This week, Hyatt’s disappointing announcement of the details of its Mr & Mrs Smith partnership put luxury hotels front of mind. Specifically, it made us think a lot about other ways to get luxury stays using points (since using Hyatt points for Mr & Mrs Smith is basically a non-starter now). We published a number of points and a podcast episode or two detailing the many other options to sleep cheap in the lax of luxury.
Elsewhere on the blog this week, we’ve updated a number of key resources, including our guide to best uses of Avianca LifeMiles, how to book Vacasa Vacation Rentals using Wyndham Rewards points (under the new rules), updated details on booking “free” cruises through casino status matches, and a lot more.
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This week on the Frequent Miler blog…
Hyatt’s Mr & Mrs Smith now live (details broke my heart)
Hyatt announced details of its “tight” partnership with Mr & Mrs Smith this week, which only served to underline what a huge blow it was to have lost the partnership with SLH. Mr & Mrs Smith properties are being priced dynamically, are not subject to award charts, and will not provide elite benefits. If this is what a “tight” partnership looks like, I sure hope that Hyatt doesn’t tighten up any of its existing hotel partnerships. At ratios of 1 to 1.4c per Hyatt point, I simply won’t be staying at Mr & Mrs Smith properties.
Hilton vs. Hyatt
In light of the Mr & Mrs Smith details and Hilton’s indication that SLH properties will not only be bookable at similar levels to existing hotels but also bookable with free night certificates and offering some semblance of elite benefits, Greg offers a comparison of earning points in each of these programs. You might be surprised at how comparable Hilton is to Hyatt once you adjust for the difference in scale. In other words, luxury hotel fans might find Hilton to be a good companion program to work alongside Hyatt for those times when you can book SLH properties at the very least.
Podcast: Luxury lodging… on points | Frequent Miler on the Air Ep252 | 4-26-24
Speaking of luxury hotel fans, on this week’s Frequent Miler on the Air, Greg and I discussed the best ways to book luxury lodging using points. There are a surprising number of ways to book luxury stays using your transferable and/or hotel points. In my opinion, one of the most enjoyable parts of this hobby is being able to stay comfortably for far less. I certainly don’t need a luxury hotel, but it sure is nice to be able to use points to get an unreasonably expensive place to stay using a very reasonable number of points.
Podcast: Hilton Takes on Small Luxury Hotels (SLH) | Coffee Break Ep08
If Hilton brings its SLH partnership online according to their intentions, one of my favorite ways to book luxury stays will quickly become using Hilton points and free night certificates to book Small Luxury Hotels of the world. On this week’s short-form coffee break, we discuss why we’re so excited about how Hilton is going to handle this partnership, which has elements of comparability with Hyatt’s former association with SLH — but which stands in stark contrast to the new Hyatt x Mr & Mrs Smith partnership.
MaxFHR: An awesome new way to help use your $200 Fine Hotels & Resorts credits
Despite the many ways to use points for luxury stays, sometimes it just makes more sense to pay cash. Stephen writes about an awesome new tool that should provide some easy inspiration for your future American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts stays. That’s because MaxFHR will help you easily find properties at the cheaper end of the FHR spectrum, which is especially useful for those looking to use up annual Fine Hotels and Resorts credits on an Amex Platinum card. I love how easy it is to see the price calendar for each property. Given how relatively slow the Amex site is, having this data so quickly sortable is fantastic.
My award alert, flight change, and a risky layover
Greg is a madman. If you doubt that statement, look no further than this post for proof. I don’t say that because of the fact that he answered ANA’s call mid-shower or transferred more miles to ANA (putting even more points at risk of expiring). In fact, when Greg asked the rest of the Frequent Miler team what we would all do at that point, I said that I’d transfer the points to make the change. But what I had missed in the story initially was the forty-two minute connection from a separately-booked positioning flight to departure of an international award that he needs to not miss. That’s nuts! May the odds ever be in his favor.
How to get free cruises by gaming casino status matches
I’ve updated our guide about how to get free cruises through casino status matches yet again because the game has changed a bit here. Some cruise lines are no longer matching Caesars Diamond with a free cruise offer unless you can provide examples of free room offers you’ve received from land-based casinos or other cruise lines. The good news is that some people have been able to submit screen shots of their free Carnival offers to qualify for free offers with Holland America and Princess. See the post for updated details as well as outlines for the new Las Vegas matches.
How to Maximize Avianca LifeMiles
Tim made some extensive updates this week to our guide to getting great value out of Avianca LifeMiles. I love LifeMiles for its many highly useful sweet spots and this post does a great job of highlighting the latest information about those sweet spots so that you can take advantage of the best ways to use Avianca LifeMiles.
Best Big Spend Bonuses
If you have large expenses looming and you’re not looking to open multiple new credit cards to take advantage of large welcome bonuses, it can be worth chasing a bonus that’s based on big spend on a specific card. We’ve updated our Big Spend Bonuses resource to include the latest on spending toward elite status, hotel free night certificates, and companion certificates while maintaining a sortable list of all of the big spend bonuses you might want to pursue.
The Hotel Collection Guide: Prepaid rates earn hotel points/perks & more surprising finds
Stephen updated our guide to The Hotel Collection this week. You might be surprised to learn more about this program, including whether and when you may earn hotel points & elite credit when booking hotels through this Amex tool that includes a $100 hotel credit. While I had previously only focused on Amex’s Fine Hotels & Resorts, last year I used up a Platinum card credit booking a THC property in Las Vegas, which turned out to be a great way to use the credit when my kids got sick and we had to extend our Las Vegas residency.
How to book Vacasa Vacation Rentals with Wyndham points
The partnership between Wyndham Rewards and Vacasa vacation rentals has changed pretty significantly over the past couple of years, with the most recent changes introducing two pricing tiers. Greg has updated our complete resource to booking vacation rentals using your Wyndham Rewards points.
That’s it for this week at Frequent Miler. Keep a close eye on this week’s month-ending last chance deals to be sure you use them before they expire.
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Why in the world would the MMS terms surprise anyone? These are luxury boutique hotels catering to the affluent and wealthy travelers.
#1 Reason: the hotels don’t want to gut their profits by allowing people to book rooms for low point amounts. Its laughable to think that they would agree to make less money by allowing people to book using a low amount of points. No, they don’t need our business and are doing fine without us points and miles hobbyists (like me for example). Aman, Rosewood, etc are doing great charging a small fortune to stay at their hotels.
#2 Reason: They know that large numbers of people who have a lot of points to use are neither affluent or wealthy and got their stash of points (like me) for almost free through SUB /MS, and wouldn’t spend much at their hotels (thus making them less profitable customers).
#3 Reason (along with #2), if one goes online and looks at all the points and miles blogs, IG, tik-tok etc, many of them dress really sloppy like the people who frequent Walmart or flea markets, and it is not the image of their establishment that they are trying to maintain. If you are paying $4,000+/night at Amangiri, you can dress however you want, however people who can easily afford that kind of money, even when dressed casually in shorts, sandals, and a T shirt most likely still don’t look like the typical person roaming the aisles of Walmart. There has been a lot of discussion online about attire when flying First Class. Overwhelmingly, the people saying you can dress as sloppy as you want are those who are using points and didn’t pay cash for their flight. I don’t care how anyone chooses to dress, but many don’t understand that all things being equal, that one’s appearance often does influence the perception of the people actually serving you and can make a difference in one’s experience. This is not about eliteism, its about the reality of life. FYI I don’t own designer or expensive clothing. I just wear modestly priced clothing (Uniqlo, JC Penny) that are crisp, clean, and look good.
And, if Hyatt expands dynamic pricing? As Han Solo said, “I gotta bad feeling about this.”
Agreed. My loyalty is based on the fantastic redemption values. I go out of my way to stay at Hyatt properties for work when all my colleagues are at Marriott (I’m Gold there also). If they go dynamic, I’m out (and will switch my spend to Amex).