2 Free Hyatt Nights by Spending $250 at RiteAid? I’m In!

The other day, One Mile at a Time wrote about an intriguing promotion that RiteAid is running right now called Happy You Year which offers two free nights at a Hyatt property after spending $250 at RiteAid by January 24, 2015. With all seemingly too good to be true promotions like this, I read the buyer beware notes but decided to jump in and give it a go!

Here’s a basic rundown on the promotion, which RiteAid also has on their website –

1. Click here to sign up for a RiteAid Wellness+ account (if you don’t already have one)
2. Click here to look at the list of qualifying products (or find them noted on shelves in the stores)
3. Purchase $250 of qualifying items online (while logged into your Wellness+ account) at RiteAid.com or in-store, to receive 5 reward codes
4. Click here to create an account to enter the Reward Codes (Reward Codes expire February 24, 2015).
5. Redeem for a 2 night stay at a Hyatt hotel

The catch? This promotion can be a bit complicated along the way. Only specific products count towards the promo, there are a bunch to deadline dates to pay attention to, and redeeming may not be as easy as one would hope. But, if you’re going to buy household items anyhow this might be an interesting promotion to try.

For each $50 you spend, you get a Unique Rewards Code good for redemption on an item in Tier 1. With another $50 spend, you get another Unique Rewards Code good for redemption of two items in Tier 1, or one item in Tier 2. The sweet spot in this promotion is when you redeem all 5 codes at once (a total of $250 spend). Although the 2 free Hyatt nights are what I’m interested in, there are lots of other things to redeem the Unique Rewards Codes for. Here are the different Tiers and what can be redeemed at each level.

Here’s what I did to get 5 Unique Rewards Codes –

First, I looked at the list of participating Hyatt hotels, which you can find here. I read the FAQ for the reward redemption, which you can find here.

Looking at random dates throughout the year for several properties, I concluded that while some of the properties went for low dollar amounts per night I need a stay at a participating property that is going for $289 a night so this promotion is a good deal for me.

Thinking that this would be an easy way to be charitable, I looked on a website of a local pet shelter to see what items they were in need of. It said that their kitties and cats especially loved Fancy Feast and Friskies moist cat food, no seafood flavors please. RiteAid is notorious for having one of the worst values when it comes to pricing on many of their items. The Friskies 5.5 oz can was 95 cents, which was almost double the price at other stores. Their Fancy Feast 3 oz cans were also 95 cents, which was just 10 cents more than at Vons.

I signed up for RiteAid’s Wellness+ program and received an email about 5 minutes later, with my Wellness+ number.

Then I went on RiteAid.com and selected the cat food of my choice. I’d wanted to get 250 cans of Fancy Feast, plus a container of Anti-Monkey Butt Powder for One Mile at a Time. When choosing my quantity I immediately realized that the field only allowed quantity entry of 2 digits, so I tried 99. I entered it but got a response that there were only 2 available.

Trying Friskies, the system returned back that there were only 3 available.

I called their online support, and they said that while they expected new shipments in next Thursday, it was not guaranteed that they’d have that much of anything available online since most folks don’t purchase in bulk.

Looking at the store locator map online, I saw there were no RiteAids within driving distance from me. I decided to make a phone call to my fantastic mom. Over the years, she’s become accustomed to my strange obsession with miles and points but humors me in my quests.

What did I want her to do? Go to RiteAid, purchase 250 cans of cat food or Tidy Cat litter plus a container of Anti Monkey Butt Powder. She was writing down the instructions, and stammered a little when reading that back. “Ok, so you want 250 cans of cat food, and Anti….Anti Monkey What?” Anti Monkey Butt Powder, Mom. “Of course, no problem” she said confidently, in the sweet way moms do.

Then I got to thinking that her local store might not carry enough cans, or worse, wouldn’t let her use my Wellness+ card number which would then mean the Hyatt nights would be in her name.

I abandoned that plan and started over again.

On RiteAid.com I bought razor refills, assorted cold medications (to restock up the cabinet), and of course Ben’s Butt Powder. I also got an extra Butt Powder for Brian at The Gate, who commented on Ben’s post that he had written about the promo first. When I was looking around for good deals, I found that it generally wouldn’t let you add more than a quantity of 4 for anything. If so, it would adjust the cart so I ended up with just a few of something, so it hadn’t just been the cat food. Total = $256. I could have played around with the cost to get it right at $250 but I didn’t feel like spending any more time on it. Shipping was free when purchasing over $35 of items.

I put in my credit card, made the purchase and was taken to a page confirming the order. It had 5 Unique Rewards Codes on there, one near the top and then the other four further down below.

I’d created the Wellness+ account specifically for this promotion, but in purchasing 2 containers of Claritin allergy medicine I received two $10 +UP Rewards for use in their program.

Going to the redemption page, I entered in each code one at a time. It took a while to do, since the page defaulted to in-store purchase each time and also to Gold member which I had to manually change to Bronze.

Finally they were all entered. I’d completed the first step in the process.

Then I clicked on the redeem codes page, which I had to log in to access.

It gave me details on the next steps needed for redemption.

I printed out the form and put in an envelope with a photocopy of my driver’s license. It went in the outgoing mail (note all entries must be received by March 3, 2015).

Per the instructions after they receive my form I’ll receive a booking code from them in the following 10 days via email, along with a booking form.

The next step will be to choose 3 Hyatt locations and dates. Per One Mile at a Time availability can be searched for directly on Hyatt’s website, but using code HSPRN2.

Hyatt used to sell what they called Premier certificates, which these vouchers seem to be. As far as I know, they are not upgradeable using Diamond suite upgrades, nor do they earn stay credits. This is fine with me though, as I just want the free nights in this instance.

Once I submit the booking form with my choices they’ll confirm availability and I’ll have 2 days to make my final choice.

It is a lot of hoops to jump through, but so far it has gone smoothly and I’m curious to see how this turns out. I purchased things at RiteAid I would have gotten at another grocery store anyhow (except for Ben and Brian’s Butt Powder) so I’m not really out any money. If I get to redeem for 2 free Hyatt nights, great! The devil will be in the details though, and I’ll write again once I’ve heard from RiteAid and try to redeem.

Are any of my readers going for the free nights?