This is my review of the Park Hyatt Hamburg hotel.

There are only two hotels in the world that I book by default whenever I have to go to that city.  One is the InterContinental Le Grand in Paris which as I wrote here is, perhaps surprisingly, my favourite city hotel in the world. The second is the Park Hyatt in Hamburg.

(I did, I know, stay at the Hotel Reichshof in Hamburg last year.  That was purely so that I could review it for Head for Points and get a look at the first European ‘Curio by Hilton’ property.)

The Park Hyatt in Hamburg has a reputation which belies its position above a small shopping arcade on the main retail street. Part of the reason I stay here, admittedly, is practical.  It is two minutes walk from the main railway station (not that you would know it – imagine if Kings Cross was at the top of Regent Street and you have Hamburg) which is where the S-Bahn from the airport drops you.

My daughter was off to her grandparents for a week and the agreed handover spot was Hamburg railway station.  I could have dashed back to London immediately but the chance to spend a couple of hours in the shops and the redeveloped harbour area meant I stayed over.  There is still an outside chance that they may finish the new Herzog & De Meuron concert hall before I retire …..

This was a good opportunity to close a long chapter.  Over three years, I have managed to earn 10 nights of stay credit in Hotels.com Rewards.   If you stay with lots of different hotels chains and struggle to focus on any one in particular, Hotels.com Rewards may work out better for you than a chain-based loyalty scheme.  I will explain why in a separate article tomorrow.

My ten nights credit qualified me for a free night to the average value of my 10 stays.  Three of these nights were complimentary for doing a series of surveys for the company ($200 nominal value each), three came from my suite at the Four Seasons Las Vegas in 2014 and the others were random non-chain bookings.  The net result of this was £185 of free room credit.

Luckily, this was almost exactly enough, excluding taxes and charges which must be paid in cash, to book a Deluxe Club room at the Park Hyatt Hamburg.

What is good about Hyatt is that they DO tend to respect your status and stay history however you book.  Most chains don’t do this.  Despite booking via hotels.com, half a bottle of red wine was left in my room along with a note thanking me for my repeat custom:

US points blogger Gary Leff likes to use the phrase “I am not my rate”.  What this means is that a hotel should respect a regular visitor irrespective of how they book, and the Park Hyatt Hamburg did.  I would not have usually booked via hotels.com because I like to pick up my Gold Passport points but in this case it was obviously necessary.

It is hard to explain why Park Hyatt Hamburg ‘works’ but it does.  The hotels is very well run and the upmarket shopping arcade on the ground floor, plus the fact you exit directly onto the main shopping street, means the location is very handy.  At the same time, because reception is on the 2nd floor, there are very few members of the public randomly wandering in for a look around.

You clearly can’t complain about my Club Deluxe room which was huge for a city centre hotel:

as was the bathroom:

which is open plan and runs into the entrance hall as you can see here:

It came with L’Occitane toiletries.  There was also a good desk, LOADS of lights (often a problem in continental hotels), decent wi-fi and a Nespresso machine.  I could happily have lived here for  a week.

This is the club lounge on the seventh floor:

It is a pleasant space, open for coffee all day and cake in the afternoon.  I’m not sure if they offer lunch as I wasn’t there.  In the evening they serve food from 6pm – everything comes in these little jars:

Seven jars (four mains and three desserts), some bread and pate, some ham, some wine and a coffee later and I was done!

The only odd thing about the lounge is that the lounge is not in a dedicated room.  Anyone can go up to the 7th floor and walk into the lounge area.  I was never asked for my room number, even during meal service in the evening.  There isn’t even a reception desk – and there wouldn’t be any point, as the whole lounge is ‘open’ anyway.

There is a basement pool here which, in six stays, I have never used.  I did once put on a dressing gown and sit on a lounger to read the newspaper but that is as close as I got.  I never remember it has a pool – and so never pack my trunks – until I arrive!  This is a library picture:

I was offered the choice of taking breakfast in the restaurant.   I’m not sure if this is a general club level perk or something I got because I am a semi-regular visitor or because I have Hyatt Gold Passport Platinum status.  As this is one of the best breakfast buffets you will see outside of a resort, I jumped at the chance.

Here is part of the Park Hyatt Hamburg breakfast spread:

and some more:

and my cooked to order eggs benedict:

and the dining room / restaurant itself:

I thoroughly recommend the Park Hyatt Hamburg.  If nothing else, there is free flow champagne for breakfast, at least at weekends, and any hotel which does that can’t be bad!

As a way of using the Hotels.com Rewards free night which had been niggling away at me for the three years it took to pick up the 10 stay credits, I really can’t complain.  Splurging for a club room, and a deluxe sized one at that, is the best way to get the most of such freebies in my view!

The hotel website is here if you want to find out more.

This is the final part of our ‘Holiday Tips’ series which I have updated and re-run this week in preparation for the Summer season. 

Earlier articles looked at the best credit card to use abroad, the best way to earn miles when ordering foreign currency and earning miles when booking airport car parking.

For many of us, the only time in the whole year when we may find ourselves looking to hire a car is on holiday.

If you are spending your own money on car hire, you shouldn’t be blinded by the Avios or miles opportunities. There are plenty of low-cost consolidators like easyCar or Holiday Autos who are used by the big car rental groups to shift their spare capacity without having to publicly lower their prices.

However, if location is important (eg you want a supplier who is definitely in your airport rather than a long shuttle bus away) then you need to book direct. Direct booking also lets you book flexible rates, makes it easier to guarantees extras like baby seats and may even be cheaper, especially when factoring in the value of the miles.

How to earn Avios from car rentals

Avis is the official partner of BAEC, and even has its own website at avisba.com. The rate is 3 Avios per £1 spent, with a minimum of 500.  If you rent for three days, the minimum goes up to 700 Avios.

BAEC members also get a free second driver, which can be a valuable benefit, and there are a further 250 Avios to be had if you pay with the British Airways American Express credit card. If you do four rentals in a year, you also get a further 750 Avios. Avis is the only official BA and avios.com car earning partner.

Until 2014, you had substantially more partner opportunities with Iberia Plus.  That is now over.  They have dropped their partnerhips with Europcar, Hertz and Sixt.  The only remaining earning options via Iberia Plus are with Avis and their sister company Budget.  Iberia Plus is your only option to earn Avios from Budget.

Other airmiles car rental options

Outside of Avios, pretty much every major airline has some sort of car rental tie-up. It is worth doing a quick scout around before each rental to see if there are any generous promotions available.

Virgin partners with Avis, Alamo, Hertz and Sixt (see here) – the Hertz and Alamo deals are particularly attractive at 1,000 miles per rental, with Avis and Sixt offering 500 miles for short rentals.

Miles & More also has a large list of partners (see here) – Avis, Budget, Europcar, Hertz and Sixt.  You will find similar deals with any other airline scheme to which you belong.  British Airways is in a minority by having an exclusive car rental partner.

In all cases, be aware that you can usually separate out:

The discount code you are entitled to use as a member of that frequent flyer scheme, and

The miles you can earn as a member of that frequent flyer scheme

In theory, nothing stops you booking a car using (for eg) the Virgin Atlantic discount code for Avis and then crediting the stay to a BAEC account, should that prove to be the most attractive option.

Don’t forget hotel chain promotions

It is not only the airlines that offer bonus points for booking a car via their partners. The hotel loyalty programmes have also got in on the act. In general the points earned aren’t worth as much as the equivalent airline miles, but do check.

Remember that crediting a rental to a hotel scheme may help delay the expiry of your hotel points.

Club Carlson – Avis, Alamo, National, Budget, Enterprise, Sixt

Hyatt Gold Passport – Avis

Marriott Rewards – Hertz

Hilton HHonors – Alamo, Avis, Budget, Europcar, National, Sixt, Thrifty

Starwood – Avis, Budget, Sixt

IHG Rewards Club – Hertz

And don’t forget Hertz Gold Plus Rewards

Hertz also has its own reward programme, Hertz Gold Plus Rewards, which I reviewed here. The key thing to note now, though, is that you can usually earn points in Hertz Gold Plus Rewards even if the corporate rate or discount code you are using is not eligible for airline miles.

As well as the usual free rental days, Hertz points can also be redeemed for IHG Rewards Club and Marriott Rewards points, as well as miles with some North American airlines.

Finally …. a word on car hire insurance

Car hire insurance is generally more expensive than the basic cost of the rental itself.  Separating the insurance from the rental can often lead to significant savings.

American Express Platinum comes with full car hire insurance coverage and, for a regular renter, is an attractive deal.  You do not need to pay for your car hire on your Amex card and there is no small print.  You can decline all insurance options safe in the knowledge that American Express will pay if necessary.

There are also various independent companies selling car hire insurance, of which insurance4carhire is probably the best known.  This is likely to be substantially cheaper.

One issue you have, when you have arranged separate insurance, is getting your rental to price without any coverage.  The rental company websites often add coverage by default.  One possible way around this is to book from the US website of a major rental group – the US ‘norm’ is to show base prices with minimal coverage, which is exactly what you need in this scenario.

One word of warning.  If you do use Amex Platinum or a third party such as insurance4carhire.com, be prepared to be asked for a substantial credit card authorisation to be taken when you collect the car.  It is impossible for the rental company to verify your insurance cover, whatever paperwork you show them, so you may be asked for an authorisation (NOT a charge, just an authorisation) of a few thousand pounds on your card.

News in brief:

Get a half price stay at Park Hyatt Mallorca

Hyatt Gold Passport has brought back its 30% bonus for buying points.  Until 31st August, you will receive a 30% bonus when buying 5,000 points or more.

This would work well at the new Park Hyatt Mallorca which looks very impressive (see below).  Rooms start at €680 (£570) per night for cash this month, but the equivalent 20,000 points would cost you just £280.  This is based on paying $1,128 for 61,100 points.  

Alternatively, using 6,000 points per night for a suite upgrade would be a steal here.  Note that you need to book a deluxe room to be able to upgrade and pay a flexible rate, plus the hotel must have suite upgrade availability.

The link to buy Hyatt points is here.  A couple could each buy 61,100 points and have enough points for a six night stay.

Lufthansa closes oilandenergyclub

Just a couple of weeks after I wrote about it, Lufthansa has announced the closure of its oilandenergyclub presumably due to the slump in the oil market.

The good news is that benefits are being honoured until the expiry date on your membership card.  This means that members will continue to get the benefits of Lufthansa Frequent Traveller status for a while yet.

Thanks to Henry and Steve.

Triple PartnerPlusBenefit points to Europe this August

PartnerPlusBenefit is the small business scheme for the UK and Ireland run by 11 of the Star Alliance airlines.  This includes Lufthansa and Swiss.

I wrote about PPB in detail in this article.  It is a LOT more flexible than the British Airways On Business scheme which I reviewed here – although you’d be daft not to join On Business too if you have a VAT registered UK business.  Unlike On Business, PPB points can be redeemed for Heathrow Express tickets, hotels and various others bits and pieces as well as flights. There is even a sign-up bonus.

In addition, until 31st August, you will earn triple the normal amount of BenefitPoints when travelling on Lufthansa, Austrian, Brussels or SWISS direct to Frankfurt, Munich, Vienna, Brussels, Zurich or Geneva.

The offer is valid from any UK airport they serve.  You need to register for the offer via your PPB account.

Hyatt Gold Passport, the loyalty scheme for Park Hyatt, Grand Hyatt, Hyatt Place, Andaz and other brands, has launched its new Autumn promotion and an interesting app-booking bonus.

Everyone will benefit from the app booking bonus.

It is exceptionally simple.  Book and stay at any Hyatt property between 1st September and 31st November via the Hyatt app and you will receive 500 Gold Passport points as a bonus.

I value Hyatt Gold Passport points at 1p each so this is an extra £5 rebate.

You can earn the bonus an unlimited number of times which is great news for regular Hyatt guests.

Full details can be found on the Hyatt site here.  Remember that there is a new Hyatt Place hotel now open near Heathrow (it isn’t the picture below, which is Park Hyatt Hamburg).

The Hyatt Autumn promotion, ‘More Points More Play’ is not for everyone as only regular Hyatt guests will benefit.  If you are a very heavy Hyatt guest then you will do very nicely.

Full details are on the Hyatt site here.  In summary you will receive:

5,000 bonus points after 5 nights

+ 10,000 bonus points after 10 nights

+ 15,000 bonus points after 15 nights

+ 20,000 bonus points after 20 nights

+ 25,000 bonus points after 25 nights

For clarity, the bonuses are cumulative.  You would receive 75,000 bonus points for 25 nights.  This is worth an incredible £30 per night if you value Hyatt points at a penny each.  There may well be Hyatt properties in Asia where you could stay for less than £30 per night and effectively come out on top.

This deal also doubles up with the 500 point app booking bonus and you will receive your base points too!

With Hyatt having a small footprint in Europe, your ability to take advantage of this isn’t huge.  If you do have an opportunity to put 25 nights towards Hyatt between now and 30th November you will do exceptionally well out of it.

Full details and registration are here.

(Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from the major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Promos’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.)

News in brief:

50% transfer bonus on HSBC Premier points to Avios

The HSBC Premier credit cards are now the most generous way of earning Avios from a non-Amex.  The free HSBC Premier MasterCard earns 0.5 Avios per £1 whilst the £195 HSBC Premier World Elite MasterCard earns 1 Avios per £1.

The World Elite card comes with a sign-up bonus of 40,000 Avios points so the £195 fee is worth paying!  Details of how the bonus is awarded are here.  You MUST have a HSBC Premier current account to get these cards and the criteria are tough as the linked article explains.

HSBC has just launched a 50% transfer bonus when you move your points to Avios.  This would mean that the World Elite bonus would be worth 60,000 Avios if you transferred it all during a similar bonus.

Details are here on the HSBC site.  Transfers must be completed by 30th November.

£15 one-way Virgin Trains tickets to Edinburgh

Virgin Trains East Coast has launched a new promotion to encourage people who fly between London and Edinburgh to try the train.

Fill in the form on this page of the Virgin Trains website and you will be sent a code allowing you to book a single or return train ticket between London Kings Cross and Edinburgh Waverley, Haymarket, Berwick-upon-Tweed, Dunbar, Inverkeithing, Kirkcaldy, Leuchars, Dundee, Falkirk Grahamston, Stirling, Gleneagles or Perth.

The cost will be £15 each-way in Standard Class and £30 each-way in First Class.  Bookings can be made up to one day before travel.

You need to claim your code by 3rd November and book by 10th November for travel by 16th December.

40% bonus when you buy Hyatt Gold Passport points

Until 25th October, Hyatt is offering a bonus of up to 40% when you buy Gold Passport points.  This is as good a deal as you ever see from Hyatt.

You need to buy 10,000 points to get the full 40% bonus.  Purchases of 5,000+ receive a 30% bonus.  Smaller purchases get nothing.

This is obviously worth a look if you need to top up your account.  It may also be worthwhile if considering a stay in a top tier Park Hyatt such as the ones in Paris or Sydney, where buying the points may be cheaper than paying cash.

The new Park Hyatt resort in Mallorca opened this Summer and looks very impressive, see the photo above.   Prices are a little scary in Summer (rooms from Euro 600-700, or Euro 800-900 if you want a cancellable one) so a redemption at 20,000 points per night ($360 under this offer) would be a good deal.  Even better, ‘cash and points’ is now available for Park Hyatt Mallorca.  This takes a room down to 10,000 points + €114 per night.

The Hyatt ‘buy points’ site is here.

Valuing miles and points is a thankless task.  I wrote this long piece on valuing Avios points but all it does is show you how complex it can be.  I also tend to throw out valuations of hotel points in articles – 0.4p-0.5p for IHG, 1.5p for Starwood, 0.5p for Marriott, 1p for Hyatt, 0.33p for Hilton, 0.5p for Club Carlson – without justification.

Tomorrow, if all goes to plan, we will be flying off to the Middle East – 4 Avios seats in Club World – on holiday.  (Don’t worry, HFP will continue as usual!)

This seemed like a good enough reason to update you on the value I think I get.  For the last three years or so I have been tracking most of my redemptions.  I thought it would be interesting to share some of my findings.

Avios

I have spent 1.7m Avios points in 2016 although this includes some bookings for next year.  The largest redemption was a 420,000 for our Middle East holiday at Easter.  That comprised 4 x Club World down, 4 x First Class back and the use of one 2-4-1 voucher.  That got me 0.8p per point BUT that is based on a VERY conservative valuation of £1,500 for Club World and £2,000 for First.  In reality, I’m not sure I would have found flights that cheap over peak Easter dates.

The best deal was using 30,000 Avios to fly from Palma to Innsbruck on airberlin for four people.  This was on a Saturday in August and cash tickets would have cost us £1,040 looking at my notes.  We had to take this flight so it was a genuine saving.

The rest is a mix of good value short-haul flights, partly personal and partly for HFP, a Club World return to Calgary for my Mum to attend a family wedding, our Dubai flights for this week (4 tickets, all on 2-4-1’s) and 80,000 Avios for a one-way First Class BA flight from New York.  Short-haul flights were valued at the lower of what I would have paid, the cash price on the day or the economy price plus assumed upgrade cost.

Based on my conservative valuations of flight values, I averaged 1.3p per point across the 1.7m Avios.  This was boosted by flights I am taking tomorrow where using 2 x 2-4-1 vouchers allowed me to get 2p per point.

Starwood Preferred Guest

SPG is a tricky one.  I redeemed 170,000 points this year and am about to drop another 30,000 on some Disney On Ice tickets!

I tend to quote 1.5p per point.  My spreadsheet shows that I got 1.6p.  However, because a lot of these were SPG Moments redemptions for O2 concerts tickets in the SPG Suite, it is difficult to put an exact value on that.

The best hotel redemption, by far, was a night at the Aloft in Liverpool.  For a Saturday night, I used 3000 SPG points for a room selling at £169!

Tesco Clubcard

I have also been tracking my Tesco Clubcard redemptions.  As I wrote three years ago, the bulk of my points now go to pay our quarterly Safestore storage bill!  I can’t justify taking Avios when Safestore give me 300% of the face value!

Because 95% of my Tesco redemptions this year were for Safestore vouchers, I got almost exactly 3p per Clubcard point.

American Express Membership Rewards

I continue to get exceptional value for my American Express points but this is due to a quirk which few people can use.  Redeeming at peak times for Jumeirah beach hotels in Dubai sees me getting around 3p per Membership Rewards points.

Jumeirah Sirius is no longer a UK American Express partner but it is a partner with the International $ Card.  As I also have an International $ card, I can move my UK Amex points to the $ card Membership Rewards scheme, get a bonus based on the current exchange rate and redeem from there.  I was lucky enough to move a lot of points to the $ card when the exchange rate was £1 = $1.60 compared to the current $1.30.

I also sent quite a few points to Emirates to redeem for Arsenal football tickets in the Emirates Superbox – it is debatable what value you put on that.  I also got two Eurostar tickets in Standard Premier via transfers to Eurostar Frequent Traveller.  The Eurostar tickets got me around 1p per Amex points based on the cash I saved, although as both trips were for HFP my actual saving is lower because a cash ticket would have been tax deductible.

Other hotel programmes

I didn’t keep the data for this – sorry.

I am still happy with my quoted range of 0.4p – 0.5p per IHG point valuation.  What I realised after paying £96 for breakfast for a family of 4 at the InterContinental London O2 is that you should factor in the impact of that into your valuations.  The breakfast ‘surcharge’ on a B&B cash rate was a lot lower than £96.

My only two Hilton redemptions this year were actually used by Anika on for business purposes – the Hampton at Gatwick and the Hilton at Helsinki Airport.  In both cases I remember that my 0.3p valuation for pretty close to the mark.

The only Club Carlson redemption I did was a night in London at the Park Plaza Westminster Bridge for my brother and his family.  I can’t remember the exact number but it was better than the 0.5p per point I usually quote for Carlson.

I did no Hyatt Gold Passport redemptions although I do have Park Hyatt Vienna booked for later in the year on ‘cash and points’.  This was an excellent deal – saving over €300 for using just 12,500 Hyatt points – but I would never have paid over €400 for a single night at Park Hyatt Vienna in the first place.

Conclusion

I am not trying to ‘prove’ anything with this article, except perhaps to show that the valuations I quote are based on experience.

If you have fewer points that me then you should be able to beat my returns because you are in a position to hold out for the best deal – I tend to use points whenever I can, within reason, if it saves me using cash.  Your value per Avios point will also be a lot higher than mine if you always redeem with a BA Amex 2-4-1 voucher or only ever use points to upgrade.

Lifetime status is a popular perk among the hotel chains.  Hilton HHonors was the latest to jump on the bandwagon last year.

In general, lifetime status usually requires such a high threshold that you would wonder why such a person would ever want to set foot in another hotel ever again if they did not have to!  Despite that, I thought it was worth running through the various options.

At present, Hyatt, Marriott, Starwood and Hilton offer lifetime status.  Club Carlson and IHG Rewards Club do not.

Hilton HHonors launched Lifetime Diamond (top tier) status last year.  You can find the – sparse – details on the Hilton website here.  You need to have been a Diamond member for 10 years, not necessarily consecutive, and to have knocked up a whopping 1,000 nights in Hilton properties!  Reward nights do not count towards lifetime status, unlike standard status qualification.

Hyatt Gold Passport offers Lifetime Diamond (top tier) status to anyone who has earned 1 million base points.  This would require $200,000 of spending.  You must also have been a Hyatt Gold Passport member at any tier for 10 years.  I don’t think this is openly published online.

Marriott Rewards offers lifetime status across all three elite levels of its programme.  It openly publishes the requirements online:

Lifetime Silver requires 250 nights and 1.2 million points

Lifetime Gold requires 500 nights and 1.6 million points

Lifetime Platinum requires 750 nights and 2 million points

Whilst lifetime status is relatively easy to achieve at Silver levels, the corresponding benefits are not huge.  One upside of Marriott lifetime status is that include all points earned, including credit card points, although you still need to hit the nights target.

Starwood Preferred Guest is the only scheme to reward a long period of ‘middling’ (for want of a better word) loyalty.  The Marriott Silver target is more difficult than it looks, because even if you hit the nights target you are still likely to fall short on points unless your stays are generally high value ones.

Lifetime Gold status is available if you have stayed 250 nights and had Gold or Platinum status for at least five (not necessarily consecutive) years

Lifetime Platinum status is available if you have stayed 500 nights and had Platinum status for at least 10 years

As you can obtain Starwood Gold status for free with American Express Platinum – for as long as you keep your Platinum card – this offer is less valuable.  Starwood Gold is also available via the Starwood Preferred Guest American Express card if you spend £15,000 per annum.

In terms of pure spending, the Starwood scheme is the easiest to achieve.  You need to average a pre-tax spend of $400 per night before the Hyatt route became a quicker way to top-tier lifetime status.  2m Marriott points for Platinum would require base spend spending of $133,333 so – unless you spend huge amounts on the Marriott credit card – 750 nights is, in reality, not going to be enough unless your average spend is over $175 per night.

Whose lifetime?

We still do not know what will happen to people who have lifetime Starwood status after the Marriott merger.  The Starwood and Marriott targets for Lifetime Gold and Lifetime Platinum are substantially different, although arguably the smaller Starwood footprint makes their lifetime target harder to achieve.

To be honest, lifetime status with airline or hotel chains has never appealed to me.  I would be happy to accept it as a by-product of stays I was doing anyway but would not chase it.  Ask the former ‘Lifetime Gold’ members of bmi Diamond Club if it was worth spending money chasing that status, which BA promptly scrapped after the takeover.

Even when the company survives, your lifetime status can be downgraded.  American Airlines is adding a new status level, Platinum Pro, from 2017.  This will push Lifetime Platinum status holders further down the pecking order for upgrades.

Lifetime status can even create perverse incentives.  I have a friend who recently achieved Lifetime Gold status with British Airways – it is explained here at ba.com if you want to know more about it.  The requirement for BA lifetime status is 35,000 British Airways tier points which is the equivalent of 145 Club World return trips to New York.

His first move on achieving it was to abandon British Airways on long-haul for what he considers ‘better’ airlines.  If Lifetime Gold did not exist he would definitely continue to put 1,500 tier points a year in BA’s direction in order to retain Galleries First access on short-haul, but that isn’t a problem for him now ….

With the anticipated demise of Starwood Preferred Guest following the merger with Marriott, Hyatt Gold Passport was looking even more attractive for travellers who were prepared to work around their limited number of properties in return for outsize benefits.

Unfortunately, Hyatt has decided that now is the time to relaunch their loyalty scheme.  From 1st March 2017, Hyatt Gold Passport will become World of Hyatt.

As you can see, they did not bother paying a design firm to knock up a classy logo:

The fundamentals of the programme have not changed:

You will still earn 5 base points per $

You can still redeem at the same rates as today

The main changes relate to how you earn status within the programme.

The two current elite levels, Platinum and Diamond, are being replaced by three elite tiers:

Discoverist (10 nights or 25000 base points)

Explorist (30 nights or 50000 base points)

Globalist (60 nights or 100000 base points)

For those who achieve the highest tier, Globalist, the benefits are improved as suites are now included in the rooms available for possible upgrades.  The other elite benefits (premium internet, suite upgrade vouchers confirmable at time of booking, late check-out, guaranteed club access etc) remain.

I will not go into the changes in detail because Gold Passport / World of Hyatt is not a major programme for the majority of Head for Points readers.  Full details can be found on this page of the Hyatt website.

The key issue is how you reach the new elite tiers.

(A slightly less key issue is why the tiers have such silly names – how are you meant to remember whether Discoverist is better or worse than Explorist or Globalist?!)

At present, you can earn elite status with Hyatt based on stays or on nights.  Going forward, it will be based ONLY on nights.

This will make it substantially harder to retain or earn status if you tend to do a lot of one night stays.   Even for US-based travellers, finding yourself in enough Hyatt-friendly cities to manage 60 nights a year will be a stretch.  For travellers outside the US it will be very hard.

At present, for example, the status targets are:

Platinum (5 stays or 15 nights)

Diamond (25 stays or 50 nights)

There will be some people who just manage to qualify for Diamond at present via 25 x 1-night stays who won’t even qualify for the middle tier of Explorist (30 nights) under the new structure.

Look at it another way ….. Marriott requires 75 nights to earn its top tier of Platinum.  However, Marriott has 5700 hotels and that is before you include the Starwood properties which will be added from 2018.  Hyatt will require 60 nights but you will only have 680 properties to choose from.  That isn’t easy.

We will look at World of Hyatt more closely as the 1st March launch date approaches.

More news in brief:

Don’t miss our one-day competition tomorrow

On Monday, Head for Points is giving away a £100 Heathrow shopping voucher.  This is valid in participating shops, restaurants and bars at the airport.

The competition is being sponsored by Official Heathrow Parking.  This is the dedicated airport parking service run directly by Heathrow Airport.  If you are primarily concerned with convenience, Offical Heathrow Parking is by far the easiest parking solution at the airport – letting you park as near as 45 metres from the terminals.

And, at Terminal 5, you can use the cool driverless pods to get to you and from the terminal and the ‘pod parking’ car park!

Don’t forget to visit HFP tomorrow.  You will need to be a UK resident and physically present in the UK to enter.

Second Hyatt Place coming to Heathrow

Hyatt has announced that a second Hyatt Place hotel at Heathrow to complement the existing property in Hayes, will open in 2017.

This hotel will actually be close to the airport!  The company is converting the little known Heathrow Hotel Bath Road, pictured below, into a 350 room Hyatt Place property.  This was previously the Arora International Hotel Heathrow Airport.  It seems that the existing hotel will remain open whilst the work is undertaken.

Using LoungeKey at the Aspire lounge, Heathrow Terminal 5

Following my article yesterday about Lounge Club cards – offered free with American Express Gold – now being accepted at the Aspire lounge in Heathrow Terminal 5, it appears that the lounge has also joined LoungeKey.

The main user of LoungeKey in the UK is HSBC via the HSBC Premier World Elite MasterCard.  Access to the Aspire lounge in Terminal 5 may make the £195 annual fee for this card look better value.

Most frequent flyer schemes allow you to pay to transfer miles to a friend.  It is usually a terrible deal.  The price is often only modestly cheaper than buying miles outright but no new miles are being created – you are paying a high fee simply for the loyalty programme to move them from one account to another!

Here is British Airways pricing for Avios transfers.  Transferring 13,000 Avios points from yourself to a friend will cost a crazy £100.  This is especially crazy given that a) you can issue a reward ticket for someone else from your account and b) you could create a Household Account for free and pool your miles that way.

In general, you should think long and hard before paying to transfer airline miles to someone else.

With the hotel loyalty schemes, it is a totally different game.

Most of the hotel schemes make it very easy to transfer points around – and you often don’t need to pay.  Here are some examples:

Best Western Rewards

The Q&A on the UK website says:  “Yes. Points can be transferred between accounts that share the same physical address. To arrange a point transfer, please contact our Rewards Team at rewards@bestwestern.co.uk”.  Easy.

Club Carlson

Club Carlson used to be super-generous – any transfer, to anyone, for free. Whilst that is no longer the case, it is still pretty good. If you have status, you can still transfer anything to anyone for free.

If you are not elite (Amex Platinum comes with free Club Carlson Gold status) you can transfer points to anyone who has shared your address for at least 30 days, as long as both accounts are at least a year old. Details are on the website here.

Hilton HHonors

I have, once, paid to transfer Hilton HHonors points. They were sitting in my account about to expire so the $25 fee for transferring 10,000 was worthwhile – they are worth double that when redeemed.

The minimum transfer is $12.50 for 5,000 points.  You can transfer to anyone BUT both accounts need to have had some activity in the last 30 days.  One way to do this is to book and cancel a reward – as free nights start at 5,000 points this is not an issue.

The form for transferring points is here (log-in required).

Hyatt Gold Passport

Hyatt points can be transferred to any other member by filling in this PDF form. You can only make a transfer once every 30 days. In theory you are meant to redeem them as soon as the transfer is complete but my understanding is that this is not enforced. In any event, you could simply book a redemption room and then cancel it. There is (a little) more information on the Gold Passport site here.

IHG Rewards Club

You can transfer points to anyone else for a flat fee of $5 per 1,000.  I did this once to top up my Mum’s account from 14,000 to 15,000 for a redemption – in this scenario it was definitely $5 well spent (buying 1,000 would have been $13.50).  The link to arrange transfers is here.

Le Club AccorHotels

Accor points cannot be transferred.

Marriott Rewards

Marriott allows you to transfer your points to anyone.  There is a flat fee of $10 but this is waived if you have status.  Full details are here.  (EDIT: a comment below implies transfers are now free for everyone although the website has not been updated.)

There is a cap of 50,000 points per year unless the points are being combined with those of another member and redeemed immediately.

Starwood Preferred Guest

This is a very valuable option because of SPG’s good value airline transfers (1:1 or 1:1.25 for chunks of 20,000).  If your partner has SPG points, they can be transferred to you and you can then send them to your frequent flyer account (or vice versa).  You can also pool balances to get one of the accounts over 20,000 points, which triggers the additional 5,000 miles bonus when transferred to an airline.

The link to arrange transfers is here.  Points must be moved in chunks of 1,000.  Both accounts must have had the same home address for at least 30 days.  If this is a problem, move your Starwood points to Marriott and do a transfer under the Marriott rules.

It was due a return and now it is back.  I’m talking about the ‘bonus when you transfer your hotel loyalty points to British Airways Avios‘ promotion.

The ba.com page for the offer can be found here.

The bonus is usually 25%.  This time, as they did in Summer 2016, when you transfer hotel loyalty points to British Airways, you get a 35% bonus.

There are a few simple rules you must follow:

Rule 1: You must convert your hotel points to Avios (at ba.com, not avios.com) before 8th March.  8th March is the date by which the points must leave your hotel account, not arrive at ba.com

Rule 2: Only transfers from the following hotel programmes count:

• Club Carlson
• Hilton Honors
• Hyatt Gold Passport
• IHG Rewards Club
• Marriott Rewards
• Shangri-La Golden Circle
• Starwood Preferred Guest

Le Club AccorHotels is NOT included but that is normally the case.

Rule 3: There are minimum transfer requirements in theory, but these are the same as the lowest possible transfer out of that programme.  Nothing has changed compared to the normal transfer rules.

Rule 4: Only lump sum transfers of existing points get the bonus. Points earned directly from stays (ie 500 Avios for a stay at a Hilton property) do not attract the bonus as they would fall under the minimum transfer threshold.

Rule 5: You can make multiple transfers from multiple programmes and, based on past experience, all will attract the bonus.

So, is this a good deal or not?

I am normally a bit sceptical about this offer when it runs at 25%.  In general, a 25 per cent bonus is not enough – for any promotion – to make a bad deal a great deal.  At 35% we should look more closely.

In general, hotel points are best redeemed for hotel stays. Let’s look at the points needed for a high category room redemption, worth £250 a night.  The Avios conversion does not include the 35 per cent bonus.

Club Carlson – 70,000 points = 7,000 Avios

Hilton Honors – 80,000 to 90,000 points = 8,000 to 9,000 Avios

Hyatt Gold Passport – 25,000 to 30,000 points = 10,000 Avios to 12,500 Avios

IHG Rewards Club – 50,000 to 60,000 points = 10,000 to 12,000 Avios

Marriott Rewards – 45,000 points = 12,000 Avios

Shangri-La Golden Circle – 9,500 points (Shard, Paris, Maldives cost double) = 9,500 Avios

Starwood Preferred Guest – 25,000 to 30,000 points = 30,000 to 35,000 Avios

Looking at these numbers, you are probably better leaving large stashes of hotel points where they are.

With the Hyatt, Marriott and IHG examples, you are trading a £250 hotel room for (12,000 * 1.35) 16,200 Avios points.  That still isn’t a great deal.

The only exception is Starwood Preferred Guest.  Starwood has always been uncompetitive for high end redemptions versus airline miles and even without a transfer bonus miles look a decent option!   I think you get a better deal from 47,250 Avios than one 30,000 SPG points night in a top Starwood hotel.  Personally, though, I prefer to use my SPG points for items such as concert tickets via SPG Moments.

Be careful with Starwood v Marriott

If you are thinking of converting Starwood or Marriott points, you need to do some jiggly maths first.  You can now convert SPG points to Marriott at 1:3, or vice versa.  It may be a better deal to move your miles from one programme to the other first, as each has different Avios transfer arrangements.  There is no right answer here as it depends entirely on how many points you have in each scheme.

Note that if you redeem for one of the ludicrously good value Marriott Travel Package rewards, you will get a 35% bonus on the Avios element of the package!

For a small amount of points it is a different game

A couple of years ago I tidied up some of my small hotel balances by converting to Avios, often topping up first from American Express Membership Rewards, and didn’t regret it. If you will never earn enough for a free room, you might as well convert and a 35 per cent bonus is a good excuse.

The other thing to remember is that the hotel chains convert to many airline programmes, often over 20.  You may get a 35 per cent bonus via Avios, but perhaps topping off another account may be more useful?  If you had a huge volume of hotel points, you may be able to get enough points from scratch in, say, the American Airlines programme for a tax-free UK to US redemption.  Avios are not always the answer.

Here is my final thought:

You can transfer IHG Rewards Club points to someone else for $5 per 1000, Hilton points for $25 per 10,000 (and this will be FREE from later in the Spring) and SPG and Carlson points for free if you share an address.  Hyatt points can be pooled if you ring and redeem them immediately.  Marriott transfers are reportedly now free although the website still quotes $10.

Perhaps a transfer to a friend who can use a larger total for a hotel room is a better deal than Avios, even with the bonus?

PS.  Tomorrow I will look at whether, given some of the current promotions on buying hotel points, there is an arbitrage available.  Can you buy hotel points with a big bonus and then transfer them on to Avios for another bonus?

News in brief:

40% bonus (targeted) when you buy Hyatt Gold Passport points

The new ‘World of Hyatt’ loyalty programme is gearing up to launch and this might be the last mention of Hyatt Gold Passport on Head for Points!

Until 17th February, you can get a 40% bonus when you buy Hyatt Gold Passport points.  The deal is targeted but widely available as far as I can tell.

This is obviously worth a look if you need to top up your account.  It may also be worthwhile if considering a stay in a top tier Park Hyatt such as the ones in Tokyo, Paris or Sydney, where buying the points may be cheaper than paying cash.

The new Park Hyatt resort in Mallorca, photo below, is another possibility.   Prices are scary in August (rooms from Euro 680, or Euro 850 if you want a cancellable one) so a redemption at 20,000 points per night ($336 of bought points) would be a VERY good deal.

Importantly, Hyatt has ‘last room availability’ for reward nights so if the cheapest room category is available for cash, you can have it for points.

The Hyatt ‘buy points’ site is here.

Interesting 2-4-1 deal at the two London Jumeirah hotels

The Dubai-based hotel group Jumeirah operates two hotels in London.  Both are situated in Knightsbridge and are literally 30 seconds apart; I think you can even cross-charge.

Jumeirah Carlton Tower is just off Sloane Street and overlooks Cadogan Square.  It is a ’60’s tower which has been smartly refurbished – I had a night there a couple of years ago.  Jumeirah Lowndes is a contemporary boutique hotel just around the corner.   Both are very high-end properties.

Until 22nd March, you can book two nights for the price of one between Thursday and Monday.  The rate can only be booked via this page.

You need to be a member of the Jumeirah Sirius reward scheme to take advantage of this deal, but membership is free.

The 2-4-1 deal is priced off the Best Available Rate.  The good news is that these special rates are cancellable, the bad news is that it is not strictly 2-4-1 if you compare it with non-refundable rates on the same night.  That said, it is still excellent value.  Suites are included.

Thanks to Adeel for this.

Air France launches flights to The Maldives

Finally, Air France is launching flights to The Maldives from 1st November.

This is a toe in the water exercise with just two flights per week this winter.  If you have a stack of Flying Blue miles this might be an interesting redemption option, especially as the British Airways flights to Male are hard to get on Avios.

You can check times and pricing on the Air France site here.

(EDIT: there was a mistake in my Starwood calculation which is now fixed, apologies.)

Until 8th March, British Airways is offering a 35% bonus if you transfer hotel points from seven major loyalty schemes into Avios – click for my article on that deal.

Since most of the hotel programmes allow you to buy points – and some currently have special offers – I thought it would be interesting to see if any of the deals were so good that you were effectively buying cheap Avios points by buying hotel points.

Here are the deals currently running:

Ends TODAY – 100% bonus when you buy IHG points via this link (open to all)

Ends TODAY – 80% bonus when you buy Hilton Honors points via this link (open to all)

Ends TODAY – 40% bonus when you buy Hyatt Gold Passport points via this link (widely targetted)

Test 1:  Starwood Preferred Guest – link to buy points

There is no bonus on buying Starwood points at present.  Ironically, it is still the best deal on this page!

Starwood points convert at 1:1 into airline miles.  When you convert 20,000 at once, you receive a bonus of 5,000 miles.  The extra 35% bonus from the British Airways promotion is on top of this.

Until 8th March, the maths looks like this:

Buy 20,000 Starwood points for $700 (£564, plus any FX fees on your credit card)

20,000 Starwood points gets you 25,000 Avios

The 35% bonus takes that up to 33,750 Avios

Cost per Avios point = 1.67p per point

This is still more expensive than buying points at the standard BA rate of 1.6p,

Note that your Starwood account must be 14 days old before you can buy points so this is not an option if you do not already have SPG membership.

Remember that you can now transfer Marriott Rewards points into Starwood Preferred Guest at the rate of 3:1.

Test 2: Club Carlson – link to buy points

Club Carlson devalued its conversion rate to airline miles four years ago and was never going to be a contender here at the standard rate.

40,000 Club Carlson points will cost you $280 (£223). These would convert into 4,000 miles + 35% = 5,400 miles. Cost per Avios = 4.13p.

Verdict: Terrible

Test 3: Hilton HHonors – link to buy points

Given the pathetic conversion rate of Hilton points to Avios (10:1) this was never going to be a good deal even with the 80% bonus which ends today.

10,000 Hilton points costs $100 (£80). Transfers into 1,000 Avios + 35% = 1,350 miles. Cost per Avios point = 5.93p

Verdict: Terrible

Test 4: Hyatt Gold Passport – link to buy points

10,000 Hyatt points costs $240 (£192).  If you are targetted for the current 40% bonus which ends today, this means you would receive 14,000 points for the same money.

This transfers into 4,000 Avios + 35% = 7,560 Avios points.  Cost per Avios points = 2.53p

Verdict: Pointless

Test 5: IHG Rewards Club – link to buy points

IHG is currently offering a bonus of 100% when you buy points.  This offer ends today.

30,000 IHG Rewards Club points costs $345 (£276).  This doubles to 60,000 points and transfers into 12,000 Avios + 35% = 16,200 Avios.  Cost per Avios = 1.70p

Verdict:  Still more than you would pay buying the Avios directly from BA

Test 6: Marriott Rewards – link to buy points

30,000 Marriott Rewards points costs $375 (£300).  This transfers into 10,000 Avios + 35% = 13,500 miles.  Cost per Avios = 2.22p

Verdict: Also no use, more expensive than buying directly from BA

Test 7: Shangri-La Golden Circle

You cannot buy Golden Circle points, as far as I can tell

Conclusion

None of these options offer any real value for buying points purely for the purposes of transferring them to BA.

If you are looking for a cheap top up, the best option at the moment is the Groupon / Iberia offer.

Our monthly credit card round-up has always been a popular article, so I’ve decided to trial a similar monthly round-up of the best hotel offers from the major chains.

All of the information in this article can be found on our ‘Hotel Promos’ page which contains details of all of the current offers, together with links to our major articles on each hotel scheme.

Where should you credit your stays this month?

IHG (Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, InterContinental, Indigo, Staybridge Suites etc):

The Spring version of IHG’s ‘Accelerate’ is probably the best choice for most people with lighter schedules.  As targets are personalised it is totally dependent on what you were offered but you should be able to rack up a significant number of bonus points with just a few stays.

‘Accelerate’ runs until 15th April.  This was the article I wrote on it.

Everyone has individual targets, but they are generally fairly easy.  You can earn around 30,000 bonus points with the points starting to flow from your first stay.

My wife, for example, got this for 41,000 points:

• 3,000 points on her next stay
• 1,000 points for a stay in January
• 10,000 points for staying five nights
• 2,000 points for applying for an IHG Rewards Club credit card
• 3,600 points for booking a Bonus Points Package
• 21,400 points for completing three of the four targets above excluding the January bonus

This is exceptionally easy.  All she has to do is make ONE stay, for one night, on a Bonus Points Package rate!  As long as she also applies for the free IHG credit card, that will be 30,000 points banked.

You need to register for ‘Accelerate’ – the link is in the article above.

Hilton (Hampton, Conrad, Waldorf-Astoria etc):

The Hilton offer also looks good.  You will receive 2,000 bonus Hilton Honors points per night, which I would value at £6-£8.  This offer stacks with the ‘earn up to quadruple Avios’ deal so you can earn both on the same stay.

I wrote about the ‘doubling up’ aspect of this offer last week.  Here is my main article on the ‘2000 points’ offer.

Both of these offers run until 30th April.  Importantly, the ‘2,000 bonus points’ offer kicks in from your first stay so it is a bonus you can hit even if you’re only doing one stay over the next few weeks.

Both offers need registration – the links are in the articles above.

Club Carlson (Radisson Blu, Park Inn, Park Plaza, Radisson Red):

For hotel stays before 31st March, the Club Carlson offer is attractive too.  You will receive 5,000 points, worth £15-£20 on my valuations, per night.  The only snag is having to guess in advance how many nights you will do in the quarter.

Anika used this in Hamburg recently and picked up 14,000 points for a weekend stay that cost her under £200 which was a good return.

Full details are in this article.  Remember that Carlson points can be topped up at a generous 1:3 ratio by American Express Membership Rewards points.

Starwood (St Regis, Westin, Sheraton, Element, W, Luxury Collection etc) and Marriott (Renaissance, Ritz-Carlton etc):

This is less exciting, unless you have an expensive stay planed.

Starwood and Marriott are basically running the same promotion following their merger – double points for your first three stays at each chain.  It certainly isn’t a reason for shifting business to either chain but you should obviously register if you will be doing a stay anyway.

You must register by 15th March even though both offers run until 15th April.  Full details are in this article.

World of Hyatt and Le Club AccorHotels:

Neither is running a global promotion at the moment.  Le Club AccorHotels is running a 3-4-2 promotion for bookings made by 28th March – see here for details.

Points-based online travel agents

If you need to book an independent hotel instead of a chain, don’t forget these offers from the ‘we pay you a load of miles for booking’ hotel bookers.  Click to read the relevant article:

Up to 15,000 bonus Avios with Agoda PointsMAX (book by 31st March, stay by 30th June)

50% bonus Etihad Guest miles with Kaligo.com  (book by 30th April, stay by 31st December)  

50% bonus Virgin Flying Club miles with Kaligo.com  (book by 31st March, stay dates unknown)  

You can, of course, also book chain hotels via these sites but you won’t receive points in the hotels own programme or any status benefits you are due.  This is because they are treated as non-qualifying third-party bookings by the chains who want you to book direct.

Conclusion

There are plenty of options out there this month.  My personal preference amongst these ‘big chain’ options is IHG’s Accelerate or the combination of Hilton’s ‘2000 points’ and ‘quadruple Avios’ offers.

PS.  If you booking a luxury hotel, remember that we can offer you exclusive additional benefits at Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, Peninsula and similar hotels.  Click here for details of our luxury hotel booking service in association with Bon Vivant / Virtuoso.

News in brief:

Many decent offers closing today, 31st March

We’ll be running our fortnightly ‘offers closing soon’ article over the weekend.  There are a slug of good deals which finish TODAY, however, and I wanted to highlight a few in case you still want to jump in.

If you want to redeem Avios points on Air Malta or Aurigny, today is your last day – Article

It is the last day to buy some shirts from Charles Tyrhwitt and earn 8 Avios per £1 – Article

It is the last day to earn 13,200 Avios with an Economist subscription – Article

It is the last day to earn bonus Avios booking hotels with Agoda PointsMAX, for stays by 30th June – Article

It is the last day to earn 50% bonus Virgin miles with a Kaligo.com hotel booking – Article

It is the last day to buy easyJet Plus membership before the price rises – Article

‘World of Hyatt’ launches its first promotion

Hyatt Gold Passport relaunched as World of Hyatt a few weeks ago.  I have just finished a comprehensive two-part article on the new scheme which will run over Easter and will explain what I think are the strengths and weaknesses.

In the meantime, registration is now open for the first World of Hyatt promotion.  It is a little underwhelming, to be honest.

(My gut feeling with Hyatt is that, with Starwood now out of the picture, they are content to be a follower and not a leader.  When your competitors consolidate and become less aggressive, you have two choices – become more aggressive yourself to try to win share from them, or choose to coast in their shadow and ease off the gas.  Hyatt seems to be doing the latter.)

Called ‘Double Points for Being You’ (?!), it is a simple offer.  You will receive double World of Hyatt base points on all stays between 1st April and 30th June, starting with your second stay.

I would have preferred to see double points on all stays, to be honest – it does nothing to encourage a booking for a light stayer, or someone who is rarely near a Hyatt (they only have 700 hotels globally, after all).  You need to register in advance via this page.

SAS sells Heathrow slots for $75m

Via Air Transport World and Business Traveller comes news that Scandinavian airline SAS has sold two of its 19 Heathrow slot pairs for $75m between them.

The buyer is unknown.  As SAS will remain in situ for three years, it is presumably a carrier who does not currently have the necessary aircraft.  As Heathrow slots will become worthless when the third runway opens, it is almost certainly a long-haul airline and one that believes it can sell enough seats each day to recover the investment over 10 years or so.

My money would be on Etihad.   Their three daily Heathrow departures do not match the scale of their ambitions, although the airline is currently making financial cutbacks elsewhere.

Qatar?  As a major BA shareholder and codeshare partner they could simply do a deal to lease additional slots from BA.

Emirates?  Add in the Qantas codeshare flights and the fact that they are ‘all A380’ and you must assume they are at the limits of what they need – unless they want to switch the Gatwick services across.

Virgin?   They already have spare slots at Heathrow which are leased out, some to IAG IIRC

Delta?  As above, given they are a 49% Virgin shareholder

AA?  Same as with Qatar, I am sure BA could come to some arrangement for less than $75m.  In any event, the slots are probably not early morning landing slots as they are more expensive (Oman Air paid $75m for ONE pair of early morning landing rights last year).

Cathay?  They are in financial difficulties and unlikely to be doubling down on Heathrow – although they could move their Gatwick flight over.

We will find out in time.  Prices like these make it clear that British Airways got an amazing deal when it bought bmi British Midland, and that the Star Alliance airlines were foolish not to come together to buy it and divvy up the slots between themselves.

It is time for my annual update of the full list of hotel chains which let you collect Avios points when you stay.

(I ran a sister article to this in November which listed hotel chains which do NOT award Avios points but DO give Virgin Flying Club miles.)

Whilst British Airways has its own partner hotels, Iberia Plus has its own, different, list. And, with the number of different hotel groupings, it is not always easy to know if your hotel is part of a bigger grouping that lets you earn Avios points.

This post is my best attempt at listing every hotel chain that lets you collect Avios points.  Please let me know of any errors or omissions in the comments at the bottom!

All earnings rates are for BA unless stated otherwise. Where I mention an Iberia Plus earning rate, this is because BA does not support that hotel chain.

Hilton and Accor are now the only chains where you earn more Avios in Iberia Plus than in British Airways Executive Club – you can learn more about how that works here.

The only groups that allow you to collect directly into avios.com accounts are Marriott and Accor.

You can find out more about the British Airways Executive Club hotel partners via ba.com here.

The Avios-earning hotel directory:

AC Hotels (Marriott) – 1 Avios per $1 on room only or transfer Marriott Rewards points (3)

Adagio (Accor) – 0.5 Avios per €1 or transfer Le Club AccorHotels points (1)

all seasons (Accor) – 0.5 Avios per €1 or transfer Le Club AccorHotels points (1)

aloft (Starwood) – 2 Avios per $1 or transfer Starwood Preferred Guest points (2)

Andaz (Hyatt) – 500 Avios per stay or transfer World of Hyatt points

Atlantis The Palm (Kerzner) – 2 Avios per $1

Autograph (Marriott) – 2 Avios per $1 or transfer Marriott Rewards points (3)

Barceló Hotels (Barceló) – 150-750 Avios per night in Iberia Plus only

Bestay Hotel Express (Jin Jiang) – J-Club points can be converted to Avios

Candlewood Suites (IHG) – 1 Avios per $1 or transfer IHG Rewards Club points (6)

Canopy (Hilton) – 1 Avios per $1 – see note (5) – or transfer Hilton Honors points

Conrad (Hilton) – 1 Avios per $1 – see note (5) – or transfer Hilton Honors points

Cordis Hotels (Langham) – 500 Avios per night

Courtyard by Marriott (Marriott) – 1 Avios per $1 on room only or transfer Marriott Rewards points (3)

Crowne Plaza (IHG) – 2 Avios per $1 or transfer IHG Rewards Club points (6)

Curio Collection (Hilton) – 1 Avios per $1 – see note (5) – or transfer Hilton Honors points

Delta Hotels (Marriott) – 2 Avios per $1 on room only or transfer Marriott Rewards points (3)

Derby Hotels (a Spanish group) – 225-900 Avios per night in Iberia Plus only (4)

Design Hotels (Starwood) – 2 Avios per $1 or transfer Starwood Preferred Guest points when booked via spg.com

Doubletree (Hilton) – 1 Avios per $1 – see note (5) – or transfer Hilton Honors points

Eaton Hotels (Langham) – 250 Avios per night

EDITION (Marriott) – 2 Avios per $1 on room only or transfer Marriott Rewards points (3)

element (Starwood) – 2 Avios per $1 or transfer Starwood Preferred Guest points (2)

Embassy Suites (Hilton) – 1 Avios per $1 – see note (5) – or transfer Hilton Honors points

EVEN Hotels (IHG) – 1 Avios per $1 or transfer IHG Rewards Club points (6)

Fairfield Inn (Marriott) – 1 Avios per $1 on room only or transfer Marriott Rewards points (3)

Fairmont (Fairmont) – up to 1000 Avios per stay

Fiesta Americana Hotels (Fiesta) – 2,000 Avios for a 2+ night stay or transfer Fiesta Rewards points

Fiesta Inn Hotels (Fiesta) – 2,000 Avios for a 2+ night stay or transfer Fiesta Rewards points

Four Points (Starwood) – 2 Avios per $1 or transfer Starwood Preferred Guest points (2)

Gamma Hoteles (Fiesta) – transfer Fiesta Rewards points

Gaylord (Marriott) – 2 Avios per $1 on room only or transfer Marriott Rewards points (3)

Goldmet Inn (Jin Jiang) – J-Club points can be converted to Avios

Grand Fiesta Americana Hotels (Fiesta) – 2,000 Avios for a 2+ night stay or transfer Fiesta Rewards points

Grand Melia (Melia) – 525 Avios per night in Iberia Plus only or convert MAS points

Hace Hoteles (Hace) – 450-600 Avios per stay in Iberia Plus only

Hampton by Hilton (Hilton) – 1 Avios per $1 – see note (5) – or transfer Hilton Honors points

Hesperia (NH) – 200-450 Avios per NIGHT in Iberia Plus only

Hilton / Hilton Garden Inn (Hilton) – 1 Avios per $1 – see note (5) – or transfer Hilton Honors points

Holiday Inn Express (IHG) – 1 Avios per $1 or transfer IHG Rewards Club points (6)

Holiday Inn (IHG) – 1 Avios per $1 or transfer IHG Rewards Club points (6)

Home2Suites (Hilton) – 1 Avios per $1 with a cap of 100 Avios – see note (5) – or transfer Hilton Honors points

Homewood Suites (Hilton) – 1 Avios per $1 – see note (5) – or transfer Hilton Honors points

Hotel Indigo (IHG) – 2 Avios per $1 in BA or 1 Avios per $1 in Iberia Plus or transfer IHG Rewards Club points (6)

Hoteles Center (Center) – 225-900 Avios per night in Iberia Plus only

Hoteles Elba (Elba) – 150-750 Avios per stay in Iberia Plus only

Hyatt and all Hyatt sub-brands (Hyatt) – 500 Avios per stay or transfer World of Hyatt points

Iberostar – 150 Avios per night in Iberia Plus only

Ibis / Ibis Styles (Accor) – 0.625 Avios per €1 or transfer Le Club AccorHotels points (1)

Innside (Melia) – 225 Avios per night in Iberia Plus only or convert MAS points

InterContinental (IHG) – 500 Avios per stay outside North America and 2 Avios per $1 elsewhere or transfer IHG Rewards Club points (6)

Jin Jiang Hotels (Jin Jiang) – J-Club points can be converted to Avios

JW Marriott (Marriott) – 2 Avios per $1 or transfer Marriott Rewards points (3)

Kerry Hotels (Shangri-La) – 500 Avios per stay or convert Golden Circle Award Points

Kimpton Hotels (IHG) – to be integrated into IHG at some point, but they are not in a hurry …..

Langham / Langham Place (Langham) – 500 Avios per night

Le Meridien (Starwood) – 2 Avios per $1 or transfer Starwood Preferred Guest points (2)

Live Aqua Hotels (Fiesta Rewards) – 2,000 Avios for a 2+ night stay or transfer Fiesta Rewards points

Luxury Collection (Starwood) – 2 Avios per $1 or transfer Starwood Preferred Guest points (2)

Mandarin Oriental (Mandarin Oriental) – 800 Avios per stay plus extra benefits for BA Silver and Gold members

Marriott Executive Apartments (Marriott) – 1 Avios per $1 on room only in BA or transfer Marriott Rewards points (3)

Marriott (Marriott) – 2 Avios per $1 or transfer Marriott Rewards points (3)

Mazagan Beach & Golf Resort, Morocco (Kerzner) – 2 Avios per $1

ME (Melia) – 525 Avios per night in Iberia Plus only or convert MAS points

Melia (Melia) – 225 Avios per night in Iberia Plus only or convert MAS points

Mercure (Accor) – 1.25 Avios per €1 or transfer Le Club AccorHotels points (1)

Metropoli (Rusticae) – 300-750 Avios per night in Iberia Plus only

MGallery (Accor) – 1.25 Avios per €1 or transfer Le Club AccorHotels points (1)

Moxy (Marriott) – 1 Avios per $1 on room only or transfer Marriott Rewards points (3)

NH Hoteles (NH) – 200-450 Avios per NIGHT in Iberia Plus only

nhow (NH) – 350-450 Avios per NIGHT in Iberia Plus only

Novotel (Accor) – 1.25 Avios per €1 or transfer Le Club AccorHotels points (1)

Occidental (Occidental) – 150-750 Avios per stay in Iberia Plus only

One&Only Resorts (Kerzner) – 2 Avios per $1

One Hoteles (Fiesta) – transfer Fiesta Rewards points

Paradisus (Melia) – 525 Avios per night in Iberia Plus only or convert MAS points

Paradores (Paradores) – 400 – 1,125 Avios per stay in Iberia Plus only

Park Inn (Carlson) – 500 Avios per stay or transfer Club Carlson points

Park Plaza (Carlson) – 500 Avios per stay or transfer Club Carlson points

Preferred Hotels inc Legend, LVX, Lifestyle, Conneect (Preferred Hotels) – 500 Avios per stay (4)

Protea (Marriott) – 1 Avios per $1 on room only or transfer Marriott Rewards points (3)

Pullman (Accor) – 1.25 Avios per €1 or transfer Le Club AccorHotels points (1)

Radisson Blu / Red (Carlson) – 500 Avios per stay or transfer Club Carlson points

Raffles (Raffles) – 500 Avios per stay

Renaissance (Marriott) – 2 Avios per $1 or transfer Marriott Rewards points (3)

Residence Inn (Marriott) – 1 Avios per $1 on room only or transfer Marriott Rewards points (3)

Ritz-Carlton (Marriott) – 2 Avios per $1 on room only or transfer Marriott Rewards points (3)

Rusticae (Rusticae) – 300-750 Avios per night in Iberia Plus only

Shangri-La (Shangri-La) – 500 Avios per stay or convert Golden Circle Award Points

Sheraton (Starwood) – 2 Avios per $1 or transfer Starwood Preferred Guest points (2)

Small Luxury Hotels of the World – 500 Avios per stay (4)

Sofitel (Accor) – 1.25 Avios per €1 or transfer Le Club AccorHotels points (1)

Sol (Melia) – 150 Avios per night in Iberia Plus only or convert MAS points

SpringHill Suites (Marriott) – 1 Avios per $1 on room only in BA or transfer Marriott Rewards points (3)

St Regis (Starwood) – 2 Avios per $1 or transfer Starwood Preferred Guest points (2)

Staybridge Suites (IHG) – 1 Avios per $1 or transfer IHG Rewards Club points (6)

Swissotel (Swissotel) – 500 Avios per stay

Taj (Taj) – 500 Avios per stay

Tapestry Collection (Hilton) – 1 Avios per $1 – see note (5) – or transfer Hilton Honors points

Thalasso Sea & Spa (Accor) – 0.625 Avios per €1 or transfer Le Club AccorHotels points (1)

The Gateway (Taj) – 250 Avios per stay

TownePlace Suites (Marriott) – 1 Avios per $1 on room only or transfer Marriott Rewards points (3)

Traders (Shangri-La) – 500 Avios per stay or convert Golden Circle Award Points

Tribute Collection (Starwood) – 2 Avios per $1 or transfer Starwood Preferred Guest points (4)

Tryp (Melia) – 225 Avios per night in Iberia Plus only or convert MAS points

Unbound Collection (Hyatt) – 500 Avios per stay or transfer World of Hyatt points (4)

Vivanta by Taj (Taj) – 250 Avios per stay

W (Starwood) – 2 Avios per $1 or transfer Starwood Preferred Guest points (2)

Waldorf-Astoria (Hilton) – 1 Avios per $1 – see note (5) – or transfer Hilton Honors points

Westin (Starwood) – 2 Avios per $1 or transfer Starwood Preferred Guest points (2)

Worldhotels (Worldhotels) – 1,000 Avios per stay in Iberia Plus only (4)

Notes:

(1) – The transfer rate of Accor points to Iberia Plus is 1:1 whilst the transfer rate to British Airways to 2:1

(2) – You must be a member of Starwood Preferred Guest to earn Avios. You can set your account to have points directly deposited to BA after each stay. Gold and Platinum SPG members earn 3 Avios per $1.

(3) – You must be a member of Marriott Rewards to earn Avios. You can set your account to have points directly deposited to BA after each stay.

(4) – Hotels in this grouping are all independently named but display this branding somewhere in their promotional material

(5) – You need to set your Hilton Honors account ‘Points & Miles’ to earn airline miles (you will also earn some Hilton points as well). Note that if you credit to Virgin Atlantic instead of Avios you will earn twice the miles (2 per $1).

(6) – You must be a member of IHG Rewards Club to earn Avios

Starting tomorrow and continuing over Easter, I am running updated versions of our overviews of the major hotel loyalty schemes.   Every single scheme has seen big changes since I last looked at this two years ago.  Each programme will be covered in two articles on consecutive days:

The first article will look at ‘the facts’, such as the number of nights required to earn status.

The second article will be a discussion of the best and worst aspects of that programme.

At the end, I will take another look at Hotels.com and its Hotels.com Rewards programme which may be an alternative answer for some people.

If you are looking for a simple answer to the question of which scheme to join, you will be disappointed.  Sorry!

Different people want different things from a hotel loyalty scheme:

If your employer pays the bills, you are unlikely to bothered about free internet or free breakfast. (In fact, by lowering your nightly bill, such perks would be a hindrance as they would lower your points earning!)

If you want to redeem in luxury properties, you are going to struggle with schemes like Club Carlson which do not have much top-end coverage

If you want global coverage, you will struggle with World of Hyatt and its modest coverage in much of the world, including second-tier European cities

If guaranteed upgrades and status benefits are what you want, you are unlikely to go wild about IHG Rewards Club

If you have an American Express Platinum card, you will already have Gold or equivalent status in Starwood Preferred Guest, Hilton Honors, Melia Rewards, Shangri-La Golden Circle and Club Carlson so you may be focussed more on the best redemption options rather than chasing tier points

…. and so on.

The other issue when comparing hotel schemes is that the points you earn are heavily skewed by bonus promotions which change every quarter. I could have done a complex mathematical table to show how much you need to spend in each hotel to get a free night. However, realistically, a large percentage of your points will come from the bonus point promotions I list on the Head for Points ‘Hotel Promos’ page.

The list of current bonus promotions may also encourage you to ‘hotel hop’, either between hotels in the same chain or different ones. For promos based on stays, you could swap between hotel A and B every night to maximise your stay count. This may be worthwhile based on the current promotions, but consider the inconvenience first.

There is one other issue which rarely comes up in these comparisons. Life is short, and it isn’t worth massively inconveniencing yourself purely for the points. If you have the choice of spending two weeks in a brand new Holiday Inn or a 20-year old unrefurbished Marriott, you should take the Holiday Inn, irrespective of points or status! Unless you were getting back late and leaving early every day, rarely being awake in the room.

(Despite having large amounts of hotel points, I tend to pay cash when travelling with my family unless the ‘cash to points’ ratio is extreme.  I don’t like to compromise on location, room size or hotel facilities when we travel together.  On the other hand, I very rarely pay cash when travelling on my own as the compromises involved are far easier to deal with.)

My PERSONAL view

To set the stage for the discussion that will follow, here is my personal take on the major hotel programmes. It is hugely unlikely that you will agree with me!  I will be exploring these points in more detail in the coming days.

Club Carlson

The scheme is six years old now and has matured, to the extent that they were even confident enough to cut their ‘points to airline miles’ conversion rate overnight.  It has the most generous earning rate from ‘normal’ spending and runs some simple but valuable promotions such as the recent ‘5000 bonus points per night’ offer. Gold status is free to Amex Platinum holders. There is a surprisingly good selection of solid 4- and 5-star London hotels, although there are massive gaps in their high-end portfolio elsewhere in the world, in particular the US.  It has a very generous Amex transfer ratio of 1:3 – it is one of the best uses of Amex Membership Rewards points.

Main use for me:  for booking hotel rooms for visiting friends and family in London, using points transferred across from American Express.

Hilton Honors

The recent changes to Hilton Honors have yet to bed down so my view on the programme may change over the next year or so.  It is easy to obtain Hilton Gold status, either via a status match, from Amex Platinum or by spending £10,000 on the Hilton Visa.  Hilton Gold is still the best mid-tier card to hold as you still get free breakfast and an upgrade of some sort, albeit often just to ‘best view’ in category booked.  I value the ability to transfer in Amex Membership Rewards points and as a last resort Virgin miles.   It is now a more serious luxury player in Europe following Waldorf-Astoria Amsterdam and Berlin and, to a lesser extent, Hilton Paris Opera.  Don’t judge the chain by its often lacklustre UK regional hotels.

Main use for me:  high-end redemptions in London for family, New York (Conrad is all-suite and so a great choice) or in Asia, using points earned from cash stays or Amex transfers.

IHG Rewards Club

This is my favourite redemption option due to the number of very good InterContinental hotels in places I like to visit, and costing no more than 60,000 points per night.  I also value my Ambassador membership because of the guaranteed benefits such as 4pm check-out and the free weekend night certificate.  The group has fantastic coverage almost everywhere and runs regular bonus point promotions such as Accelerate.  However, you will receive almost zero status recognition with an IHG Rewards Club Spire Elite or Platinum card except at some Crowne Plaza hotels.  The bottom line is that you are trading off higher points earning for weaker status benefits.

Main use for me:  InterContinental, Crowne Plaza or Holiday Inn redemptions, using points I pick up from cash stays (I am in the IC Hong Kong tonight for cash), the UK credit card or Virgin Atlantic miles transfers.  This is my core hotel programme.

Le Club AccorHotels

This scheme has little interest to me from a points perspective, and it will get worse when my Platinum status via Amex Platinum ends in December (Accor has withdrawn this benefit).  Their points scheme only rewards you in money off vouchers or a modest amount of miles.  This allows no ‘arbitrage’ – on an expensive night or in an expensive city, there is no benefit is using points as you only get a fixed Euro value for them.  I must applaud their ‘Happy Mondays’ promotion which sells UK rooms on a Monday or Tuesday for the coming weekend at £25-£60.  £25 for a hotel in London (the Ibis in Excel is often available) is astonishing.  They also have some decent promotions which earn a large number of Avios points.

Main use for me:  nothing!  The lack of ‘gaming’ on spending and the lack of earning options apart from stays means that the programme doesn’t work for me.  Remember the secret tip about Accor: you get 100% more Avios if you credit to Iberia rather than BA.

Marriott Rewards

On the face of it, this is a decent scheme. They have lots of hotels, a solid points earning structure and regular promotions. Somehow, though, Marriott Rewards has never stirred my heart nor that of the wider frequent flyer community. Is it the lacklustre UK credit card (no longer available anyway)?  The lack of points transfer opportunities from Amex?  You can at least now get free status via Amex Platinum (you get SPG Gold which matches online to Marriott Gold).  The lacklustre hotel portfolio? Only the ‘flight and hotel’ reward packages seem to generate any excitement and these require a huge number of points.  However, the acquisition of Starwood at the end of 2016 means that all this is up for grabs.  A new Marriott / SPG programme will be launched in 2018.

Main use for me:  I used to totally ignore Marriott Rewards but I am warming up to the (improving) Ritz-Carlton portfolio and will be staying in their Kyoto hotel next week, using points transferred across from Starwood and from the Marriott UK credit card

Starwood Preferred Guest

In some ways my views on this don’t matter.  The end is night with a new Marriott / SPG programme to be launched in 2018.  For now, though, Amex Platinum gives me SPG Gold. The ability to transfer SPG points 1:1 to airline programmes is fantastic.  They have some super luxury hotels but the redemption rates are excessive – although some of the SPG properties which used to refuse ANY redemptions now do so.  It is possible to generate SPG points via the SPG Amex card and Amex Membership Rewards transfers.  Suites are available on points but only 5 days prior to arrival, which doesn’t help your planning.

Main use for me:  mid-tier and high-end redemptions (including European airport redemptions where Sheraton is very strong) and SPG Moments events in London, through which we have enjoyed some fantastic nights out.  I use points from cash stays, the SPG Amex and Amex transfers.

World of Hyatt

Hyatt Gold Passport turned into World of Hyatt in February.  The changes are still to bed down but the programme is definitely worse than it was.  If you live in Europe you are pretty stuffed, to be honest.  The crazy number of nights now required to earn top-tier status are virtually impossible from European travel.  The programme has been devalued for non-US members by the introduction of a US credit card and a transfer deal with Chase – European members are suffering from ‘points inflation’ whilst not being able to join in, as there are no non-US credit card options.  The upside is that this is is generally seen as the best programme for upgrades (top tier members get guaranteed suite upgrades a number of times a year) and Park Hyatt is easily the best luxury hotel chain that is part of a bigger group.  With Starwood merged into Marriott, Hyatt now has a very small footprint compared to the other big chains.

Main use for me:  the (very occasional) high end redemption in Europe or Asia, often upgrading a cash room to a suite, using points my wife and I earn on her work trips, and my odd personal trip, to Park Hyatt Hamburg which is very good.

From tomorrow we start our analysis, alphabetically, with a look at Club Carlson.

Welcome to our monthly round-up of the best hotel promotions currently running.  All of the information in this article can be found on our ‘Hotel Promos’ page which contains details of all of the current offers, together with links to our major articles on each hotel scheme.

Where should you credit your stays this month?

Most major hotel groups use Easter as a convenient break between promotions.  What this means, if you look at the list below, is that a lot of deals are closing this week and we don’t yet know what will replace them.

Once we get beyond 15th April, you can forget about IHG, Starwood and Marriott.  However, with VERY strong offers from Hilton, Accor and Club Carlson running beyond 15th April, you won’t be short of options.

Chains still offering deals beyond 16th April:

Hilton (Hampton, Conrad, Waldorf-Astoria etc):

The Hilton offer also looks good and is very straightforward.  You will receive 2,000 bonus Hilton Honors points per night, which I would value at £6-£8.  This offer stacks with the ‘earn up to quadruple Avios’ deal so you can earn both on the same stay.

I wrote about the ‘doubling up’ aspect of this offer here.  Here is my main article on the ‘2000 points’ offer.  You should get the 2000 points per night on reward stays too.

Both of these offers run until 30th April.  Importantly, the ‘2,000 bonus points’ offer kicks in from your first stay so it is a bonus you can hit even if you’re only doing one stay over the next few weeks.

Both offers need registration – the links are in the articles above.  The Hilton home page is here.

Club Carlson (Radisson Blu, Park Inn, Park Plaza, Radisson Red):

Club Carlson has just launched a new offer which I will hopefully cover tomorrow.

The headline details are:

triple points on all stays before 30th June (register here)

5000 extra bonus points if your stay includes a Sunday or Monday (and 10000 points if it includes both!)

3000 extra bonus points for your first app booking (details here)

This has the potential to be very generous indeed if you stay the right combination of nights.  A full analysis of this deal is on the way.

Le Club AccorHotels:

Le Club AccorHotels is offering a generous ‘triple Avios’ promotion until 30th June.

This is good for stays at Novotel, Sofitel, Pullman, Mercure, Ibis, M Gallery etc.

You will earn at least 7.5 Avios per €1 you spend, except at Ibis where the rate is lower.  If you have Accor status you will earn even more.  A £500 Novotel stay would earn you 4,500 Avios points which is certainly not to be sniffed at.

The promo is a little fiddly and you need to send the Avios to Iberia Plus, not BA, before moving them across to BA via ‘Combine My Avios’.  Full details are in this article.  The Accor home page is here.

World of Hyatt:

Hyatt has just launched a new offer.  Called ‘Double Points for Being You’ (?!), it is a simple offer.  You will receive double World of Hyatt base points on all stays between 1st April and 30th June, starting with your second stay.

Full details can be found in this article.

Chains with offers ending on 15th April:

If you are booking a last minute break for the Easter, you should also consider these deals:

IHG (Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, InterContinental, Indigo, Staybridge Suites etc):

The Spring version of IHG’s ‘Accelerate’ is probably the best choice for most people with lighter schedules.  As targets are personalised it is totally dependent on what you were offered but you should be able to rack up a significant number of bonus points with just a few nights.

‘Accelerate’ only runs until 15th April.  This was the article I wrote on it.

Everyone has individual targets, but they are generally fairly easy.  You can earn around 30,000 bonus points with the points starting to flow from your first stay.

My wife, for example, got this for 41,000 points:

• 3,000 points on her next stay
• 1,000 points for a stay in January
• 10,000 points for staying five nights
• 2,000 points for applying for an IHG Rewards Club credit card
• 3,600 points for booking a Bonus Points Package
• 21,400 points for completing three of the four targets above excluding the January bonus

This is exceptionally easy.  All she has to do is make ONE stay, for one night, on a Bonus Points Package rate!  As long as she also applies for the free IHG credit card, that will be 30,000 points banked.

You need to register for ‘Accelerate’ – the link is in the article above – although with only four days to go you won’t achieve much!  The IHG home page is here.

Starwood (St Regis, Westin, Sheraton, Element, W, Luxury Collection etc) and Marriott (Renaissance, Ritz-Carlton etc):

This is less exciting, unless you have an expensive stay planned.

Starwood and Marriott are basically running the same promotion following their merger – double points for your first three stays at each chain.  It certainly isn’t a reason for shifting business to either chain but you should obviously register if you will be doing a stay anyway.

It is too late to register for these offers if you haven’t done so already.  Registration closed on 15th March even though both offers run until 15th April.  Full details are in this article.

Conclusion

Whilst IHG, Starwood and Marriott don’t have anything to offer you beyond Saturday, the remaining offers are particularly attractive.

Having a choice of (beyond the 15th April):

at least 7.5 Avios per €1 from Accor (Novotel, Sofitel, Mercure etc)

or

triple points from Club Carlson plus 5000 points for Sunday and Monday nights plus 3000 points for an app booking

or

2000 Hilton bonus points per night plus, if you choose ‘points and miles’, up to quadruple Avios

is not a bad choice to have!

PS.  If you booking a luxury hotel, remember that we can offer you exclusive additional benefits at Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, Peninsula and similar hotels.  Click here for details of our luxury hotel booking service in association with Bon Vivant / Virtuoso.  Feedback from readers who have used this service so far has been excellent.

This is the seventh and last of our overview series of the main hotel loyalty schemes. Each scheme will be covered over two posts on consecutive days. One will list the basic facts of the scheme, the other will be my subjective view of what is of particular merit.

World of Hyatt is the smallest and newest of the global hotel loyalty schemes.   Launched in early 2017 to replace Hyatt Gold Passport, it covers 700 hotels globally under the Park Hyatt, Grand Hyatt, Hyatt, Hyatt Regency, Hyatt House, Hyatt Place, Hyatt Centric, Hyatt Vacation Club, Hyatt Zilara, Hyatt Ziva, The Unbound Collection and Andaz brands.  The World of Hyatt home page is here.

What is the geographic spread?  You used to struggle to find a Hyatt in the UK, although the one London hotel has recently been joined by two budget Hyatt Place properties near Heathrow.  Apart from that you only have one in Birmingham and an Andaz in the City.

The chain is expanding – Hyatt reflagged good hotels in Nice and Cannes in 2013 and Germany is particularly strong. More importantly, the hotels Hyatt has are generally excellent.  Park Hyatt is the most luxurious hotel chain that is run by a multi-brand group.

Do I use them? Yes I do, because they are very good hotels. I have stayed at the Grand Hyatt Berlin, Park Hyatt Vendome Paris, Park Hyatt Hamburg and Park Hyatt Zurich for cash in recent years (Zurich is reviewed here, Hamburg is here). My wife also uses the Park Hyatt in Hamburg when visiting her head office.

I have had some spectacular redemptions in Asia over the years using the ‘suite upgrade’ rewards which used to require just 6,000 points per stay, although that benefit has now been devalued.   I was disappointed that I couldn’t book their Tokyo hotels on my current trip due to availability issues.  If they had more properties, I would use them more.  If it were easier to earn Hyatt points in the UK, I would use them a lot more.

Elite membership levels

With World of Hyatt, the company ripped up its existing tier structure and replaced the previous two levels (Platinum and Diamond) with three tiers.

This has not gone well with regular guests, partly because benefits have been downgraded and partly because the new top tier – requiring 60 nights – is almost impossible for most people to achieve given Hyatt’s small global footprint.  The non-sensical new tier names didn’t improve sentiment.

Discoverist – requires 10 nights or 25,000 base points.  Benefits are premium internet, a free bottle of water daily and a free night voucher for a Category 1-4 hotel when staying at 5 different brands (from 1/3/17).

Explorist – requires 30 nights or 50,000 base points.  Additional benefits are 20% bonus on base points, four vouchers for free Club Lounge access, and a free night voucher for a Category 1-4 hotel (valid for 120 days) when hitting or requalifying for Explorist.

Globalist – requires 60 nights or 100,000 base points, but is renewable at just 55 nights.  Additional benefits are room upgrades, including standard suites, and guaranteed Club Lounge access or free breakfast where no lounge is available.  Resort fees are waived where charged.  You receive a free night voucher for a Category 1-4 hotel (valid for 120 days) when hitting or requalifying for Globalist.

Globalist members also receive four free suite upgrade vouchers to use on paid or reward stays – these are confirmed at the time of booking making it the most generous suite upgrade benefit in the industry.

For very heavy Hyatt stayers, you will receive either 10,000 bonus points or an additional suite upgrade voucher when hitting 70, 80, 90 and 100 nights per calendar year.

Globalist status with Hyatt is generally seen as very attractive, primarily due to the guaranteed club access and the four annual suite upgrade certificates. These can be used for stays of up to seven nights each.

The full list of elite benefits is here.

World of Hyatt does offer lifetime Globalist status. However, the target of 1m base points – requiring $200,000 of hotel spend – is exceptionally high.

Earning points

World of Hyatt gives 5 points per $1 spent, plus the 20% elite bonus if applicable.  See the Hyatt site here.

Hyatt runs regular promotions.  However, these usually require at least five nights during the promotional period to generate a bonus.  See our ‘Hotel Promos‘ page for any current offers.

If you are visiting Las Vegas, Hyatt has a partnership with M Life.  This allows to earn and spend Gold Passport points at 12 hotels in Las Vegas including Bellagio, Aria, Mandalay Bay, Excalibur, Luxor, Vdara, MGM Grand and Delano.  Details are here.

Spending points

Redemption rates for hotels run from 5,000 points in Category 1 (the cheapest properties, mainly old US hotels) to 30,000 points in Category 7.  I tend to value Hyatt points at 1p each on this basis, but at the most luxurious Park Hyatt properties you can do even better.

There are no discounts for extended redemptions, unlike the ‘five for four’ deals run by Hilton and Marriott.

There are no blackout dates.  If a standard room can be bought for cash, it is available for points.

For a roughly 30% points premium, you can book a room with club access at a participating hotel.

A 5-star 25,000 point Category 6 redemption would typically require an Explorist member to spend $4,150.  This is almost 250% more than Club Carlson would require for a top hotel. Unlike Hilton, which has a similar premium, Hyatt promotions tend to be less generous so it is harder to reduce this spending target.

Points expiry

Hyatt points will expire after two years of total inactivity on your account. This policy started in January 2014. Before this, points did not expire.

Can you upgrade using points?

Yes. Hyatt allows you to upgrade to a suite or club room using points. A suite will cost 6,000 points per night whilst a club room is 3,000 points per night. You need to book a room at Best Flexible Rate to upgrade, and must book the equivalent of a ‘deluxe’ rather than ‘standard’ room.

Are ‘cash and points’ redemptions available?

Yes, Hyatt offers ‘cash and points’ rooms.  These are explained more fully in this post. They represent a good deal, although hotels are not obliged to offer them, even if ‘all points’ reward nights are available.  You will not generally find them available at peak periods.

Airline redemption options

World of Hyatt points can be transferred to a large number of airlines including Avios. The transfer ratio of 2.5 : 1 is not bad. However, given that you can get a one-night upgrade to a suite for just 6,000 Hyatt points, I would use them for that. Hyatt points are tough to earn if you are UK based and should not be transferred to airline miles unless you are sure you will never use them for a room.

Can I earn Avios directly without collecting points?

Yes, see ba.com here. You can earn 500 Avios per stay by showing your British Airways Executive Club card at check-in. You will not earn any World of Hyatt points. However, you must still be a member of World of Hyatt in order to do this.

Credit card partnerships

Can you get elite status with a UK credit card?  No

Is there a World of Hyatt credit card in the UK?  No

Is Hyatt an Amex Membership Rewards partner?  No

Bottom line – the only way for a UK resident to obtain Hyatt points is to stay in their hotels. That is a very radical approach in 2017!

Purchasing and transferring points

You can buy World of Hyatt points for $24 per 1,000 via this link. This is not cheap, but can actually represent a bargain if using the points for a suite or club room upgrade (6,000 and 3,000 points per night).

Points can be transferred to other members by filling in this form here and emailing or faxing it to Hyatt. There is no charge for this.  However, as I found out to my cost a couple of years ago, you can only do it if both members have had a stay within the last 12 months.

My opinion

In Part Two of this article tomorrow I will give my personal opinion on World of Hyatt.

In my article yesterday, I outlined ‘the facts’ of the World of Hyatt loyalty scheme. This article is my personal opinion, highlighting areas where I think you might want to focus.

The 10-second summary:

Strong points – excellent top-tier Globalist benefits including guaranteed suite upgrades, high quality portfolio in Europe and Asia, attractive suite and club room upgrade awards

Weak points – no credit card partners in the UK, only a limited number of European properties

The longer version:

I have stayed in some beautiful Hyatt properties in the past.  The wooden wedding chapel in the Grand Hyatt Tokyo is breathtaking. The suite I was given at the Grand Hyatt Shanghai was beautifully decorated.  The Park Hyatt Hamburg (review) is one of the best city hotels in Europe, and the Park Hyatt Zurich is impressive. I have also enjoyed two stays at the Grand Hyatt in Berlin.

I visited the Hyatt in Nice before it became a Hyatt – it is easily the best hotel in the city.  The new Park Hyatt resort in Mallorca also looks excellent.  Park Hyatt is a ‘real’ luxury chain in a way that Marriott’s The Ritz-Carlton and InterContinental are, taken overall, not.

I am, therefore, very positive about World of Hyatt because it allows you to experience properties like this without paying a huge price.  Living in the UK, though, you cannot get away from the fact that World of Hyatt points are incredibly hard to earn.

There is no UK credit card and they are not an Amex Membership Rewards transfer partner. Even the base earnings rate of 5 points per $1 is not generous – the £1,500 we spent in Zurich didn’t even get us half a free night in a top category hotel.  It has taken about four years to get my wife up to the 30,000 points required for a top category free night despite regular Park Hyatt Hamburg stays.

If you have a one-off Hyatt stay coming up, I would seriously consider taking Avios points instead of World of Hyatt points.  You may struggle to earn any more!

If you ARE in a position to do regular Hyatt stays, I am a big fan of the 6,000 points ‘suite upgrade’ award. This used to be good for up to 4 nights, but now you need 6,000 points per night. Even this is not a bad deal, depending on much standard rooms cost. The suite award is confirmed at the time of booking so you know what you are getting.  It may even be worth buying World of Hyatt points during a promotion in order to take advantage of this deal.

Being able to redeem for a club room for a small points premium is also a good deal – effectively all your food and drink needs for the trip can be covered with this if the spread is suitably generous!

‘Cash and Points’, introduced in 2014, was also a welcome innovation. It allows you to make a redemption at off-peak times with just half the usual number of points which is a relief if you struggle to earn them in the first place!

For elite Globalist members, the four suite upgrades per year are a great benefit – especially as these can be confirmed in advance and for up to seven days per stay.  Given that you now need 60 nights in a year to hit Globalist, across a global portfolio of under 700 hotels, I’m not sure how many people will be claiming this benefit next year.

I really have no big issues with the World of Hyatt scheme – of course I would like a credit card transfer option, and of course I would like more properties closer to home, but Hyatt has a solid programme with (because of the suite upgrades) arguably the most valuable top tier benefits.  If only there were more of them ….