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The World of Hyatt has released its first points promotion for 2018 and it’s offering members the opportunity to earn a 30% bonus on all points purchases of 5,000 or more….but just how good a deal is this?
Here’s a link to the promotion
Hyatt’s Points Promotion Rules
- Offer available with purchases made by 11:59 pm ET February 23, 2018.
- Purchase 5,000 or more Bonus Points in a single transaction and receive 30% additional Bonus Points.
- Bonus Points will be awarded upon completion of individual transactions.
- Bonus Points can be purchased in increments of 1,000, up to 55,000 points per calendar year.
- Members can receive points in increments of 1,000, up to 55,000 points per calendar year.
- Bonus points do not count towards the annual 55,000 point limit.
- Offer may be withdrawn or changed without notice.
- Offer cannot be combined with any other offer.
- Only purchases made online are eligible for the promotion.
Full terms and conditions can be found via the promotion page.
Grand Hyatt Sao Paulo – reviewed here
Hyatt’s 30% Bonus Points Promotion – The Math
The good news is that as long as you buy at least 5,000 points you will be buying World of Hyatt points at the best rate this promotion offers.
Whether you buy 5,000 points….
….or 55,000 points (the maximum allowed)….
….the cost per point doesn’t change – it remains at ~1.85 cents/point.
Should You Buy Hyatt Points In This Promotion?
This isn’t the highest bonus we’re likely to see in 2018 – at some point Hyatt will offer a bonus of 40% (I don’t believe Hyatt has offered bonuses higher than that in the past).
However, although Hyatt does offer bonuses on point sales reasonably frequently, the non-targeted 40% bonuses don’t appear all that often in a calendar year so bear that in mind too.
As always, the key to deciding how good or bad this promotion is, is the World of Hyatt award chart:
Top-tier Hyatt Properties cost 30,000 points/night so, if you were to buy enough points in this promotion to book such a property, the award night would end up costing you approximately $554.
To me that’s a LOT of money for one night at a hotel.
Still, others may differ so, if you think $554 for a room at a top Hyatt property is ok or if you can see that it would save you money on the cash rate currently being offered, then this promotion will definitely be of interest.
If, like me, you’re thinking that that’s a little over the top then it’s time to see what other properties would cost.
This is how much properties at other levels of the Hyatt award chart would cost if you were to buy points in this promotion (approximately):
- Category 1 – $93
- Category 2 – $148
- Category 3 – $222
- Category 4 – $278
- Category 5 – $370
- Category 6 – $463
Looking at those prices I can see that there will be times when buying points in this promotion will save you some cash….but those occasions may not be all that plentiful.
Take the Hyatt Regency Los Angeles International Airport as an example. This is one of the closest hotels to LAX and I rarely ever see nights pricing up at less than $200. Mostly they seem to price at between $220 and $250 per night.
Once you factor in all the taxes this room rate comes to almost $260 for the night (for a randomly selected date in February):
This happens to be a Hyatt Category 3 property and so award nights cost 12,000 points. In this promotion that number of points would cost approximately $222 and so would save you almost $38/night.
Is that life changing? No….but now that Hyatt award nights count towards elite status qualification why not save some cash if you can?
This sort of math will work at mid-tier properties too and regular readers will know that I’m about to default to my go-to property for this example – the Andaz West Hollywood.
The Andaz West Hollywood is a Category 5 property and at various points of the year will only cost around $270 + taxes for a standard room.
Clearly buying enough points in this promotion to book a standard room at the Andaz when rates are that low is a bad idea as the points would cost you $370…but there will be times when points will definitely save you cash.
In peak season prices at the Andaz WeHo can go up significantly (I’ve seen them at over $500/night before taxes) and that’s when the math looks altogether different.
Here’s a Friday night in July which would set you back $459….
…and that goes up to almost $530 when taxes are added in:
If you happen to want/need to stay at this property on an expensive night like this then points from this promotion would be a big help.
As a Category 5 property the Andaz West Hollywood can be booked for 20,000 points/night which, in this promotion, would cost approximately $370.
That a $160 saving on a single night!
And yes, before you ask, an award booking is possible for that exact same date:
Any Other Time This Promotion Can Be A Good Idea?
Possibly….
Cash & Points Redemptions
Sometimes, if you buy Hyatt points in promotions such as this one and use them in a cash & points reservation, you can save some cash.
Here’s a chart showing the cost of Cash & Points redemptions across all Hyatt categories:
As the Andaz West Hollywood is a category 5 property the Cash & Points rate is 10,000 points + $125 cash per night….and once the taxes are factored in the cash element increases to $145.18:
Using the same Andaz West Hollywood night as I used in the earlier example….
10,000 points would saving you from paying $384.73 ($529.91 – $145.18) meaning that you’re getting ~3.85 cents of value out of each Hyatt point.
That’s pretty good considering you would have paid just 1.85 cents for each point in this sale.
Bottom Line
In some cases this promotion isn’t a very good deal at all but, in others, buying Hyatt points at 1.85 cents each can definitely save you money.
As always it all comes down to individual circumstances and the math – don’t buy points without working out the math.
Link to buy Hyatt Points at 1.85 cents each
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