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Hyatt Free Night Certificate Posted 2 Months After Annual Fee Posted (YMMV?)

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Good afternoon everyone.  I’m not sure if this was a fluke, but my most recent Hyatt free night certificate posted 2 weeks before the annual fee posted, but my wife’s Hyatt free night certificate posted 2 months after the annual fee posted.  In this post, I will share the details about both of our situations and show the new terms of the Hyatt free night certificate.

I used to have the old Chase Hyatt Credit Card that had a $75 annual fee, but on January 11, 2021, Chase converted all cardholders from the old Chase Hyatt Credit Card to the new Chase World of Hyatt Credit Card which has a $95 annual fee.  I decided to close my old card before the conversion took place so that I could apply for the new card down the road.  Long story short, the old card annual fee posted on December 1, 2020, but the free night certificate posted to my Hyatt account 2 weeks prior.

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Attend FTU Virtual Seminar on Saturday April 10 ($25) or Free with FTU Online Annual Membership

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Good afternoon everyone, I hope your week is going well.  If you have no plans this coming Saturday (April 10), I highly recommend attending the FTU Virtual Seminar (tickets available for $25).  The seminar starts on Saturday at 11am ET / 8am PT.  I really enjoyed attending the first FTU Virtual Seminar back on December 12 and I’m sure this seminar will be just as entertaining and educational.  If you have the FTU Online Annual Membership, you can attend the seminar for free.

If you registered for the seminar on Saturday, but are unable to watch the live stream, you can access the recording of the seminar and watch later on.  This is also a great way to re-watch your favorite presentations and catch any details that you originally missed.

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Stay at this Cool College-Themed Hilton Hotel in San Luis Obispo

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Good morning everyone, I hope you had a great Easter and Passover.  A few days ago, Laura and I did a roadtrip around California and stayed at The Kinney San Luis Obispo, Tapestry Collection by Hilton.  The Kinney is a few blocks from downtown San Luis Obispo (SLO) and a short drive / bike ride to the campus of Cal Poly SLO.  Since the hotel is close to the university, the hotel has a college theme.  Basic rooms are called Campus Rooms and the suites are called Grad Suite, Dean Suite, and Professor Suite (see all pics and room descriptions here).  I used points to book a Campus Room and was upgraded (thanks to my Hilton Diamond Elite Status) to a Grad Suite.  I enjoyed staying at this hotel and the location was great for exploring downtown SLO and the surrounding area.  I would definitely stay here again the next time I visit SLO.  Here are some pics of my room and of the hotel.

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Image source: https://www.hilton.com/en/hotels/oakerup-the-kinney-san-luis-obispo/

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I Texted Alaska Airlines to Cancel My Reservation and it was Easy

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Good morning everyone, I hope you had a great weekend.  Long story short, I booked an Alaska Airlines flight using my Citi ThankYou Points (1.25 cents per TYP value until April 10).  A few weeks later, I decided to cancel the flight.  Since I didn’t book the flight directly with Alaska Airlines, I wasn’t able to cancel the flight online.  When I called Alaska Airlines, the recording said that I could text Alaska Airlines instead.  Alaska Airlines then sent me a text (820-08) and I responded directly to the text.  The agent was very helpful and was able to cancel my flight and apply the travel funds to my Alaska Airlines wallet.  The whole process took less than 10 minutes and couldn’t have been easier.  If you’ve never texted Alaska Airlines before, I recommend saving the text number (820-08) to your phone.

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The Upside of Free Night Certificates over Hotel Points

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Good evening everyone.  2 years ago, I wrote Track Hotel Free Night Certificates & Credit Card Annual Fees with my Spreadsheet.  In that post, I shared my strategy for keeping track of free night certificates.  If you have several co-branded hotel credit cards (like the Chase World of Hyatt Credit Card or Chase IHG Rewards Premier Credit Card), you need to keep track of free night certificate expiration dates so you do not forget to use them before they expire or you run out of time to use them at a good property (the hotel is not going to remind you to use your free night certificate – they want you to pay the annual fee and forget to use your free night certificates).  Here are the unused free night certificates I have, as of March 2021.  I sorted the list by the expiration date of my free night certificates, so I know which free night certificates I need to focus on first.

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The inspiration for this post came from a recent Miles to Memories post called Don’t Fall Into The Free Night Certificate Fuzzy Math Trap!  In that post, Mark shared all the downsides of free night certificates, like short expiration dates, some certificates only work at certain hotel categories or on certain days, etc.  I totally agree with all of those downsides, but I had the pleasure of redeeming 2 free night certificates today and wanted to share an upside I found with free night certificates.

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