How to Book Hyatt Stays With Points

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Hyatt Hotels is a favorite hotel chain among many frequent travelers and points aficionados. World of Hyatt points are easy to earn, the redemption rates are very reasonable and Hyatt’s program is fairly straightforward and easy to use.

Let’s look at when and how to transfer Hyatt points, when it makes sense and when it doesn’t and how to book award stays at Hyatt hotels.

You’ll see that depending on the cash rates it doesn’t always make sense to transfer Ultimate Rewards points to the World of Hyatt. Quite counterintuitively, sometimes you are better off booking a Hyatt property through the Chase Travel portal.

How to Earn Hyatt Points

There are two ways to earn a good stash of World of Hyatt (WOH) points without spending a lot of nights at Hyatt hotels.

The World of Hyatt Credit Card

The The World of Hyatt Credit Card card comes with a generous welcome bonus and has some interesting bonus spending categories:

• 9X on spent for Hyatt stays 
• 2X on local transit and commuting
• 2X on dining  
• 2X on flights purchased directly from the airline
• 2X on fitness club and gym memberships
• 1X on everything else

As a cardmember, you’ll receive one free night at any Category 1-4 Hyatt hotel or resort every year after your cardmember anniversary. You’ll also earn an extra free night at any Category 1-4 Hyatt hotel or resort if you spend $15,000 during your cardmember anniversary year.

The annual fee is $95, not waived the first year.

The card is subject to Chase’s 5/24 rule.

Ultimate Rewards Earning Credit Cards

Hyatt is one of Chase’s transfer partners and the points transfer 1:1. Chase has a number of excellent personal and business cards that earn Ultimate Rewards points. One of our favorites is the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card.

The card earns 2X on travel, and that includes everything, from airfare and hotels to taxis, trains and even tolls. All dining purchases earn 3X.

The card comes with a host of other benefits, such as trip interruption and cancellation insurance and rental car benefits.

The Chase Ink Business Preferred Card is a great card for any small business owner. It earns 3X on the first $150,000 spent in combined purchases on travel, shipping, internet, cable and phone services, advertising purchases with social media sites and search engines. All other purchases earn 1X.

Both of these cards don’t have foreign transaction fees and are subject to Chase’s 5/24 rule.

How to Transfer Ultimate Rewards Points to Hyatt

It’s very easy to transfer Ultimate Rewards points to your Hyatt account. When you login to your Ultimate Rewards account, click on the little arrow next to the number of points to expand the dark blue header.

Then click on Transfer to Travel Partners. And scroll down to the list of hotel partners.

On the next screen fill out your details and click continue.

As you can see, Chase made it very easy to transfer Ultimate Rewards points to Hyatt. The transfer is instant, so log into your Hyatt account to see your newly transferred points. At this point you are ready to book your stay!

One caveat, you need to have one premium card (a card with an annual fee)  in order to be able to transfer Ultimate Rewards points to travel partners.

When Should You Use Points and Award Sweet Spots

Hyatt is considered to be one of the best Chase transfer partners thanks to the program’s reasonable award redemption rates. For example, you can book a room at the iconic Park Hyatt Sydney with 30,000 points. In contrast, the rates at this amazing property top $1,500 in high season.

In 2019 Hyatt announced that they will introduce standard, peak and off-peak pricing but that has been delayed to July 2021. So for now, we can book awards at standard rates even for the most in-demand properties.

Not all properties, however, offer outsized redemption values. When booking a Hyatt, always check how many World of Hyatt points you’ll need to book directly with Hyatt and the price in points on Chase Travel℠.

Sometimes you’ll need fewer points if you book a Hyatt property through the Chase Travel℠. It’s important to always compare the price in points you’ll find on the portal with the price in points on Hyatt’s site.

You’ll get the best value through the portal if you have a Chase Sapphire Reserve® card because Sapphire Reserve cardholders can redeem points through the portal at 1.5c/point. Sapphire Preferred cardholders can redeem points at 1.25c/point.

Let’s look at a couple of examples. If you wanted to go skiing in Utah over the President’s Day weekend, these are the cash rates at two Park City hotels.

Hyatt Centric is a category 7 hotel, bookable with 30,000 Hyatt points. Hyatt Place Park City is a category 4 hotel, bookable with just 15,000 points.

Now, let’s see how many Ultimate Rewards points you’ll need to book these properties through the Chase travel portal if you have the Chase Sapphire Reserve®. The price on the portal is tied to the cash prices and each point is worth 1.5 cents.

Remember, when you transfer the Ultimate Rewards points, one Ultimate Rewards point is equal to one Hyatt point. So to book one of these Park City hotels, you’ll need twice as many points if you book through the portal when the cash rates are this high.  

Now let’s compare these two options when the demand is much lower. I looked up these two hotels on the portal for midweek dates in December, before the start of the school holidays.

And what a difference! Hyatt Centric costs just under 20,000 points and Hyatt Place Park City less than 9,000 points. Compare that to 30,000 and 15,000 WOH points respectively, and you’ve got a winner. In this case, using the portal makes a lot more sense.

One caveat – portal bookings are treated as third party bookings and usually don’t earn elite qualifying nights. And if you have  elite status, it might not be honored. For me personally, saving money, or in this case points, beats elite status perks.

It’s easy to find examples of lower category hotels that usually cost in the $100-$150 range most of the year but shoot up in price during special events, such as big tournaments, college football games, graduation or festivals.

These category 2-4 properties can be booked with just 8,000-15,000 points, so using Hyatt points and booking directly would make the most sense. As you can see, it’s always important to compare prices.  

Other examples of these “sweet spots” include the Maldives, Hyatt’s all inclusive properties in Mexico and the Caribbean and lower category hotels near the theme parks.  

Park Hyatt Maldives | Photo Courtesy of Hyatt.com

Room Upgrades on Paid Stays

Another great way to use Hyatt points is to use them to upgrade a paid stay. If you’d like a larger room, or need a bigger room to accommodate more people, this option could be particularly valuable, especially if there’s a big price difference between the cash rates for a standard room and a standard suite. The number of points you’d need for the upgrade is relatively small.

Note that at all Hyatt brands with rooms that are upgrade eligible, you must book the Standard Rate and at Hyatt resorts you must book at least a Deluxe room. However, the difference in price between a deluxe room and a suite can be hundreds of dollars, so this is a great way to extend the value of your points.

To be eligible for an upgrade, you’ll have to book the Standard Rate at all Hyatt brands and at Hyatt resort properties, you must book at least a Deluxe room. But even when booking a slightly more expensive rate, the price difference between deluxe rooms and suites can be hundreds of dollars, so this is a great way to stretch your points.

Guest of Honor Awards

Guest of Honor bookings are a great way to enjoy all the perks of the top tier Globalist status without having to earn it yourself. Unlike other loyalty programs, Hyatt allows its top tier elite members to extend the perks to their friends and family. As a Guest of Honor, you’ll enjoy all the Globalist perks such as free breakfast and space-available upgrades at check-in.

Hyatt lets its members transfer points to each other for free every 30 days. So if a friend or a family member is a Globalist, you can transfer the points required for your stay and they can book you the coveted Guest of Honor reservation.

Final Thoughts

Hyatt points are fairly easy to earn thanks to a number of Ultimate Rewards earning cards and a World of Hyatt credit card. These cards come with generous welcome bonuses and great bonus earning categories making it easy to accumulate a good number of points quickly.

Hyatt points could be extremely valuable for booking award stays when the cash prices are very high. At other times, it might make more sense to book them through the portal or by using the recently introduced Pay Yourself Back feature. Always compare how many points you’ll need by using each of these methods to get the best value out of your points.

Travel well,

Anna