At the moment, many of these Mr & Mrs Smith properties participate in IHG One Rewards. (click here for details)  Presumably the IHG One Rewards link will be severed once the properties are ready to transition over to World of Hyatt.

According to the press release…

The transaction is anticipated to close in the second quarter of this year, subject to customary closing conditions. At a later date following the closing, Hyatt plans to unveil direct booking access to properties within the Mr & Mrs Smith platform through Hyatt’s distribution channels, including Hyatt.com and the World of Hyatt app. The anticipated move will have the potential to unlock access to more than twice the number of global boutique and luxury properties within Hyatt direct booking channels, and Hyatt is exploring ways to enable World of Hyatt members to earn and redeem points across eligible hotels in the Mr & Mrs Smith collection.

Bottom Line

Even though it is usually exciting when Hyatt adds to its global footprint, many of these hotels were already accessible to points collectors via IHG One Rewards. (often at quite reasonable award pricing)

Because these are small, boutique hotels, normal World of Hyatt benefits are unlikely to apply, much in the same way that World of Hyatt members receive few benefits at Small Luxury Hotels…

The post Hyatt is Buying Mr & Mrs Smith appeared first on InsideFlyer.

I have little doubt that the majority of InsideFlyer readers will HATE this promotion. Hilton Honors members can earn:

• 4,000 bonus points per STAY at selected resorts
• 2,000 bonus points per STAY at other hotels

Registration is required. Click here to be taken to the landing page for this promotion.

Why is this Promotion so Bad?

It doesn’t matter whether you stay one night or ten – you will only earn 2,000 bonus points for your “stay”. Don’t bother trying to book each night individually – unless you move to a different hotel, your separate reservations will be merged into one…

Since Hilton Honors members earn 10 points per US dollar spent, 2,000 bonus points is equivalent to earning “double points” on a mere $200 of spend.  (i.e. Hilton’s standard “double points” promotion would have resulted in more bonus points for almost everybody)

From a different perspective, 2,000 points are worth $10 at best. This is a terrible rebate on any long, expensive stay.  You do earn these bonus points on award stays, though, so there’s a tiny bit of upside for those who are planning to redeem their Hilton points this summer.

Which Hotels are “Resorts”?

You can find the list of “resort hotels” by clicking here. And no… you cannot sort, search or otherwise make this list user-friendly.

Bottom Line

Even though this promotion is barely worth the effort, you will want to register nonetheless. But if you have any flexibility in your summer travel plans, you will want to avoid Hilton hotels for everything other than cheap one-night stays.

The post Hilton Honors Announces a Summer Promotion that Almost Everybody Will Hate appeared first on InsideFlyer.

Thanks to the 50% bonus, you would pay 0.69 US cents per point.

You can usually buy up to 180,000 points every calendar year, although the annual limit is often raised later in the year.  Click here to be taken to the Choice website.

Does it Make Sense?

If you are currently planning a trip to Scandinavia, you can find some amazing value from buying Choice points today to spend on award stays.

However, if you can wait around until the next Daily Getaways, you will probably be able to buy Choice points for 0.5-0.6 cents each.

I have also found that it can make sense to buy Choice points in order to convert them to United miles – but only when a bonus is applied to hotel point conversions.  However, those promotions typically arrive during the summer – click here for details of last year’s Choice –> United promo – so you have time to wait before buying Choice points…

The post Should You Buy Choice Points with a 50% Bonus? appeared first on InsideFlyer.

• It is the only Hyatt-branded hotel near Heathrow airport – somewhere I often stay due to overnight layovers
• It is a Category 1 hotel usually costing 5,000 points per night

However I noticed recently that it is now nearly impossible to book an award stay using points.

Digging into the possible reasons for this, I noticed that the hotel has reclassified its rooms, so that very few, if any, can be considered as “standard” rooms. (needed for spending points)

The cheapest room you are likely to find is now called “High Floor”.

By paying a bit more, you can stay in a room with an “Airport View”.

For a bit more, you can stay in a “Runway View” room.

And as a final splurge, you can stay in a “Deluxe room” on the top floor with views of the airport.

Why This is Basically a Scam

By process of elimination, there are few, if any, “standard” rooms left in this five-storey hotel.

• High Floor rooms cover the 3rd – 5th floor, facing away from the airport
• Airport view covers the 2nd and 3rd floors, facing towards the airport
• Runway view covers the 3rd and 4th floors, facing towards the airport
• Deluxe room covers the 5th floor rooms facing towards the airport

By process of elimination, 2nd floor rooms facing away from the airport could conceivably be considered as a “standard” room, not that I could find any dates with availability.

And for the avoidance of any doubt, there is absolutely no difference in the room layout for all but the “deluxe” rooms. And it’s a bit of a joke to call the 3rd floor of a 5-storey hotel a “high floor”, or to even consider it as a benefit.

Why Hotels do This

I understand why some hotels play these games in order to avoid guests redeeming points. The franchisee is reimbursed a relatively small amount by World of Hyatt for award stays, unless the hotel is very full. The hotel would rather that all guests paid cash.

However, this annoys loyal Hyatt members! Moreover, the hotel should recognize that “being a Hyatt Place” brings in revenue that it wouldn’t otherwise receive. This might be loyal World of Hyatt members and/or infrequent guests who “have heard that Hyatts are good”. These award inventory games, therefore, are short-sighted at best. And part of the requirement of being a Hyatt-branded hotel is to offer reasonable opportunities for members to redeem their points.

Bottom Line

All we can do is call out scams such as this one, and hope that Hyatt acts to bring its franchisees into line.  But for now, you cannot really redeem your Hyatt points at this Category 1 Hyatt Place…

The post This Hyatt Hotel is Blocking Nearly All Award Inventory appeared first on InsideFlyer.

You can earn a maximum of 10,000 bonus points from this promotion.

Registration is required. You can register by clicking here and entering your World of Hyatt account number.

According to the Terms & Conditions, you must have been a member of Lindner Nights prior to March 1st. But it appears that Hyatt isn’t really checking, so anybody can register…

For the avoidance of doubt, Hyatt allows members redeeming points or free night certificates to also participate in these “points per night” promotions. So you can pick up 1,000 points per night in Europe even when spending your points on award stays…

Bottom Line

If you are travelling to Europe this spring, you will want to register for this promotion. Even if you’ve never heard of Germany’s Lindner hotels – soon to join World of Hyatt – you might pick up some bonus points…

The post Earn 1,000 Hyatt Points per Night in Europe appeared first on InsideFlyer.

Although the news isn’t good, it’s worth pausing to remember that no other major hotel chain makes these announcements – because they have already moved to “dynamic award pricing”.  (which allows them to increase award pricing at any time – which they do!)

372 hotels will be changing categories, with 214 hotels moving to a higher category and 158 hotels moving to a lower category. You can find a full list of hotels changing categories here.

How Can I Avoid The Increases?

• All bookings made prior to March 28th will follow the current award chart, even if your stay comes later
• If you’ve already booked a hotel that will go down a category, you will receive an automatic refund of the points difference starting March 28
• Any adjustments made after the changes go into effect will follow the new pricing – if you have any doubt about your dates, therefore, you should book each award night individually

Notable Changes

When paying with points, any increases are merely inflationary. The most painful changes are hotels moving from Category 4 –> 5 and hotels moving from Category 7 –> 8.  This takes hotels out of range of free night certificates available from credit cards and staying 30 or 60 nights in a calendar year.

4 –> 5 Changes

• Andaz San Diego
• Hyatt House Naples / 5th Avenue
• Lahaina Shores Beach Resort, a Destination by Hyatt Residence
• Chicago Athletic Association
• The Eliza Jane
• Hyatt Regency Grand Reserve Puerto Rico
• Hyatt Place Moab
• Grand Hyatt Sanya Haitang Bay Resort and Spa
• Grand Hyatt Jeju
• Grand Hyatt Seoul
• Park Hyatt Saigon
• Mexico City Downtown
• Hotel La Compañia (Panama City)
• Park Hotel ai Cappuccini  (Umbria, Italy)
• Hyatt Regency Amsterdam
• Thompson Madrid

7 –> 8 Changes

• 7Pines Resort Sardinia (Destination by Hyatt)
• Alila Marea Beach Resort Encinitas
• Carmel Valley Ranch (The Unbound Collection by Hyatt)
• Hotel Martinez (The Unbound Collection by Hyatt)
• Hyatt Carmel Highlands, Overlooking Big Sur Coast & Highlands Inn
• Hyatt Centric Key West Resort & Spa
• Park Hyatt Beaver Creek Resort and Spa
• Park Hyatt Zurich
• The Lodge at Spruce Peak (Destination by Hyatt)
• Several SLH hotels

Bottom Line

These changes were inevitable. Room rates at many luxury hotels are increasing rapidly – if those hotels also fill up with guests redeeming points, Hyatt must pay substantially more to the hotel owner / operator.

Even though you might not feel much better, it is worth remembering that World of Hyatt still offers many sweetspots – it might just be a little bit harder to find them starting on March 28th…

The post Hyatt Announces Painful Award Category Changes appeared first on InsideFlyer.

Hacking Hyatt Status from Scratch

Step 1 – Obtain Trial Explorist Status

If you are approaching things from the perspective of an American Airlines elite member, you can now apply for the Hyatt status challenge. During 90 days, you will enjoy Explorist status.

During those 90 days, you simply need to apply for a tier match with MGM Rewards. It might not appear to have been processed correctly, but your MGM Rewards account should be upgraded to Gold status within a day or two.

Step 2 – BEFORE January 31, 2023

MGM Rewards status expires on February 1st of each year. Therefore, at some point AFTER your Hyatt status has dropped below Explorist level (assuming you don’t do the challenge’s 10 nights required to retain Explorist status) and BEFORE your MGM Gold status expires, you can apply for a tier match in the opposite direction…

Your Hyatt account should be updated to Explorist status until February 29, 2024. (especially if you do the tier match in January 2023)

Step 3 – Repeat Tier Match

At some point on or after February 1st, 2023 your MGM Rewards status will drop below Gold status. A few mouse clicks later and you should be able to use your Hyatt status to upgrade your MGM Rewards account back up to Gold status, this time valid until February 1, 2024.

For as long as the tier match program is running – and as long as MGM and Hyatt have slightly different status expiration dates – you should be able to repeat this process indefinitely…

Hanging onto Hyatt Status

If you currently enjoy Globalist or Explorist status with World of Hyatt, that status will expire on February 28, 2023.

During the month of February 2023, you simply must remember to apply for a tier match with MGM Rewards BEFORE your Hyatt status expires at the end of the month.

After your Hyatt status has dropped to Discoverist status (or worse) on March 1, 2023, you can simply tier match your MGM Gold status back to Hyatt Explorist status – which would be valid until February 29, 2024.

Bottom Line

Even though Hyatt’s Explorist status is not nearly as valuable as Globalist status, you can still receive a 2pm late checkout and 20% bonus points – useful things to have…

You don’t need to start the process with American or Hyatt status either. MGM Rewards will tier match from competing casino loyalty programs as well…

The post Hyatt Elite Status Expiring Soon? Don’t Forget to Do This Before the end of February appeared first on InsideFlyer.

2022 was not a big travel year for me, though, and I came nowhere close to the 60 elite nights needed to retain my Globalist status. Fortunately, I was eligible for a fast track available to American Airlines elite members – 20 nights in 90 days to earn Globalist status until February 29, 2024.

Cutting to the chase… I was highly motivated to stay 20+ nights in January and February 2023. And so I did…  But I made the mistake of choosing to stay twice at one of Hyatt’s new all-inclusive hotels.

Attempt 1

When my first stay didn’t credit to my account, I sent a quick email to my Concierge. She didn’t reply – I know that I probably no longer have Concierge service due to the fact that it requires 60 nights per year (not just Globalist status) – but eventually I heard from “regular” Hyatt customer service, with a meaningless response of…

Greetings from World of Hyatt team! We highly appreciate your loyalty to Hyatt hotels!

Kindly be informed that it takes up to 14 days for the system to post the stay.

Please allow this time frame as ——- is recently integrated with World of Hyatt, and may it requires additional time to post the stay to your account.

Attempt 2

After my meaningless interaction, I was asked to fill in a form evaluating the service.  Because nothing was resolved, I gave low marks.  Shortly thereafter I received another email from Hyatt customer service.

Thank you for taking the time to complete our survey you received after contacting Hyatt Guest Services.

Please accept my sincerest apologies for your experience with our Guest Services Associate. All Hyatt employees are expected to provide each and every guest with an outstanding level of service and I am truly sorry that you did not receive such service. I will forward this to the associate’s manager to ensure they are providing the level of service we expect.

I replied to this email saying…

Rather than report the associate to a manager, I would much rather that somebody takes the initiative to credit my 15-night stay to my World of Hyatt account…

I was hopeful when the same agent responded with…

Thank you for contacting Hyatt; I appreciate the opportunity to assist you.
Some properties do take longer to post, but I can certainly check on your 15-night stay. Could you please provide me with the following information to assist in locating your reservation?

Confirmation Number:
Name and Location of the Hotel/Resort:
Dates of your stay:

But unfortunately my hopes were dashed…

Thank you for providing the information regarding your stay. I was able to locate your reservation.

Since 14 days have passed since you checked-out and the stay has not posted to your account, I will submit a credit request for your stay. This process does take a while, and with the Alua properties, it could take up to 6 more weeks.

I understand that this process is longer than you expected. I apologize for this and appreciate your patience.

Attempt 3

Meanwhile, I stayed a second time at the same hotel. After check-out, I received an email requesting that I rate my stay at the hotel. I know that hotel management takes these surveys seriously, since part of their compensation is based on customer satisfaction.

In the section rating World of Hyatt benefits, I mentioned my issues with stays crediting to my Hyatt account.  At other Hyatt hotels, I have received emails from hotel management regarding my concerns.  Not this hotel…

Attempt 4

Naturally my second stay did not credit to my account either. After filling in the online form, I eventually received an email titled “an update on your request to earn points”.

But unfortunately there was no resolution of my issue – or mention of the stay in question.  Instead…

You’ve asked to earn points for a recent stay, but we can’t find a record of your stay on the dates you provided. Please send us a copy of your hotel bill and we’ll be happy to review your request.

Luckily I held on to copies of my hotel bills from both stays. I attached them to a reply email.

A few days later, I received another useless reply…

Thank you for writing back to us.

I am sorry to hear that you have still not received credit for your stay at —– I have again followed up with the hotel regarding the stay, hence I request you to please allow three to four weeks. I appreciate your patience in this matter.

Bottom Line

During nearly a decade of Globalist / Diamond status with Hyatt, I became accustomed to excellent customer service.  A quick email to my Concierge would result in any problem being fixed straight away. I have never experienced such a complete run-around – nobody willing or able to look at a hotel bill and a hotel reservation number to simply credit a few thousand points and, more importantly, the precious elite night credits I need to renew my Globalist status before it expires at the end of this month.

Even though I am a Globalist for a few more days, I am sadly now realizing how bad things will be on the other side… 

The post I Never Realized Until Now that Hyatt’s Customer Service is Terrible! appeared first on InsideFlyer.

What is Points Advance?

Points Advance allows members to book an award stay without having the points in their account yet. Members have 60 days from booking or up to 14 days prior to arrival (whichever comes first) to earn enough points to cover an existing Points Advance reservation.

At first glance, this is a useful feature. If you’ve booked an award stay several months in advance, you are more inclined to earn or buy the points needed to pay for that award stay. 60 days is probably long enough to allow you to wait for the next “buy points” promotion to come around…  And you probably only used Points Advance at high-demand, low award space hotels in popular locations.

What was Wrong with Points Advance?

Points Advance never guaranteed the price of the room. With dynamic pricing, this could vary substantially – leaving you without a clear idea of the number of points you needed to pick up within that 60-day window.

The feature was also unpopular with hotels. Points Advance bookings would regularly clog up room inventory, only to be cancelled 14 days before arrival – making it difficult for the hotels to resell the rooms.

Points Advance also could lead to disappointment. YOU might have the points in your account and want to book a popular hotel, but you would be unable to book it using points because somebody else had already Points Advance-d it. But you’d have likely already made alternative arrangements before the 14-day pre-arrival deadline.

Bottom Line

Points Advance was a feature that made sense a decade ago, before “dynamic award pricing” or even “peak / off-peak award pricing”. You could reserve a room and collect the points (or certificates) before your stay.  But since Points Advance had lost much of its usefulness, it’s time for it to go…

The post Marriott Bonvoy is Ending Points Advance appeared first on InsideFlyer.

Most members seem to have received the 100% bonus offer. The bonus applies to purchases of 5,000 points or more. However, for the best deal you will want to buy at least 26,000 points (pre-bonus).

The regular price of IHG points is 1 cent each, whenever you buy at least 26,000 points in a single transaction. The annual limit is 150,000 points (so 300,000 doubled), although the annual limit is usually increased late in the year.

As a result, you can buy 52,000-300,000 points today and pay 0.5 cents per point.

Is it Worth It?

I certainly would NOT recommend that you buy points speculatively. However, I do like to keep a reasonable balance of IHG points handy, if only because their award pricing algorithm sometimes comes up with excellent bargains… 

It’s not as easy as it was years ago – but you can definitely find many hotels where you will save money by buying points at the 0.5 cent price, instead of simply paying the cash price. This is especially true if you hold the IHG Rewards Club Premier card from Chase, where you get the 4th night free when booking award stays using points. And with IHG One Rewards seemingly planning to offer regular discounts on award stays, you definitely want to have enough points in your account to take advantage.

Of course, you also need to take into account the fact that you can earn substantial number of points on paid stays, especially when a good promotion is running.

Don’t Forget Cashback

If you are a member of Topcashback, you are hopefully aware that you can earn cashback on points purchases processed by Points.com. (including IHG of course)

An extra 2.1% discount is certainly worth the extra click.

Not a Member of Topcashback Yet?

If you are not yet a member of Topcashback, you can earn an additional $15. Simply sign up using this referral link – http://www.topcashback.com/join-us/inside-flyer/ref/craigsowerby – and earn $10 of cashback.

It’s really quite simple to earn $10 of cashback. You would have to buy $480 worth of IHG points to pick up $10 of cashback. Alternatively there are many hotel chains available where a single hotel stay will generate that much cashback. But between the $15 new member bonus and the $10 standard cashback, you’d be looking at $25 back in your pocket in no time!

The post You Can Buy IHG Points With a 100% Bonus Again appeared first on InsideFlyer.