I think that I have lost count on the number of buying, giving, sharing, or transferring hotel points to Dividend Miles promotions US Airways has already had this year. But, I don’t mind them at all as long as they make sense. Last week they announced the promotion of converting hotels points to Dividend Miles.
US Airways just sent out an email blast about this offer, and it is up on their website as well. There doesn’t seem to be any problems for buying the miles & signing up for the Points.com to get the bonuses even if you didn’t get the email. The offer is not targeted.
You can buy up to 50K Dividend miles at 3.5 cents + tax. The price of buying the 50K is $1881.25. You will receive the 75K miles immediate, and the 25K Points.com signing/linking bonus will post before June 5th, 2012. The price of the mile is lowly 1.88 cents. This offer is valid from March 15th to April 15th, 2012.
This is one of the better recent deals for buying US Airways Dividend Miles. You will get instant 50% bonus for buying the miles and another 50% later for signing up with the Points.com. All you need to do is to either sign up for the Points.com account or link your Dividend Miles account with the Points.com profile you have.
The Points.com has always managed the sale of US Airways Miles, although that is not always clearly presented. They provide this same service for number of other companies as well like Hyatt.
This offer is a great way to “purchase” international business and first class tickets by buying Dividend Miles.
Everything that went wrong with my Park Hyatt stay worked perfectly at this Waldorf-Astoria from check in to check out. No wonder why this is ranked as number 2 of all the hotels in Shanghai according to TripAdvisor. I made a reservation for same day arrival using free night certificate, and my reservation was almost instantaneously upgraded to a junior suite.
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Unfortunately I don’t have the usual number of photos of this property due to leaving my digital camera to a cab.
Location
The hotel is situated right on the bund. You can take the Maglev train from the airport, and then a metered taxi to hotel. Taxi to the airport should cost around 180 RMB. That’s what I paid when I took a cab from the nearby Fairmont Peace hotel to the airport two weeks prior. The fare from/to the Maglev station is around 40 RMB. Just be careful with the drives that they use the meter. I had a problem with the taxi driver that I took from the Maglev. The cab driver was trying to scam me.
Check In
The taxis dropped me off at the front of the hotel on the Bund side. There is a separate hotel entrance on the side street that I was not aware of. Anyway, there were two doormen that quickly radioed my name from the luggage tags to the front desk. This is really how it should work in five star hotels. By the time we got to the front desk, everything was ready and I was just escorted to the suite where the check in formalities i.e. scanning of the passport was done.
Junior Suite 2012
The suite was absolutely stunning. Even though it was called just a junior suite, it could have been as easily classified as an executive suite as well. In addition to the spacious bedroom there was a separate half sized room with a work desk as well.
The fruit display with cherries was the most impressive I have ever received at a Hilton property. In addition there was some hard candy on the other room and selection of desserts on the bedroom next to the television.
I was surprised to find Salvatore Ferragamo Tuscan Soul bathroom amenities.
Fitness Center / Pool
Fitness center had modern equipment, but was quite small considering the size of the hotel. Same for the pool. The workout facility was not busy when I was there.
Breakfast
The breakfast was very good that is complimentary for Diamond, and most likely for Gold members as well. You had a selection of items that you could order from the ala carte menu and rather extensive buffet.
Conclusion
This was really a very good Hilton family hotel. The service is typically not so great even at “better” hotels in China. My stay at the Waldorf-Astoria Shanghai on the Bund was as perfect as it could have been, however. Wouldn’t hesitate to return and most certainly will.
Last month, I wrote about airline parody videos about American Airlines that then American Airlines flight attendant Gailen David had done and posted on YouTube. These parody videos are mainly about American Airlines and its employee relations.
According to Gailen, he was just terminated today for publishing details about American Airlines passengers (AA executives that were bumping paying first class customers) and promoting competitors on his website (Google ads).
It is uncertain time for American Airlines that tries to reorganize under the Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.
The new Priority Club One Say sale is on again. These discounted rates are bookable until 11.59PM EST on 15th of March, 2012.
They have again 12 properties on the sale list that includes one InterContinental hotel as well. This Cleveland property is not really that expensive in the first place. You should always consider if it makes sense to use points even at a lowered rate.
The Crowne Plaza hotels in Okinawa and Curitiba are good value using points. Brazil especially has become very expensive country in the past few years. Indigo Liverpool at 12.5K and Holiday Inn Express Shanghai Pudong at 7.5K are not that shabby offers either.
Executive Platinum/Concierge Key members should have been “enjoying” this benefit of a free snack item + one alcoholic beverage since 2009. Flight attendants were previously given instructions to comp these items on their inflight service manual.
But only now American Airlines has actually published this benefit on their website. Having a beer or red wine helps surviving in AA’s coach before they complete the Main Cabin Extra roll out for roomier economy class product.
Back in January American Airlines announced that they were bringing back free beer and wine for select international routes in Economy.
UPDATE: Please note that some of these are actually based on STAYS rather than on NIGHTS. I will update this in the next few days to clarify which are based on STAYS and which are based on NIGHTS. There is NO rush to register as this one won’t start before April 1st, 2012.
IHG’s Priority Club just launched their stay/nights based bonus points promotion for the 2nd quarter of 2012. This offer is valid from April 1st until June 30th, 2012.
Normally Priority Club member is targeted to one of these based on their stay history, but that doesn’t prevent registering to one of the other offers if they decide to do so.
Please note that you can only register for ONE of these, and once you have registered you cannot change it.
Stay 3 get 5000 points Code 1385
Stay 4 get 5000 points Code 1386 Stay 7 get 10000 points Code 1387
Stay 8 get 10000 points Code 1388
Stay 10 get 10000 points Code 1389
Stay 12 get 10000 points Code 1390 Stay 15 get 15000 points Code 1391
Stay 18 get 15000 points Code 1392
Depending how many nights you expect to stay during the second quarter, you should choose 3, 7, or 15 nights version of this promotion.
Not sure why other airlines don’t have this same function on their website? On Emirates.com you can see your tier miles month by month for upcoming travel, and whether you would requalify for your current tier during the rolling tier period.
You can go back and forth to see how many tier miles you have earned in the past, and will earn in the future. It won’t, however, show how many redeemable miles you will earn from the flights.
This feature is very useful and would be beneficial if other airlines would implement it as well.
On January 3rd InterContinental Hotels Group’s Priority Club announced that some hotel categories were changing on January 18thresulting 25% going up, 20% going down, and the rest was staying the same.
Priority Club didn’t want to provide a list of hotels changing categories due to “competitive” reasons. Both Marriott and Starwood moved some hotels, but didn’t have a problem providing a list of properties. I manually went through all the InterContinental’s and made a list of the new points requirements compared to old ones.
At the same time Priority Club announced that they would honor the old redemptions levels until March 18th. You can book the hotel using the new points rate and call Priority Club to have them to give you goodwill points for the difference. These goodwill points will count towards your Priority Club Gold/Status.
I took advantage this couple of weeks ago when I was staying at a Holiday Inn Suva (Fij). Made the booking using Priority Club points and later called the customer service. Rep posted the 5000 points as a goodwill one.
UPDATE: If you signed up for the challenge after May 31st and successfully complete it, your Hyatt Gold Passport status will be valid until the end of February 2014.
Hyatt has a nice little program, and I have been a Diamond member since 2004. The program has grown significantly since 2004 mainly by Hyatt acquiring both Amerisuites, which were later converted to Hyatt Places, and Summerfield Suites, that became Hyatt Houses. Both of these acquisitions were a way for Hyatt to enter the limited service market i.e. Hilton’s Hampton Inn.
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How to get matched to Hyatt Diamond status?
Hyatt ended doing direct status matched back in 2010. Since then Hyatt has started to do challenges called Hyatt Diamond Trial. You can probably still get a direct match, but you need to do it through a hotels sales department, and it is probably quite a hassle.
Do you have any of the following statuses?
– Hilton Gold (you can get one easily using this or this) & Hilton Diamond
– SPG Platinum
– Marriott Gold & Platinum
– Priority Club Platinum
Hyatt may match others as well, but it could be worth printing your stay history that shows significant stay activity.
You will be awarded a Hyatt Gold Passport Diamond Trial, which is in fact a full-fledged Diamond status for 60 days. You will get all the Diamond level benefits during this 60 day period including the four Diamond Suite Awards that are valid up to 7 days each. You can use these to upgrade any paid stay (eligible rate) to a suite at a property that is not on the exclusion list, and has confirmable suite inventory available at the time of request. You need to do the request over the phone as the website is incapable of processing these.
Timing of the Diamond Trial
If you request your Diamond trial now and complete the required number of nights (12), your Hyatt Diamond status will be valid until February 2013. You need to complete the required 25 stays or 50 nights before end of this year to qualify for Diamond status all the way until 2014.
It might be better idea to start the Diamond challenge/trial in the second half of 2012. If nothing has changed, your status should then be valid until February 2014 after doing the required 12 nights in 60 days. Unfortunately I am not aware of the exact cut-off date for this.
Process of requesting the Diamond Challenge/Trial
Do you have a Hyatt Gold Passport account set up? If not it is probably best to set it up online first. Then you need to call (this would be my choice) or send an email request to the service center using the online web form.
You should then receive a following reply within 24 hours:
Thank you for contacting Hyatt Gold Passport Customer Service. I
appreciate the opportunity to assist you.
Regarding your inquiry, currently a Diamond Trial Offer is available.
You will receive trial Diamond membership for 60 days with proof of top
tier status with one of our competitors program. However, you must
complete 12 nights in 60 days to maintain Diamond tier through February
of 2013. You will also receive 1000 bonus points on your first six
eligible nights within 60 days, up to a maximum of 6000 bonus points.
Please note this offer can only be made one time and can not be extended
beyond the 60 day period.
Please note the list of competitors that Hyatt Gold Passport will match:
Hilton Gold VIP or Hilton Diamond VIP
Marriott Gold or Marriott Platinum
Starwood Platinum Preferred Guest
Priority Club Platinum
Please email or mail a statement of your account activity with a
competitor to us for processing at:
I appreciate your support of Hyatt and the Gold Passport program. Please
let me know if I may assist you further.
Sincerely,
XX XX
Hyatt Gold Passport Customer Service
You can mail the requested documents to the above mentioned address or email them to goldpassport@hyatt.com.
They should process the documents within 24 hours and you can then immediately see the updated status by logging in to your Hyatt Gold Passport account.
Note that theoretically this is only once in a lifetime (or program account). You should probably do it if you plan on staying with Hyatt to experience the Hyatt Diamond treatment. As a bonus you will also receive 1000 bonus Gold Passport points for first six of your eligible night during this period.
US Airways has been very predictable of running continuous promotions for buying, gifting, transferring, or converting, money or points to Dividend miles. Their latest offer is 50% bonus for points conversions from number of hotel programs. US Airways run identical offer last year.
Please note that according to the Terms and conditions you can only earn the conversion bonus ONCE.
The beauty of Dividend miles program are the rather generous routing rules, competitive award chart, ability to earn and burn on all Star Alliance carriers and then some, and these continuous offers from Dividend miles.
Essentially, US Airways is selling miles at a reasonable rate that enables the travelers like you and me to experience international business and first class at a fraction of the cost.
But, as always when you are dealing with award space, you need to be flexible and often book either well in advance or at a very last minute. I tend to typically do the latter. When airlines realize that they have unsold business and first class inventory, they often dump it to the award inventory few days before.
There are some drawbacks with US Airways Dividend miles as well. You will end up paying some fees unless you are top tier on their program. There is a booking fee (up to $50) as these cannot be booked on the web, and a quick ticketing fee ($75) if you book less than 21 days in advance. There are no fuel surcharges, however. The US Airways may not be the most stable of the airlines, and there has been some chatter lately of some changes to come. I would do a transfer or buy miles without hesitation, if I know how I would spend them in the next 6 to 12 months.
Look at the conversion partners
The conversion partners this time are Best Western, Choice Privileges, Club Carlson, Hilton HHonors, Hyatt Gold Passport, Marriott Rewards, Priority Club, Starwood Preferred Guest, Wyndham Rewards, and La Quinta.
I am only concentrating on Club Carlson, Hyatt Gold Passport, Marriott Rewards, and Starwood Preferred Guest conversion possibilities. I don’t believe that the other options provide too much value unless you just need to top off your Dividend Miles account for small number of miles.
Club Carlson
This is very straightforward offer. 100K Club Carlson points would transfer with the 50% conversion bonus to 27K Dividend Miles.
Hyatt Gold Passport
I don’t think that this is a good use of Hyatt Gold Passport points, but this is the last opportunity to transfer them to US Airways and earn the conversion bonus. You cannot earn Dividend Miles or transfer Gold Passport points to Dividend Miles after March 15th, 2012. Hyatt announced their discontinuance of this and some other airline partnerships on February 23rd.
50K Hyatt Gold Passport points would become 37.5K Dividend Miles after Hyatt’s and US Airways’ conversion bonuses. It is actually not that shabby at all.
Marriott Rewards
I transferred close to a million Marriott Rewards points when AA was running somewhat similar conversion bonus before their partnership with Marriott Rewards ended. It was the major push to take me over 2 million lifetime miles in AA’s program and granting me a lifetime AA Platinum status.
The key here is to use Marriott Rewards points for travel packages that have a miles component as well. You can get a seven night award category 1 to 5 Marriott Rewards property and 120K (180K with conversion bonus) US Airways Dividend Miles for 270K Marriott Rewards points. This is what I did few years ago with AA. The hotel part of this is valid for a year. I was, however, able to extend them by an additional year, but it is no longer possible. There aren’t that many interesting cat 1 to 5 in North America, but there are quite a few in Asia.
Starwood Preferred Guest
This is my favorite hotel program when it comes to transferring points to partners. Starwood has a nice list of partner airlines where you can dump points when needed.
For every 20K Starpoints you transfer, you will receive a 5K miles bonus from Starwood. With the US conversion bonus 20K Starpoints becomes 37.5K Dividend Miles. Note that you can transfer only 60K Starpoints per day to US Airways if you want to maximize the bonuses. This would be 112.5K Dividend Miles.
Here are the Terms and Conditions of this offer that can also be found here.
Eligibility: Offer void where prohibited by law. No registration required. Only miles converted with an activity (‘eligible activity date’) date between March 11, 2012 and March 31, 2012 will earn a bonus. Earning bonus miles: Bonus miles are in addition to Dividend Miles awarded by hotel partners for points conversions. Only hotel points that are converted into Dividend Miles from March 11, 2012 – March 31, 2012 are eligible. Hotel bonus miles do not count towards Preferred status. Bonus miles will post 6-8 weeks from date of the eligible activity date. Dividend Miles members will earn only one bonus when they transfer hotel points into Dividend Miles during the promotion. Dividend Miles members will earn a 50% bonus. Eligible activity date: Eligible activity date is based on the date the qualifying partner records the mileage transaction, and not necessarily the date on which the transaction occurred. US Airways assumes no responsibility for how qualifying partners record activity dates. Check with the applicable partner to confirm policies and procedures for recording activity dates. The last date that activity from a qualifying partner can be received by US Airways for bonus miles consideration is April 10, 2012, regardless of the eligible activity date for such activity. General terms: All US Airways Dividend Miles terms and conditions apply. You may opt out of US Airways emails at any time. US Airways is not responsible for the quality or delivery of goods and/or services provided by Dividend Miles partners. All Dividend Miles partner terms and conditions apply. Partner offers are subject to change without notice. Hotel transfers (points to miles conversions) are subject to terms and conditions as stipulated in your agreement with your hotel program.
Hyatt, Marriott and now also Starwood has realized that giving out a lifetime status after meeting some pretty tough revenue, number of nights, and number of years in the program could be an important part to make members stick with the chain long term.
I have already independently written about Hyatt, Marriott and Starwood requirements. Currently neither InterContinental Hotels Group (Priority Club/Ambassador) nor Hilton offer a lifetime incentive for their members.
My preference in easiness of achieving the top tier lifetime status in these three programs is as following:
1. Starwood Lifetime Platinum
Requires only 500 nights (now all nights count including cash & points/award) + 10 years of Platinum membership
This is in my opinion the easiest. The night requirement is not onerous. The only “real” requirement is the fact that you need to have Platinum status for 10 years. These years do not need to be continuous, but other years do not count for lifetime Platinum.
2. Marriott Lifetime Platinum
Requires 2 million points, 1000 nights & 12 years as a Marriott Rewards member.
The biggest hurdle is the number of night’s requirement, although all the nights count including the ones from credit card + possible meeting ones.
The 2 million point’s requirement might sound high, but in reality it is not considering how many points you will earn from the stays including all the status based bonuses, Megabonus promotions, and points from the credit card spend.
You need to have been at least ones a Platinum member during your membership of the program.
3. Hyatt Lifetime Diamond
This can be the easiest or hardest depending how much you spend. The requirement is one million base points. These are NOT the lifetime points that you can see in your account, but only points that are from eligible revenue before any additional bonuses. It translates to $200K in Hyatt spend that is credited towards Hyatt points. If you have credited some of the stays to airline miles, none of those count for this lifetime status.
The only other requirement is the requirement of having been a Gold Passport member for 10 years. There is no need to ever have a status with Hyatt.
One of the benefits of being a Royal Ambassador with InterContinental is the complimentary minibar beverages (including the alcohol) on paid stays. The minibar should be refreshed daily.
Most of the InterContinental hotels do adhere to this, and give out complimentary snacks as well, although this is not required by the program. Some properties even extend this benefit to award stays, although again not required.
Then there are some InterContinental hotels like the one here in Kuala Lumpur that specially “prepares” the Royal Ambassador’s minibar prior to arrival.
Can you spot the differences between these two?
Regular Minibar at the InterContinental Kuala Lumpur
Royal Ambassador Minibar at the InterContinental Kuala Lumpur
White and red wine both gone and replaced by two generic water bottles. Also the Ferrero Rocher chocolates gone. Half of the beers and some soft drinks gone. No energy drink and some fruit juices either. They do this minibar clean up quite cleverly. They remove the price list so that a Royal Ambassador guest cannot be sure what should be included.
Last night, I actually asked one of the ladies who were working in the lounge if they do this for all Royal Ambassador. She was borderline embarrassed to say that they do. What really surprised me is the fact that the minibar here never included any hard liquor. Only some red and white wine in small bottles that cannot be that expensive.
InterContinental Bangkok used to clear their minibar from hard liquor, but they had 2 deciliter bottles not the usual tiny minis. They did stop this practice, however. I hope that InterContinental Kuala Lumpur would star adhering to the Royal Ambassador benefits. Maybe this has something to do with converting this hotel from Nikko to InterContinental brand.
It is always sad when a one of supposedly the best Park Hyatt locations let you down service wise. This is just what happened at the Park Hyatt Shanghai. The hardware is excellent, but the service is very inconsistent and sometime borderline terrible.
Yes. I know. This is China and you shouldn’t expect the same level of service as from hotels in other parts of Asia and in Europe. I have heard that line so many times from my friends. Also, the hoteliers always complain how difficult it is for them to employ competent staff. But, I am not buying any of that. You train the staff or hire competent ones, and pay and treat them well enough, so that they stay. Shouldn’t be more complicated than that.
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Unfortunately I don’t have the usual number of photos, but I happened to leave my camera to a taxi on my way back to the airport in Shanghai before I had uploaded them.
Location
Depending where you need to be in Shanghai the location may or may not work for you. I know that I probably should use the underground, but the taxis are generally so cheap, unless they try to scam you, that it is really the transportation that I tend to use in Shanghai.
From the airport I took the Maglev train to the station near to the city. Then I took a taxi from there, that turned out to be a scam one, but luckily I knew how much the meter should be from the station to the hotel, and paid based on that, and not what was shown on the meter.
Check in
This is where everything started to ravel. I had an early morning flight in from Apia via Auckland. I had informed the hotel about my early arrival. If it hadn’t suited them, I would have just booked an InterContinental hotel where I have guaranteed 8AM check in as a Royal Ambassador member.
When I arrived the taxi parked on the side of the road. He “missed” the entrance on purpose. Anyway, I wasn’t traveling too heavily so I just walked towards the entrance with my black 22 roller board and computer bag.
I was waving trying to get the bell boys attention so that they could take my bag and escort me to the lobby. It took a while before I was able to get one, and he only took me to the elevator and left my bag there.
So, I was rolling with my bag from the entrance elevators to the front desk. The first question was if I was checking out. Why would I be checking out when I am coming from the elevators that don’t have quest room access with my carry on bags? I promptly replied that I would like to know where the Diamond check in area at this hotel is. Other lady just said that the check in time is at 2PM.
This was absolutely ridiculous and no hotel should operate like this. I had arranged an early check in and they didn’t even bother typing my name to their reservation system to see my reservation. At this point, I politely asked them to get a manager on duty to help me and went to sit down on the chairs by the windows.
The front desk manager was polite and noted that I had come a bit earlier than what was indicated. Yeas, I was. The flight landed early, didn’t have to wait for the Maglev train, and just took a taxi from the station to the hotel. I just told him that if this early check in is a problem I don’t mind just booking another hotel and they can just cancel the reservation I had at the Park Hyatt.
The manager went on his way while I was doing some emails. He came back shortly telling that the room was ready.
Room 8411
This was a very beautiful corner room that almost felt like a junior or studio suite. Per Hyatt Gold Passport Diamond upgrade benefits hotels are not required to upgrade Diamond members beyond best available room. I believe that this was probably very close to the best, although it was only on the 84th floor. BTW I don’t think that the floor itself makes a huge difference because due to the weather you can hardly see anything besides some smog/cloud on this level. The view could actually be better on much lower floors.
Fitness Center / Pool
Here my service problems continued. Came to the right floor and asked where the fitness center was. The guy directed me to the fitness center, but he should have realized that I need to go and change to the gym attire first as I was carrying shoes and work gear. I just walked back to the “reception” and asked where the lockers are. They were entirely the other way.
The fitness center was nice as one should expect from a Park Hyatt. I was the alone for an hours. That’s good.
On my way to the locker rooms I decided to take a picture of the pool using my cell phone. The same guy came and said that one shouldn’t take photos here. There was nobody in the entire area so there was no excuse for this no photos nonsense.
Breakfast
Breakfast was one of the better ones in the Hyatt chain. I ordered eggs benedict with smoked salmon sauce on the side from the menu. It came almost as I had ordered it.
The breakfast selection was nice, but the service at times bit too much. I was up rather early so there was way too many servers compared to guests. I like good service but not when five people are looking at me when I am eating.
Concierge
Again a problem spot. I needed to buy a new SIM card as the previous one that I had for China was purchased in Lhasa, and it would be better to have a “local” one. The concierge couldn’t really understand a word that I was saying. I was able to get a hold off of a western associate that was able to explain my request to the concierge. I then had an employee escorting me to the China Mobile office nearby and get me a local SIM card for data access that I needed. But this whole process was way too complicated.
Diamond Amenity & Welcome Letter
Not sure what is the standard Diamond amenity at this Park Hyatt. All that I got was five pearls. No welcome letter.
Early Arrival Continental Breakfast
As the hotel had noted my early arrival, I had nice selection of pastries and orange juice waiting for me when I finally got to my room. This was very nice touch.
After Stay Satisfaction Survey
You do get these quite often after staying at international properties. I gave them less than stellar score due to the numerous problems I had. I also noted the problems in the written in sections of the survey.
I was really surprised that the following day I received an email from the property. No. It actually came from the survey company and the reply to-address had been changed to some executive assistant at the property. The content of the email was partly mail merged from the comments that I had left.
If they had had look at the record of my stay, they would have quickly noticed the problems that I had and what I had reported. I find this kind of “automatic” responses very amateurish for supposedly one of the flagship Hyatt property.
Conclusion
It is a very nice property hardware wise, but you need to lower your service expectations to the same or lower level than your average domestic US Hyatt.
Hyatt decided to finally update the locations where Diamond Suite Awards are not valid. It had already been known for months that the exclusion list they had up on the website was no longer valid. There might be still properties that officially participate, but where you cannot find a single date for confirmable upgrades.
The following properties supposedly don’t have any standard suites where you could use Diamond Suite upgrades:
Hyatt Regency Kyoto
Not sure what is so special about this Regency Suite that would make it non-standard for Diamond Suite upgrades?
Hyatt Regency Paris-Madeleine
This 60 square meter Regency Suite sounds a lot like a really regular suite to me, but apparently it is not.
Park Hyatt Beaver Creek Resort
Again, this location seems to have quite a few different suite types available. Why this fireside one wouldn’t qualify as a standard one?
Park Hyatt Maldives
I really believe this one as I have been there. They don’t have suites. They have Over Water Villas, Pool Villas, or Regular Villas.
Park Hyatt Sydney
Not sure what is going here. The lowest suite is actually smaller than their Opera or City Deluxe, but it is still not considered a “standard” suite.
Hyatt Santa Barbara
Fair they don’t have suites. I have stayed there few times and it is a nice hotel.
Key West Resort and Spa
This is a small property that doesn’t have suites. I have stayed there once.
Hyatt Regency Wichita
This property has suites, but apparently not many. Wondering what is so special about this Bluestem suite that it couldn’t be categorized as a standard suite for suite redemption purposes?
Hyatt Regency Tulsa
Apparently no suites here.
Conclusion
Apparently four of the nine non-participating properties don’t have suites. The other six that supposedly don’t have any standard suites, do have suites that one could think by reading the suite description to be a standard ones
Hyatt must have had hard time getting some of the better properties to sign up for this suite upgrade thing. They either don’t compensate properties or compensate very little for usage of these suite awards.
Apparently the Park Hyatt Chicago is not available using these Diamond Suite Awards per several Hyatt Private Line agents, although Hyatt has not added that property to the list (yet).
