Club Regency, Hyatt Regency on the Embarcadero
San Francisco
I have qualified for Hyatt Diamond Status
This past weekend I completed my 25th eligible stay for Diamond elite Hyatt Gold Passport status. Plus, I saw Bruce Springsteen put on another high energy show Saturday night in San Jose (tickets I won from KFOG 104.5 driving home from my first Hyatt stay of 2008 on March 14th.) With the luck of the drive home to Monterey, I won another radio call-in and picked up two free tickets for Crowded House at the Fillmore San Francisco in May. An added benefit of my Hyatt hotel runs is $400 in concert tickets for a couple of phone call-ins while driving on the freeway.
And I have already booked my first Hyatt Gold Passport free stay award with a $302 value on a Category-2/8,000 points free night at the Hyatt Regency Phoenix later this month.
My Hyatt Diamond elite hotel run took advantage of the “Stays Count Double” promotion that ran from January 1-March 31, 2008.
The research question I have posed is “What added value to hotel stays can be expected based on Hyatt Gold Passport diamond elite membership?â€
Hypothesis: The Hyatt Gold Passport elite diamond member can expect to receive about $100 in added value per night stayed with Hyatt through benefits of diamond membership including bonus points and complimentary hotel room upgrades and amenities.
Assumption: Added value will primarily be through stays at full-service Hyatt hotels. Lesser added value will result for stays at Hyatt Place and Summerfield Suites locations (I base this hypothesis on the data and my hotel experiences over several years with Hilton HHonors Diamond and Starwood Preferred Guest Platinum membership.)
The simple design of the experiment is using myself as a sample guest starting with no status in Hyatt Gold Passport. I registered for the “Stays Count Double†promotion and booked my first stay of 2008 on March 14th. The 12th hotel stay on March 30 was the last eligible hotel stay I completed for “Stays Count Double†and I finished the promotion with 24 hotel stays. My 25th and diamond elite qualifying stay occurred April 5, 2008. My diamond membership elite status will last through February 2010. I have a minimum stay objective of 20 Hyatt stays by February 2010, with the likely possibility of having 50 to 80 nights at Hyatt during that time period.
Research data: The research plan is to tabulate the cost of attaining Hyatt Gold Passport Diamond elite status with “Stays Count Double†and compare to the added value received for my Hyatt hotel stays. I will have the benefits of Diamond status from April 2008 through February 2010.
Hyatt Diamond cost: $1,345 + 14% tax
(taxes ranged from 10% to 15% depending on location) =
$1,533 after taxes for 13 stays or about $118 total per Hyatt hotel stay.
Friday, March 14 Hyatt Place Fremont $71 (Stay 1 = 2)
Sunday, March 16 Hyatt Place Fremont $89 (Stay 2 = 4)
Wednesday, March 19 Hyatt Regency San Francisco $143.10 (Stay 3 = 6)
Thursday, March 20 Grand Hyatt San Francisco $152.10 (Stay 4 = 8)
Friday, March 21 Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport $89.00 (Stay 5 = 10)
Saturday, March 22 Hyatt Regency Santa Clara $89.00 (Stay 6 = 12)
Sunday, March 23 Hyatt Place Fremont $89.00 (Stay 7 = 14)
Wednesday, March 26 Hyatt Regency Vineyard Creek, $125.00 (Stay 8 = 16) Santa Rosa
Thursday, March 27 Hyatt Regency San Francisco $179.00 (Stay 9 = 18)
Friday, March 28 Hyatt Place Fremont $71.00 (Stay 10 = 20)
Saturday, March 29 Summerfield Suites Belmont $98.00 (Stay 11 = 22)
Sunday, March 30 Hyatt Place Fremont $79.00 (Stay 12 = 24)
Saturday, April 5 Hyatt Place Fremont $71.00 (Stay 25)
(Stay 13 on April 5, after the end of the “Stays Count Double†promotion was my 25th and Diamond elite qualifying stay with Hyatt Gold Passport. Future stays will bring a 30% points bonus and complimentary upgrade to Regency Club room when staying at participating Hyatt properties.)
Total cost = $1,345 in base room charges +14% tax = $1,533 for Hyatt Diamond membership
Hotel Points earned: 8,288 points earned for base room charges and platinum elite bonus.
Booking Bonuses: 5,000 bonus points pending for booking reservations using bonus points links on Hyatt Gold Passport website. (Grand Hyatt San Francisco 2,000 points/stay; Hyatt Regency San Francisco 1,000 points x 2 stays; Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport 1,000 points/stay).
Hyatt Platinum Extras awards are earned for every third stay. I have received two Platinum Extras awards to date and I redeemed these for 1,000 bonus points each. Platinum Extras Award already posted to my account for Stays 3 and 6. I anticipate receiving at least one more Platinum Extras award for Stay 9 that I can redeem for 1,500 points. I don’t know how Gold Passport will calculate the Platinum Extras awards for “Stays Count Doubleâ€. I may also receive a Platinum Extras award for Stay 12 (1,500 points), Stays 15 and 18 (2,000 points each), and Stays 21 and 24 (2,500 points).
I may receive as many as 15,500 points to my account through Platinum Extras awards.
Total Points Earned: 8,288 Hotel stay points, + 5,000 Gold Passport Hotel Bonus promotion points + 15,500 Platinum Extras award points (pending) = 28,788 points.
28,788 points are worth about $575 for the Gold Passport points at 2 cents/point base value when purchased.
I have already made a room reservation for the Hyatt Regency Phoenix for 8,000 points ($269 AAA rate was lowest available + 12.5% tax = $302) with an added value of $302 for a basic room. This value will increase if I receive some type of diamond membership amenity at the hotel. My award stay for the Hyatt Phoenix has a value of $302/8,000 points = 3.78 cents/point.
If I can use the other points for similar high value hotel stays, the potential value of the 28,788 points approaches $1,100.
Total points earning of about 29,000 points for my 13 Hyatt stays. Carefully selected redemption opportunities can make these 29,000 points worth around $1,000. And complimentary upgrades on future stays should quickly recoup my investment for Hyatt Gold Passport diamond status.
Loyalty Traveler knows and shows loyalty has privileges.
