TravelingForMiles.com may receive commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on TravelingForMiles.com are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. TravelingForMiles.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers.
Some links to products and travel providers on this website will earn Traveling For Miles a commission which helps contribute to the running of the site – I’m very grateful to anyone who uses these links but their use is entirely optional. The compensation does not impact how and where products appear on this site and does not impact reviews that are published.
Hyatt has been running a promotion since the first week of the month which allows you to purchase Hyatt Gold Passport points for as little as 1.71 cents each. This has been the best (cheapest) promotion we’ve seen from Hyatt this year and it’s set to end at 11:59 pm ET, today, 25 October 2016.
The Terms & Conditions
- Offer is available through 11:59 pm ET 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.
- Earn a 40% bonus on purchases of 10,000 points or more
- Earn a 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…..
….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?
It all depends on how you plan to use them.
If you’re looking to buy points to buy an award outright you need to compare the cost to buy enough points for an award night vs the cash cost of the same room on the same date.
Based on the award chart above, and on the supposition that the points are purchased at 1.71 cents each, this is how much a night would cost at each of Hyatt’s hotel categories:
- A category 7 property would cost $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 this kind of cost is cheaper than parting with cash.
Taking the Andaz in Tokyo, as an example:
A standard room at the Andaz Tokyo Toranomon Hills can be expensive:
And that’s the room rate before taxes.
When you add in the taxes that takes the rate to $513.57:
I wouldn’t pay $514 for a single night at the Andaz Tokyo but Hyatt Points can make the price a bit less painful.
For the same night as you would have to pay $513.57 you can book an Andaz King room for 25,000 Gold Passport points:
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 money.
Keeping with the Andaz Toranomon Hills:
From the screenshots I’ve posted above you can see that, instead of paying $513.57 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.
In this example 12,500 points is saving you from paying $327.75 ($513.75 – $186) and that means that you’re getting 3.28 cents of value for each Hyatt Gold Passport point.
That’s pretty good going if you just bought points at 1.71 cents each.
Don’t Forget
- Hyatt’s points purchases are processed via Points.com so there’s no opportunity to get more points via a credit card that awards a bonus for travel or 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….but you don’t exactly have much time to make the most of that!
Bottom Line
As always, how good or bad of a deal this is really depends on personal circumstances and on what you plan to do with the points. If you’re thinking of buying speculatively please don’t – that’s a bad idea and you could find yourself overpaying if Hyatt was to somehow devalue its currency.
But there is value to be had if you look around and working out the math is key to making sure you get the best deal possible.
Cash & points redemptions and redemptions at expensive properties (like the Park Hyatt in New York) usually offer the better value when you buy points and what makes those kinds of redemptions even more attractive is that they can be upgraded with Diamond Suite upgrades and they count towards elite status qualification. That can be a nice double-bonus.
Link to Hyatt Points Promotion
