Is it Worth Buying Hyatt Points When They are This Cheap?
World of Hyatt has launched its latest “buy points” promotion, with the discount as large as I can remember. Between now and May 30, 2022, members can receive a 30% discount when buying at least 5,000 points.
Members can buy up to 55,000 points per year (before any bonus). Sometimes Hyatt runs a 30-40% bonus offer (which makes the price 1.71 – 1.84 cents per point) and sometimes it offers a 25% discount (which makes the price 1.8 cents).
This 30% discount brings the per-point price down to 1.68 cents!
Is it Worthwhile?
I have sometimes found it worthwhile to buy Hyatt points to immediately make an award booking. Here’s the award chart with peak and off-peak pricing…
At 1.68 cents per point, you could get yourself an off-peak night (3,500 points) at a Category 1 hotel for $58.80. Even the cheapest Category 1 hotels are still likely to charge a paid rate higher than that.
And at the high end, Hyatt’s best hotels could cost 45,000 points, which would cost you $756. Although that sounds like a lot, it is still potentially quite a bargain, although you would quickly run into the 55,000 point annual cap if you were looking for a longer stay.
There is one major downside, however, to buying points in order to book an award stay. Hyatt’s Lifetime Globalist status requires that you earn 1 million base points ($200,000 of pre-tax spend). Buying and redeeming points doesn’t earn you any base points…
Don’t Forget Cashback
Hyatt sells its points via Points.com, which means that you can earn 2.5% cashback via TopCashback and others.
If you are not yet a member of TopCashback, you can earn an additional $15. Simply sign up using this referral link – http://www.topcashback.com/join-us/inside-flyer/ref/craigsowerby – and earn $10 of cashback.
You would have to buy $400 worth of Hyatt points to pick up $10 of cashback from a single transaction, but you can also earn cashback in many other ways, including hotel stays with a number of major chains…
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