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As the title of this post should hopefully have told you, Hyatt is back with another points promotion…only this time they’re playing nice and made the top bonus available to everyone (the last 40% bonus in September was targeted).
For those of you who just can’t wait to buy some points here’s a link to the promotion…..
….and, for those of you who’d like to know a little bit more, here’s the information you’ll need:
Hyatt’s Latest 40% Bonus Promotion
- Buy 1,000 – 4,000 points – no bonus
- Buy 5,000 – 9,000 points – 20% bonus
- Buy 10,000 – 29,000 points – 30% bonus
- Buy 30,000+ points – 40% bonus
For those of you wondering what that means in terms of cost per point….
- Buy 1,000 – 4,000 points – 2.40 cents/point
- Buy 5,000 – 9,000 points – 2.00 cents/point
- Buy 10,000 – 29,000 points – 1.85 cents/point
- Buy 30,000+ points – 1.71 cents/point
The Headline Rules
- Offer available with purchases made between 12:01 am ET November 15, 2017 and ends 11:59 pm ET December 15, 2017.
- 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.
- Additional Bonus Points awarded under this offer do not count towards these maximums.
Full terms and conditions can be found via the promotion page.
The Math
The first thing to note is that as long as you purchase 30,000 or more points you will be buying Hyatt points at the best available cost/point.
Whether you buy the minimum number of points that entitles you to the 40% bonus…..
….or the maximum number of points allowed….
….the cost per point doesn’t change – it remains at ~1.71 cents/point.
Should You Buy Hyatt Points In This Promotion?
The first thing to note is that Hyatt doesn’t offer bonuses of over 40% – that’s a fact based on the last 3 years of points promotions.
While 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, when they do, it’s worth paying attention.
One of the keys to deciding how good this promotion is is the Hyatt award chart:
The very top Hyatt Properties cost 30,000 points/night so, if you were to buy enough points in this promotion to book such a property (at the best available rate), that would set you back approximately $513.
That’s the first indicator of how good or bad this offer is.
Would you be happy to pay $513/night for a room at a top Hyatt property? If that’s not for you then you should probably be ignoring this offer and moving on by this point.
I’m know that some people will argue that a few Park Hyatt resorts will charge a lot more than $513/night (the Park Hyatt Maldives is an example often given)…
…and will therefore say that the 40% bonus offer isn’t bad at all.
This argument may make sense for someone topping up an account to allow them to book a multi-night stay (or for someone wanting to add a night to an existing booking) but it makes absolutely no sense for someone without enough existing points to book a few more nights as well.
After all, who’s going to fly to the Maldives for a single night?
If we take a look at a mid-tier Hyatt property (like the Cat 5 Andaz West Hollywood that I enjoy using as an example as often as I can) the math can make this promotion look both good and bad.
20,000 points in this promotion wold cost approximately $342 and during low season that’s not a great deal at this property.
When it’s not busy, rooms at the Andaz West Hollywood can be picked up for $285 + taxes…
….which comes to approximately $329/night:
Buying points to then book these nights would be a terrible idea.
In peak season things can be different – if you can find award availability points can be a money saver.
When things get busy it’s not at all unusual to see rooms rates go past $400 before taxes….
…and when you factor those taxes in the rate gets closer to $500/night:
If you were to buy points in this promotion and then book nights like these you’d be on to a very good thing.
You could easily buy three nights worth of points in this promotion for approximately $1,026 and save well over $400 on a long weekend…and that’s a very good deal!
When Else Does The Promotion Make Sense?
Cash & Points Redemptions
Cash & Points redemptions are another example where, sometimes, if you buy Hyatt points in promotions such as this one you can save some cash.
Here’s a Hyatt award chart showing the 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:
In this instance 10,000 points is saving you from paying $337.31 ($482.49 – $145.18) meaning that you’re getting 3.37 cents of value out of each Hyatt point.…that not bad considering the points were bought for just 1.71 cents each.
Bottom Line
In some cases this isn’t a great deal at all but in others if you buy Hyatt points in this promotion you will definitely save money – as always, it all comes down to individual circumstances and the math.
Here’s the link in case you’re tempted 🙂
Despite this being the best bonus we’re likely to see from Hyatt there isn’t anything in this promotion that would prompt me to buy points speculatively (that’s always a bad idea)….. but if I was planning a stay in the next few months I’d check award availability, work out the math and see if buying points at 1.71 cents each could save me some money – that’s what this hobby is all about.
