I accumulated A LOT of points and status during covid. I took advantage of tons of amazing spending offers for points and miles and a few opportunities for status via spending at reduced requirements. And my new favorite hotel program became Word Of Hyatt.
So what better way to show World Of Hyatt my love then booking a FREE five-night stay at the Canaves Oia Suites, a Small Luxury Hotel Property in Santorini.
I will admit, I was very flexible with my dates. Finally, being an empty nester, Rob and I had the freedom to go away really whenever we wanted. Wanting to avoid the summer crowds, we landed on mid-September, and I waited till I knew the hotel would begin booking those dates. Being early made it easy, and I landed my FREE stay for 40,000 Wolrd Of Hyatt Points Per night for a Superior Suite Plunge Pool. Wow!
Um, guess how much this room would have cost had we paid? The suite! would have cost $9500 as of the day I am writing about this. Crazy! And in terms of value, I am definitely making $ here. Hyatt points are valued at about 1.7 cents per point, so I am using $3400 in value for a stay worth triple that!
Also, I am excited to show up as a World Of Hyatt Globalist member, a status level I achieved during covid when they reduced the spending requirements on the Chase World Of Hyatt card.
Once I had the dates locked in for the Canaves, I worked around those dates as I wanted to end in Santorini. We are spending a night in Athens upon arriving at the Hotel Grande Bretagne, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Athens, a Bonvoy property for which I used 70,000 Bonvoy points. This room would have cost $620, so I am gaining a bit (usually a hard feat with Bonvoy) in terms of value. Bonvoy points are valued at about .8 of a cent per point, so I am using $560 in value for a stay worth $620. Yay me!
And before Santorini, we are heading to Crete for a FREE 4-night stay at the Domes Zeen Chania, a Luxury Collection Resort, Crete. Yes, I realize that 4 nights is somewhat silly considering when booking on Bonvoy points, you get the 5th night free, but there is only so much time Rob can take off, and I would rather spend more time in Santorini, so there we have it. For this stay, we are using 280,000 Bonvoy points for 4 nights or 70,000 points per night. This stay had we paid would have cost $1500 for the stay, so here we are losing value as we are using $2240 worth of points for a $1500 stay. Oh well! And I am confident we will not lose value as, during covid, I hit Bonvoy Titanium Elite Status which allows me to choose certain benefits each year. I have requested to use my Suite Night Awards (one of the benefits I can choose) for this stay. So if I end up getting the upgrade, my gut is that I will gain value. TBD!
And know, I do not currently have all of these points in my account. But with Bonvoy, I can book using a points advance and get the points in before. I have to hope the values do not increase before then (um, which they could). There are a few ways for me to get the points that I need. Both Rob and I have cards that earn Chase Ultimate Rewards points that I can transfer to Bonvoy and we both have cards that earn American Express Membership Rewards that I can transfer to Bonvoy. I would hope to transfer, though, when there is a transfer bonus offer!
Once we had our stays locked in, I was able to move on to flights. Unfortunately, I was too late to book the 90,000 Emirates Skywards Saver tickets (people had the same idea as me!) But I was able to book both tickets for 125,000 miles apiece. No, I did not have Emirates Skywards miles laying around. Emirates is both a partner of Chase and Amex, and I transferred my points from Chase Ultimate Rewards and Amex Membership Rewards INSTANTANEOUSLY and booked the tickets. As I said, I earned A LOT of points during covid, so I had the points readily available to transfer.
My favorite part…..guess how much these business class flights would have been?? $11,200. How much value did I gain? Remember, I secured the tickets by transferring 250,000 points to Emirates from Chase and Amex. Those Chase and Amex points are worth about 2 cents each. So I used $5,000 in value for flights that are more than double. If only I could have gotten the Saver Reward price. 🙂