Through February 22, 2019, World of Hyatt is offering a bonus on purchased points. You do need to log into your World of Hyatt account to see the offer, so there’s a chance there are some targeted versions of the deal, though all the accounts I manage see the same offer.
Buy Hyatt points with up to a 30% bonus
The bonus I see on all the accounts that I manage is for a 30% bonus on purchased points when you buy at least 3,000 points in one transaction.
That means with this offer you could purchase a maximum of 71,500 World of Hyatt points at a cost of $1,320, which is a rate of ~1.85 cents per World of Hyatt point.
Hyatt offers a bonus on purchased points a few times per year, and when they do, we typically see bonuses in the range of 30-40%. So personally I’d recommend waiting for a 40% bonus if you have the time to wait, though with an immediate use in mind a 30% bonus could also be worthwhile.
Hyatt points purchases are processed by points.com, meaning they don’t count as a hotel purchase for the purposes of credit card spend. However, anecdotally points.com purchases earn 3x points on the Ink Business Preferred℠ Credit Card, so that would be the card I recommend for these purchases.
If you don’t have that, I’d recommend using a card on which you’re trying to reach minimum spend, or otherwise a credit card that maximizes your return on everyday spend, like the Chase Freedom Unlimited® or Citi® Double Cash Card.
Is buying Hyatt points with a 30% bonus a good deal?
I value World of Hyatt points at ~1.5 cents each, though they can definitely be redeemed for a lot more than that. I just think that’s a fair number.
At the rate of ~1.85 cents per point, you can purchase enough points for a free night at a Category 7 property for ~$555, or a Category 6 property for ~$463, while paid rates at those hotels are often $1,000+ per night.
For example, the Park Hyatt Maldives is a Category 6 property (normally costing 25,000 points per night), and cash rates are often $1,200+ per night.
There’s even a lot of value on the other end of the spectrum. For example, the Hyatt Regency Kathmandu is a Category 1 property (normally retailing for 5,000 points per night), and paid rates are often $180+ per night including the 25% tax and service charge, which you don’t have to pay on an award booking. Meanwhile if buying points you’d pay just ~$93 per night.
Historically Points + Cash was also a great use of Hyatt points, though unfortunately that redemption option was devalued as of November 1, 2018. While Points + Cash used to require a set number of points plus a set amount of cash, the pricing is now variable. Points + Cash now requires half of the usual number of points, plus half of the standard rate for a given night.
Other ways to earn World of Hyatt points
There are lots of circumstances under which it could make sense to buy World of Hyatt points.
If you want to acquire Hyatt points with less of an out of pocket cost, there are many ways to do so:
Earn Hyatt points
Bottom line
As is always the case, you should crunch the numbers and see if this promotion works for you. While a 30% bonus is good, ideally I’d recommend buying points when there’s a 40% bonus, though it could be several months before we see that.
I know many people find it worthwhile to buy World of Hyatt points, especially those outside the US, who don’t have access to lucrative credit cards.
Just remember that there are also other ways to earn World of Hyatt points, like by transferring over Chase Ultimate Rewards points. However, not everyone has access to US credit cards, and/or has the ability to earn points that way.
Do you plan on buying points with Hyatt’s current promotion?
Image is Andaz SG.
Lucky, did you ever stay in a Raffles, Peninsula or a Mandarin ?
Now that they devalued Points+Cash redemptions, it is sometimes cheaper to buy the extra points to make it a full points redemption than pay the cash for Cash+Points
Lucky,
Have you heard anything on Hyatt category changes? Rumor is GH Baha Mar is dropping to a category four.
Too early. I am a definite buyer of WoH points when the bonus gets to 40%…
BTW, the top picture looks like Park Hyatt BKK’s poolside area , where I was just over a week ago on a 2-night award stay using some of the points that I’d purchased with a 40% bonus last year…
Great hotel.
Baha Mar dropping to cat 4 would be excellent. I vacation a lot there and love the property over the SLS (too trendy) and the Rosewood (requires minimum stays) for quick weekend trips.
So here is the question? Would I be better off with a cash back card and then use the cash to buy the points or put the spend on the Hyatt card? Assuming I have already have Globalist in the bag!
JustSaying, let’s say you have a 2% cash back and you use the Hyatt card for non-bonus categories (1 point per dollar spent)
If you spent $10,000 on the cash back card, you’d get $200 in cash, which would buy 10,810 points with this promotion, roughly.
The Hyatt card would get you 10,000 points for non-bonus categories. If your spending follows this pattern, you’d be better off with cash back.
The Chase Sapphire cards also allow you to transfer 1:1 to world of Hyatt
Angelo, Chase Freedom Unlimited will get 15000 points for $10k spent.
If $5000 extra spending then both Chase Freedom unlimted and Hyatt card make sense as you will get $22.5k pts for the Freedom and 15k pts plus 1 free cat 1-4 night with the Hyatt card. The certificate alone is worth more than $300 cashback.