I’m torn here and this is not a good feeling. Sometimes I feel the golden criteria for being a blogger based on BoardingArea should be that you have Hyatt’s Diamond status. And I haven’t had that for most of the 3 years I’ve been around.
See, here are the key benefits of being a Hyatt Diamond:
- 30% point bonus when choosing points
- Best room available upon arrival, excluding suites
- Access to the Regency Club or Grand Club lounge featuring complimentary continental breakfast and evening hors d’oeuvres.
- Daily complimentary full breakfast in hotels without a club lounge.
- 4 Suite Upgrades annually on eligible paid nights (valid for 7 nights each)
- A welcome point bonus or food and beverage amenity during each stay
- Complimentary in-room Internet access
You need to do 25 stays or 50 nights at Hyatt in a calendar year to be able to get Diamond. The benefits are pretty generous, especially when you are at the top-tier properties in luxury locations.
Hyatt is not the biggest chain around India, but they do have a decent set of 19 properties around the country at the moment, straddling the luxury segment, the business segment and some properties in tier two cities as well. Outside, they have some really high end properties in Japan, Australia, France amongst other places. One of my favourite properties in India is the Park Hyatt Goa, and the last time I was there, I applied one of my suite upgrades and see what it got me.
The Hyatt Diamond Trial which is being offered, basically is a sort of a challenge, where the top tier members of some other programs are offered a fast track to achieve Hyatt Diamond by just doing 12 nights in 60 days. Now, Hyatt has this sale in India at the moment, which if I partake in, I could get the status at half the price it would take usually to get it done. Additionally, they give you the status till February 2016 along with the upgrade certificates, and for the first 6 out of these 12 nights, you get an additional 1000 points per night as well.
So, my ballpark number crunching states that I will get one Hyatt point for about 3 INR if I went with combining this promotion and that looks like a good price to me.
Here is why I am holding myself back:
- Do I really need Hyatt status? That is an open question for me. When I travel on work, I usually stay at the hotels where we have corporate contracts with, and Hyatt is not on that list, in most of the places. When I travel on my own dime, yes, the benefits are worthy but, are they enough to up front a lot of cash and earn the status? I don’t know.
- When is a good time to earn it? The best time to do it, is now. Because if you do it now, the status comes to you for a period of one and a half years. But my schedule is all over the place right now and I am waiting for all of it to come together. It is something I can’t help, and I am not sure the sale is lasting as long.
- Should I earn it in the city or go places with it? My biggest quandary. I could just check into a Hyatt in my city for the next few days and get done with it. But should I do that? Because there are some nice Hyatt properties around India, like in Hyderabad and Chennai, which I have not visited yet. Should I do this?
So, not like this is the biggest question occupying my mind at the moment, but I have been sitting on the fence on this one for all this weekend. Any bright ideas and feedback, both for and against, which my readers have are greatly appreciated!
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How many times can you have a Hyatt Diamond challenge? If it’s just once in a lifetime, I’d save it until you know for certain you have dream trips lined up to Paris, Tokyo, New York City, etc. Plus, it seems like the majority of BoardingArea bloggers did the challenge already and their Diamond status will expire in Feb 2016… which means we’ll most likely not see any Diamond reviews post Feb 2016 (unless they actually stayed 50 nights in Hyatt properties to renew their Diamond status.)
U could use it for your honeymoon! and more weekend away trips!!!:P
Guess you can apply the same rationale as you may have when buying miles. Based on what you said, it seems the utility value of the status for you is going to be low but the aspirational value is splitting you. Good luck (Its not everyday that one gets to advice you on this topic;)
@Rajiv, I don’t buy miles much, except when there is a great deal out there, like buying lifemiles and adding the Citibank international promo on top for 20 PM per 100 INR spent. I don’t care much for the aspirational value at the moment as well, I am just wondering if it makes financial sense to make this investment or not 🙂