Hotel loyalty 2012-Q1 promotions Hyatt Gold Passport Hyatt Hotels

Hyatt 3-star bonus points promo Feb 1-April 30

Hyatt Gold Passport informally announced its next loyalty promotion to the attendees of the Oneworld MegaDo in Dallas, Texas last night according to several attendees like ThePointsGuy. The promotion earns bonus points at 4-night increments, up to 16 nights. The nights do not need to be consecutive.

There is even a 25% bonus for stays paid with the Hyatt Visa credit card members. [update: Jan27, 4:00pm Pacific – Gold Passport Concierge posted on FlyerTalk that all Hyatt Visa card members earn bonus. There is no need to pay for the hotel stays with the Hyatt Visa.]

Register by March 31 for Hyatt Promotion.

  • after 4 nights = 4,000 bonus points (1,000 more points if Hyatt Visa payment).
  • after 8 nights = 8,000 more bonus points for 12,000 points total (2,000 more bonus points with Hyatt Visa).
  • after 12 nights = 12,000 more bonus points for 24,000 points total (3,000 more bonus points with Hyatt Visa).
  • after 16 nights = 20,000 more bonus points for 44,000 points total (5,000 more bonus points with Hyatt Visa).

This promotion offers the potential of earning 44,000 bonus points after 16 nights or 55,000 bonus points for Hyatt Visa card members.

Loyalty Traveler Analysis

This promotion provides incentive for staying more nights in February, March and April. The more you stay the bigger the bonuses.

A few months ago when Jeff Zidell, VP of Hyatt Gold Passport, held a chat on Milepoint.com I made a comment that Hyatt is ‘whale’ hunting and this promotion seems to be another example of that kind of hotel loyalty marketing. Whales are what the high roller gamblers are called who are quite profitable for the casino industry when they blow loads of cash.

Hyatt seeks frequent guest whales.

44,000 points is a good bonus opportunity, but 16 nights in a 90 day period is a very high threshold of hotel stays. That exceeds the level of nights needed for Hyatt Gold Passport Diamond at 50 nights per year. I would like to have seen the bonus increments at 3, 6, 9 and 12 to be more in line with quarterly stays needed annually to reach Diamond elite level.

Basically this offer is best for Hyatt Diamond members or those seeking to be Hyatt Diamond. This is a good time to go for a Gold Passport Diamond challenge if you are looking at Hyatt Gold Passport Diamond membership for 2012 and 2013. The challenge requires 12 nights in 60 days and you will earn Diamond elite status through February 2013 and a good run on Gold Passport points. Here is the FlyerTalk Hyatt Challenge link with discussion by people who started challenges this month. The good thing about Hyatt is the Diamond status is instantly granted at the time you start the challenge so you will have the benefits, including suite upgrades, while completing the hotel nights.

I am currently Hyatt Diamond and the best use of this promotion for me would be two 6-night stays where I can have a confirmed suite using the four Gold Passport suite upgrades for Diamond elite members. That would earn three levels of the bonus while staying a week in a suite with complimentary daily breakfast and internet. Two vacation stays or a total 12 nights would earn 24,000 bonus points (30,000 bonus points if Hyatt Visa payment).

Assume $150 per night x 12 nights = $1,800 in Hyatt hotel spend.

  • $1,800 x 5 points/$1 = 9,000 points
  • Diamond elite 30% bonus = 2,700 points
  • Hyatt more nights bonus = 24,000 points
  • Hyatt Visa bonus 3 points/$1 = 5,400 points
  • Hyatt Visa More Nights bonus = 6,000 points

Hyatt Diamond member with 12 nights and $1,800 in spend earns 35,700 points or 47,100 points if payment is made with Hyatt Visa. That is quite an additional bonus for using Hyatt Visa.

Completing more than 8 nights in February to April is unlikely for me. This offer looks like a potential 12,000 bonus points and I don’t view that as anything really significant. SPG, Hilton HHonors, IHG Priority Club also have mediocre 3-star promotions this quarter.

I still favor Marriott’s MegaBonus for a free night after two stays and Best Western for a free night after three stays for the highest earning promotions on fewest hotel nights.

Hopefully there will be more enticing offers in the next round of hotel loyalty promotions in April.

Perhaps Hyatt Gold passport will run a promotion to promote its new HYATT house brand created from the former Summerfield Suites and Sierra Hotels.  Hyatt Gold Passport has run brand specific promotions in the past for Summerfield Suites and Hyatt Place.

I’ll post this more nights, more points Hyatt Gold Passport offer again when the official promotion registration page is available.

P.S. Update 9:00am Pacific –  I should add that the title 3-star promotion and the reference to the other hotel loyalty promotions as 3-star offers means I think this is a “good value” hotel loyalty promotion. I am just not convinced it is a high value promotion for this Hyatt offer unless you go in all the way for 16 nights.

I’ll follow up this post with a look at the value of bonus points for someone with lots of one-night stays.

Loyalty Traveler Five ***** Promotion Scale

Loyalty Traveler ranks the consumer value of some hotel loyalty promotions on a Five ***** Scale.

Five ***** = one of the best hotel loyalty promotions of the year.

Four **** = high value rebate on the cost of hotel stays.

Three *** = good value hotel loyalty promotion or rate offer.

Two ** = a bonus value if you play, but not necessarily worth going out of your way.

One * = There is limited or no value. You are likely paying more than the bonus value.

 

9 Comments

  • Steelsnow January 26, 2012

    Nice analysis, wish the offer was better for the smaller fish. Might want to check your analysis paragraph heading above, it sounds like it is having a condition! Hoping for a Sierra promo soon too.

  • Ric Garrido January 26, 2012

    Thanks for the correction. I just don’t see the spellcheck red marks too easily. There is a bit of anal-sysis on quite a few of my posts.

  • […] Visa credit card.  I won’t go into the full details, but you can read more about it here and here.  On its own, I don’t find this promo that exciting because I don’t expect to be able to […]

  • frequentflyercollector January 30, 2012

    I was considering mattress running this deal, so I made a spreadsheet of how many points you earn. My situation is that I have no status on Hyatt, or the Hyatt card. I am planning to do the diamond challenge and apply for the card for this promotion. Also I assumed stays of $80 (I can find rates on the weekend for that much or less).

    What I came up with is that if you do value Hyatt points at $.01 per, with 12 or 16 nights, you’ll probably get half your value back in points. If you value the points at $.02, then with 12 or 16 nights, you get nearly your full value in points, and if you have the CC and do 16 nights, you actually earn more in points. I’m counting the 6000 in bonus points you earn under the Diamond challenge (though i’m not sure if you get the 30% bonus if you’re under trial diamond)?

  • Ric Garrido January 30, 2012

    @frequentflyercollector – I’d certainly value Hyatt points over 1 cent. I’d venture to say there are few Hyatt Hotels where the value of points used for a free night would come out to less than $10 per 1,000 points.

    No doubt this is a great offer for someone working the Diamond challenge.

    The offer is not so lucrative if you do not go for all 16 nights. Nearly half the bonus points are earned for the 16 night threshold compared to 12 nights.

  • […] of the 25% bonus points for being a Hyatt Visa card member that was referenced in last week’s informal announcement. This proved to be a contentious bonus based on FlyerTalk comments from international Hyatt Gold […]

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  • […] Loyalty Traveler post January 26, 2012. […]

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