u2vox

Unless I book a 3-night mattress run, I will end up at 72 nights this year. I could get to 75 in any of these scenarios at a local property 15 minutes away from my house:

• PAID: All-in, pay about $360 for 3 nights at local SPG
• C&P: All-in, pay about $165 + 10500 points
• POINTS: All-in, pay $0 and 21,000 points

Travel next year should be reasonably on par with this year = at least 50 nights, bunch of US, some Europe and Asia.

Worth it for the extra point per $ + Your24? Any evidence of Plat 75 being higher on the upgrade list? Considerations for likely last year of SPG point earnings before programs merge?

Thanks!

boolean64

Personally i do not put much stock in your24. Even if you take a ton of red-eyes hotels are more likely than not to let you check in early even without Your24...or be booked and turn down the request. So it comes down to recouping your cost on the extra point per dollar

To breakeven on the points option you have to spend ~$350 a night on 60 nights of hotel next year (350*60=21,000 pts)

$360 all in is probably 2 nights at a cat 3 or 4. to be generous say you can get 2 cat 3 nights for the $360. That is 14,000 points you need to earn down the road to offset the $360 in spend. so $233 per night is your breakeven on 60 nights of hotels. That seems more likely but not a slam dunk.

So yeah i would not bother. but YMMV

RafKa

50 nights at an average of $200/night weeks mean the extra point nets you 10k extra per year, which I value at $227.50 (others may value at up to $400).

As for your24, if you typically have a travel pattern where you check in late at night and could use a very late check out, I find it typically gets accepted 1 out of 3 times (again, others may have more success).

margarita girl

Have you chosen your benefits for crossing 50 nights? If you haven't, you can choose 5 elite nights in lieu of SNAs. Those 5 nights will be applied to 2017.

CCIE_Flyer

I say go have a blast somewhere well beyond 15 minutes from your house...or just stay home and relax. You're already Plat, forget about the tiny incremental benefits of Plat++

Of course I say this, and I just ponied up hard cash to move my wife and myself from UA Gold to Plat for 2018, but in my own personal world view that's an entirely different animal (for one thing, I'm gonna start checking three bags simply because I paid for the privilege - hahaha!!)...

Agent: "Sir, you can carry those on - they're plastic Barbie purses. Three of them, actually.

Me: "Make sure to get those priority tags on somehow!"

worldtraveller73

I would be doing this just for the 4th point = around 9,000 extra points for me this year as a Plat 75.

This is of course assuming you are spending the points and not hoarding them for some unknown future purpose of value in a new program.

Dr. HFH

IMO the points are always nice, and if you're spending close to 75 nights/year, then it's a non-trivial number. I've also had great success using Your24; although I know that others have not had as good as experience. So for only a few nights, I'd do it in a minute. I'm currently at 51 nights, and have a 14 night stay ending on January 1. I can't remember if that will be applied to 2017 or 2018. (Can anyone help me with that?) If it's 2017, I would need 10 more nights to hit 75, which would definitely not be worth it for me. If 2018, that would be much more helpful to me.

margarita girl

SunshineStay

Go to the hotel and ask to speak to the front desk manager. Explain your situation and ask for a discount, since you only need the nights credit, but not the actual room. Maybe they will oblige you. One can always ask...

CommentatusMaximus

From my own calculations, I wouldn't go over two extra nights to hit P75, the extra points barely break even at that point.

u2vox

Thanks for all the replies, especially those who took the time to present the math. Very helpful to see it in action like that. The above - asking for a discount - is interesting to me and actually something I had thought of as well. The room rates before taxes I'm seeing are like 107 or so. Reasonable to start at even 50%? Reasonable to email or call rather than head out there? It would effectively be an hour of my life, but not a huge deal... I have options of Aloft, Sheraton and 4P to consider...

The Your24 could indeed come in handy. For example, Mrs. u2vox and I are celebrating our 10 year anniversary next year with a 3 week trip to Italy, starting at the St Regis in Rome. Our flight gets in at 9:30 AM, so if that gives us a leg up... Always a potential trade off though, since I'm also applying Suite Nights to that one and hoping for something special, and don't want to be shut out of that for a few hours' worth of early check in.

Has anyone experienced that they are effectively higher on the upgrade list by being Plat 75, over regular Plat?

RafKa

The debate here rages on, but I think it's generally accepted that hotel staff cannot distinguish between the different tiers of Plat, unless an Ambassador (Plat100) calls them ahead.

The Plat Concierge staff definitely can distinguish as I've been greeted as a Plat50 before.

CCIE_Flyer

Not necessarily "calls," per se - the only rez I've had my ambassador place was in <place>, and he did it electronically while I was on the phone with him. When I arrived at the hotel, I was specifically greeted as an ambassador member.

Just a data point...

Spent_All_My_Miles

Wouldn't staff need to know about Plat75 for Your24?

platbrownguy

I "went for" Plat 75 (i.e. diverted some extra nights there instead of spending them at Hyatt where I am ending the year at 60 on the dot for Globalist but would otherwise have had 70 for an extra DSU).

Never had Your24 before. Promptly booked a reservation at a hotel to try to confirm an 8 a.m. check-in (will be coming in from an early flight arrival -- arriving at 5:20 but checking a bag and thought 7 a.m. checkin was a little aggressive, so maybe 8 a.m. had better odds of getting granted), but was denied. Womp womp.

If Your24 works at least a couple times then it probably will have been worth it, because it will have saved booking an extra night the night before, etc., but if not then I will probably regret not having that extra Hyatt upgrade (which, of course, is good on a stay of up to 7 nights, confirmable at booking...).