@JohnL
“your Hilton blind spot.”
Open your eyes, friend, and listen to what is being said:
Price / BENEFITS
Hmmm…Gary (and others here) refuse to compare the effort required to get the benefits discussed compared to ranking hotel loyalty programs.
It took me one night to qualify for Hilton Diamond this year – a “value” of about USD150: I’ve spent 5 nights upgrading a suite worth USD1000s at an LXR location on a Hilton redemption.
Others in the USA get the same results by riding a credit card (Aspire).
To get SNAs at the Marriott you must stay between 50 and 75 nights.
To become a Hyatt Globalist you need 60 nights or 100,000 base points that you earn at 5 per USD (ie USD20,000 spend): you can avoid this by spending USD140,000 on your Hyatt credit card.
A POINT OF START
I continue to meet people here and comment on other bogs who completely believe that Hyatt points are valuable because they think it takes fewer points to redeem a room at the same value as other programs.
This is true – but only when looking at redemptions. If you refuse to count the money you earn to earn those points in the first place, you don’t know how to see the value of your loyalty to a given program.
Tip – if Hyatt points are 3 times harder to earn than say HH points, but you need 3 x less for the same redemption as HH points, you’re not a good fit for Hyatt or Hilton. You end up with the same result.
Gary continues to spread misleading information, which leads to incorrect estimates of returns.
THE PRINCIPLES THEY WANT
The information stated on these and other websites is false for a number of reasons and can be misleading. They don’t think about making money. It fails as a buy/redeem signal because it falsely rejects data.
4TH / 5TH NIGHT FREE
Blogging is not just about free 4th/5th night profits. If you change Gary’s calculations for value returns (in a recent case) the ranking of total returns based on Gary’s values fluctuates and Hyatt goes down the list.
Gary constantly sweeps these benefits under the carpet (hint – he doesn’t promote Hyatt).
STATUS / EGO
These loyalty programs are designed to suck you in. Many here are running for clarity and not for reason. You need to do the math to reduce your concentration. Talk about blind spots!
EVIDENCE
The best and most accurate way to compare hotel loyalty programs is to call for an evidence-based approach:
1. T&Cs
2. Program-based approach
3. Tracking individual assets and policies.
4. The experiences of all of us as program members
and…drumroll….
5. Calculating the objective of the value obtained (benefits provided for the “value”, ie, the amount spent within the loyalty program).
Then people feel free to hide their preferences.
Gary does not provide any framework to test and debate the merits of hotel loyalty programs in such a way that we can make practical or factual comparisons. His website – his choice.
The bottom line – it’s not about Hyatt being the best or Hilton being the best, or Marriott being the best, rather how we can find the power to differentiate each program.
Get well. Travel safely. MAGBA (Make America Great Britain Again).
