Did you win our Hawaii giveaway?

Good morning and ni hao, my friends.

I hope you all had a good, restful weekend because we’re going to kick off the week with a bang:

• 🏝️ Winner of our Hawaii giveaway

• 🏨 New Hyatt Promo: Double points (with a catch)

• ✈️ Alaska/Hawiian transfers are now live

🏝️ Winner of our Hawaii giveaway

I know why you all showed up today, so I won’t waste any time before getting to the good stuff.

As you know, we are giving away a 5-night stay at the AMAZING Mauna Lani Point by CoralTree Residence Collection in beautiful Hawaii. 🏝️

Just to remind you, our lucky winner will get the following:

• A 5-night stay for two at the Mauna Lani Point hotel

• $2,000 for flights and other expenses

This hotel offers access to beaches, golfing, pools, and much more, making it a fantastic place to relax and enjoy the stunning nature of Hawaii.

And so… without further ado….

The lucky winner is…

Sandra! Congrats, Sandra! 

If you are the Sandra in question, then you will have already received an email from us with further instructions. So, to all of you Sandras out there, go check your inbox.

For the rest of you, don’t worry - there are still ways to rack up points and miles to put toward your own free trip. 😉

🏨 New Hyatt Promo: Double points (with a catch)

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been waiting patiently for Hyatt to get on the promo train and offer an excellent way for me to be rewarded for all of my Hyatt stays.

Well, they’ve come out with something. And it’s… kinda meh.

Here are the deets:

From October 7th through December 20th, you can earn double Hyatt points on international hotel stays.

As expected, there is the fine print:

• You must register for this offer

• Valid only on stays in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia

• Only paid stays are eligible

• The double points kick in starting with your SECOND stay 😑

Really, Hyatt?? Why you gotta do us like that?

First of all, Hyatt’s normal earning rates are so low that earning double points isn’t really that crazy.

Second, only offering benefits on international stays right after the busy summer travel season ends is going to disappoint a lot of people.

And starting with the SECOND stay?? C’mon, Hyatt. 🤦‍♂️

Anyway, for people like me, this is actually useful, given all the paid Hyatt stays I have.

I’m literally at a Hyatt Regency in China right now…

As you can see, it only costs $53 per night. So, if I stayed here during the promo period, I’d earn a deeply disappointing 610 points…

So unless you’re traveling abroad AND spending quite a bit of money at Hyatt, this promo won’t move the needle very far.

The better path toward Hyatt, in my opinion, is to get a crap load of Hyatt points for free and not pay anything for your stays!

Right now, this card is offering 90,000 UR Points (99,000 after meeting the minimum spend) and has no annual fee.

Then, you can transfer them to Hyatt instantly and use them for your international travels or your travels right here in the U.S.

So here’s the bottom line:

Hyatt is out with a promotion after quite a long time, and it’s fairly disappointing.

If you have international paid Hyatt stays this Fall, you’ll earn a few extra points.

But given the solid credit card offers out there, you’re much better off racking up points and transferring them to Hyatt to book your stays.

✈️ Alaska/Hawiian transfers are now live

A couple of weeks ago, I told you that Hawaiian and Alaska had completed their merger and announced plans to merge their loyalty programs and benefits.

The BIG BOY update, however, was the announcement that you’d soon be able to transfer miles between both programs.

Well, that day arrived much sooner than expected.

As of this past weekend, you can now transfer miles between Alaska and Hawaiian at a 1:1 ratio in both directions.

Here are the deets:

• You must have accounts with both programs (obviously)

• You can transfer a minimum of 50 miles and a maximum of 500,000 (per transfer)

• Transfers can take up to 72 hours

• You can make transfers on this page

So yeah, super easy. Just click this link and follow the instructions on the resulting page.

In case you are not up to speed on this whole thing, there are a couple of reasons this is exciting…

First of all, Alaska has some of the best sweet spots of any U.S. program. Having another way to access these sweet spots is exciting.

However, the main reason we’ve all been stoked about this merger is that you can already transfer miles from MR Points to Hawaiian and, therefore, Alaska.

So, for the first time, we have a way to apply for credit cards that earn MR Points and then get them into Alaska’s loyalty program.

Now, I will say that I’ve heard various reports of people having trouble doing transfers like this, while plenty of others have done so with no issues whatsoever.

It also remains to be seen whether or not this bank will continue to allow transfers to Hawaiian.

As a result, I wouldn’t recommend speculatively transferring a bunch of points unless you have a specific booking in mind. If that changes, I’ll be sure to let you know.

Anyway, stay tuned later this week when I’ll break down some of Alaska’s best sweet spots to give you even more reasons to be excited about this development.

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…or you can just buy these prizes from our website if you want to keep us all to yourself. 😉

That’s all for today, folks! It’s always nice to kick off the week with a bang, and I hope Sandra enjoys her epic Hawaii trip!

I’ll be back in your inbox bright and early tomorrow for more points and miles fun times.

Cheers,

18.2525° N, 109.5121° E