Tag Archives: Hyatt Hotels

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Adios Amigos! I’m Traveling Around Central / South America (LPB, UYU, GUA, SAL, MGA & LIR)

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Hola amigos!  My friend Jim and I am heading south of the border (and hemisphere) for a few days and visiting the following cities around Central / South America:

  • La Paz, Bolivia (LPB)
  • Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia (UYU)
  • Guatemala City, Guatemala (GUA)
  • San Salvador, El Salvador (SAL)
  • Managua, Nicaragua (MGA)
  • Liberia, Costa Rica (LIR)

If you want to see those cities plotted on a map, here is the Great Circle Mapper view. I left out the flights to/from San Francisco, the airline routing, and bus ride, otherwise the map would be too messy.

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New Hilton Honors Program Changes that I Wish World of Hyatt Would Copy

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Hilton’s recent unveiling of the newest perks and ways to gain Hilton points got me wondering which of these mattered to me the most. And if any changes mattered to our readers. I have Hilton Gold elite status and a healthy stash of Hilton points, though, last year I didn’t have any Hilton stays. Earning more points per stay, though, is always user friendly :) For people who stay at Hilton properties a lot, the milestone bonuses make sense. I prefer getting points rather than a free night stay that’s limited to certain categories of hotel. Elite rollover nights are a great benefit. I wish Hyatt did this! Gifting status after 60 nights is a great idea. Are you listening Hyatt? Looks to me like Hilton is upping their game, getting creative, and has put together a package of perks that will please loyal Hilton fans. How do you feel about this new program? Going forward, will you shift some of your stays to Hilton? Let me know!

Here is the complete Hilton member benefits email:

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Most of my 2017 Travel Predictions Were Wrong (Who Could Have Predicted That?)

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Good morning everyone, happy almost New Years Eve.  Earlier this month, Doctor of Credit wrote how bad travel bloggers are at making predictions (I came in last at 33% correct), but he only reviewed our credit card predictions.  I made a lot of other predictions in January 2017, so let’s see how good or bad my predictions were.  I covered airlines, hotels, credit cards, and MS.  I will put my thoughts in bold at the end of each prediction.

Airlines

  • Southwest seems bent on making the Companion Pass very difficult to get unless you fly Southwest every week.  I believe credit card signup bonuses will no longer count toward the Companion Pass and Southwest might kill the whole concept of the Companion Pass entirely or switch to a certificate program similar to the Alaska Airlines companion fare or Virgin America companion ticket.  Southwest Airlines did eliminate hotel transfers counting toward the Companion Pass, but credit card spend and sign up bonuses still count toward the Companion Pass.  I am also the proud companion on my girlfriend’s Companion Pass.
  • Other airline credit cards will adopt the Alaska Airlines companion fare (you pay full price and your companion pays up to $120) or the Virgin America companion ticket (you pay full price and your companion pays full price minus $150).  No, I don’t think any other airline added a companion fare as a credit card benefit.
  • American will introduce a basic economy fare class to compete/copy Delta and United.  Yes, I got this one right!
  • Alaska Airlines will introduce a new level of elite status (maybe MVP Gold 100K?)  No, Alaska Airlines MVP Gold 75K is still the highest elite level.
  • More airlines will get away from the 12,500 one way domestic ticket and start to introduce 5,000, 7,500, and 10,000 mile awards.  Yes, I think Alaska Airlines announced cheaper awards on shorter flights.
  • British Airways will kill the 4,500 Avios award band globally and possibly remove one of their lower award tiers.  No, 4,500 British Airways Avios tier is still available outside the US.
  • Singapore Airlines will allow us to book Star Alliance awards online, rather than calling in.  Partially true, but not rolled out completely.
  • Hawaiian Airlines will get bought by a low cost airline, Southwest Airlines or JetBlue.  No, no one bought Hawaiian Airlines.
  • We will see 1 or 2 more mileage matching promos, this time from a big legacy airline.  No, no mileage matching promo like the JetBlue / Virgin America match last year.
  • My ~20,000 Spirit Airlines miles will expire and I won’t care.  Sort of, my Spirit Airlines miles did expire, but I still shed 1 tear.

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Review: Taste of India Gift Box from the World of Hyatt

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Did you catch the offer from World of Hyatt called Try The World? Hyatt wants to “connect us to the people, places and experiences at the heart of our world.” Their Try The World concept involves a “box of the month” filled with foods and ingredients from all across a specific country. I decided to give this Try The World a go, and ordered the first three boxes. The total cost was $105, so that’s $35 a box. I’ve never subscribed to a box of the month club before!

For the first month, the country Hyatt chose was France (read the gift box review here). The second country Hyatt chose was Turkey (read the gift box review here). When I opened this month’s box featuring India, I realized I still really loved the box the goodies arrived in. I love the colors, the creative artwork, and the packaging. All very stylish and classy. The box came with a large fold-out card that talked about the chef that put these items together and the card also explained each product.

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Hyatt Concierges Undertrained & Upper Management Cannot Follow Through on Promises

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Last week in my rant at Hyatt, readers suggested the issue was the incompetence of my concierge. I’ll admit, I was a bit defensive. When I was first assigned a concierge, I spoke with her to get acquainted. The first task I asked her to do for me was to amend some reservations I already had. That came off without a hitch. However, the more I looked into the Departures Magazine ad and the responses my concierge was giving me, I started thinking my readers were right.

One reader asked me if I had actually given my concierge the DUSA promo code, which was the code given in Departures Magazine to bring up the Park Hyatt deal for 3rd or 4th night free. I had not spelled it out for her, though she did acknowledge knowing about the Park Hyatt special offer. So I sent her another email specifying the DUSA promo code and asking her to check again. I gave her random dates and asked her to check the Park Hyatt Saigon. Here’s what she said in replying to my request:

Hi Shelli,

The offer code DUSA does not bring up anything. It may be a different code for each property so I searched the properties you requested based on a 4 night in the time frame for a 3rd or 4th night free offer. Again, I do not see that it is available.

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Park Hyatt Saigon. Image source: https://saigon.park.hyatt.com/en/hotel/home.html

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