My Borgata Black Label trade up experience

For quite a while now My Borgata Rewards has been running a status match program called "Trade up to Black Label." New My Borgata Rewards members who show elite status with "Caesars Entertainment, MGM, Tropicana Atlantic City, or Trump Casinos" will instantly receive My Borgata Rewards Black Label status and:

• "$100 BONUS SLOT DOLLARS or Match Play
• "Complimentary Stay in a Classic Room
• "Access to VIP Lounge"

During a weekend trip to Philadelphia I popped over to Atlantic City to see how the status match works in practice. Here's my report.

Getting the status match

When I arrived at the Borgata, which is not on the Boardwalk but rather stuffed into a little corner of Atlantic City along with the Golden Nugget and Harrah's, I went straight to the My Borgata center and got in line for a new account. I mentioned the promotion (it's prominently advertised on-site as well) and showed a screenshot on my phone of my M life Platinum status (showing 0 tier credits, points, etc.). In other words, I didn't need a physical M life Platinum card in order to take advantage of the status match.

The My Borgata agent was happy to get me set up with a new Red Label account and immediately upgrade me to Black Label.

Although she kept apologizing for her "system being down," it seemed to me to work perfectly so I'm not sure what she was talking about.

Using $100 Bonus Slot Dollars

I chose the $100 Bonus Slot Dollars option, which can be redeemed for credit on any of the casino's slot machines. The $100 in match play option can be used on table games, but requires a real dollar to be matched to each bonus dollar.

The only two things you need to know about Bonus Slot Dollars are that once added to a machine, they can't be withdrawn and added back to your account, and that only your winnings can be cashed out, not the Bonus Slot Dollars you add to a machine. To simplify things, I just added $10 at a time to the machines I played, then after betting $10 withdrew however much I had won.

I ultimately won about $280 on my $100 in free Bonus Slot Dollars. If you go to Atlantic City, you should definitely try to do that.

Hitting the Amphora Lounge

After "gambling" up an appetite, my partner and I decided to head to the Amphora Lounge for dinner. Both the Amphora Lounge and the buffet cost $10 for Black Label members (and $10 for up to one guest), and the My Borgata staff member had added $20 in comp dollars to my account when I signed up. My impression is that the Amphora Lounge has a more limited food selection than the buffet, but drinks are included (and as Matt suggested on Twitter, they are happy to make drinks to carry out).

(Not) redeeming my complimentary stay in a Classic Room

Once back in Philadelphia, I activated my online My Borgata Rewards account and logged in to see how the free night benefit works. The stay has to be booked within one month for a stay no later than 3 months in the future.

Long story short, there are no complimentary rooms available in the next 3 months, or at least none available online. I assume this varies with demand and with the season, so maybe if you status match at some other time of year there would be more complimentary rooms available. But there aren't any right now, so don't count on this benefit when deciding whether to make the trip.

Is it worth it?

On the one hand, I came out pretty far ahead on my day trip to Atlantic City: after backing out the $46 in train tickets, plus cabs and tips, I made about $200 and got material for this blog post.

On the other hand, if you go to Atlantic City and status match to My Borgata Rewards Black Label, you might not win $280 on the slot machines. After paying for gas and parking, or train tickets and cab fare, plus the obligatory salt water taffy, the trip might turn out to be a pretty expensive "free" dinner with cocktails in the Amphora Lounge.

What is a nation?

I am an American. My parents were born in Oklahoma City and San Francisco. I was born in Arkansas. I was raised in Montana. I may be just slightly less American than apple pie, but only because I prefer strawberry rhubarb.

I'm not an Irish-American, I'm not a German-American, I'm not an Italian-American, I'm not even an Anglo-American. My whole life, I've only ever been an American.

Until I went to Russia. In Russia, "America" is a state (государство), but not a nationality (нация). In Russia, if you don't know what nationality you are, you're generously assumed to be a lying Jew (spoiler: my family enjoys prominent noses).

In my youth, I could simply never understand what was a "country," what was a "nation," and what was a "state." That's because in my mind America was all three: a country (purple mountains majesty, sea to shining sea, etc.), a state (government, Constitution), and a nation (all of us Americans).

Donald Trump, along with his supporters and enablers, have one vision of the American nation, which they'll have the opportunity to implement in the coming presidential term. But it is not the vision of the American nation expressed by actual Americans on November 8, 2016, a majority of whom voted for Hillary Clinton, one of the finest, most dedicated public servants in the history of the Republic.

I am an American, and my identity has nothing to do with the peculiarities of the Electoral College. I believe this is a nation, country, and state filled with people with a keen sense of justice. I'm full of pride for how the majority of the American people voted, against all the bigotries represented by Donald Trump.

I'm also a Christian. Religion is not an excuse to check out from the world we live in and focus on the world to come. Christ certainly didn't. The example Jesus set wasn't just of dying: it was also of absurd generosity to the most needy. That's the model of generosity we should all aspire to.

The next four years will be frightening in a lot of ways. The devastation about to be inflicted on the welfare state will send millions of people into unspeakable poverty. The return of "pre-existing conditions" to the American lexicon. The abandonment of any effort to fight climate change before hope is completely lost for the survival of low-lying communities and nations.

But I am an American. I love my country, my nation, and my state. The next four years aren't an experience I'm looking forward to, but for good or for ill we don't get to pick the obstacles we face in our lives. We just have to face them one at a time.

My taxonomy of travel hackers

Last weekend I took a quick trip down to Dallas to meet up with blog subscribers, and also managed to fit in a Friday happy hour with folks in town for the latest Family Travel for Real Life gathering.

Getting together with likeminded folks, or at least folks likeminded enough to travel from all across the country to swap tips, tricks, and stories, is always fun, and there are now lots of options. The Ann Arbor Art Fair DO is a longstanding annual gathering, Trevor at Tagging Miles has started running daylong get-togethers focused on reselling, and there are the aforementioned Family Travel for Real Life conferences focused on family travel, including (very) large families.

In my experience at these events, I've noticed a few basic attitudes towards travel hacking that differentiate how people — even people using the same credit cards, loyalty programs, and techniques — think about what they're doing.

The Hobbyist

No one I have ever met in this game calls travel hacking "The Hobby." But in a bizarre piece of stunt journalism, Rolling Stone used that term in its profile of rich weirdo Ben Schlappig, and we've been joking about it ever since.

I'm reclaiming it here to use it without criticism or calumny. Trevor at Tagging Miles is also what I would call a Hobbyist: he takes 1- or 2-day trips all around the world, flying in international first class and business class cabins to spend a little bit of time in Sydney, Taiwan, or Bangkok.

A Hobbyist really is the kind of person who would benefit from what Frequent Miler once called "opportunistic hoarding." If you want to hop on a plane at the last minute to take a short trip to the other side of the world, then having as broad and deep a portfolio of loyalty currencies is essential. Every route you want to fly requires a different calculus: distance-based or region-based; with or without fuel surcharges; stopovers allowed or prohibited.

Hobbyists are the kind of travel hacker willing to buy points or miles "when they're cheap" and who pursue every new signup bonus as a "painless" way to diversify their portfolio.

The Family Traveler

Another "type" I meet all the time is the Family Traveler. This is the guy or gal who wants her children to see the world, but quickly realizes how expensive seeing the world (or even the country) is if you have to pay for it out of pocket.

Here you typically see a keen focus on the bottom line: mom and dad will both earn Southwest Companion Passes, each select a different child, and then exclusively fly to destinations served by Southwest.

A family traveler has both constraints and opportunities that other travelers don't. Opportunities include companion tickets like those offered by the American Express Delta Platinum and Reserve personal and business credit cards, which become more valuable than they would be to a solo traveler, since they partially obviate the need to find award space when booking multiple tickets. Constraints include the near-impossibility of regularly finding 3 or 4 award seats on the same flight.

The Budget Traveler

As I have joked in the past, before I learned about travel hacking I still traveled all the time — I took busses, I flew Spirit, and I stayed in hostels. I don't travel more since I became a travel hacker, but I pay less and I get more. That slots me into the category of Budget Traveler.

From a Budget Traveler point of view, locking in higher-than-average rewards at lower-than-average prices is the point of travel hacking. That makes rewards currencies like US Bank Flexpoints and Hilton HHonors points into priorities, since they offer outsized rewards on easily manufactured spend. You'd be crazy to fly to the Maldives with Flexpoints, but they offer a big discount off retail for a range of domestic and international economy flights, and thanks to price compression are also an easy way to get seated up front on domestic flights and accelerate your progress towards elite status.

The Sucker

Of course, no taxonomy of travel hackers would be complete without mentioning the Sucker. The Sucker mostly reads affiliate blogs, follows affiliate authors on Twitter, and gets excited each time a signup bonus spikes from 40,000 to 41,000, as long as it's the highest offer ever. They jump on every deal, store up points in every program, and writhe in agony at the announcement of each devaluation of the points they've earned and will never, ever redeem.

The Sucker has 105,000 Membership Rewards points, because they met the minimum spend requirement but have no idea what to do with their signup bonus. The Sucker has hundreds of thousands of Club Carlson points, Wyndham points, and Choice points, even though there's no earthly reason for a single person to have points in all three tertiary programs.

I don't care if you're a Hobbyist, a Family Traveler, or a Budget Traveler. But please, don't be a Sucker.

Grocery store spend and the possibilities of loyalty-agnostic travel

I'm a big proponent of the US Bank Flexperks Travel Rewards card, since I think it provides the straightest path for most people to pay as little as possible for their airline tickets. With the recent return of PIN-enabled prepaid debit cards to many grocery stores, that view has been confirmed and even strengthened.

But it's also true that another favorite card of mine, the American Express Hilton HHonors Surpass card, also earns bonus points at grocery stores. And of course unbonused spend can earn between 2% and 2.625% cash back, and at lower cost than grocery store manufactured spend.

So I thought it would be useful to revisit some break-even points, or what I call imputed redemption values, for spend on a variety of cards, to help readers think through the best way to book their flights and hotel stays.

Three opportunities, three costs

The simplest way of approaching the tradeoffs between bonused grocery store spend and unbonused spend is to look at the cost per point. Using only the most widely available methods of manufacturing spend, you'd arrive at these simple calculations:

• US Bank Flexperks Travel Rewards, 2 Flexpoints per dollar spent at grocery stores: 0.62 cents per Flexpoint;
• Hilton HHonors Surpass American Express, 6 HHonors points per dollar spent at grocery stores: 0.21 cents per HHonors point;
• 2% cash back credit card at unbonused merchants: 0.43 cents per cent in cash back.

That final line allows us to have an anchor for the kind of value we should expect to get from Flexpoints and HHonors points that would make them competitive with unbonused cash back. For example, if you redeem Flexpoints for cash back you'll never come out ahead compared to a 2% cash back card, since you're paying 44% more for each Flexpoint, which are, like pennies, worth just a penny each.

The flip side of that calculus is that all Flexpoint airfare redemptions above 1.44 cents each are cheaper than paying cash for the same trip. For example, a $288 plane ticket would cost 20,000 Flexpoints, and $124 in out-of-pocket grocery store fees, while the same $288 plane ticket paid for with cash earned on unbonused spend with a 2% cash back credit card would cost $123 in fees. That means for all airline tickets between $289 and $399 (or any other price point that falls between a multiple of 10,000, 0.0144, and 0.2), the Flexpoint redemption is cheaper than the cash ticket.

Now let's do the same math with Hilton HHonors points earned at grocery stores with a Surpass card. Due to the difference in total price per point, compared to a 2% cash back card, Hilton HHonors points have to be redeemed not at 0.33 cents each, but rather at 0.49 cents each. For example, a 5,000 HHonors-point stay would cost $10.50 in fees, while $10.50 in fees would earn $24.42 in cash back — 0.49 cents per point. This is a purely mechanical calculation: a 95,000-point HHonors redemption would cost $199.50 in fees, while $199.50 in fees would earn $463.95 in cash back — 0.49 cents per point. That produces the simple maxim that stays which offer more than 0.49 cents per HHonors point are cheaper if paid for with HHonors points than with cash.

Flexpoints can also be used for hotel stays

There's one additional wrinkle worth mentioning here: Flexpoints can provide value on hotel stays that are too cheap for HHonors redemptions. I'll be the first to admit that this doesn't happen very often, but it's something to keep an eye out for: when Flexperks redemptions fall in the 1.44 to 1.5 cent per point band on hotel redemptions, they still entail a lower out-of-pocket cost than manufacturing the needed cash with unbonused spend on a 2% cash back card.

For example, a $144 stay (including taxes) would cost 10,000 Flexpoints ($62 in fees), and paying in cash earned with a 2% cash back card would require $62 in fees. Of course, it might be cheaper yet depending on the HHonors point rate available, if any.

This makes Flexpoints one of my favorite currencies to earn speculatively: if good flight opportunities present themselves, they can be redeemed for valuable flights; if middling hotel opportunities present themselves, they can be redeemed for middling hotels; and if no opportunities present themselves, they can be redeemed for cash.

While it's easy to posit a general principle that Flexpoints should be spent where they're most valuable — on paid airline redemptions — it's also true that they're more valuable redeemed for hotel stays than for cash, so if you find yourself in the situation of having to choose between spending precious cash or spending down a constantly growing balance of Flexpoints, you'll probably thank yourself later if you save the cash today.

Quick hit: what we think we know about World of Hyatt status transition

In this Monday's post, I explained why I thought a plain reading of the World of Hyatt terms and conditions made it possible, but far from certain, that Hyatt would grant World of Hyatt Globalist status through February, 2019, to Hyatt Gold Passport members who qualified for Diamond status between January 1 and February 28, 2017.

Then I launched into a pretty extensive rant on Twitter about the habit of loyalty programs to leak "confirmed" details, without attribution, to their pet affiliate bloggers.

What can I say? I get worked up about unethical bloggers occupying a privileged position in the loyalty firmament.

An actual Hyatt Gold Passport executive appeared to have answered the question in public

Under increasing pressure from hardworking independent bloggers (joking!), an account claiming to be that of Hyatt Gold Passport Senior Vice President Jeff Zidell tweeted that "25 Stays or 50 nights in Jan/Feb, would earn Diamond through Feb 2019, which would then transition to Globalist on March 1."

Pretty convincing, right? The simplest reading of the tweet is that anyone who qualifies as a Diamond through February, 2019, would be transitioned into Globalist status for the same period.

Who is @jeffzidell and who is @BinghamtonDaily?

I don't know Jeff Zidell. I don't get invited to the Freddies, and I don't have one-on-one chats with loyalty program executives. But it's clear that the @jeffzidell Twitter account is not the Twitter account of someone deeply invested in the nitty-gritty of loyalty program logistics. He mostly retweets other people's posts about Hyatt's loyalty program, marathoning, and being a vulnerable leader.

Meanwhile, his supposedly definitive tweet about Diamond requalification in 2017 was directed at @BinghamtonDaily, which is a Trump-supporting sockpuppet account. Recent representative tweet: "NY 22 Three candidate field of non-compelling candidates. Write In Eric Trump."

@BinghamtonDaily deleted whatever tweet @jeffzidell appeared to be responding to, so we have no public record of the entire exchange.

I personally believe Hyatt will transition 2018 Gold Passport Diamond status to 2018 World of Hyatt Globalist status

But this is not about my personal beliefs. If a loyalty program wants to earn loyalty it has an obligation to make the terms of the program as clear as possible, and where ambiguity exists, to resolve it publicly on equal terms.

So don't attack me for calling into question what will happen to Hyatt Gold Passport Diamonds after March 1, 2017. Join me in asking Hyatt to make clear, in public, with attribution, whether they intend to transition 2018 Hyatt Gold Passport Diamond status to World of Hyatt Globalist status through February 28, 2019. It's a simple yes-or-no question, and Hyatt's refusal to answer it on the record is a problem.

World of Hyatt: more on the Chase credit card and chasing status

Now that some official information information has been released about the World of Hyatt program, I have a few additional thoughts to add to Friday's post.

Chase Hyatt Gold Passport bonus spend thresholds

The Chase Hyatt Gold Passport credit card currently awards 2 elite-qualifying stays and 5 elite-qualifying nights after spending $20,000 and 3 additional elite-qualifying stays and 5 additional elite-qualifying nights after $40,000 in calendar year spend.

Since the Hyatt Gold Passport terms and conditions remain in effect until March 1, 2017, I believe those elite-qualifying stays and nights will be awarded if you're able to meet the spending threshold by February 28, 2017. My statement closing date happens to fall on the 27th — if yours is earlier in the month and you are interested in pursuing this option, I recommend moving your statement closing date as soon as possible, since February spend after your statement closes may not trigger the bonus nights.

The World of Hyatt FAQ's seem to make clear that "a member’s Tier-Qualifying Nights and Base Points earned during January and February 2017 will count toward earning tier status in the new World of Hyatt program." That matters because Tier-Qualifying Nights earned through spend on the Chase Hyatt credit card are not, under the terms of the World of Hyatt program, "Tier-Qualifying Nights." Under World of Hyatt, "Tier-Qualifying Nights" are only:

"the number of nights the Member (i) stays at a Hyatt hotel or resort or an M life Resort; (ii) pays an Eligible Rate; and (iii) associates his or her valid Program membership number with the reservation (either at the time of reservation or check-in or by requesting retroactive credit for the night in accordance with Hyatt’s procedures) during the applicable measuring period."

The World of Hyatt terms do not include any allowance for Tier-Qualifying Nights earned through credit card spend.

Chase World of Hyatt $50,000 bonus spend threshold

According to the World of Hyatt Frequently Asked Questions (look under "Discoverist" — thanks to Twitter user @VM4827 for finding it there), the Chase Hyatt credit card will replace its automatic Platinum status benefits with an automatic Discoverist status.

Moreover, according to the FAQ, "starting January 1, 2017, Hyatt Credit Cardmembers who spend $50,000 USD on their Hyatt Credit Card in each calendar year will receive Explorist status through the following calendar year."

That means it should be possible, since the Hyatt Gold Passport program is in effect through February 28, 2017, but credit card spend starts counting towards Explorist status on January 1, 2017, for the same spend to count towards both Diamond status qualification for 2017 and Explorist status qualification for 2018 (if you don't end up meeting the Diamond qualification requirements, or if Diamond qualification ultimately does not granting Globalist status in 2018 — see below).

A Category 1-4 free night certificate is not a benefit of Explorist status

This has been missed in much of the discussion I've seen so far of the new World of Hyatt program, but it's spelled out clearly in the World of Hyatt terms and conditions:

"This award is available only to Members who complete the qualifying number of Tier-Qualifying Nights or earn the qualifying number of Base Points starting from the Effective Date of these Terms. While this award requires the same Tier-Qualifying Night and Base Point accrual requirements as are required to achieve Explorist status, the Category 1-4 Free Night Award is not provided as a benefit of Explorist status and a Category 1-4 Free Night Award will not be provided to Members who receive Explorist status through any means other than satisfaction of the Tier-Qualifying Night or Base Point accrual requirements (e.g., Members who receive Explorist status as part of the migration from the Hyatt Gold Passport program to the Program)."

That means that while spending $50,000 on the card may grant you Explorist status, and thereby earn 4 Explorist Club Upgrade Awards ("Upon receiving or re-qualifying for Explorist status, Explorists will receive four (4) complimentary Room Upgrade Awards for accommodations with Club lounge access"), you will definitely not earn a Category 1-4 free night certificate for spending $50,000 on the card.

Should you put $50,000 in unbonused spend on the Chase Hyatt credit card in order to earn Explorist status? The same spend on a Chase Freedom Unlimited card would earn 75,000 Ultimate Rewards points, which could be transferred to World of Hyatt with the help of a Chase Ink Plus or Bold, or Sapphire Preferred or Reserve. By foregoing those 25,000 Ultimate Rewards points (worth $250 in cash), you receive:

• 4 Club Upgrade Awards;
• 1 bottle of water per day;
• 2:00 pm late checkout "subject to availability at some locations;"
• and waived resort fees on free night awards.

That's not worth $250 to me, but if you book up to 4 stays of up to 7 nights with multiple family members, or frequently stay at properties with resort fees, you could conceivably get $250 in value from those benefits.

2018 Diamond qualification does not guarantee 2018 Globalist status

I have scoured the World of Hyatt website and the terms and conditions, and have come to the definite conclusion that requalifying as a Hyatt Gold Passport Diamond member in January and February of 2017 does not guarantee that you will be awarded World of Hyatt Globalist status for 2018.

Here's what the FAQ says:

"If my new World of Hyatt status doesn’t take effect until March 1, 2017, what happens January 1 through February 28, 2017?

Hyatt Gold Passport will continue to operate exactly the same until the March 1, 2017, launch of World of Hyatt. In January and February 2017, members will continue to earn Platinum or Diamond tier status based on nights or stays. If a member achieves Platinum or Diamond tier status in January or February 2017, the member will be upgraded to that tier status and then transitioned into a new World of Hyatt tier status on the March 1, 2017, launch of World of Hyatt. At the same time, a member’s Tier-Qualifying Nights and Base Points earned during January and February 2017 will count toward earning tier status in the new World of Hyatt program."

Here's what the terms and conditions say:

"Members who, in the course of one (1) Calendar Year, record a minimum of sixty (60) Tier-Qualifying Nights or earn one hundred thousand (100,000) Base Points will receive Globalist status after meeting the minimum requirement through February of the second Calendar Year following qualification."

In other words, according to the letter of the rules, if you qualify for Diamond status in the first two months of 2017, you'll transition into Globalist status for 2017, and your elite-qualifying nights will roll over to the World of Hyatt program and be used to calculate your 2018 status.

What will Hyatt do with 2018 Diamonds?

While Hyatt may not be obliged by the terms of its program to award 2018 Globalist status to 2018 Diamonds, it does seem like they are trying to please as many stakeholders as possible in this transition, for example by awarding Category 1-7 Free Night Award to Diamonds who are transitioned to Globalist status on March 1, 2017.

That means it's at least possible, at least on a case-by-case basis, that people who qualify as Hyatt Gold Passport Diamonds in the first 2 months of 2017 will be awarded Globalist status through March 2019, although Hyatt would be perfectly within its rights to only award Globalist status through March 2018. Hyatt's Twitter team, naturally, was unable to give a definite answer to this question.

Final note: pay attention to the terms and conditions for upgrade awards

While Suite Upgrade Awards and Club Upgrade Awards will be redeemable on award stays booked with points starting March 1, 2017, note that they are not eligible for use on free night awards booked using any other instrument. According to the terms and conditions, Suite Upgrade Awards are:

"Not valid in connection with any Free Night Award other than those identified above, including, without limitation, Hyatt Credit Card premium and anniversary Free Night Awards, 5-brand Free Night Awards, Category 1-7 Free Night Awards (defined below), or any other promotional Free Night Award."

Likewise with Explorist Club Upgrade Awards:

"Not valid in connection with any Free Night Award other than those identified above, including, without limitation, Hyatt Credit Card premium and anniversary Free Night Awards, 5-brand Free Night Awards, Category 1-4 Free Night Awards (defined below) or any other promotional Free Night Award."

Conclusion: details matter

There's a lot of sloppy writing and sloppy thinking out there about the new World of Hyatt program, which is a good reminder that letting other people read and think for you is unlikely to work out well for you in the long run. If something is unclear, go to the original source. If the original source is unclear, ask the people in charge. And if the people in charge are unclear, keep a close eye on your wallet!

Preliminary thoughts on World of Hyatt

By now you may have heard that in March, 2017, Hyatt Gold Passport is going away. Apparently, it will be replaced by a completely new program called "World of Hyatt." I first read about the change at a blog called Pen and Passport, but you can now find the details sprayed all over whichever blog is your favorite.

Here are my first few thoughts about the transition to the new program based on the information currently available.

World of Hyatt makes 2017 Diamond requalification a no-brainer

I've been dramatically hemming and hawing about whether to requalify for Hyatt Gold Passport Diamond status this year, and the new program makes the decision easy.

That's because of the way Hyatt Gold Passport Diamonds will be transitioned to World of Hyatt "Globalists," the new program's top tier:

• 2017 Hyatt Gold Passport Diamonds will become 2017 World of Hyatt Globalists on March 1, 2017;
• 2017 World of Hyatt Globalists will receive a free night at any Category 1-7 Hyatt property in the world;
• 2017 World of Hyatt Globalists will receive 4 confirmed suite upgrades that can be applied to any stay, whether it has a cash component or not.

Additionally, starting on March 1, 2017, Globalists will be entitled to the best room available at check-in, including standard suites. That's better than the current "best standard room excluding suites" benefit, especially for leisure travelers who occupy hotels when Globalist business travelers are less likely to be there.

2017 is the year to take your Hyatt dream vacation(s)

If you're the kind of person who has mulled a trip to Paris, Sydney, Tokyo, or one of Hyatt's prestige resort properties even farther afield, but put it off figuring that there was always time next year — time's up!

Starting March 1, 2017, as a Globalist you'll be able to redeem points (plus your free Category 1-7 night certificate) for award stays at any Hyatt property without using a cash co-pay and redeem your 4 suite upgrade certificates. Since, as of now, Hyatt doesn't appear to be changing their award redemption costs, the cost of a suite-eligible room at Category 7 properties will drop from $450 in cash and transferred Ultimate Rewards points to just $300 in transferred Ultimate Rewards points. On a 7-night stay, that's $1,050 in savings — enough for 3 more nights at a Category 7 property!

Even at lower-category properties, if you are not attempting to requalify for Globalist status there's no reason to ever pay cash for a Hyatt stay, since award stays are eligible for both confirmed and complimentary suite upgrades.

One possible route to 2018 requalification

Since World of Hyatt is reported to go into effect March 1, 2017, Twitter user MJC asked the reasonable question, "couldn't you also squeeze 25 stays in Jan/Feb to get 2018 qualification done under the old system?"

In other words, MJC is asking whether it's possible to be "transitioned" twice: once from Hyatt Gold Passport 2017 Diamond membership to World of Hyatt 2017 Globalist membership, then a second time from Hyatt Gold Passport 2018 Diamond membership to World of Hyatt 2018 Globalist membership (good until February 28, 2019).

This would only apply to the small number of Gold Passport members who meet Gold Passport Diamond membership requirements between January 1 and February 28, 2017. While undoubtedly a small group, it's not utterly implausible for someone who has the Hyatt Gold Passport credit card who's able to spend $40,000 on the card and also earn 20 elite-qualifying stays or 40 elite-qualifying nights in those 59 days.

Whether or not that strategy will be allowed is something that won't be known until World of Hyatt is officially announced and additional details are announced, but it's certainly something to keep an eye on if you're interested in making a big play for 2018 Globalist status.

Conclusion

World of Hyatt means the end of top-tier Hyatt elite status for most travel hackers without substantial reimbursed business travel. Earning 60 elite-qualifying nights is simply too expensive compared to the benefits Globalist status will offer.

Meanwhile, reimbursed business travelers who have their choice of hotel property and who spend a huge number of nights in markets served by Hyatt will have to decide whether the new suite upgrade benefits and Category 1-7 certificates earned by Globalist status are enough to attract their hotel dollar.

The Scam Economy: ScoreBig edition

It's natural for travel hackers (and their concerned family members) to wonder, who really pays for what we do? The obvious answer is, "everybody else." There are enough people buying low-denomination gift cards with cash to make it worthwhile to sell high-denomination gift cards with credit cards. Enough people get trapped under high-interest-rate credit card balances to make it worthwhile to incentivize purchases made with credit cards for those who pay their balances in full and on time. Wells Fargo appears to have simply been a basket case, but they undoubtedly had something similar in mind when they launched their aggressive cross-selling strategy.

I've long wanted to write a book about that economy: the scam economy. I got to thinking about the subject again when I saw Anita's post at Frequent Miler about ScoreBig's current financial difficulties. We can get used to travel hacking, reselling, and extreme discounting, but it's worth taking a step back to really appreciate that the overwhelming majority of these companies are simply scams, and more and more we live in a scam economy.

What the real economy looks like

In the real economy, Lin-Manuel Miranda had an idea for a musical, wrote it, raised some money from investors, hired some actors and musicians, and started selling tickets.

Hamilton was a huge success, and will run on Broadway for years, then close just so it can reopen and also win the Tony for Best Revival.

Add capitalism's secret sauce

People have been putting on shows for a long time, from Russia's traveling skoromokhi to Shakespeare's Globe.

What advanced market capitalism adds is that Lin-Manuel didn't have to put this show on by himself. He didn't need to build a theatre (the Richard Rodgers Theatre opened in 1924), he just has to rent it out. He didn't need to negotiate a contract with his actors or musicians, since they belong to unions (Actors' Equity and Associated Musicians of Greater New York, respectively) that handle those negotiations for all of Broadway. He didn't even need to handle tickets sales, since Ticketmaster has deep experience collecting money from patrons and handing it over to production companies, minus a reasonable fee.

Enter the scam economy

What does ScoreBig add to this equation? Well, for a variety of reasons Lin-Manuel chose to sell his tickets for less than the price that would attract only the number of customers capable of filling up the theatre. Economists call that the "market-clearing" price or the "equilibrium" price, but in the real economy, people set all sorts of prices for all sorts of reasons.

If Lin-Manuel wants to sell tickets for a price low enough that working-class families could conceivably someday afford to attend his show, rather than perform for oil sheikhs and Russian kleptocrats all week, that's his prerogative — it's his show, after all.

It also happens that sometimes people buy tickets that they ultimately don't use for themselves. Maybe they have an emergency that keeps them from the theatre; maybe they bought them speculatively in the hopes they'd go up in value. ScoreBig and sites like it allow owners of unused tickets to sell them to those who were unable to buy tickets at their face value, since the show is sold out months in advance.

But Anita's experience shows that this isn't the function ScoreBig was performing. They weren't moving tickets from willing sellers to willing buyers:

"there may be an issue regarding the continued validity of the tickets you purchased"
"ScoreBig’s email advised that only the seller of the tickets could confirm the validity of the tickets"
"The CSR said...'If it makes you feel any better, we aren’t getting paid for these.  We made a decision as a company that we are honoring the tickets because it is the right thing to do.'”

What the hell is going on here? I can't say for certain, but here's one version:

• Someone wrote a script that was able to purchase a block of Hamilton tickets at their face value;
• After successfully booking the tickets, they sold them on at a markup to a large broker;
• That broker listed the tickets for sale on a variety of platforms, including ScoreBig;
• In order to attract a larger market share, ScoreBig aggressively offers discounts through cashback portals, gas discount programs, and other extreme couponing techniques;
• ScoreBig collected money from Anita for the tickets, but doesn't pass it on to the broker until some time after the tickets are delivered;
• ScoreBig uses the money it collects from Anita to cover its operating expenses, debt, and to pay brokers for tickets that have already been delivered;
• ScoreBig doesn't make enough money doing this, so faces a liquidity crisis and has to renegotiate its capital structure, stiffing its vendors and leaving them on the hook for Anita's tickets.

Let's call this exactly what it is: a scam. And it's a scam whether or not ScoreBig stays in business, and whether or not they ever made any money doing it.

I don't have anything against reselling tickets, whether it's on the pavement in front of the theatre or online. I don't have anything against buying tickets speculatively in order to resell them. I don't have anything against middlemen stepping in to facilitate those sales.

But when you borrow money to start a company that requires an increasing number of customers funneling money in through the front door to cover your operating costs, liabilities, and to pay your vendors, and then when the money coming in the front door ends up not being enough to cover those liabilities you stiff both your customers and your vendors, you are running a scam, pure and simple.

Obviously there's a connection between ScoreBig's business model and the financialization of the American economy in general. If private equity bankers can raise billions of dollars to purchase profitable companies, load them up with debt, strip them of assets, and distribute the cash to themselves and their partners, who am I to complain about ScoreBig's business model?

And maybe that's right. Maybe if we want Lin-Manuel to be able to raise the money he needs to put on the greatest show of the 21st century, we have to tolerate the ScoreBigs of the world ripping off their customers and vendors.

But that doesn't mean we should get jaded about the scamification of our economy. If you want to bet big on ScoreBig, or Uber, or AirBNB, or any of the other criminal enterprises masquerading as technological innovations, go ahead, and just pray you're not the last one left at the party, holding the bag.

Hyatt Diamond benefits, ranked

I'm still plodding towards requalifying for Hyatt Gold Passport Diamond status after successfully matching to the status late last year. I've been intentionally booking towards Hyatt whenever it makes sense financially and logistically. That's included the Park Hyatt in Vienna, the Grand Hyatts in Berlin and New York, the Hyatt Fisherman's Wharf, a whole slew of Hyatt Regencies, and one Hyatt House.

That's given me a chance to see how benefits are implemented in practice at a range of properties. Here's my list of Hyatt Diamond benefits, ranked based on their value to me in practice:

1. Late check out. Diamond members get a guaranteed 4 pm check out time (except at Hyatt Resorts and Casinos and Residence Club properties). I have used this on virtually every one of my Hyatt stays this year. I love being able to leave my belongings in my room instead of having to deal with left luggage offices, and be able to relax in the room while waiting for a afternoon train or flight. And the benefit really is guaranteed: usually check in agents even offer it proactively.
2. Welcome amenity. I often write theoretically about the 1,000-point Diamond welcome amenity offsetting the points cost of a Points + Cash stay, but in fact I almost never choose the points amenity. That's because when checking into a property after a long day of travel I'd much rather have a bottle of wine and a cheese and nut platter (or whatever looks good) brought up to the room while I get settled in.
3. Lounge access. Access to the lounge, and the ability to grab water bottles and coffee or tea throughout the day, is a good way to save money and stay hydrated if you're not sure about the local water. Properties that offer hors d'oeuvres and drinks in the evening are also great places to make evening plans.
4. Breakfast. I've had some phenomenal breakfasts as a Hyatt Diamond, but this benefit has to go below lounge access simply because I'm more likely to sleep through breakfast than I am to sleep through an evening cocktail hour. Your circadian rhythm may vary.
5. Suite upgrade awards. While this is often mentioned as a key benefit of Diamond status, you can ask anyone with Diamond status how much value they really get out of it, and the answer is usually: "not much." I've redeemed two of my suite upgrade awards, at the Park Hyatt Vienna and Hyatt Fisherman's Wharf. And they were both great suites that made the trips feel a little more special! But the obstacles to getting value from suite upgrade awards are significant. First, your awards expire at the end of the February after your qualifying year (so 2016 upgrade awards expire February 28, 2017), and can't be used for reservations beyond that date. Second, an eligible suite has to be available at the time you make the request — you can't waitlist for a suite upgrade. That means longer stays, where the upgrade would be most valuable, are also the hardest stays on which to redeem upgrades!
6. Point bonus. Diamonds get a 30% bonus on base points earned on paid and Points + Cash stays. This is essentially a rounding error, worth perhaps $1 per night on a Points + Cash stay (I earned 89 bonus points on a recent Points + Cash stay with a $55 cash component).
7. United lounge passes. You get two United lounge passes for qualifying as a Hyatt Diamond. That's fine, but it's not a recurring privilege of membership or anything. It's just two United lounge passes.
8. 48-hour guarantee. Since Hyatt offers generous guaranteed award availability when there are standard rooms available, their 48-hour guarantee is just a way to overpay for rooms when a property is completely sold out. Hopefully you'll never use this benefit!
9. Premium Wi-Fi. It's hotel Wi-Fi. It's not going to be great, whether it's "premium" or not.
10. Best Room Upon Arrival. I know that hotel staff have a mental inventory of which rooms are "good" and "bad," but this is a joke benefit.

Looking at this list, it's immediately clear that all the value of requalifying for Diamond status comes from items 1-4, which clarifies the question: will I get enough value from late check out, welcome amenities, lounge access, and free breakfast in 2017 to justify chasing the remaining stays required to requalify?

I'm not sure! But I'm thinking about it.

Overdiversifying, underdiversifying, and practicing what I preach

I recently had the pleasure of redeeming 30,000 American AAdvantage miles for a $290, one-way domestic plane ticket, which gave me an excellent opportunity to reflect on some travel hacking wisdom I never get tired of preaching: the least valuable point is the one you don't redeem.

The real risk of underdiversifying is paying cash

The point of travel hacking should be to pay as little as possible for the trips you want to take. I'm absolutely indifferent to whether you want to travel domestically or internationally, by plane, train, or automobile, with your family or alone, in first class or in steerage. I just want to help you spend as little money as possible to do it.

Diversifying your points balances is a way of achieving that. With no rewards currencies at all, you'd pay the retail cost for all your travel, minus any savings achieved by booking through online portals, paying with discounted gift cards, taking advantage of best rate guarantees, and the other techniques we have available.

With a single rewards currency, you can start to save money when you're able to find award space with that loyalty program. If you only collect Hilton HHonors points, you're in good shape as long as you're visiting a city with a Hilton property, and that property has award space. You'll still pay cash for your airfare, but hotels can often be the biggest expense on a trip, so the savings there can quickly add up.

With multiple rewards currencies, you can start to bring down your costs considerably. If you earn Ultimate Rewards points with an Ink Plus card, then you'll be able to save money by redeeming Hyatt Gold Passport points when you visit a city served by Hyatt, and by redeeming United, British Airways, Flying Blue, and Southwest points when those airlines and their partners make award space available. Even better, when award space isn't available, you can still get a 20% discount on revenue flights by redeeming Ultimate Rewards points at 1.25 cents each.

I won't belabor the point: having more rewards currencies reduces the chance that you'll have to pay retail for your travel. As long as those rewards currencies are acquired cheaply enough, that means each redemption saves you money on your travel, which, again, is the point of the game.

The real risk of overdiversifying is unredeemed balances

Many travel hackers and bloggers believe that "earning and burning," or keeping points balances as low as possible by redeeming award currencies roughly as quickly as they're earned, is the best approach. The reason normally given for this is that regular devaluations decrease the value of earned miles and points, so your balances will never be worth as much in the future as they are in the present.

Meanwhile, I spend no time thinking about devaluations, and don't think you should either. Your travel hacking practice should be giving you big enough savings on each redemption that even substantial devaluations won't affect the calculus of redeeming miles versus spending cash.

But the logic of diversifying your points balances really can be taken too far!

Above I said that when you don't have the right currency to pay for the trip you want to take as cheaply as possible, you run the risk of having to pay cash and not save any money at all. One way to react to that possibility is to accumulate high balances in as many programs as possible, to ensure that you always have enough of the right currency for the job.

The problem with that approach is that it exposes you to the real risk of overdiversifying: unredeemed balances. From hundreds of interactions with readers and friends in the community, I have come to believe that accumulating large, unredeemed balances is the single biggest mistake made by even experienced travel hackers.

There's no mystery to how it happens: a new credit card is launched, or refreshed, or suddenly has a much higher-than-usual signup bonus. Once the credit card affiliate bloggers get their links, you see two or three weeks of blanket coverage online. Sometimes the coverage even runs over into the mainstream media. Even those who are disgusted by the orgy of profiteering start talking about the orgy of profiteering, bringing the offer in front of even more eyeballs.

And then, like clockwork, people start asking: "I have all these Wyndham/Membership Rewards/Amtrak/Choice/Trump Shuttle points. What do I do with them?"

The answer, unfortunately, is usually "nothing."

Pay as little as possible for the trips you want to take

Without travel hacking, most of us couldn't afford to spend a week in the Maldives. But even without travel hacking, many of us could afford to fly home for Thanksgiving.

Paying $150 for a $600 plane ticket you'd otherwise pay cash for is a savings of $450.

Spending $2,500 for a trip someone else paid $15,000 for is an expense of $2,500.

I've heard that the Maldives are lovely, and I'm sure I'd enjoy visiting. But speculatively accumulating huge balances at random as signup bonuses change and cards are launched or discontinued, instead of targeting programs that save you money on the trips you want to take is a way of spending money, not saving it!

Again, this says nothing about the merits, or lack thereof, of the Maldives, of your favorite Park Hyatt, or of Emirates First Class. I'm sure they're lovely. But being talked into taking someone else's idea of the perfect trip is an expensive mistake — travel hacking just makes it less expensive.

Conclusion: my fantastic AAdvantage redemption

All of that brings me to my 30,000-mile, $290 one-way American Airlines ticket. If you believe that the goal of travel hacking is to get the highest dollar value from each redeemed mile, this is a preposterous redemption — less than a penny per point!

But I had a different problem: an unredeemed American Airlines balance. I'd earned the miles cheaply, through Barclaycard US Airways anniversary miles, a negative-interest-rate loan I took out, and some experiments I'd been running through the American Airlines shopping portal, so I was certainly saving money on the ticket compared to paying cash.

But even more importantly, I judged ridiculous the idea of paying $200 (the cash value of the 20,000 US Bank Flexpoints I'd need to redeem) or $232 (the cash value of the 23,200 Ultimate Rewards points I'd need to redeem) when I had more than enough AAdvantage miles sitting in my account unredeemed. I didn't have a plan for the miles because I had earned them more or less accidentally: I had overdiversified into AAdvantage miles, and was sitting on a balance of miles that were, unredeemed, worthless to me.

The point of travel hacking is to pay as little as possible for the trips you want to take. I wanted to take a $290 flight and $5.60 in taxes and fees was as little as I could pay for it. Mission: accomplished.