yuel

It’s coming October 7

Daily Getaways (ustravel.org)

GUWonder

I guess I should expect to see some of the same travel suppliers this time around as last time. Just curious if they will be more miserly and/or fewer offerings this time than last time.

Hopefully I can get some value out of the hotel programs’ offers again.

manually

I think the hotels need people and the offers will be more generous this time around... I hope...

GUWonder

Here were the 2019 participating brands:

Alamo Rent-a-Car
Avis Car Rental
Best Western International
Caesars Entertainment
Choice Hotels International
Expedia
Accor Hotels
Hertz Rent-a-Car
Hilton Hotels and Resorts
Hyatt Hotels and Resorts
InterContinental Hotel Group
Las Vegas Sands Corporation
Loews Hotels and Resorts
Marriott International
MGM Resorts International
Omni Resorts and Hotels
SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment
Universal Parks and Resorts
Wyndham Hotels & Resorts

I assume most of those were lined up for the cancelled 2020 promotion.

Since the offer previews don’t seem set to show up until October 4th, and as the sales go live on October 7th, it seems to me that they are scrambling for participating companies and/or to get staff to work on having everything ready to go for this 2021 promotion. Probably hit with extraordinary marketing and tech resource constraints due to changes that hit during and from the pandemic — not only from the promotion runners but also their promotion partners.

Note that the previous preview offers date was showing as September 27th.

GUWonder

They still have the offer preview date set for October 4th; and the actual sales starting date is still showing as set for October 7th.

pinniped

I recall some of the IC and OMNI offers in the past weren't too bad. They were nice because it didn't matter if you were already a high elite in their programs or not - they were just really good deals on weekend stays at various hotels. I don't really have a use for OMNI points but I know in some places they have really good hotels.

Hilton points are worth so much less than they once were, those offers are going to have to be adjusted quite a bit. Frankly, I probably wouldn't buy Hilton unless it's Free Night certificates with easily-understood terms and conditions. (Exclusions such as a fixed list of properties or fixed dates that I can place a value on.)

I'm pivoting to Hyatt in 2022 so for the first time I'll be interested in what they have to offer.

The Vegas and Orlando deals always seemed pretty overpriced to me, but it's possible I was missing something there. The only time I go to either of those is for conferences where I just accept the conference hotel and rate - I don't really shop those markets for great deals.

GUWonder

The Hyatt packages on sale previously have been so few in number that the chances of picking them up by manual selection has been extremely challenging even for the trained screen jockeys to land. My bet is that it won’t be much easier to get them this year, as the miles and points blogosphere will be all over these.

GUWonder

In less than 99 minutes, the preview offers are scheduled to show up on the site. Hopefully there are no delays this time.

sxpsxpsxp

The previews are up through the 15th. No offers showing for days after that. Nothing particularly spectacular as far as I can tell, but obviously everyone values these things differently.

250k HH for $1,250... Just for fun (since I'm planning a London trip), I looked up a DoubleTree in London that charges 50k/night. So that 250k gets me 6 nights if I'm elite. Or I can pay $1,896 for those same 6 nights.

GUWonder

Not many Hyatt packages for sale. I’ll try my luck, but I doubt I’ll have much success there.

Glad to see Choice in at about the same level as prior years.

manually

Pretty weak choices this time. I was thinking they would want travel.

pinniped

The Hyatt points deals have a positive expected value for most normal uses. Not enough for me to lose sleep if I don't get one, but they're decent deals.

None of the other points deals are that attractive. 0.5c for HH points? Uhhh, nope.

The OMNI and Accor deals look better than anything else.

lkar

So, there are 16 total Hyatt packages? What the heck?

lkar

With a planned stay in mind, .5 cents for Hilton points is pretty good, especially for 5 nights or more if there is availability. Just remember though that cash stays earn points at a pretty good rate depending on elite level. So, in your situation, a gold member would actually earn around 30,000 points on the cash stay, which would translate to about $150 back in points. Still a good deal but should be considered.

pinniped

The key is the planned stay. HH points have been in a straight line of devaluation for at least a decade. (Maybe longer - there have been multiple big structural changes to the program over the years, none good for the members.) Vastly worse than the gradual category creep of more stable programs like Hyatt, SPG, and Marriott.

It's getting harder and harder to find 0.5 cpp options with Hilton. If you do find one, lock it in when the points hit your account.