On today’s episode, we’ll see how the 5x airline card saga continues, Nick will give us more reasons to use the Southwest app, we’ll hear some exciting news about Frontier, and we’ll dive deep into Hyatt’s devaluation.
12 things to know about Hyatt’s devaluation
Watch here:
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Giant Mailbag
(01:06) – More comments about our comments about there being “No airline cards offer 5x or more”
Crazy Thing: Chase
(03:41) – Points Boost is sometimes different between Chase Sapphire Reserve® Card & Sapphire Reserve for Business℠ Card
Bonvoyed
(07:22) – Lifemiles+ eliminates free cancellation benefit for new subscribers
Awards, Points, and More
(11:35) – Alaska Wallet funds can now be used for AS companion fares again
(12:20) – Rove adds Frontier as a transfer partner
Read more about Frontier being added as a Rove transfer partner here
(15:30) – Nick’s Southwest notes
Main Event: 12 things to know about Hyatt’s devaluation
(21:18) – Hyatt recently introduced new award charts. We dug into the numbers…
Read more about the changed value of Hyatt points here
(22:20) – 1. Median point value dropped ~10%
(23:10) – 2. Cherry-picked value dropped <10%
(24:34) – 3. It could have been much worse
(26:31) – 4. It will probably be much worse next year
(27:46) – 5. Points more valuable with certain brands
(30:37) – 6. Points less valuable with certain brands
(32:14) – 7. Points are less valuable at high end
(34:27) – 8. Points are more valuable at low end
(35:54) – 9. Many cities offer excellent value
(39:45) – 10. Singapore offers surprisingly poor value: 1.0
(40:47) – 11. Worst and best values barely budged
(41:52) – 12. Mr & Mrs Smith not as bad as we thought
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Music Credit – “Ocean Deep” by Annie Yoder
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Really helpful episode! One follow up comment on the Mr. & Mrs. Smith discussion…
As the redemption rates have gotten less awful, I think this has become a REALLY interesting option for families traveling in places where the standard rooms at brands like Hyatt Regency, Grand Hyatt etc are limited to an occupancy of two. Paris over spring break is the perfect example where I’m considering booking although I’ve noted the same thing in other European cities.
To accommodate our family of four, I’ll need to spend 35k + 190 euros per night for Hyatt Madeleine to upgrade as they don’t accept SUAs. I may go ahead and do that but it’s worth exploring all the options! HR Etoile, which is in a location I don’t prefer, only has regular rooms available for our dates so that would be 50k for two rooms (obviously the suite would be a better deal at 32-37k but it’s not available for our dates). At 12 and 15 my kids will be too old for the Hyatt family plan, which seems really silly to me. However, there are a few lovely MMS that are well located and would give us two rooms for a total of ~45k per night. The rates were actually even lower (around 35-40k for two rooms) when I looked last month mais c’est la vie.
Even if the CPP is slightly below the ~1.5 benchmark, in places where award options are thin for families it’s great to have another well to draw from.
Too often in this hobby we put the cart before the horse. While its important to be sure you’re not getting a terrible value per point in your points redemption…cents per point SHOULD NOT DRIVE THE REDEMPTION. VALUE TO YOU should drive the redemption. That value could be…amenities, location, your own time (in cherry-picking or NOT cherry-picking awards), or dollars you would otherwise be spending out of pocket…whatever is important to you. And honestly, value per point is only indicative of what the hotel is trying to sell itself for. For example, just because a used car dealer puts a price on a car doesn’t mean that car is worth it. Would you personally pay that? Then it doesn’t deserve that big of valuation just because the sticker price is greater. Same goes for hotels with different cash rates.
No moment of silence for the devastating loss of the Saks credit?
Are you serious or joking?
You might as well take me serious. We had a small ceremony at our house and burned a kendi lux candle. Moving.
It’s funny how Mr. & Mrs. Smith used to be a terrible use of Hyatt points and now it’s considered reasonable. It’s probably just a coincidence, but it seems this entire devaluation was just a way for for Hyatt set Mr. & Mrs. Smith as the new benchmark for reasonable redemptions.
One DP about Singapore Hyatts- we went through there in January, pre-devaluation, and I was seeing around 1.1 cents per point then, as well.
Yeah, I LOLed when I saw I could get better cpp from Marriott than Hyatt on a Singapore stay.
Chase seems like an untrustworthy and abusive spouse with a cardholder spouse clinging on in denial. Clinging on to 5x at office supply stores. When that disappears, what then? What will be the next rationalization?
Hyatt is no longer that rationalization. Now that Rakuten points transfer to Hyatt via Bilt. Alternatively, at 1.5cpp, Hyatt can be booked with Rove points *and* be loyalty eligible.
Caught in a bad romance.