I'm giving away my Hyatt awards

Good morning and happy Friday! For me, it’s not so happy, though… because I don’t get to write to you over the weekend… but I’ll survive until Monday. 😉

Today is fun:

• 🤗 Update on Hyatt’s new awards (and a special surprise)

• 🏨 IHG 15% award sale

• 🔄 Current transfer bonuses

🤗 Update on Hyatt’s new awards (and a special surprise)

Last year, I told you about how Hyatt was updating their milestone rewards and how, overall, it was an amazing improvement.

As we finish up the first third of the year, I wanted to update you on these awards.

Specifically, there is a new feature that allows us to use them within the app, along with the ability to gift awards to other members.

And if you keep reading, NINE of you will get a personal gift from me… 😉

If you want a full rundown on what milestone rewards are and a more in-depth explanation of the changes made for this year, check out this newsletter.

Today, I’m going to talk about two specific awards:

• 2k Next Stay Award

• Guest of Honor Award

The “2K Next Stay Award” is new this year and has had some mixed reviews…

You have the option of choosing this award at the 20 and 30-night milestones.

The reason it’s a bit controversial is that the 2,000 points you get on your “next stay” are only valid for stays at the following brands:

• Hyatt Place

• Hyatt House

• Caption by Hyatt

• UrCove

I actually love this about the award…

Hyatt Place and Hyatt House are Hyatt's budget brands and some of the most ubiquitous… In my mind, this award is pretty easy to use.

And 2,000 points at the lowest milestone threshold is pretty epic, considering Hyatt has properties for as few as 3,500 points per night.

Last month, I booked a handful of properties for just 2,500 points per night thanks to the current Bonus Journeys promo, so those 2k awards are pretty darn close to free night awards for me personally.

Because you can choose another “2k Next Stay” award at the 30-night milestone (which also comes with a Category 1-4 Free Night Award), it’s easy to think of your first 30 nights at Hyatt hotels as earning you two free night awards if you play your cards right.

But I think the best change to the milestone rewards is the Guest of Honor Awards.

In case you need a refresher, Guest of Honor Awards allow you to give a friend, family member, etc., the chance to book a stay with Hyatt points and enjoy Globalist elite benefits like:

• Free breakfast

• 4pm late checkout

• Room upgrade

This feature existed last year for Globalist members, but now these awards are easily transferrable and giftable right in the Hyatt app or website.

Most milestones also offer at least one Guest of Honor Award, so they’re easy for most loyalists to earn.

So easy, in fact, that I have a whole bunch of them right now… and I’m going to give them to you.

And to kick it up another notch, I’m also going to give away four Club Access Awards, allowing you to enjoy club access at properties that have them.

But you have to do something for me in return:

In the poll below, tell me which of the two award types you want to win (or both). When you submit your response, tell me a funny joke.

I will pick nine of you with the funniest jokes and reach out by email to give you your awards.

To reiterate, I’ll give away five Guest of Honor Awards and four Club Access Awards to a total of nine people.

I’m excited… and I have high expectations for you all. 🧐

Anyway, as the year approaches the halfway point, I’m feeling good about continuing to invest in Hyatt this year, racking up more elite nights, and continuing to enjoy these new valuable milestone benefits.

🏨 IHG 15% award sale

Keeping on the hotel train, IHG has come out with a limited-time award sale that is deceptively awesome.

Certain IHG members have received this offer for a 15% discount on award stays, which is… sweet.

It seems that this has only been offered to members who have Platinum status or above (or hold a co-branded credit card), but maybe non-elites will see it show up, too.

Anyway, here are the deets:

• You must book your stay by April 27th (tomorrow)

• Only valid for stays of three nights or less

• Only valid on award stays

• Valid for travel through June 10th, 2024

As you can see, this only applies for stays up to three nights, so this will not stack with the “4th-night free” benefit from holding this credit card…

Still, 15% is great for anybody looking to book some cheap IHG award nights.

For example, this hotel in Melbourne, Australia, normally costs almost 20,000 points per night.

With the sale, it’s priced out at under 17,000 points per night. Saving 6,000 points on a 3-night stay is pretty sweet in my book!

This will be especially exciting for more expensive stays, like this property in New York City, where you’d save over 12,000 points per night.

Of course, you need to have a pretty fat stack of IHG points to pull off a booking like that…

But that’s an easy fix since IHG also just launched a sale on their points, offering up to a 100% bonus!

Personally, my offer was for an 80% bonus, which is still pretty good.

If you’re lucky enough to have the 100% bonus on your account, you can buy IHG points for just half a cent each, which is not a bad rate.

For example, this hotel in Yokohama, Japan, costs almost $300 per night.

But with a 100% points sale bonus, you’d only need to spend about $200 per night to buy enough points to book it, saving you upwards of $100 per night, which is obviously great.

Overall, these two IHG promos have overlapped to give you a perfect opportunity to save a lot of points and/or money on stays in the near future!

We love our Daily Drop Lounge!

In case you didn’t know, we have a Facebook group where you can share your travel wins or ask travel-related questions (and get great and helpful answers from other like-minded peeps).

Check out this fun travel win 👇

That’s all for this week, folks! I hope you enjoyed this week of fun travel tips and tricks.

But I have a strange feeling that next week might be even more exciting… but I’ve said too much… 🤐

See you bright and early on Monday ❤️

52°22'35.4"N 52°15'17.4"W