The Flying Critic

Hyatt Announces Faster Free Nights

Hyatt just announced their latest Faster Free Nights (FFN) promo for this year:

Every Two Stays = One Free Night
Plus earn 2,000 bonus points after every two eligible stays
With your MasterCard® card
September 1 - December 30, 2008
Redeem your award between September 15, 2008 and February 28, 2009

If you play it right, faster free nights can be an amazing  deal.  Two years ago I parlayed two ~100/night stays in a bay area Hyatt into a free ~500/night stay at the Grand Hyatt Tokyo.  Just remember it is stays and not nights that count.  You have to register for the promo before your first stay.

Grand Hyatt Tokyo Review and Pictures

During a trip to Thailand and Singapore last year I routed through Tokyo and intentionally gave myself a ~23 hour layover that allowed me to spend one night at the Grand Hyatt Tokyo.  I landed late in the afternoon at Narita airport.  Thankfully immigration was a breeze.  No questions.  The agent just printed out a 90 day visitor visa sticker and said "welcome to Japan."

Because I had no checked bags I headed straight to customs. The customs officer asked, "you are visiting on business?" I replied, "no, just transiting." "Welcome to Japan, enjoy your stay." I approve of friendly immigration and customs officials.  They typically set the first impression of a new country.

After leaving customs, I found my way to the ticket counter for the Friendly Airport Limo Bus. They asked where I was staying. I handing over 3,000 yen and waited 20 min for the next bus.

Once on the bus, I tried to stay awake but considering I had been awake since JFK, I crashed and slept through most of the bus ride. It was dark anyway so I don’t think I missed much.

The Grand Hyatt Tokyo is an outstanding hotel. The moment the bus pulled up, there were 4 bellmen waiting to take bags.  The bellmen who took my bag escorted me to the front desk and introduced me to the front desk agent by name.  I saw him glance at my luggage tag when he grabbed it from the bus driver.  He must have read my name from that as I never gave it to him.  Impressive.

Check-in was easy. The front desk agent told me that I was wise to take advantage of the Hyatt Faster Free Nights special. That's a promo Hyatt does periodically where you get one free night at just about any Hyatt worldwide after every two stays at any Hyatt.  So I was using my last Faster Free Night award that I got from two $60/night stays in California.  An amazing deal because the Grand Hyatt Tokyo is usually around $600 a night.

The front desk agent asked which newspaper I would like to receive in the morning and then after a quick check of my passport and credit card the agent gave the bellmen my room key.  The bellman escorted me to my room to give me the obligatory tour.

The room I had was the most basic room.  And it was grand.  Not a suite but still huge compared to most places in Tokyo.

On the bed was a card to hang outside the room asking which free room service beverage I would like complimentary in the morning for being a member of Hyatt Gold Passport program. I checked coffee.  It was delivered on-time with my pre-selected paper.

The room came with free high-speed Internet and complimentary bottles of water.

In the morning I had breakfast in the restaurant at the hotel before taking some pictures of the hotel.

After breakfast I walking around the neighborhood for a couple hours and explored some local shops and markets.  By noon I checked out and took a bus back to NRT to continue my trip.  Not a bad way to spend 23 hours. 

Video tour of Grand Hyatt Tokyo room

Here is video tour of a standard room at the Grand Hyatt Tokyo.  As you can see, even their basic rooms are contemporary, spacious and well appointed.  If you are a member of their Gold Passport frequent guest program (free to sign up), room service will deliver complimentary coffee or tea in the morning. 

Hyatt Regency Kiev

A Luxury Travel Blog posted last month about the Hyatt Regency Kiev.  I may be taking a trip to Kiev in 2009 and this will be one of the first hotels I research if the trip happens:

This new hotel has a fabulous location, lying in the very heart of the city centre. Overlooking the Old Town, which features many of Kiev’s many historical sights, the Hyatt Regency Kiev is within walking distance of the cathedral of St Sophia, Saint-Michael’s Monastery and the boutiques of Kreschatyk Street.