I’d like to think I’m pretty damn good at maximizing miles and points. At least I liked to think so till yesterday. Last night I published the introduction to my trip report, in which I posted about how I booked my stays at the Hyatt Regency Nice and Grand Hyatt Cannes. As I outlined in that post I redeemed points — 18,000 and 22,000 points per night, respectively. Compared to the revenue rates, that was a great value, given that both hotels were going for over 350EUR per night.
Then last night I got a tweet from a reader, as follows:
You ever have one of those moments where you literally slap yourself in the face out of frustration? Yeah, I had one of those. I’ve posted in the past about Hyatt’s stay certificates, and what a phenomenal value they can be. Basically Hyatt will sell you certificates each valid for one free night. There are different category certificates each valid at different types of hotels. So obviously the highest category certificate is valid at more properties than the lowest category certificates.
So I looked up in which categories the Hyatt Regency Nice and Grand Hyatt Cannes are in:
The Hyatt Regency Nice is a “Choice” level property, while the Grand Hyatt Cannes is a “Premier” level property. How much could I have purchased those certificates for?
So we spent three nights at the Hyatt Regency Nice, which accepts “Choice” level certificates. Those retail for $152.22 each, so rather than redeeming 54,000 points I could have spent $456.66.
Meanwhile we spent two nights at the Grand Hyatt Cannes, which accepts “Premier” level certificates. Those retail for $188.89 each, so rather than redeeming 44,000 points I could have spent $377.78.
So all-in-all, redeeming 98,000 Gold Passport points for $834.44 isn’t my proudest moment.
At the very least, please, please, please learn from my mistakes. By the way, both of these are phenomenal properties, and the fact that they’re in the “Choice” and “Premier” level is borderline ridiculous, given that they often retail for $500+ per night.
To make my life a bit easier, does anyone have one of these that I could borrow?
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