Tag Archives: Hyatt Hotels

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A Travel Hacker Wish List for Santa (Reader Ideas Needed)

Good afternoon everyone, here is the filler post of the weekend. Enjoy!

Usually this time of year, we look back at the predictions we made at the end of 2015 or early 2016 and see how many things we got right and how many things we got wrong. It is usually a little depressing to look back and see how much has changed (for the worse) over the last 12 months. I wanted to put a positive spin on the predictions this year and turn it into a Christmas wish list for Santa. If Santa had the power to make travel hacker lives better, what would you wish for?

Grant’s wish list (in no particular order):

  • I want Chase to create a “no 5/24 rule day” so everyone can be approved for the Chase credit card they really want (I have my eye on the Chase Sapphire Reserve Credit Card).
  • I want the JPMorgan Chase Ritz Carlton Credit Card to change the $300 travel credit (incidentals only) to match the Chase Sapphire Reserve Credit Card $300 travel credit (paid airfare and hotels).

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How to Find Hidden Hyatt Free Night Certificates from Credit Card Anniversary & Sign Up Bonus

Good afternoon everyone.  This post was inspired by Adam’s question from my post: Hyatt Anniversary Free Night Certificate Now Bookable Online (Category 1-4 Hotels).  To summarize Adam’s question, he said that he could not find his Hyatt free night certificates in his Hyatt Gold Passport account after the World of Hyatt facelift/makeover.  I was able to find my anniversary Hyatt free night certificate (from my Chase Hyatt Credit Card) after clicking around, but the process is not obvious or straightforward.  Most people would sign into their Hyatt account and click on the My Account tab.

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How to Transfer/Combine Hyatt Gold Passport Points to Another Account

Good morning everyone, greetings from Orange County, home of the Frequent Traveler University this weekend.  A few days ago, a friend of mine needed 12,000 Hyatt Gold Passport Points to book an award, so I transferred some points from my account to his account.  In this post, I will show you the process for combining or transferring points.  You can only transfer or receive points once every 30 days.  The process is old school and involves printing out the following form (Hyatt form, my mirror), filling in your account info, your transfer partner’s account info, how many points you want to transfer, getting 2 signatures, and then emailing goldpassport@hyatt.com (just print out the form, take a picture of the completed form, and send it to the email address).

hyatt-combine-points-form

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How to Profit from 2 Timeshare Presentations in Hawaii

Full disclosure: I have only been to 3 timeshare presentations in my life (Hilton Elara in Las Vegas, Westin Ka’anapali Ocean Resort Villas in Maui, and Hilton Waikoloa Village in Kona), so I am no timeshare expert.  I am not married, so I go to the presentations by myself.  I have never gone to a presentation outside the US, but I have heard nightmare stories about timeshare presentations in Mexico lasting hours.  Proceed at your own risk!

Good morning everyone, greetings from my local Peet’s Coffee at the SF Ferry Building.  Between the pushy salespeople (usually a small sales team), lengthy presentations, and overpriced fees, timeshares get a bad rap in the travel community.  But, if you can sit through the presentation and leave without buying a timeshare, the sales presentation can be worth your time.  To illustrate this point, I want to tell you about my 2 timeshare presentations in Hawaii last week.

The first presentation was at the Westin Ka’anapali Ocean Resort Villas in Maui, Hawaii, where I was staying thanks to the targeted vacation package offer I received a few months back.  I wrote about the offer details here, but to recap, I received 6 days / 5 nights in a villa studio, 5,000 SPG points, and a 6 day Avis car rental for $798.  I value 5,000 SPG points at $100, the Avis car rental at $150, so that means the stay in the studio villa cost about ~$550 for 5 nights in Maui.  That’s a great deal if you ask me.  The property is very nice, I loved the $5 Mai Tais during happy hour (4-6pm and 8:30-10pm) and the pools were great.  Valet parking is only $12/day or $10/day for self parking.

5000-spg-points-westin-vacation-package Westin Ka'anapali Ocean Resort Villas

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Redeem Discover It Cash Back for Gift Cards & eGift Cards (Online & In-App)

Good morning everyone, happy Thursday!  Hopefully by now, you are sitting on a huge pile of Discover It Cash Back from their Cash Back Match promotion.  I just received the following email from Discover telling me to redeem my cash back for gift cards and egift cards.  If you have the Discover mobile app, you can sign in, view rewards, and redeem your cash back balance for gift cards, egift cards, statement credits, or donate to charity.  In this post, I will show you some good redemption options (in my opinion) from Discover in the form of gift cards and egift cards.

Discover Email Redeem Cash Back eGift Card Instantly

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