For our two nights in Osaka, we stayed at the Hyatt Regency. I had ended up booking this hotel without paying too much attention to its location, ultimately selecting it on the basis of a good cash and points rate being available, over the Sheraton. The hotel is a bit out of the way, on the western edge of the city. There is a shuttle service to Osaka Station, but it ends relatively early.

Breakfast was at the hotel restaurant:

In the evenings, a selection of snacks and cocktails were available in a sectioned off part of the lobby.

In early 2013, I had signed up for the Chase Hyatt Visa card on the eve of losing Hyatt Diamond status. As a result, I had two free suite award nights for any Hyatt worldwide.  While I had managed to use one night in October at the Park Hyatt Milan, I still had a night expiring in mid-January.

To make the best of it, I decided to use it at the Park Hyatt Zürich.

Upon check-in, the clerk escorted me to my suite and showed me around.

For my three nights in Hong Kong, I stayed at the Hyatt Regency Tsim Sha Tsui.  The hotel occupies part of a mixed-use building in Kowloon, shared with a mall on the ground floor and residences on the higher floors.

Room rates were hovering a bit north of 250USD/nt, so I decided to redeem 15k points/nt for my stay.  This was done as very practical booking, rather than an aspirational one.  Further, category 4 standard rooms were untouched in the great Hyatt devaluation.

The graylish slab to the right of the bed is a sliding door that exposes a window to the bathroom sink.

Just prior to my Hyatt Diamond status expiring in early 2013, I signed up for the Hyatt Visa card and completed my minimum spending, yielding me two suite award nights at any* Hyatt worldwide.  As part of my visit in Milan, I decided to use one night to stay at the Park Hyatt Milan.  At the time I booked, the retail price of a suite was about 810 Euros per night.

The Park Hyatt places floor plans of its suites online for convenient reference.

While hotel check-in was at 4PM, I arrived at about 1PM to see if any rooms were available.  The front desk clerk took down my information and, after being a bit confused by my Irish cell phone number (“There aren’t any more digits?”), sent me on my way.  I took to wandering around the Duomo and its nearby plaza.  He called me back about 30 minutes later, informing me that my room was available and I should return to the hotel.

For those reading the Hyatt brochure at home, I would have certainly liked to have received an Imperial Suite, in all 2745 square feet of glory, but I doubt these awards are given much consideration for upgrades.

My room overlooked a very quiet side street.  Just under the archway lies the Piazza del Duomo.

At some point while I was exploring Milan, the hotel staff stopped by to drop off a bottle of wine, bottled water, some dried peppers, and a handwritten note in my room.  (Scroll up to the earlier picture of the table…  I’ll wait.)

The Park Hyatt Milan is exceptionally centrally located.  Unfortunately, this hotel was one of the six Park Hyatts to be elevated into Hyatt’s new formed Category 7 hotels in January 2014, so a single night in a standard room is now 30k points and a single night in a suite is 48k.  While I can point to the retail price to convince myself how good of a “value” I would receive for redeeming points at this property, it’s hard to justify when there are reasonable–albeit not quite as nice–alternatives nearby.

* While this offer was on-going, the Park Hyatt Sydney was restricted to standard rooms, rather than suites, for credit card night redemptions.

As part of Hyatt’s January 7th devaluation, they announced that awards booked prior to that date would be eligible for changes using the old award chart until February 15th.

The 15th is almost here, so it’s time to make some last tweaks before those bookings are set in stone.

I had a visit to San Francisco where I chose to stay at the Hyatt Regency SFO.  It’s a short walk from the Burlingame Caltrain station.  While it only sees weekend service, this was fine for my purposes.

As I wanted to check-in early in the morning, my room had a view of the 101 expressway.

For Memorial Day weekend, I decided to go to Seattle (with a small dash of Canada added in as well).  For our three nights in Seattle, we stayed at the Hyatt at Olive 8.

I had booked this reservation speculatively before my Hyatt Diamond status ran out at the end of February 2013.  While my status dropped away for purposes of enjoying a free breakfast that View from the Wing raves about, it seems to have lead to a considerable upgrade to a 740 square foot Premier Queen room.

Just so we’re clear, allow me to repeat: 740 square feet.  Larger than my New York apartment.

To the right of the hallway, there’s an entrance foyer as well.

Hyatt’s changing its award chart effective January 7th (tomorrow!), bumping up the prices for Category 5 and 6 hotels slightly and introducing a new Category 7 for several of its Park Hyatt hotels.

Today is the last day to book at the old rates.

In the tradition of this blog, it’s time to summarize where I went and how I got there. I flew about 228k miles in 2013, approximately 202k of which were revenue miles. Across my revenue and award travel, all but 73k miles were in premium cabins.  This is a worse ratio (32.1%) than 2012 (22.2%).

Overall, my travel for 2013 involved four trips to Europe, three trips to Hawaii, and one trip to Asia.

I had several redemptions:

• I traveled to Zurich and Munich for Easter.
• I toured Europe over Christmas and New Years Eve.  (Hopefully, a trip report will be forthcoming.)
• I had 9 SPG award nights on the Hawaiian Islands (Maui, Oahu, and Kauai).
• My two Hyatt Suite Night Awards were redeemed at the Park Hyatt Milan and Park Hyatt Zurich, for one night each.
• I finally made a dent in my Club Carlson balance and benefited from free bonus nights at the Radisson Blu Palais Vienna, Park Inn Berlin, and the May Fair London.

I earned points and miles from a variety of sources.

• On United, I finished the year with about 102k EQM or about 208k redeemable miles by flying (or United purchases on my United credit card). I retained United 1K for what will likely be the last time.  Based on my United spending, I would have managed to earn Premier Silver (according to the 2014 PQD requirements).
• On American, I finished the year with 101k EQM. Thanks to a few Choice Fares, I picked up 215k redeemable miles. I retained American Executive Platinum.
• With SPG, I earned 52k points from hotel stays.  Somehow, I managed to hit an obscene number of stays and nights with SPG this year:  34 stays, 54 nights (inclusive of credit card bonus nights).
• With Hyatt, I earned a meager 17k points from hotel stays (13 stays, 15 nights).
• I earned about 38k Avios from paying my rent with my British Airways credit card.
• From signup bonuses, I had two suite nights from Hyatt and approximately 100k Club Carlson points.

In terms of total spending, airfare crept up from 4.42cpm to approximately 5.22cpm.  Hotel spending jumped considerably, as I wound up staying in hotels for 61 stays and 83 nights this year (to be contrasted with 54 nights last year).  Average costs per night remained nearly constant.  Rental car spending dipped ever slightly.

As far as my predictions my own travel in 2014 go:

• I expect to see far more award travel compared to previous years.  2011 had approximately 10k, 2012 had 31k, and 2013 had 26k.  I already have 23k miles of award travel for 2014, with more to come as I lock in trips before the Great United Devaluation at the end of January and US Airways’ Exit from Star Alliance.
• If I maintain a decent level of revenue travel, I expect to requalify for American Executive Platinum and United Premier Platinum (via the credit card spending threshold) in 2014.
• 2014 will likely have far fewer hotel nights and I will not be aiming for SPG Platinum 50 in any way.  This year, a confluence of several long hotel stays and American Express stay/night credits quickly pushed me from qualifying on 25 stays to hitting the 50 night mark.
• I expect to earn far more points from credit card spending than I have in the past.

Right on the heels of United’s massive award chart devaluation (and Delta’s “interim” award chart enhancements), Hyatt announced that it’s updating its award chart effective January 7th, 2014.  The full summary is on their website.

First, rooms are getting more expensive:

New Award Chart – Effective January 7, 2014:

Second, as noted on the above award chart, Hyatt is creating a new Category 7, which will be occupied by the Park Hyatt Beaver Creek, Milan, Paris, Vendrome, Sydney, Tokyo, and Zurich.  Some hotels are going down in category, but under the new award chart, will still cost more points per night than they did in the past.

Third, Hyatt’s points-based upgrades on paid stays is now switching to a per-night fee rather than a fee good for 4 nights (as advertised on View from the Wing).

Hyatt’s More Possibilites promotion is now open for registration.

• Every three nights earns 3k Gold Passport points.
• Hyatt Visa holders earn an additional 600 points per 3 nights (a 20% bonus).

It’s not the most exciting promotion, but it’s a slightly stronger rebate than Starwood’s current promotion (2k points per 4 nights).

Until a few months ago, I would always religiously use hotel websites to book my stays, occasionally stopping by Expedia for quick comparison shopping.  In September, my glance at Expedia turned up a better rate for the Sheraton Kauai Resort than the rate I had already booked, so I did a Best Rate Guarantee with Starwood.

I now religiously check Kayak first, then weigh my options.  For instance, I’m going to Washington D.C. this weekend and need a hotel room for Saturday night.  If I venture over to Hyatt’s website, they have decent rates for some properties in the city center.

The Grand Hyatt usually hovers at a higher rate and I’ve certainly paid more for the Hyatt Regency in the past.  Ordinarily, this would be a great time to go book, but a detour to Kayak is in order.  For those with a particular brand affinity, whether due to status or personal preference, it’s a convienent search.

“$86 difference across 13 sites” sounds appealing.  Hyatt has a fairly straightforward best rate guarantee:  Call with a competing rate and if they validate it, they’ll beat it by 20%.

Starwood offers a choice of 2k points (as I did at LAX) or a 10% discount off the better rate (as I did in Kauai).  While calling is inconvieient, it does provide more immediate feedback (and reduces the likelihood that rates shift before they examine the claim).

In the tradition of last year, it’s time to summarize where I went and how I got there.  I flew about 217k miles in 2012, approximately 186k of which were revenue miles.  Across my revenue and award travel, all but 49k miles were in premium cabins.

I had several redemptions:

• The tail-end of my trip to Australia and New Zealand occurred in 2012.
• I indulged in booking business class awards for redeye flights from the US West Coast rather than paying hundreds of dollars for coach.
• I flew to Asia via Europe in business class for 50k Amex MR points.
• I stayed in a variety of Starwood hotels as outright awards or with cash and points.

I earned points and miles from a variety of sources.

• On United, I finished the year with about 115k EQM or about 230k redeemable miles by flying.  I retained United 1K.
• On American, I finished the year with 124k EQM.  Thanks to a number of promotions, I picked up 280k redeemable miles.  I retained American Executive Platinum.
• With SPG, I earned 40k points from hotel stays (17 stays/21 nights) and credit card spending.  I retained Gold and missed Platinium.
• With Hyatt, I earned 30k points from hotel stays (12 stays/13 nights).  I failed to retain Diamond.
• By paying my rent with my credit card, I completed my spending requirements for the 100k British Airways credit card offer, earning an additional 25k points in the process.
• I picked up 40k US Airways Dividend Miles with the US Airways Mastercard.

My total spend on flights occurring in 2012 (inclusive of OneWorldMegaDo) was $8231.15 (down from last year’s $8798.76), offset further by a gain of $1.1k in unspent United travel vouchers.  I spent $4532.77 (up from last year’s $2703.62) on hotels (41 stays and 54 nights) and $2144.72 (up from last year’s $1727.10) on rental cars (inclusive of insurance, but not gasoline, for 25 rentals, 46 rental days).

As part of my short trip to Washington, my second stay was at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City.

For my trip to Washington D.C. last month, I took to hotel hopping, both to get the best prices and to maximize my stay amenities. As I had taken a late evening train down from New York, I arrived at the hotel just after midnight. Interestingly, the front desk commented that I was the last Diamond to arrive for the evening, but even with a number of rooms available for sale online, this didn’t translate into an upgraded room.

The layout of the hotel left something to be desired.  In the morning, I ventured out of my room in search of the Regency Club to have breakfast.  From the elevator bank that I took to my room in the evening, the top two floors were marked but inaccessible.  As I was wandering around, I found a housekeeper, whose only suggestion for where the lounge might be directed me to the exercise center on a different floor.  Only after discovering a second elevator bank with access to the top floors was I able to get to the Regency Club just before breakfast ended.

For my trip to Hawaii this past Labor Day weekend, I flew to Kauai by my now traditional route: Honolulu.   While the Sheraton Princess Kaiulani looked “good” at $189/nt plus resort fees for a flexible rate compared to other hotels, the Hyatt Place Waikiki dropped its nightly rates to $139/nt with no resort fee three days before my departure.  As the hotel was limited to valet parking, I parked at the Ewa Hotel Waikiki next door.

The open-air lobby is the first I’ve seen at a Hyatt Place.

As a Hyatt Diamond member, my basic city view room was upgraded to a high floor, partial ocean view room.  Considering the location of the hotel relative to other buildings, I doubt there was much room for improvement.

Breakfast was served at a covered buffet.  The open seating area lent itself, however, to attracting a variety of birds looking for handouts, the signs discouraging feeding the birds notwithstanding.

Overall, I was quite pleased with my stay, but it seems rare that the nightly rate of the Hyatt Place falls below the other Starwood properties in the area, particularly when cash and points rates are considered.

For my stay in Manila, I chose the Hyatt Manila and used one of my Diamond member suite upgrades to confirm a better room for myself.  I received a Regency Suite King room.  At 74 square meters (per their website description), the suite was bigger than my Manhattan studio.

The bedroom:

The room had excellent views of the city from the 26th floor.

One Mile at a Time mentions that Hyatt is offering a 90-day trial of its mid-tier Platinum status for Visa Signature card holders.  Notably, Platinum status comes with free internet access when staying at Hyatts.

As a result of some plans to take the Amtrak Coast Starlight from San Jose to Los Angeles not going quite to plan (I would have only had a few hours in Los Angeles to sleep before catching a plane back up to SFO so I could pick up my existing flight back to New York), I had a prepaid reservation at the Hyatt Regency Santa Clara to make use of.

Interestingly, it was cheaper to stay at this Hyatt Regency, a “full service” Hyatt location, over a few nearby Hyatt House and Hyatt Place locations.  As a current Hyatt Diamond member, this translates into a 1k point amenity (instead of 500).  Further, as this location’s lounge is closed on weekends, I picked up a further 2.5k point bonus, bringing my total for the stay to about 4k points for $80 before considering the ongoing Hyatt promotion.

For perspective, a category 1 award night (in a standard, non-suite room) runs 5k points.

For our third night, OWMD stayed at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza.

Earlier in the day while we were at the Museum of Flight, I had noticed suite availability and attempted to confirm an upgrade.  I was told to call back later, and so I did… on the bus to the hotel from LAX.  At check-in, I was given a Century Suite.  At 700 square feet, it’s larger than my Manhattan studio.

Having had a few hours to kill between breakfast and my timeslot to visit the Flagship Check-in area at LAX, I chose to take the tour of the hotel they offered.

For our second night, oneworld MegaDo stayed at the Hyatt Regency Bellevue.  Shortly before the festivities started, I managed to confirm a suite upgrade using one of my four soon-to-be-expiring certificates that I received with my Hyatt Diamond status during StarMegaDo3.  I received a small, but comfortable one bedroom corner suite.

oneworld MegaDo started off in Dallas, where we stayed at the Hyatt Regency.  Having taken an early flight in on US Airways, I was glad that they were able to find me a room.

The weather made for a very bleak day at DFW.

While the type of crowd that the MegaDos attracts tends to be more focused on points than food amenities, the Hyatt delivered an apple, pear, and bottle of water as the diamond amenity.

Prior to receiving the “Crazy Water” information card, I hadn’t appreciated the number of types of water that I could have.

I traveled just over 144k miles this year, approximately 125k of which were revenue flights:

I wound up with four redemptions:

• 2 nights at the Westin Ka’anapali Ocean Resort Villas as part of Starwood’s Free Resort Nights promotion.
• 1 upgrade from coach to p.s. business class on a redeye (20k UA miles)
• New York to Sydney to Auckland to Los Angeles to New York in business class from Aeroplan (76k Amex Membership Reward points)
• A trip to Asia (via Europe) in business class for early 2012 from Aeroplan (50k Amex Membership Reward points)

I earned miles and points from a number of sources:

• United/Continental had 102.5k EQM (mostly from flying, a bit from UA spending) or about 205k redeemable miles from flying.  I earned the 50k signup bonus on both the United Mileage Plus Select Visa Signature card and the Continental One Pass Plus card.  I picked up another 25k Mileage Plus miles from rental cars (until the end of August, 1k per rental from Hertz) and spending on my credit cards.
• American had about 35k EQM from flying (or 70k redeemable miles).
• US Airways Grand Slam yielded about 119k redeemable miles for about $400 in marginal spend.
• I earned 30k SPG points from the Starwood Amex signup bonus (for $4.5k in spending over 3 months).  I picked up another 12k SPG points from 10 revenue stays (including Foursquare/Facebook check-in bonuses) and credit card spending.
• I earned 55k Club Carlson points (50k bonus, 5k for the stay itself) for staying in a US Radisson Hotel by New Years.
• I earned 75k Membership Reward points for the Amex Premier Rewards Gold card and 50k for the Amex Platinum card for $1k in spending in 3 months for each card.
• I’m well on my way to 50k Chase Ultimate Reward points from my Chase Sapphire card (for $3k in spend over 3 months).
• I picked up 40k Alaska Airlines miles from the Bank of America Alaska Airlines Visa Signature card after my first purchase.
• I earned about 10.2k in Hyatt Gold Passport points from 5 revenue stays.

To give perspective on my ability to meet credit card spending thresholds, I spent approximately $22k on credit cards.  My total spend on flights occurring in 2011 (inclusive of StarMegaDo3) was $8367.49 for revenue flights and $431.27 for award flights.  I spent $2703.62 on hotels (19 stays and 23 nights) and $1727.10 on rental cars (inclusive of insurance, but not gasoline, for 19 rentals, 34 rental days).

As my second Seattle-area Hyatt visit last weekend, I stayed at the Hotel Sierra Redmond.  For this stay, I booked a one bedroom king with a balcony.

The bathroom and vanity:

As a one bedroom, the sitting area was more well defined.

A simple, yet functional desk:

A more nicely finished kitchenette than the Hotel Sierra Bellevue:

The front desk desk also asked for my preference in Diamond amenity, although the clerk spent a minute trying to see if it could be credited to US Airways (like the rest of my stay was).   Since the acquisition of Hotel Sierra two months ago by Hyatt, it seems the check-in clerks have been reasonably well-trained.  Three days after my stay, I received an email offering me the ability to sign up to earn “Stash Hotel Rewards.”  A quick glance at the website showed that it seems to be an independent hotelier rewards program, leaving me to chalk up the email as a legacy of the acquisition.

I had my NEXUS interview last weekend at the Blaine, Washington enrollment center.  Admittedly, the Canadian officer was rather puzzled by my place of residence in New York but went along with it after I explained why I wanted NEXUS:  “I find cheap airfares for weekends and go jetsetting.  I’d like to visit Canada with minimal fuss at the border.”  In an impressive show of government efficiency, I was approved at my interview last Sunday and received my card this past Thursday. Since I got into the Seattle area on Friday night, I went hotel hopping to score two last hits for the U.S. Airways Grand Slam.  I managed to find two Hotel Sierras (now owned by Hyatt) in the area at $90 per night two weeks in advance.  While I didn’t manage to find a third Hyatt stay in my schedule to stack the “Possibilities” promotion, these stays worked out nicely as other hit-eligible hotels in the area had more expensive rates. When I checked-in, the front desk clerk recognized my Hyatt Diamond status and asked for my choice of Diamond amenity:  500 Hyatt Gold Passport points or a $5 market credit.  With no desire to eat an overpriced bag of candies or a drink, I took the points.  The clerk was also able to tie my US Airways number to the stay.  From my reading of Hyatt’s policies, it is necessary to do this at check-in rather than in advance as Hilton allows. I booked a king bed studio and received one. Hotel Sierras seem to have marketed themselves more into the extended stay arena and feature kitchenettes:

I woke up rather late so I came in to the breakfast area right at its official close time (10AM), so it meant that they had stopped putting out more food.  Since I was going to be meeting a friend for lunch, this wasn’t that much of a problem.  I was able to grab a bowl of cereal and a cup of coffee and be on my way.

During StarMegaDo3, the existing Hyatt Diamonds raved about the value of having a private line agent.  A few weeks ago, I decided to request to have one assigned to me without fully recognizing the immediate value.  I now do.  On Tuesday evening I noticed that my stay for this hotel had credited to Hyatt (according to FlyerTalk, this is apparently typical with Hyatt) and without the Diamond amenity, so I sent an email over to my PLA.  I received a response the next day asking for confirmation of my US Airways number and found that everything had been taken care of a few hours later when I checked my Gold Passport account.  No phone calls.  No hold music.  No frustration at ensuring my Gold Passport number is recognized by the automated prompts.  Asynchronous, yet responsive interaction is something I wish I could have with the airlines I fly.

So I stayed at two Hyatt-flagged hotels this weekend.   This afternoon, I got an email from Hyatt:

Thank you for participating in our latest Hyatt Gold Passport™ promotion. You’re just 2 night(s) away from your first reward of 5,000 Hyatt Gold Passport bonus points. As a reminder, you’ll earn 5,000 Hyatt Gold Passport bonus points for every three eligible nights you stay at any Hyatt™ worldwide through November 15. It’s the perfect time to earn points quickly. And with no blackout dates, it’s always the perfect time to redeem them. After all, points are really possibilities waiting to happen. So what possibilities will you discover?

Given that the promotion ends tonight, I do not think I’m going to get two more nights in…

I had the chance to spend some time in one of United’s A320 simulators as part of a charity auction on behalf of the Captain Jason Dahl Scholarship Fund.  Jason Dahl was captain of United 93 on September 11, 2001.  The Dahl Fund provides aviation scholarships to students.   While I won’t post my simulator photos here at the request of the volunteers who helped out and made the opportunity available, I did come across a copy of a 1938 United Airlines advertisement by artist Arthur C. Radebaugh:

We stayed at the Grand Hyatt Denver.

The Diamond amenity was three pieces of fruit from a family-run, local orchard.

On Saturday, my subtour group visited Wings over the Rockies, a local aviation museum built on the site of Lowery Air Force Base.

For the trip from Chicago to Montreal to Denver, StarMegaDo3 was on a chartered Continental 737.  Continental assigned us its 737 in its retrolivery:

My legroom on this flight gave me a reminder to be thankful for my exit rows, economy plus seating, and first class upgrades:

Participants packed into the United Red Carpet Clubs to kill time while waiting for our flight:

The Hyatt in Montreal left a bit to be desired:

Even with 160 Diamond members running amok, I was disappointed that I wound up on the 5th floor (out of approximately 15).  With the exception of its RFID-operated doorlocks, the hotel disappointingly showed its age despite having the highest room rate amongst the three StarMegaDo3 Hyatts (189 CAD/nt base).

Air Canada held a reception at the near by Westin in Montreal, gifting each of us with a Air Canada 777 model:

I didn’t return straight to New York from Kahului.  Instead, I ventured to Chicago via San Francisco and Las Vegas to pick up the start of StarMegaDo3.  My upgrades to First Class cleared for OGG-SFO-LAS-ORD, making the redeye from Kahului substantially more bearable.

Since I had the same aircraft and cabin crew for the LAS-ORD segment as I had for SFO-LAS, the flight attendants were understandably confused when they saw me get back onto the A320 to sit in the same seat in first class.  The routing ended up being a quirk of pricing:  The cost of OGG-SFO-LAS plus LAS-ORD was lower than the comparable OGG-SFO-ORD fare.  With a few minutes to kill before boarding commenced, I snapped off a picture of the welcome sign near the United gates:

The first night for StarMegaDo3 was at the Hyatt Regency Chicago O’Hare.  Because Hyatt had gifted Diamond status, the top-tier with the Gold Passport rewards program, it was difficult for the hotel to deliver substantial upgrades.

The Hyatt Diamond amenity, normally a choice of either a snack or 1k points, was restricted to just the snack.  It was delivered to our rooms while at the StarMegaDo reception at the Park Hyatt downtown.

While the reception at the Park Hyatt was too dark for my camera to capture well, the two Tulip-branded, United wine classes that we were given as swag survived my trip around North America long enough to make it back to New York with me… and to be photographed:

Hyatt announced their newest promotion on FlyerTalk: Every 3k eligible nights earns a 5k point bonus up to a total of 30k bonus points.  Registration opens on September 15.

For reference, the Hyatt award chart starts at 5k points per night for Category 1 hotels and works up to 22k points per night for Category 6 hotels.