New Hyatt Offer May Be the First of Many 2009 Promotions

I’ve been expecting (and predicting) a flood of airline and hotel promotions to stimulate sagging travel during the first part of next year. The first quarter of the new year is always a weak travel period, and the current global recession can only make a bad situation worse.

We’ve seen some discounting already, and I expect to see travel sales proliferate early next year. But with the notable exception of a [% 2783772 | | Delta-Hilton offer %], the expected flurry of miles and points promotions so far hasn’t materialized. At least until yesterday. We now have a second 2009 promotion to look forward to, from [[Hyatt]].

Hyatt has provided me with advance notice of their upcoming “More Than a Bonus” offer, for stays at any of more than 365 Hyatt hotels and resorts in 45 countries, between January 9 and April 30.

During the promotion period, members of Hyatt’s Gold Passport program will be able to earn up to 20,000 Hyatt Gold Passport bonus points or miles as follows:

• Stay two nights and earn 2,000 bonus points/miles
• Stay four nights and earn an additional 4,000 bonus points/miles (totaling 6,000 bonus points)
• Stay six nights and earn an additional 6,000 bonus points/miles (totaling 12,000 bonus points)
• Stay eight nights and earn an additional 8,000 bonus points/miles (totaling 20,000 bonus points)

Registration is required, but won’t be possible until closer to the promotion’s start date. (Hyatt’s annual “Faster Free Nights” promotion is in effect through December 30, and I suspect they don’t want to focus too much attention on the new offer while the current offer is still in effect.)

This is an attractive offer, in effect for almost four full months. That’s good! What would be even better is if this turns out to be just one among many such promotions in 2009.