Why I won’t be chasing Hyatt Diamond Status
Hyatt just announced their 4th Quarter promotion, known as “More Points More Play“. It is a generous promotion (and identical to their 2nd Quarter promo). In fact it is so generous that I considered doing some mattress running in order to keep my Diamond status for 2017. However, after doing that math, I have decided it isn’t worth it. Here is why I won’t be chasing Hyatt Diamond Status.
A little background. I have enjoyed Hyatt Gold Passport Diamond status for the past 18 months. I particularly enjoy the executive lounge (Regency or Grand Club) and included breakfast.
This year I am on track to only have 12 out of the needed 25 stays to maintain my status for 2017. In past years my stay credits have come from visits to Vegas at M life properties. This year I have only visited Vegas once thus far (although I have two more visits planned in 2016). And all three of my hotel stays have been comped, which do not earn stay credits.
So here I am in September needing 13 additional stays to make Diamond status. Even with the great promotion, it doesn’t make sense to do a mattress run. I have to keep reminding myself of this fact because it is tempting. Here is the math.
The cheapest route to mattress run for me is 13 separate Points + Cash stays. The lowest category hotel near me in Seattle is a Hyatt House that is category 2. Category 2 properties are 4,000 points + $55 cash per night.
For Hyatt House I get a 500 point Diamond amenity for each stay. On the $55 I earn 275 base points plus 83 bonus points (Diamonds earn a 30% point bonus). I could earn an additional 5 points per dollar spent by purchasing a Hyatt gift card on eBay with a Chase Ink card.
In addition right now Hyatt is offering 10% point refund for point redemptions. So that would be an additional 400 points per stay.
Overall I would earn 1,533 points per stay.
My cost per stay would be 2,467 points and $55. A total cost of 32,071 points and $715. Not worth it.
But, with the current promo, does the math get any better?
I already have 5 nights planned during the promotion period (which will earn me a bonus of 5,000 points). The 13 mattress run nights will earn me the next two levels of bonuses: 10,000 and 15,000 for 25,000 extra bonus points from my mattress runs.
That makes the math a little better; only 7,071 points and still $715 out of pocket.
If I stayed two more nights I could get the next level of bonus of 20,000. The additional cost would be another $110 and 4,934 points. In that case I would actually come out ahead almost 8,000 points but be out of pocket $825.
If I had a Category 1 property near me or if I had a few more nights already planned I could see mattress running to get Diamond status. However, I am just not close enough to make it worth the money (or time) to get those extra stays in this year. So next year I will drop back down to Platinum and have to pay for my breakfasts out of pocket.
