason for the conference price is because they were booked through the 3rd party very fast and therefore, in order to stay where the conference is, I had to go through Marriott. That was the main reason I wanted to try to get Gold because it would make the price worth the benefits. However, being that the Grand Hyatt is a block away and I can get it for around $250/night with the 3rd party travel planners, I believe that I will do so and stay with Hyatt.

That will give me points with Hyatt, and probably Diamond if I can do the challenge being a member, as I would be able to meet the required nights. I will inquire with them!

peteropny

Hyatt will only issue a Diamond challenge if you have Marriott Platinum - and it's a once in a lifetime thing unlike Marriotts challenge which can be done annually.

Only you can decide which chain to concentrate on based on your travel patterns.

SkiAdcock

I'm a bit confused. Who are the 3rd party travel planners?

Corp travel dep't, travel agency? You'd get points if booking through them. If you're looking at something like Expedia, Hotwire, etc, as 3rd party travel planners you don't get points for stays booked through them, so be really careful you're not booking something you won't get points for!

If there is a conference at the Marriott, call the Marriott 800# & give them your dates & the name of the conference & tell them to book you at the conference rate, not rack rate (or if the conference is using a housing bureau, book through them). The only way that wouldn't work is if it's close to the conference time & the conference released its room block to general inventory. I had a client earlier this year that was booking a property (non chain-affiliated) this year for a convention. The convention had negotiated a rate of $269 w/ the property. The client's secretary called the property directly & was quoted $559 by the property. I told her to cancel the $559 booking, call the convention housing bureau & book the $269 rate.

According to peteropny, Hyatt won't do a Diamond status match for you so that's off the table. Are you going to be able to get 50 nights at Hyatt by end of year to actually get Diamond status? If so, then try to focus on Hyatt. If you won't get the 50 by year-end, then just stay at whichever is more convenient/has the best rates/promos through end of year (doing the gold challenge if you'll be at Marriott), & work on a game plan to get Gold w/ Marriott or Diamond w/ Hyatt for 2014.

Again, the credit card is relatively irrelevant to the discussion as both Hyatt & Marriott get you silver/platinum status. I think Marriott's credit card is better than Hyatt's in terms of what you get with it. https://creditcards.chase.com/a1/mar...Q15-1t1-VQ16-c Note there is a 70K bonus point offering for Marriott too. The one thing that's true, whether you use a Hyatt or Visa card, is to put everything you can on it, not just hotel stays, to build up your points balance.

Cheers.

jennbar

The 3rd party is through the conference and they are called 'TP Housing" or Travel Planners. Points-wise, I am wondering if I will get 3x points if I book the Grand Hyatt SF through them for the better rate using my Hyatt Visa. I assume it would just be categorized under "travel" and I would get 1x points.

SkiAdcock

The booking is irrelevant (unless it's Expedia, etc), as long as your credit card is used to pay the hotel/incidentals bill at check-out.
If you do, whether Hyatt or Marriott, you'd get the points/night credit & the credit card credit of 3pt/5pts. However, if TP Housing is paying for the room & you're paying TP Housing, then you will only get points for the credit card spend & not points for the stay or night credit for the stay.

BTW - what was TP Housing's quote for the Marriott? You said you contacted the Marriott directly. for the $600 quote.

Cheers.

jennbar

They were quoting $219/night when they were available! Lucky ducks to those that retrieved them fast enough!!