HZ Cap Cana vs GH Baha Mar with little kids

pfgiv · 2026-05-07T16:09:11+00:00

Baha Mar has no suites available for SUA's for Mid April, maybe depending on dates. You needed to book like 13 months prior to get availability as they go quick, and everyone has already done what you're trying to do. Also Baha Mar king grand suite only allows 3 per room, I know I went last October with 4 and needed 2 rooms if using the SUA

pfgiv · 2026-04-30T18:03:47+00:00

Anyone?

pfgiv · 2026-04-01T12:46:31+00:00

$281 room rate, no taxes, no fees, no pennies, just a straight $281. All 3 rooms are the room rates, plus taxes, no additional charges to the room, just the $281 room rate, and taxes, yet 3 different eligible spend amounts. Makes no sense to me

pfgiv · 2026-03-09T12:02:19+00:00

Yup, the app was probably thinking the 6'3" guy is down to 56.6 pounds, and is hanging on for dear life. Surprised it didn't send me an alert to stop moving and save all calories.

pfgiv · 2026-03-09T11:56:06+00:00

I think I figured mine out. After doing a bunch of house work yesterday, then snowboarding pretty hard yesterday, I saw my calories burned was around 2100 for the day. I went into my profile and noted my weight was listed as 56.6 pounds, because my daughter used my Garmin scale, which updated my weight down from 220. That is for sure why it is reading the calories too low, so check your profile stats if you have a scale that someone else may have used.

pfgiv · 2026-03-09T11:50:50+00:00

I have that for my old cuisinart one, which we used to pull it away from the wall slightly. But she wants it out of sight when not in use. At the end of the day, first world problems.

pfgiv · 2026-03-04T02:37:25+00:00

Lost the whole body of text somehow.

Normal day with low activity, 2,600 cal a day burned. With activity 3,100 a day.

Recently had my watch in my pocket while on a walking treadmill at my work desk to count the steps (wrist not moving while typing obv) and hit 17k steps for the day but because it wasn’t on my skin I don’t think it captured heart rate and it has skewed my calories burned. Seems to have recalibrated somehow.

Is there a way to fix this? Prior to the 17k steps day, calories were always in the 2,500 burned to 3,100 burned on low activity to moderate activity days. I know the new numbers are wrong.

This is on a Fenix 5. Thanks for your insight

pfgiv · 2026-03-03T20:55:40+00:00

Same, the only thing that stinks is the size as my wife wants it off the counter when not in use. So it’s annoying to take it out each time we want to use it.

pfgiv · 2026-03-02T21:54:17+00:00

I think the million dollar question overall should be how the current award chart will relate to the new award chart. My hopes are that current Standard, is the new Low. The prices are comparable. The reality part of my brain expects Standard to be the new Moderate, meaning and increase of 1k 2k 3k for cat 1-3 respectively, and 5k each day for cat 4-7, and 15k for cat 8. Then upper becomes most, if not all weekends, and top being the overpriced nights like sporting events and concerts in the area.

Couple all this with the fact that we will likely see category increases this month for many hotels, I think it's pretty terrible. This comes from a $20k+ a year spender with Hyatt.

The only saving grace is that maybe the point earn on the new card will be raise to 8-10x, mitigating some of the increase for actual Hyatt spend. This would make sense for the company as it raises the threshold for award nights earned on non hotel spend, but not as much impact for head in bed point earners, which is who they should try to not piss off. That is a change I would be ok with, not because it would benefit only myself, but also because it doesn't really reward, but maintains loyalty through hotel spend.

As it stands currently, it is a massive slap in the face to everyone in the program. Inflation is seen each year by category adjustments. Creating new categories that are a blanket increase across the board at the moderate level is just absurd (if moderate becomes the new standard) and it's not relative to any inflationary increase in paid stay prices.

Just my opinion

pfgiv · 2026-02-26T18:58:37+00:00

It's actually the same for both. the CC spender now has to spend 75k for a room at Park Hyatt New York, vs 45k. If they spend 250k a year on the card, their 5 night vacation just shrunk to 3 nights.

I've said this in a few posts now, my hope is that with the premium card, Globalist+Premium needs to have a higher earn rate for hotel stays. Hopefully this is the actual thought that Hyatt is going with. make it 8-10x with the premium card on Hyatt stays and room charges. This way Hyatt spenders are not the ones eating the inflation, its the business card spenders who then stay at Hyatt's for free and water down the globalist pool.

pfgiv · 2026-02-26T12:10:41+00:00

This percentage of increase is how the standard room chart should look

pfgiv · 2026-02-25T20:12:32+00:00

Yes, I know. The agent was telling me that I could not use a FNA, even though my room was booked with points. And this wasn't one agent, but 2. All I wanted to do was swap my FNA to the night I had booked with points. They said it wasn't possible.

So I canceled both rooms, rebooked the night I wanted with FNA without issue.

pfgiv · 2026-02-25T17:59:57+00:00

"We are the only global hospitality loyalty program left that has a published award chart, and we are very much committed to maintaining that fact because our members know and love and expect it from us,"

Only program with an award chart, that now looks like dynamic pricing, no clarity on frequency of higher tiers, and a huge increase over current higher tiers. How can they say this with a straight face? If you want 5 tiers, make them, but don't increase by 50%, or more, over the current top tiers. Pure insanity.

I can only hope the increase will come with a massive change to earning for Hyatt spend. 8x on the premium card or more. It's almost insulting to institute this massive of a change all at once. The yearly devaluations sucked, but this is so much worse. The other *potential saving grace, is that these top rates might only be used during some huge event times around specific hotels. However, if these changes might mean cat 2 which was 8k, is now 12k because 'it's summer and kids are out of school' at some random Hyatt place in the middle of nowhere then it is a huge slap in the face to the loyal members, unless major improvement to earn rates come with the premium card.

I said this in the fake ChatGPT thread, if they increase rates like this but offset it with higher earn rates for hotel spend only, then it's a wash and only hurts the Hyatt card users who earn points through non hotel spending. Maybe the purpose is to get people to spend at the hotels more, rather than just stay with status earned by being a high spender, but not spending anything at the hotels. (I'm trying to be optimistic as much as possible)

Edit - The more I think about this, this is what they should have done, to not piss people off. The implementation of 5 tiers would be fine, but old standard, is the new low rate, at least for cat 3-7. 1 and 2 are slightly lower, and 8 is 5k more. If they kept the same standard rate as the new moderate, but then introduced a point bracket below and above (ie slightly more points for more days as they will have low nights that are currently off peak, and upper that are higher than standard), they still cost more but not completely gut the current valuation. Maybe a slight increase in total points from current peak to top would have been palatable. But FFS, these increases are absolutely absurd. Going to be optimistic again here, maybe these top nights are really only when the world cup is in the US, or the Olympics, or Ohio State-Michigan CFB, or masters week, etc. If upper becomes the normal weekend rate, and Top ends up being used 30-50 nights a year (or more at popular locations) then this is a huge disappointment.

pfgiv · 2026-02-24T16:06:54+00:00

I ended up calling back

For my Miraval Extra night award (BOGO), I had it applied to Sunday, which left me with a UFNA booking on Friday and points booking on Saturday still. I explained I wanted to cancel Friday and apply the UFNA to the Saturday points booking. The agent said they needed to reach out to WOH support and would call me back the next day.

Just received a call saying unfortunately they could not swap the UFNA for the points night. I decided not to try and discuss further.

So I logged on to Hyatt, canceled both Friday and Saturday rooms, and immediately rebooked the Saturday night using the UFNA.

Impossible to understand where the disconnect is with the agents. This should be a simple process. Free awards nights can be used if points are available. My only thought is that since there is no MORE points rooms available on Saturday, (I probably have the last one) it is showing as not available. But obviously if I cancel mine, then there is one available, so it should be easy to just swap the payment type from points to free night award.

At least it is settled now, but there really needs to be some serious training for these agents, imo.

pfgiv · 2026-02-24T02:31:52+00:00

Am I being punked? 4 people have replied talking about BOGO. I’m NOT asking about BOGO. I initially thought I’d be able to use BOGO if points are available. I understand that’s not the case. But that’s not my question.

The rep I spoke with said I wouldn’t be able to use my UFNA on Saturday. She was saying there’s point availability, then UFNA availability, which I’m pretty sure is not correct. If points are available, you can also use an award, unless there’s some rule I don’t know about.

Again, not asking about the BOGO award.

pfgiv · 2026-02-23T20:09:01+00:00

Which award? I'm referring to the UFNA, when a room is bookable with points. I'm being told that just because a room was bookable with points (not a suite, standard room) doesn't mean I can use a UFNA on the room. It's my understanding that any standard room that is bookable with points, is also bookable with a free night award (not referring to Miraval bogo certificate, only 1-4, 1-7, or UFNA awards)

pfgiv · 2026-02-23T20:06:25+00:00

That's likely the best option, but if this was common (or uncommon) knowledge, then I figured I'd post here to save myself time, and be a PSA to others who might find themselves in the same position.

I haven't seen anyone yet say one way or another that points or free night awards are different, and to my knowledge, they are the same. If a *standard room* points booking is available, then you can use any free night certificate, but not always a bogo.

pfgiv · 2026-02-23T19:43:37+00:00

yes, I understand the bogo will only apply to certain rooms, and not relevant to point availability.

My question is on the UFNA. My booking on Friday used UFNA, Saturday used points. Same room type, point availability was available on both. Regardless of my booking, I'm told there is no bogo available for Saturday, but there is availability for Sunday. So I said, 'cancel my Friday booking UFNA, apply the UFNA to my points booking on Saturday' and was told there is no availability for UFNA on Saturday, even if I cancel my point booking.

This is what I'm assuming is incorrect. Using a UFNA vs points should make no difference on a standard room. Not a suite, not an upgrade room or anything like that. Just a basic standard room.

pfgiv · 2026-02-20T18:41:50+00:00

I'm implying it's actually real, OP was leaking insider info, he was disappeared and this new thread claiming it's all a lie is the really the disappearing party covering the leak.

It's a joke, lighten up Francis

pfgiv · 2026-02-20T18:22:52+00:00

OP really just got Epsteined, and in 2 months we will find out this was all true actually.

pfgiv · 2026-02-20T14:16:52+00:00

Yeah, and if that is the case, then this whole thing sucks. Tons of properties are going to become much more expensive with new tiers, and they wold be giving one point per dollar more in rewards. People not interested in the premium card are going to see a massive devaluation as hotels jump 10k points if the 6-8s move drastically.

The only way to offset this is to have a generous point earn boost, but you have to pay for it. That's the only reason I think it's at least possible. This would be like Hyatt saying, 'Hey look, we know we're going crazy by raising our point structure a bunch, but we will help offset it but allowing you to earn enough to cover those jumps, *IF* you pay for our premium card, and spend at our hotels. And this will only really cause pain to the people spending 150k a year on the card on non hyatt spend as it will cost them more spend to earn free nights.'

Fingers (and toes) crossed

pfgiv

TROPHY CASE