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🏨 Hyatt's new free night promotion
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I'm going to kick this segment off by doing something I've never done before: attempt to make a sports analogy.
You know when your favorite basketball team, just a few goals shy of winning, is at the 5-yard line in the 9th inning? When you're sitting on the edge of your seat, just hoping they give a good enough serve to get the puck over the net?
And then, out of nowhere, they do. The basketball team nails that final hole-in-one at the last minute, just in time for you to enjoy the splendors of that sweet, sweet win.
Well, if you've been rooting for Hyatt to come ahead of the other hotel chains with Thanksgiving/Holiday promos, that is precisely what's happening.
And I know what you're thinking: "Mike... that analogy was PERFECT."
What can I say? I know sports real good.
Hyatt has launched a targeted offer, primarily geared towards new members, offering up to two free night certificates in exchange for staying a certain number of nights.
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This is VERY exciting. Here are the details:
- This offer is targeted at certain members only
- Stay two nights and receive a free night award
- Stay another two nights and receive another free night award
- Free night awards are good for category 1-4 hotels
- You must first register for the offer
- Free night awards are valid for 180 days after receiving them
So obviously, there are some caveats here, the main one being that this might not even be an option for you. The best way to determine if you have been targeted for the offer is to log into your World of Hyatt account and click on "Offers."
If you see this offer listed there, register for it and rejoice accordingly. If not, it's okay. It's not you; it's them. There are plenty of fish in the sea. Hyatt doesn't deserve you anyway.
Now here's why this is such an exciting offer. On the surface, earning two nights in exchange for staying four nights is already a good deal. But with Hyatt, it's even better.
Hyatt's hotels are grouped into "categories" and priced according to how high or low the property is categorized. Lower categories are cheaper and usually not as nice as higher categories.
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So that means that the free nights you earn can be used at any hotel, regardless of the cash price, up to a Category 4 property. But the best part is that you can earn these awards by staying at category 1 properties.
You may remember about a fortnight ago when I shared Hyatt's other ongoing promotion with you, offering a 20% discount at hundreds of hotels.
This offer pairs perfectly with that offer, like a fine wine and cheese combo. Or, if you're like me, a fine wine and Cheetos combo.
Using that promotion, you can book nights at hotels for as little as $50 per night, maybe even cheaper.
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If you were to spend $100 on two nights at that property, you'd earn a free night award through this promotion. Since you can use that award on up to category 4 hotels, you could redeem it for a night at a property like this one, which costs over $200 per night.
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So this offer truly becomes a "hack" because even if you don't need to stay at the first hotel, you're trading $100 for a hotel room worth $233. So you're hacking your way into a $133 per night discount.
It would take some work to do that, but the point is this: Hyatt hotels are usually excellent. So it shouldn't be hard to find a hotel for two nights to reap the precious benefit of a free night award.
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✈️ Don't forget your mileage runs, kids
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A few months ago, when the Daily Drop was just a silly infant who didn't know how to speak (some might say that I still don't know how to speak), I shared one of my favorite travel hacks with you: mileage runs.
To refresh your memory, a mileage run is when you book flights not because you need to travel somewhere but because you need to rack up some more miles to unlock benefits like airline elite status.
In that newsletter, I gave you an example of a strategic flight I took from Athens to Toronto. Because of an Air Canada promotion, round-trip originating in Europe, and the considerable distance covered by the flight, I was able to bump myself from Aeroplan 50k status all the way to 75k status from that flight alone.
I'm bringing this up because now is your last chance to decide if you want to do mileage runs before the end of the year. Most elite status qualifying miles reset at the beginning of the year, erasing any progress you've made toward status this year.
If you're getting close to elite status and think it might be valuable, take a few minutes to look for long-distance flights that aren't too expensive. If you can unlock thousands of dollars of benefits and additional intangible value, it might well be worth paying a couple hundred bucks for a flight.
For example, if you're a United loyalist and are a few thousand miles shy of hitting status, you could book this flight from New York to Los Angeles, which covers almost 2,500 miles in each direction. So even if you were 5,000 miles short of hitting status, this fairly cheap flight could get you over the hump. This would be worthwhile if a year of elite status is worth more than 237 dollars to you.
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Of course, the actual amount of miles you earn depends on the fare class you book, and each program is a little different. There are also typically other requirements aside from just the miles.
But if you've ever wanted to try out elite status and are willing to invest a bit of money in unlocking the many benefits that come with it, spend some time looking into what your program of choice requires.
Here are a few quick links to elite status requirements for the big U.S. carriers:
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🌅 The Secret Order of the Double Sunrise
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I bet that headline got your attention, didn't it?
If you're thinking this secret order is like the Knights Templar or some Illuminati-esque group of people shrouded in mystery, then... well, you'll probably be disappointed. It's definitely way less cool than that.
It actually refers to a history-making flight in the travel world, the likes of which we will probably never see again.
First, we need to have a little history lesson (pay attention, you WILL be quizzed at the end of class).
In the 1940s, planes were not quite what they are today. Back then, flying long distances was impossible, and flying even moderate distances took a LONG time.
In 1943, Qantas launched a flight from Nedlands, Western Australia (close to Perth), to a British airbase near modern-day Galle, Sri Lanka. Today, that route would only take 6 or 7 hours to fly, not even close to the longest flights in the world today.
But back in the day, this flight took, and I'm not kidding here, as long as 33 hours. On one continuous flight. THIRTY-THREE HOURS in the air, and all in a relatively small seaplane.
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For this flight to be possible, the plane's weight was pretty much all fuel. It could only carry up to 3 passengers, but the primary reason for the flight was to transport mail. During WWII, this was a significant flight connecting these two regions, which were separated by Japanese-occupied territory at the time.
Weight was such an essential factor that the plane was stripped of everything from insulation to de-icing equipment and even the radios. Without radios, pilots relied on visual markers and stars to navigate (they named each of these planes after said stars).
Now here's the coolest part.
Because of the ridiculous length of the flight, passengers would see two sunrises on each flight, leading to the flight being nicknamed the "double sunrise" flight. Passengers who were lucky (or unlucky, depending on how you look at it) enough to fly this route were awarded this nifty certificate, officially making them members of the Secret Order of the Double Sunrise 👇
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This flight ran a total of 271 times, which is pretty remarkable. But, of course, after the war, aviation technology rapidly improved. This led to larger, more efficient planes and thus, much shorter flight times.
Today's longest flight (Singapore to New York) clocks in at a mere 18 hours. Compared to the double sunrise flight, this insanely long flight somehow seems much less painful.
Even so, there are plans to operate some pretty long routes in the near future. For example, Qantas has been working on a commercial route from London to Sydney for years now and even ran a test flight (complete with guinea pig passengers) back in 2019 where passengers witnessed two sunrises on a single flight - for the first time in decades.
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That's all I got for you today, friends.
What's the longest flight you've ever been on? Do you think Hyatt is the best hotel chain? If not, what's your hotel program of choice? Let me know by replying to his email or reaching out on social media.
さようなら,
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