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Hyatt Gold Passport is currently offering a 30% bonus on all purchases of 5,000 or more Gold Passport Points made by 7 March 2016.
While you have to buy at least 5,000 Gold Passport Points to get the 30% bonus, once you’re over the 5,000 point hurdle, the cost per point remains the same. Click here for the “purchase points” page.
Whether you buy just 5,000 Gold Passport Points (with a 30% bonus) for $120….
…..or 55,000 Gold Passport Points (with a 30% bonus) for $1,320….
…the Hyatt Gold Passport points are going to cost you 1.85c/point.
Is It Worth It?
To answer this question it’s worth taking a look at how many points you need to stay at Hyatt properties (whether that be a full award or a cash & points award).
Above is a table I pulled together for a blog last year when cash & points became available to book online and it shows what each category of Hyatt property would cost in terms of Hyatt points and Hyatt Points combined with cash.
So, if you were to buy enough points for a full award, this is how much you’d end up paying for each category of hotel:
- Category 1 – $92.50
- Category 2 – $148.00
- Category 3 – $222.00
- Category 4 – $277.50
- Category 5 – 370.00
- Category 6 – $462.50
- Category 7 – $555.00
It’s fashionable, at this point, to point out the hotels at which it can cost $1,000/night and to say that you could therefore get good value out of this offer….frankly that’s not a good way of looking at things.
First of all you can only purchase 55,000 Hyatt Gold Passport Points (excluding bonuses) per year and that’s not even enough for 2 nights at one of these super-high-end hotels. As these hotels are almost all overseas I don’t see many people flying out to them just for a couple of nights….you’d have to stump up a lot cash (or have a lot more Gold Passport Points) if you wanted to stay longer.
Second of all these hotels are few and far between. The vast majority of Hyatt hotels (even in Category 7) don’t cost anywhere near $1,000/night…or even $700/night so, to my mind, the argument that this makes the points worth buying doesn’t stack up.
Taking a hotel whose prices I know reasonably well as an example – The Andaz West Hollywood:
The Andaz WeHo is a Category 5 hotel and usually costs around $285 + tax/night ($330/night total) if you book a month or so in advance.
Or you could pay with 20,000 Hyatt Gold Passport Points:
If you purchase points in this promotion to pay for a night at the Andaz West Hollywood, you’d find yourself paying $370 for the privilege ($40/night more than the Advance Purchase cash rate). Even if you absolutely had to have a flexible rate (which in this case costs $315 + tax = $365/night) you would still be overpaying by $5/night…and you would be forgoing Hyatt Points and elite status credit by booking an award night.
For the vast majority of occasions, purchasing Hyatt Gold Passport Points at 1.85c/point simply to use them for award nights, is a bad deal.
So Is It Ever A Good Deal?
It can be. Usually when you book a Cash & Points rate.
Keeping with the Andaz West Hollywood as an example, the Cash & Points rate is 10,000 points + $125 + tax which comes to 10,000 Hyatt Gold Passport Points & $145:
If you’re happy not being able to cancel the booking the 10,000 points is effectively “saving” you $185 (Advance Purchase rate less $145) or, coincidentally, 1.85c/point. You’d break even.
That, however, doesn’t tell the full story.
The Advance Purchase rate is, by definition, not a flexible reservation while a Cash & Points booking is:
So, for those that need/prefer to be able to cancel a reservation at short notice, this is where you can get value.
I’ve already established that the flexible cash rate for the Andaz West Hollywood is $365/night including tax (in this example) so, if you were to book the Cash & Points rate, the 10,000 points would save you $220 (flexible rate less $145).
If you had bought the 10,000 at 1.85c/point those same points would now be saving you 2.20c/point…and that’s not a bad deal.
Don’t forget that 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.
Bottom Line
I value Hyatt Gold Passport Points somewhere between 1.4 cents and 1.5 cents each (certainly not more) so I’d have to find a very specify use for the points before I would consider purchasing them at this price.
If you have a solid plan for using the points at a value in excess of 1.85 cents/point then this could be a reasonable deal for you. If not….stay away. Never ever buy points thinking that you may, at some arbitrary point in the future, have a use for them – that’s a great way to get burned by a devaluation you didn’t see coming.
The last two Hyatt “buy points” promotion, including the one back in November, also offered a 30% bonus but there have been bonuses of 40% in the past too. There will always be another promotion so, if you’re not sure this is a good promotion for you, just sit it out and see if you like the next one a bit more.
