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Hyatt is teasing its World of Hyatt members with its latest points promotion as it’s not giving away what bonuses are available until you login to you account. From what I’ve seen so far it looks like the best bonus on offer is 40% while the more common bonus appears to be 30%.
Check what bonus you have been targeted for here
Hyatt’s Mystery Points Promotion Rules
- Offer available with purchases made by 11:59 pm ET August 21, 2018.
- Purchase 5,000 or more Bonus Points in a single transaction and receive a mystery bonus.
- Bonus Points will be awarded upon completion of individual transactions.
- Bonus Points can be purchased in increments of 1,000, up to 55,000 points per calendar year.
- Additional Bonus Points awarded under this offer do not count towards these maximums.
- Members can receive points in increments of 1,000, up to 55,000 points per calendar year.
- Offer may be withdrawn or changed without notice.
- Offer cannot be combined with any other offer.
- Only purchases made online are eligible for the promotion.
Full terms and conditions can be found via the promotion page.
Hyatt’s Bonus Points Promotion – The Math
If you received the 40% bonus offer you’re essentially being offered the chance to buy World of Hyatt points for approximately 1.71 cents each…which is pretty good for a Hyatt points sale (we rarely see 50% bonuses).
It would appear as if most people are being offered a 30% bonus (that’s what I have been offered and what the 4 other accounts I control have been offered) so that’s the bonus I’ll be using for the math.
There’s good news here – as long as you buy at least 5,000 points you will be buying World of Hyatt points at the best rate your specific promotion offers.
Whether you buy 5,000 points….
….or 55,000 points (the maximum allowed)….
….the cost per point doesn’t change – it remains at approximately 1.85 cents/point.
Additionally…..
If you have a World of Hyatt credit card you can get 10% off all points redemptions for stays made between 1 August and 30 September 2018 (more details here) so that will make any points you buy go even further.
Should You Buy Hyatt Points In This Promotion?
Hyatt offers bonuses on point sales reasonably frequently but the non-targeted 40% bonuses don’t appear all that often in a calendar year so 30% may be the best you see through the rest of 2018 (although a promotion around Black Friday may throw up a better deal)
As always, the key to deciding how good or bad this promotion is, is the World of Hyatt award chart:
Top-tier Hyatt Properties cost 30,000 points/night so, if you were to buy enough points in this promotion to book such a property, the award night would end up costing you approximately $554.
I happen to think that’s a lot of money to spend on one night at a hotel…..but I’m sure others will disagree.
If you consider $554 for a room at a top Hyatt property is a reasonable price to pay (or if you can see that it would save you money on the cash rate currently being offered) then this promotion is worth considering.
If, like me, you’re thinking that that’s more than you care to spend it’s worth checking out what other properties would cost.
This is approximately how much properties at other levels of the Hyatt award chart would cost if you were to buy points in this promotion (with a 30% bonus):
- Category 1 – $93
- Category 2 – $148
- Category 3 – $222
- Category 4 – $278
- Category 5 – $370
- Category 6 – $463
Looking at those prices there will definitely be times when buying points in this promotion will save you some cash….but those occasions may not be all that plentiful.
Take the Hyatt Regency Los Angeles International Airport as an example. This is the closest hotels to LAX and I rarely ever see nights pricing up at less than $200. Mostly they seem to price at between $220 and $250 per night.
Once you factor in all the taxes this room rate comes to almost $260 for the night (for a randomly selected date in September).
This happens to be a Hyatt Category 3 property and so award nights cost 12,000 points. In this promotion that number of points would cost approximately $222 and so would save you almost $38/night.
If you have a World of Hyatt credit card you’d get a 10% rebate on the points spent (1,200 points) so the net cost would end up being 10,800 points or approximately $200 – a saving of $60.
Are either of these amazing savings? No, clearly not….but now that Hyatt award nights count towards elite status qualification why not save some cash if you can?
This kind of math will work at mid-tier properties too and regular readers will suspect that that I’m about to default to my go-to property for this example – the Andaz West Hollywood.
The Andaz West Hollywood is a Category 5 property and at various points of the year will only cost around $270 + taxes for a standard room.
Clearly buying enough points in this promotion to book a standard room at the Andaz when rates are that low is a bad idea as the points would cost you $370…but there will be times when points will definitely save you cash.
In peak season prices at the Andaz WeHo can go up significantly (I’ve seen them at over $500/night before taxes) and that’s when the math looks altogether different.
Here’s a Friday night in August which would cost $459….
…and that goes up to almost $530 when taxes are added in.
If you happen to want/need to stay at this property on an expensive night like this then points from this promotion would be a big help.
As a Category 5 property the Andaz West Hollywood can be booked for 20,000 points/night which, in this promotion, would cost approximately $370.
That a $160 saving on a single night.
If you have a World of Hyatt credit card this night would only cost you 18,000 points or approximately $333 – a saving of almost $200 on a single night.
Any Other Time This Promotion Can Be A Good Idea?
Possibly….
Cash & Points Redemptions
Sometimes, if you buy Hyatt points in promotions such as this one and use them for a cash & points reservation, you can save some cash.
Here’s a chart showing the cost of Cash & Points redemptions across all Hyatt categories:
As the Andaz West Hollywood is a category 5 property the Cash & Points rate is 10,000 points + $125 cash per night….and once the taxes are factored in the cash element increases to $145.18:
Using the same Andaz West Hollywood night as I used in the earlier example….
10,000 points would saving you from paying $384.73 ($529.91 – $145.18) meaning that you’re getting ~3.85 cents of value out of each Hyatt point.
That’s pretty good considering you would have paid just 1.85 cents for each point in this sale.
Bottom Line
As always with promotions like these, there will be times where buying points will make a lot of sense and others where its a colossal waste of money – it always comes down to the math.
Work out the math before you buy and you won’t go far wrong.
Also, don’t forget that if you were offered the 40% bonus in your promotion the math will look better than what I’ve shown above so some offers may be more of a slam dunk good deal.
