UR Points Not = 1.5 Cents For Me. How to Maximize Travel?

Yes. Haha sorry for the helpful answer.

Like Hilton and Marriot they have low middle and upper tier. Start at 5K pts/not and go up to $1000+ for some of the park Hyatt’s.
They’ve always seemed expensive to me since it’s much easier to get status at Hilton and I usually stay at low/mid (Hilton, some DoubleTree, or Hilton Garden In). I stayed in one nice one several years ago through a priceline bid, but I don’t think that property does those for last several years. (Was ~$130 at Hyatt Grand Cypress Orlando). I try never to pay over around $100 a night in rewards or cash minus earned rewards, and there’s very few Hyatt I have seen for 5K pts/nt. And id get a fare breakfast at the HGI, better than the “free for everyone” breakfasts at the low brands. Amex will pay you to give you Hilton’s top status. I am unaware of a similar option for Hyatt.

A plus for Hyatt vs Hilton is that Hilton has vastly devalued their points redemption options to eliminate any possibility of finding “better value” and now it is rare for a hotel to have “normal” points cost when the rate is a peak rate (like special events). Meanwhile, the Hyatt’s seem to stay at their same point cost – so it might be 5K points or $300/nt at a Hyatt. Whereas a Hilton property that usually tops out at 20K points (~$100 value) will disable regular point redemptions and it’s 80k+ points ($400 worth of points) a night when the room rate is temporarily $300.

I have Hilton Diamond and Marriott Platinum status. Nothing with Hyatt. I’d feel bad spending a night there as a regular person. :rofl:

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I don’t really care about the status (means almost nothing). But the $$ benefits that go with it.

I’m actually not that familiar with hyatt’s program so I dunno if it has a real $$ value to me anyways, though. With Hilton it actually has value (the breakfasts at the properties that don’t have free breakfast, extra points earning, and rarely upgrades).

Do a status match

I’d take other people’s valuations of redemptions with a grain of salt.

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Feel free to stay at a Hyatt Place. All the rooms are the same and breakfast is already included. :slight_smile:

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My problem with the high UR valuation for Hyatt hotels (2-3cpp) is that it compares the prices at overpriced properties I would not book anyway to the number of points needed for it.

My own personal benchmark is what would I pay for an hotel night in an equivalent hotel via other search sites? Say I have 10000 pts, if that gets me into a $250/night Hyatt, it’s tempting to give that redemption a 2.5cpp valuation. But if I can stay at a similar (class+rating+amenities) hotel in town for $130, then the valuation is not quite the same.

So instead, I treat valuation on a case by case basis. Since we fly SW reasonably often, transfer to SW + WGA rates about give me the baseline of 1.5-1.6cpp. If I can find an hotel night through Hyatt that’s above that valuation (considering all equivalent hotels in the same location), then I go for it but it’s hard to put an accurate valuation on UR points since it depends on so many other factors.

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I thought those at Hyatt Place are like Hampton Inn economy gas-station breakfast, not comparable to a free-with-status Hilton Garden Inn breakfast? (Or at some 2Tree/Hilton but those vary widely in quality by property) Please correct if my assumption is wrong. HGI has a buffet plus omelettes/ pancakes/eggs cook to order. Hiltons often allow Diamonds to optionally eat in main restaurant, while some others have lounges lower quality than Hampton that they force Diamond to use for breakfast while weirdly allowing Gold the choice of lounge or restaurant.

Yeah. HGI has a better breakfast since it’s not included for all guests. You get it as a Diamond as your welcome amenity instead of the points.

I tend to prefer HGI instead of regular Hiltons for that reason, and they tend to be fairly new, especially outside the US.

There’s a fairly wide variation in what you get for breakfast at these places. I’d check for recent data points on flyertalk about the individual property if it’s important to you.