Hyatt Offering 40% Bonus On Points Purchases – Best Bonus This Year

Buy Hyatt Points

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Back in August Hyatt was offering a 30% bonus to anyone who wanted to purchase 5,000 or more Gold Passport points and that was about as good a non-targeted promotion as we’ve seen all year (Hyatt offered a targeted 40% bonus back in the summer). Hyatt is clearly feeling a bit more generous right now as the latest bonus is not targeted and offers 40% to all Hyatt Gold Passport members.

The T&Cs

  • Offer is available through 25 October 2016
  • Offer only available when points are purchased for the purchaser’s account.
  • Offer not valid for transactions gifting points.
  • Maximum 55,000 points (excluding bonuses) can be purchased each year.
  • 40% bonus on purchases of 10,000 points or more
  • 30% bonus on purchases of between 5,000 and 9,000 points.

The Full Terms & Conditions can be found on the offer page.

The Math

If you want to buy the maximum number of Gold Passport points the promotion allows (55,000) it will cost $1,320…..screen-shot-2016-10-05-at-15-51-29

….and will net you 77,000 Gold Passport points at a cost of 1.71 cents per point.

Should You Buy Hyatt Points In This Promotion?

The easiest way to look a this is to see how much it would cost to buy enough points for an award night at a hotel you’re likely to want to stay at.

hyatt-award-chart

An award night at a Category 7 Hyatt property cost 30,000 Gold Passport Points (for a standard room) and, if you bought points in this promotion to book such a room, it would cost you $513.

  • A category 6 property would cost $428
  • A category 5 property would cost $342
  • A category 4 property would cost $257
  • A category 3 property would cost $205
  • A category 2 property would cost $137
  • A category 1 property would cost $86

The question you need to ask yourself is would you be ok paying those prices for those hotel categories? If not then this offer isn’t for you…at least not for the purposes of buying a night outright.

When Buying Hyatt Points Make Sense

There are some Hyatt properties where, during certain times of the year, using points bought at 1.71 cents each is cheaper than paying cash for a room.

Taking the Andaz Tokyo, as an example…a hotel that I’m actually looking to book:

A standard room at the Andaz Tokyo Toranomon Hills is often pretty expensive:

screen-shot-2016-10-05-at-16-03-14

And that’s before taxes. When you add in the taxes that takes the rate over $500:

screen-shot-2016-10-05-at-16-05-23

I wouldn’t pay $514 for a single night at the Andaz Tokyo but Hyatt Points can make the price a bit more tolerable.

For the same night as you would have to pay $514 you can book an Andaz King room for 25,000 Gold Passport points:

screen-shot-2016-10-05-at-16-07-34

To buy 25,000 points in the current promotion would cost you $428 netting you a saving of $86 or 16.7% ….which isn’t bad as long as you’re ok paying $428 for a night at the Andaz in the first place.

Cash & Points Redemptions

Cash & Points redemptions are another example where, sometimes, promotions such as this one can save you some cash.

Staying with the Andaz example from above:

From the screenshots you can see that, instead of paying $514 or 25,000 in Gold Passport points, you could choose to pay $149 + 12,500 points for an Andaz King room. Once you account for the taxes & fees the cost increases to $185.93 + 12,500 points.

screen-shot-2016-10-05-at-16-12-03

In this example 12,500 points is saving you from paying $328 ($514 – $186) meaning that you’re receiving 3.28 cents of value for each Hyatt Gold Passport point.

That’s a good deal if you just bought points at 1.71 cents each.

Remember

  • Hyatt’s points purchases are processed via Points.com so there’s no opportunity to get more points via a credit card that gives bonuses for hotel spend.
  • You can buy a maximum of 55,000 Gold Passport Points per calendar year (excluding bonuses) so, if you’ve already purchased any Hyatt points this year, make sure you’re aware of how many more you’re allowed to buy.
  • If you have a Chase Hyatt Visa Credit you will get 10% off any points redemptions through 31 October 2016.

hyatt-credit-card-promotion-copy

Bottom Line

In a lot of cases this isn’t a good deal but, as always, it comes down to individual circumstances (how many points you have/what plans you have for the points) and the math.

Cash & points redemptions and redemptions at super-expensive properties (Park Hyatt New York) are probably offer the best chance of value if you purchase points in this promotion. What makes the cash & points redemptions a bit more attractive is that they can be upgraded with Diamond Suite upgrades and they also count towards elite qualification.

Those two things put together  would probably persuade me to buy some points if I was looking to book some stays.