For those fresh to the points and miles hobby, it’s natural to wonder when you’ll be able to fund your first trip using points. Traveling is an adventure, and doing it for (almost) free makes it even more exciting.

However, the answer to the question depends entirely on what your travel plans are. For instance, the number of points and miles required for a domestic award trip is going to be lower than that required for an international award trip, all things remaining equal.

Hyatt hotels and the World of Hyatt loyalty program are favorites among many travelers and points and miles enthusiasts.

One factor that differentiates the World of Hyatt program is that it’s the only major United States-based hotel loyalty program that assigns properties into categories and has award charts with fixed rates based on hotel category, room type and date.

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Co-branded hotel credit cards can play an important role in your wider points and miles strategy. Among their many perks, free night awards offer some of the greatest value to cardholders.

As part of a recent partnership between Bilt Rewards and World of Hyatt, Bilt members can now register to enroll in World of Hyatt Explorist status for 90 days. By doing so, you’ll also have the opportunity to keep Explorist status or even unlock Globalist status.

Hyatt recently announced that more than 100 hotels will be changing categories on March 22, 2022. Unfortunately, it’s generally bad news, but there are a few bright spots, mostly for the European travelers. Nearly 150 hotels will change categories, with 70 properties shifting to a higher category, including some of our readers’ favorites. Sixty-nine properties are moving up one category, and one property is going up two categories.

A few Category 4 hotels where you currently can use the Category 1-4 free night certificates will be moving up a category.

When I’m trying to decide what my next credit card is going to be, I consider a lot of factors. What trips do I want to take in the next one to two years? What points do I currently have? What points do I want? What’s my 5/24 status? 

These questions always help guide me towards a card that will help me meet my goals. I don’t open cards just for the sake of opening them.

Hyatt has announced a few hotels that will go up in award price and one that will drop in price, effective as of 12:01am CST on December 13, 2017 (this Wednesday).

Through 11:59PM ET tonight (August 9) you can buy between 10,000 and 55,000 Hyatt Points and get a 40% bonus on the number of points you purchase.

Hyatt points normally cost 2.4 cents each.