Frequent Miler on the Air - Four Seasons vs Grand Hyatt Macau | Ep206 | 6-10-23

Episode Date: June 10, 2023

Four Seasons has a repiutation for elegance and luxury, but Hyatt has a lot of fans in the award travel community. Which hotel "wowed" in Macau? Listen for our thoughts. 00:00 Intro 00:52 Challenge update 08:25 Manila to Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific Business 09:52 What crazy thing . . . did the Curve Card do this week? 11:31 Card Talk: A brief look at the Amex Platinum card 12:47 Main Event: Four Seasons vs Grand Hyatt Macau 15:11 Four Seasons Suite 16:02 Grand Hyatt Macau suites (Standard suite and Premium Suite 22:22 Club Lounge 24:30 Four Seasons Service 28:04 Grand Hyatt Macau service 30:12 Value

Let's get into the giant mailbag. What crazy thing did City do this week? It's time for Mattress Running the Numbers. Ready for the main event? The main event. Frequent Liler on the air starts now. Today's main event, Four Seasons versus Grand Hyatt Macau. What do you think? I think you'll find out in a few minutes if you listen to the rest of the show, but there's a clear winner. There's a clear winner. I'll give you that. There is. Clear winner today on that topic, and it might not be what you think. So this show is going to be different from usual. Nick and I are in Macau as we record this,

and so we're going to skip some of the usual segments. There's no giant mailbag. There's no, probably no question of the week today. But what we're going to do is start with a challenge update and talk all about what's going on so far. Can you give us a recap of, well, what is the challenge we're talking about? Let's start there. Well, so the challenge we're on right now is our party of five challenge where the five people who work at frequent milers, that's Greg, the frequent miler, of course me, and then Tim and Carrie and Steven are all traveling together. And the objective is to plan an incredible trip for a group of five. And essentially we each had one. Well, we split into two teams, Carrie and Steven or Team Tokyo. So they planned a trip from

Tokyo for about a week. And then Tim and I are Team San Francisco. And so we have a trip planned starting in San Francisco also for about a week. And so the objective is to make the best use of Greg's miles and money and create a trip that's tailored to a group of five of us, which includes finding award availability for five, finding hotels for five, and all of those challenges that families often face. So we are in the midst of that challenge. And if you're not following us on Instagram, you should be because that's where all of the stories are getting posted as we travel and reels. And so you'll see all sorts of cool stuff that we've been doing.

And so if you want to follow along, that's really the best way to do it. If you're not familiar with Instagram, when you sign up, when you go to our profile page, you click on the Frequent Miler logo, like our little icon profile picture. And that's how you can kind of next your way through stories. Or then the reels on our homepage, they're going to also tell part of the story. So we are in the midst of the Frequent Miler challenge. We love to do these challenges to find new things and kind of challenge perceptions about what's possible. And hopefully by the end of this trip, you'll say, wow, I can take my family of

four or five and do some awesome stuff because we were able to do that. So we have to update people and tell you what we've been doing so far, right? So you tell us where we started, Greg, you booked it. Okay. So we started, we all met in San Francisco and we flew Japan Airlines business class using 60,000 miles to fly to Tokyo. And immediately from Tokyo, Nar and Kerry, had taken over the planning. And so they booked us economy. We paid 11,000 British Airways Avios per person plus $120 in taxes and fees to fly onward to Manila. And so Manila was our first stop. That night we stayed at the luxurious Holiday Inn Express in Manila. It was fine. And it was just for, you know, we arrived very late, went to a nearby hotel and Stephen did

some experimenting with using a special shareholder rate that he qualifies for. And he's going to see whether he earns elite credits and everything and points, which it says you don't. So we're looking forward to seeing the results of that experiment. From there, we went on to, we took a van to a ferry. And then after the ferry, we took a jeepney to get to the house where we stayed at for the next couple nights. And this was an Airbnb booking that Stephen made. It was $210 all in per night. And what do you think about this little Airbnb we stayed at? Maybe we should talk a little bit

about what that was like. I think that whoever's listening to this probably has never seen an Airbnb. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that all but one or two or three people probably have never seen an Airbnb quite like this one, right? I mean, unless you found this property, you've probably not seen one quite like this. I don't think anyone has seen anything like this Airbnb or not. I mean, this is a unique thing on its own. Oh, yeah, probably the most or not even probably the most unique place I have ever stayed. So it was a large house. When I say large, I mean, we had access to what, eight bedrooms, eight or ten. And it's hard to say. And some of

those bedrooms had more than one bed. So I mean, you could probably I think you could comfortably fit 20, 30 people. Right. I mean, it wouldn't be a problem. Yeah. Yeah. Easily. Comfortably. I'm not sure about the comfortably part there. So this this house was was amazing. Wow. In many, many ways. It wasn't high on the comfort side of things necessarily. Yeah. And actually one reader that commented on instagram said it looks like the circus and and i understood where that comment

came from because this place was decorated in all sorts of tile and decorations that the owner had picked up all over the world hodgepodge together in a way that i was somewhat reminiscent of circus decor but in a way that was really beautiful. I don't know, hard to explain, but really cool. Yeah, Stephen had an amazing find, or Stephen and Carrie, with this Airbnb. And even though I said it wasn't all that high on comfort, it was an amazing stay. There were things like a private chef that prepared breakfast and dinner. It was wonderful to sit around with the whole group and talk and laugh outside near the pool with a fan going overhead. It was really, really,

really fantastic. And being able to lodge us all for just $210 a night and just a little bit more for the food part of it was really a great find. I should mention that he found this. Airbnb has a special section called the OMG. So that's something like, oh my, Greg. Exactly what that was for. And Greg really was like, oh my. In fact, I think we have on recording somewhere where you said, I love you guys. When we checked out, when Steven told told us about the the personal chef that we would have making our meals, that was my reaction. I was I was already super psyched because this place is sort of a wonderland. Yeah, it's like it's like walking into this Asian circus thingy. Yeah, I don't I don't know. And there were I mean, to be fair,

there were downsides. Greg mentioned the fact that it wasn't necessarily super high in comfort in the sense that the beds weren't the most comfortable I've ever been on. There were more insects than some people would be comfortable with. And because of the way the house was set up, it was barefoot everywhere. And and it was a very indoor outdoor space. So somebody who's not comfortable with that might have trouble. The stairs were very steep and not regular. So there were definitely some issues if you have mobility issues or you would be particularly creeped out by some ants. And then there were things that may not be up your alley, but it was wild. And when we said there was eight or 10 rooms, I mean, the owner gave us a tour, but there's no way we could have found all the rooms again, because this was all constructed piecemeal as he went along for many, many, many years.

And it's a complete maze and super fun to just play in there. I think we need to move on. We need to actually do this quickly because we're in Macau right now and we're going to be heading back to Hong Kong airport. Not too long. So let's breeze through the rest of the update on the challenge.

After the Airbnb in Puerto Galera in the Philippines. We flew to Hong Kong from Manila on Cathay business class, paid 22,500 American Airlines miles per person, plus $10 per person. And the flight was good. And the lounge actually in Manila, the Cathay lounge was really, really nice. Yeah, it was good. And the lounge, actually, in Manila, the cafe lounge, was really, really nice. Yeah, it was excellent.

There was a noodle bar where they made noodles for you. And the flight was reasonably comfortable. It was a regional business class, so not totally lie flat. But for a two-hour flight, it was perfectly comfortable. And we were all, except for Tim, plenty sleepy enough to be able to take advantage of the recline that was there. So that wasn't a problem at all. And then, okay, so now once we arrived in Hong Kong airport, we made our way with difficulty to Macau. And I say that because the ferry wasn't running that late at night or possibly at all anymore currently between the Hong Kong airport and Macau. So it was complicated to get to Macau, but we got there and we checked in at the Four Seasons for one night, and then we moved over to the Grand Hyatt Macau for one night. And so

that's why the main topic for today is uh four seasons versus the grand hyatt yep okay but before we get into more detail about that we should talk about what crazy thing did greg the frequent miler do this week uh and and well or what crazy thing did curve do and i'm going to go ahead and tell you they continue to advertise their anti-embarrassment feature uh which is supposed to be such that your card will never get declined because if you're not familiar with the curve card, the curve card is one where you can back it with one of your other credit cards. So you can have several different cards set up as payment methods. And so if your backing card gets declined, curve credit should kick in and you should never be embarrassed to check out.

And Greg, is it fair to say you've been embarrassed once or twice this week? I've been plenty embarrassed. So when I last talked on here about the Curve card, I think I talked about one of its great features, theoretically, is when traveling internationally, the cards it charges underneath, like let's say you have it set to charge your double cash card, which normally has a foreign transaction fee, the charge goes through Curve to the double cash card, but as if it's a US payment, so you don't get charged a foreign transaction fee. But that's if the Curve card is accepted at all, which it hasn't been so far on this trip. So tried several places in Macau, and in no case did it work. In no case did anti-embarrassment fail to embarrass me,

or succeed in not embarrassing me. Yes, right, right, right. There's plenty of embarrassment to go around for the whole team, I think. But it's been fun recording my embarrassment as we go. Okay. Next up here, we're going to do an abbreviated card talk. And in a future episode, we'll probably give the Amex Platinum card its full due. But we felt like it was necessary to talk about it briefly here.

The Amex Platinum consumer Card, $695 annual fee. But we want to talk about it because it has multiple credits that you get every calendar year that can more than make up for that annual fee. But the one that we're going to be talking about in the main event today is $200 if you use your card to book a fine hotels and resorts property or the hotel collection property through Amex, you get $200 back. And so the idea that we always like to do is to book a single night that costs around $200 or not much more. And you get all these extra benefits when you book fine hotels and resorts. And so that's really why we want to talk briefly about the Amex Platinum card. As I said, there's many other credits available, and we'll get into that in future.

You get lounge access. You get emergency evacuation just by holding the card. So that's just a brief take on the Amex Platinum card. So now let's get into the main event the main event is the four seasons versus the grand hyatt macau okay so what we have is a sort of mini review comparing the two uh hotels and just before we get into it, let me just say that reputationally, Four Seasons is like way, way above Grand Hyatt. I mean, nothing wrong with Grand Hyatt. I'm just saying that Four Seasons has a halo effect of like people think of it as a

super high end, super high, you know, service and standards. And some of those people think of it as a super high end, super high, you know, service and standards. And some of those people that have it, that think about it that way are the accountants that set the prices at most four seasons, right? That's right. Usually they're priced out of what we would think about doing. And there are no, you know, there's no points that you can use to book it and get outsized value for your points the way there is often with Hyatt.

So that's where the Fine Hotels and Resorts Amex Platinum $200 credit comes in. Steven was able to find this Four Seasons Hotel available for about $290. And so once we get the $200 rebate, comes to about 90 or I think it was $96 actually, 296 altogether. So $96 net and you get all these benefits like free breakfast, $100 resort credit, room upgrade, 4 p.m. late checkout. We took advantage of all of those.

Yeah, and I think that something to mention here is when we talk about it this way, I can sense that there may be some who would say, well, but if you look at it as you're getting $200 back, you're missing it sort of because you're paying the $200 in the annual fee effectively. But the way I kind of look at these fine hotels and resorts credits like that is that $200 is an amount that I can envision myself paying for a hotel. I usually wouldn't pay $300, but I would pay $200. So essentially, this credit gets me a Four Seasons that I wouldn't have otherwise booked for that $200, right? Because that's the outlay, essentially. And obviously, you got to kick in the other $100.

But the nice thing is you get the $100 credit breakfast for two. And also, you get a shot at an upgrade. And we did indeed get our rooms upgraded at Four Seasons, right? Because we ended up with a one-bedroom suite, which was fantastic. I mean, it was a very nice suite. It had two bathrooms, nice full living room, desk space to work out in the living room, two beds, which is remarkably difficult to find. I have found through searching for this challenge that getting a suite with more than one bed in it is much harder than you would imagine. So so all of those things, I think, really added up to something nice because it was quite a luxurious suite. Am I right? Oh, it really was. I really enjoyed it.

Beautiful. It was just beautiful, luxurious. Yeah, it was what you would expect for four seasons. I think that that really fit with the halo image of the four seasons. Total luxury. So that was really, really nice. And now that, of course, is something that we can compare to here at the Grand Hyatt Macau, because as globalists, we first of all, so we should talk about how we booked this one before I get into the suite comparison, right? So, so Steven booked this since this was a team Tokyo, but what you need to know is that this was an off-peak category four. So a standard room would have cost 12,000 points per night. A standard suite was 21,000 points per night. A premium suite was 21,000 points per night. A premium suite was 24,000 points per night. So we actually ended up with three rooms here. And so Greg's room that

we're recording this from is a premium suite for 24,000 points per night. And the rooms that Steven and Carrie and Tim and I have are standard suites, which would ordinarily cost 21,000 points per night. One of those rooms was actually booked as a standard room and got upgraded to a one-bedroom suite. So Globalist Benefits kicked in right there, and we all ended up with suites at the Grand Hyatt. And truthfully, and this is a question I was going to ask you, but before we get into any comparison, I don't feel like the premium suite is necessarily worth the additional 3,000 points per night. Whereas I would normally be like, eh, yeah, why wouldn't I like the premium suite is necessarily worth the additional 3000 points per night. Whereas I would normally be like, eh, yeah, why wouldn't I take the premium suite for 3000 points per night? Do you think that's fair? Do you like your suite far better than the standard suite?

No, I totally agree. There's hardly any difference. It's basically a standard suite in the corner. So I have another window that you guys don't have. But the good view, which you can't see, is behind us. If we had the curtain open, the good view, you have the same view from actually higher up. So it's maybe even better view. Yeah, I slightly prefer it because of the way the corner room is. You don't get quite as good a view of what I think is perhaps the main event in terms of what these suites have here. And that's a view of the f think is the perhaps the, you know, the main event in terms of what these suites have here. And that's a view of the fountains at the Wind Palace, which is like a carbon copy of the Bellagio fountains, except slightly nicer, I would say. I think they

improved on the Bellagio fountains a little bit, and they run continuously throughout much of the day and only with the music, you know, several times a day, like Bellagio fountains. But anyway, I think the view is actually easier to see from the standard suites here. So I would totally go with a standard suite at the Grand Hyatt. But either way, they're very comparable in the sense that it's a one bedroom suite, similar to how the Four Seasons suite was a one bedroom suite. There is only one bathroom in the suites here at the Grand Hyatt, whereas the Four Seasons had two bathrooms. But both of them have some sort of a little dining sitting area. And actually, is that true?

Did the Four Seasons have a dining area? Yes, it did. It did. It did have a table. Yeah. So there are a lot of similarities between the two suites in terms of what you get. Right. So what do you think?

Which suite was better? The Four Seasons one bedroom suite, the Grand Hyatt suite from all the different angles. What do you think? Yeah. Yeah. Just looking at the suite itself, I think the Four Seasons was the nicer suite. I really enjoy both of them. So it's kind of splitting hairs.

The Four Seasons is a little more elegant. If, though, if you include the view as a factor, I can't actually even remember what the view was at the Four Seasons, but the view here is really nice. Yeah, I do. It was nothing. And the view here is really nice. I think that the suite absolutely was more elegant at the Four Seasons, but I would take the suite here day after day because not only do you have a great view of the fountains, but you also have a great view of the airport. So if you like plane spotting, there was a fantastic view of the airport, the large bridge. I think that those things factor in for me. And so even though the suite at the Four Seasons was more elegant, I would take the suite here at the Grand Hyatt, provided you can get a fountain view anyway. Yeah. And I have to add, though, in some circumstances, you might value that extra

bathroom. It's a half bath, more than a view. So it depends on the situation, how many people you're going to stuff into one room, that sort of thing. So, yeah. So let's say on the suite side, it's kind of close. It's close, yeah. And all right. Next up is breakfast. So at the Four Seasons, we had free breakfast thanks to the fine hotels and resorts booking. And here at the Grand Hyatt, we have free breakfast thanks to it being booked by a globalist member. But you could

also get free breakfast here, interestingly, by using a club access award. So a club access award normally just gets you access to a grand club or a Regency club at high Regencies. And, but in cases like this, where they have a club, the club is generally open, but it's not open for breakfast, which is the key here. Then they give you access to the restaurant breakfast. And so that's very nice. So in both cases, we had a restaurant breakfast. In both cases, it's an enormous buffet. Yeah, in both cases, you are not going to be hungry anytime soon after visiting the breakfast. But what do you think is better? So the Four Seasons breakfast was hands down the better breakfast. There's no doubt about it. I would consider going back and paying for it. It

was actually not crazy expensive. I think $40 a person or so is what we determined it was. And I would go back for it. Even if I had free breakfast somewhere else, I would go back at least one day for that because the breakfast was so good at the Four Seasons. It was over the top and it's very good at the Grand Hyatt, but it was that extra notch, I think better at the four seasons. So from a food standpoint, I would give it to the four seasons on, in that regard. You totally agree. A hundred percent.

Um, the lobster claws alone that you could get as many as you want, uh, sealed the deal for me with the four seasons. That was excellent. Yeah. Yeah. There were so many things that were really well-prepared and were high-end that you wouldn't ordinarily find on a breakfast buffet like the Lobster Claws. There were quite a few things like that that you wouldn't have even expected to have found on a breakfast buffet.

So yeah, it was excellent. It was well worth the price of admission, so to speak. And getting that for free was awesome. Now, we did have five people. So it's worth mentioning that we did have to use some of the $100 credit to pay for the fifth person because you get breakfast for two with fine hotels and resorts and we had five people. So we did have to pay for one breakfast, but it's still well worth it using part of the credit for that. So that was great. So I think then the next thing to talk about is the club lounge. So how was the club lounge at the Four Seasons? Yeah, the club lounge at the Four Seasons didn't exist. Or if it did exist, we didn't have access to it. So it's pretty easy to say that the club lounge at the Grand Hyatt beats out the Four

Seasons, at least from our point of view. And the club lounge here at the Grand Hyatt is fantastic. I mean, it's a very high floor, beautiful views, great service. You actually check in. If you have access to it, they check you into the hotel overall up there so you don't stand in line down at the regular check-in lines. And they have a full sort of food buffet area in the afternoon. They actually have cocktails that they'll make you on request. Um, yeah, I don't know. Yeah. All complimentary.

Anything else to say about the. No. Yeah. They had cocktails. They had wine and all complimentary. No, the lounge was, was excellent. Very good. And when we originally got here, they were clearing away the

afternoon tea. So there was this tea service with tons of pastries and desserts. And then there was an evening service that had plenty of food that replaced dinner. We didn't have to go anywhere for dinner because there was plenty for us to all eat there. So that's a particularly good value if you have access to it. Yeah. I mean, some club lounges, you can sort of scrounge to get enough dinner. This wasn't like that. This was real dinner food. There's like real cooks behind the counter that preparing stuff and putting it out for the buffet. And, uh, You could have a full dim sum. You have, you can make yourself a salad. You have a full dim sum. There were the appetizers weren't small and the dim sum was like regular full size. Right. So if

you, if you would go out to a dim sum restaurant to eat, weren't small and the dim sum was like regular full size, right? So if you would go out to a dim sum restaurant to eat, then this certainly could replace dinner. Yeah. And if you prefer sort of more American-like food, there were ribs and other things as well. I mean, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, you had everything you needed there. So clearly the Grand Hyatt, way better on that aspect. And I'm sorry, we didn't get to try the tea service. I bet that's really good too. Speaking of service, I think we need to talk about that. What did you think of the service levels at the Four Seasons? Well, the Four Seasons has a reputation for being a high-end luxury, bespoke type of experience.

And those of us who've been in this game for a while, we've stated our fair share, I would say, of properties with high-end service. So I feel like we are qualified to know what to expect at that level. And the Four Seasons, to say that they fell short is a gross understatement, right? I mean, there was just nothing particularly stand out about the service in a good way, right? It wasn't nobody was unfriendly or rude. So certainly it was what you would expect in terms of the politeness of service. But in terms of the level of service you often get in Asian hotels, really at mid-tier brands, it didn't even really match that, did it? I mean, there were a number of service failures, I would say.

And then small things like at breakfast, the food was fantastic. And so each one of us went up for a few laps at the buffet and they did. I had to stack my plates on top of each other because nobody came to clear the plates that were empty. I mean, we're not talking like I left food on there. It was like an empty plate that just nobody came back for. Yeah. Although someone did clear one of my plates and fork. And so when I came back with more food, I had to wait around and finally flagged down someone to ask for a fork. And it's just

that type of thing you wouldn't expect at a Four Seasons. Another example of a failure of service is we were out and about trying to get a taxi to come back to the hotel and we couldn't we had trouble getting one and so carrie called the four seasons and asked for help they not only didn't help her get a taxi like i would have expected we were only maybe a mile away or half a mile i mean we were not very far away it's just it was because of construction it was impossible to walk to the Four Seasons. And I would have expected them to go out of their way to help us, whether it's sending a hotel car for us or at least, you know, getting a taxi and sending them to where we were. But they just said, no, sorry, we couldn't help. Yeah. I mean, that's I think that's the amazing thing, because

that to me was just so far short of what I would expect at a Four Seasons. Like if I was lost in a city, one of the things I enjoy about using miles and points is staying at places with much higher levels of service than what I would have had otherwise. And there have been so many experiences I've had where hotels have gone way above and beyond

what I would ordinarily expect that I was really surprised that nobody, like they were just gonna let us sit there and which, hey, our fault to some extent. But I would just think that at those levels, you would be able to expect that. And the smaller stuff, like not clearing the plates at breakfast or clearing the fork and not bringing you another one. Those are things that are very nitpicky or it sounds nitpicky. But I remember the first time I went to a luxury restaurant, like a high end restaurant, and they made a mistake with the dessert. And to me, it was no big deal because

I ordinarily went to dinner at places like Applebee's and Olive Garden. It wasn't a big deal to me. And the server was apologizing profusely. And I said, it's okay. These things happen. And he just looked at me and very flatly said, they shouldn't. And I've learned from that, that he's right. At places like this this when you're paying these types of prices. They shouldn't. And they did frequently there. Yeah. And I feel like none of us that are traveling together are particularly picky about service levels. And so if we notice that the service isn't good, it's really not good. And that's enough said about that. I think. On the Hyatt side, the level of service was noticeable from the get-go.

Right. When we checked in, right? I mean, the service was fantastic. They whisked us up to the club lounge. People grabbed our bags and carried them up to the club lounge for us. They were very insistent on that. And really, they were excellent from the moment we checked in. So, yeah, I mean, and that continued on, right? I mean, within the club lounge, people were there to get us a drink and coming back with the bottle of wine to see, did you want more of the free wine?

You know, so and that's a little bit more of what I would expect in this part of the world. But then a breakfast service was really good also. Right. It was shockingly good at breakfast. And that's where the contrast with the Four Seasons was most extreme. So at the breakfast, I got up to... So first, we all sat down in the corner and they brought us coffee. And then we got up to get our food at the enormous buffet. And as I was getting a plate full of stuff together, the waitress for our section, like sort of runs up to me and says, I'll take that back to the table for you.

And every time, every time I went up that, that happened again. And, and, you know, the first time I didn't need that because I just had the one plate, but the next time I had a couple of things in my hand and it was actually really nice. They cleaned the, uh, the dishes out of the dirty dishes out of the way right away. It was just night and day. I mean, it is what I said this like three times a breakfast today that this is what I expected at the Four Seasons. This any place that markets itself the way Four Seasons does in Asia. I would have expected that type of service. So it was, yeah, I think that really highlighted it for us. I think we were all a little, I don't know if I want to say disappointed, but we noticed the fact that the service wasn't quite what we expected at Four Seasons. But I think the service was so good at the Grand Hyatt that it really put it in stark contrast.

Like, wow, this is the grand hyatt that it really put it in stark contrast like wow this is you know the way i would expect it to be so so hands down grand hyatt wins on a on a service standpoint yeah yeah and then let's talk value uh the the cash rate for for these hotels for the grand hyatt is about half of the four seasons cash rate and so uh know, if you're paying cash, value's way better here, especially if you have a club access award so you can upgrade your breakfast and to the lounge. And when you're paying with points, you know, you don't have that option with Four Seasons, but here you could actually book right into a standard suite or you could do things like use, if you have a category one to four Hyatt free night certificate, you'd use that. And if you also have a suite night award,

you can upgrade to, to a standard suite, which again, we said was basically just as good, if not better than the premium suite. So yeah, value here is tremendous. It is. And so I think Greg just mentioned it, but keep in mind that ability to upgrade to a standard suite so you can find that standard rate, which if it's around 150 bucks and you add 6,000 points for a standard suite, that could be a fantastic value for a great suite with an awesome view potentially. So I really like that a lot. Now, in fairness, we said you can't use points to book the four seasons. But if the cash rate is cheap enough, you could book through something like Chase Ultimate Rewards for one and a half cents per point if you got the Sapphire Reserve. And so if the rate was around $300, as it was on this trip, it would cost about 20,000

points per night. So similar price point. However, if you had booked that way, I can almost guarantee you wouldn't have gotten upgraded to a suite, right? I mean, because you would have been booking essentially through Expedia. So you would have gotten the room that you booked. And so if you wanted a suite, you would have had to have paid far more, whereas we were able to get that suite by booking through Final Thousand Resorts and you wouldn't have gotten the $100 credit or the free breakfast that way. So all of those things would add up to make it far more expensive than the 20,000 points. Initially, it sounds kind of comparable when you put it in those terms of points, but it's not because of all the additional benefits you get at Hyatt. Now, of

course, you get a lot of those additional benefits that we talked about by being a globalist at Hyatt. So if you're not a globalist, then you might say, well, but I won't get A, B, and C. However, like Greg said, if you get those club access awards, which happen at 20 nights, now you get your first two, then you could presumably get yourself a restaurant breakfast. Or if you don't have any status at all, Nick mentioned how you can book the cash rate and use 6,000 points to upgrade to a suite, or instead you'd use 3,000 points and upgrade to have club access, which if you're not traveling with a lot of people, that might be the better way to go to ensure you get the free breakfast. So certainly could be. Certainly. So from a value standpoint, I don't even think it's close,

like clearly at half price, if these were equal price, uh, I think from a value standpoint, I'd have to pick the grand Hyatt. If you've got any sort of status or upgrade awards, or you the points to be able to add on top, I would pick the high half the price of the four seasons, hands down value here. Totally agree. Um, so there you go. I think that we need to get to, uh, the Hong Kong airport. So, So we need to wrap this up. So two thumbs up for the Grand Hyatt. Two thumbs unenthusiastic about the Four Seasons. Yeah. It's a beautiful hotel. It is lovely. It's gorgeous when you walk in and impressive looking. And people said hello all over the place. They said good morning, good afternoon, good evening.

So it's not that people were unfriendly by any stretch. Just wasn't what we expected. The Grand Hyatt Macau was definitely a place I would return to. The Four Seasons, like only if I had

a final Thousand Resorts credit that was expiring would I probably consider going back. Totally agree. All right. I think it's time for the goodbye song. All right. If you've enjoyed

what you've been hearing today, you want to sign up for our email list so you can get these posts in your email inbox each day or each week. Go to frequent miler dot com slash subscribe. Again, that's frequent miler dot com slash subscribe. You can follow us on all the various social media. If you're not yet following us on Instagram, you definitely should be for this challenge because you're going to want to see all of those things as they're happening, good and bad, all of the reactions and the funny moments. So it's a fun chance to get to know the team a little bit. So follow us on Instagram. You can join our Frequent Miler Insiders Facebook group. And wherever you're listening to this or watching

it, please, please, please give us a thumbs up. Give us a comment, a review. We always appreciate hearing from readers. And if you have a question or a comment that you would like to be considered for a future question of the week or mailbag segment, you can send that to mailbag at frequent miler.com. Bye everybody.