It’s rare to see Hyatt offer any sort of promotions on buying gift cards, so there’s a noteworthy promotion that’s now live for the second time this year.
Continue reading: Live: Buy Hyatt Gift Cards For 10% Off
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Question - you mentioned above that you do not earn points when you buy the vouchers. Do you earn Hyatt point and status when you use them (as I would use them for myself). Not a US citizen and no credit cards in Australia seem to be aligned with Hyatt (would love to be told I am wrong). Am a globalist but running out of points (have PH Syd, Maldives and Buenos Aires booked). Might be an option for me as I would otherwise pay cash.
While I love Hyatt, I won't be buying cards bc I had one (and only) bad experience with a Hyatt gift card. I ended up in a 2 month back and forth and finally got my $100 credited (they had added my $100 to my bill!). But it was also a Fairfield Inn so I prob deserved it. Mine was a 20% off gift card.
@ Pete -- As Ben explains, you are not saving 10%, but rather about 7%. You have to keep track of them, spend extra time at checkout using them, remember to carry them, and waste LOTS of time getting them replaced if stolen ( I know from experience). If you don't value your time, I guess they are a great deal.
I also had a horrible experience when $2,000 of my Hyatt gift cards were stolen (electronically; I only found out at checkout at the Hyatt Regency Maui). Many hours on the phone with Hyatt (who initially refused to do anything for me, other than encourage me to contact the police), the police where the gift cards were actually used (California), and my credit card company later, I was finally made whole. But definitely not worth the risk to save that small an amount! (And I may have bought them when they were 20% off 4 years ago or so...still not worth it!)
Whoa—two Erics back-to-back! Note that I (Eric 2) was not also asking about using them with Privé bookings...
Hey Lucky, totally unrelated but BA/AA just did one of those heart-warming family stories again. Looks like they worked together to bring a family of six (four kids) back home to Chicago to reunited with their parents for Thanksgiving.
In other similar news, Costco.com is selling $500 Delta egift cards for $449.99.
Some of those above in the comment section who have gotten scammed seem to be ESL at best. Perhaps they're also involved with Air Peace!
@Eric: Who buys $2k in Hyatt gift cards and sits on them for 4 years? You lost out on some decent returns in the market.
Personally, I wouldn't jump on this unless I was going to redeem immediately because I wouldn't want cash tied up in gift cards.
Ben your calculation is wrong. Using your Hyatt Credit card to pay for hotel stays gets you 4 base + 5 bonus points per $ = 9 Hyatt points per $ spend or 13.5% return (by your conversion rates)
So paying a 10% higher price directly with Hyatt using the Hyatt credit card is a no brainer
@ V -- The 5x base points has nothing to do with using the Hyatt credit card. This is automatic, regardless of how you pay. The 4x points are earned in lieu of earning say 2% cash back or 3% worth of points on another credit card. Therefore, you are earning about 3-4% by using the Hyatt credit card over a different form of payment. Therefore, using your Hyatt credit card over a gift card is NOT a no brainier (although IMO using the Hyatt credit card is a better way to go).
Been trying to read the terms an conditions on the Hyatt website. Can a single gift card be used multiple times? E.g. if I but a card with a value of $1000, can I use it in Hotel A and redeem for $500, and then later use it in hotel B for $500 to redeem the balance?
@Lisfranc, you misread my comment. I was saying that this whole incident happened about 4 years ago. Bought the gift cards in December, and two months later realized they had been compromised.
10% off is a good enough deal, but the reason I won't take advantage of this deal is that it can be a pain in the arse at checkout if you have an agent that doesn't know how to redeem it. I haven't tried Hyatt gift cards, but have had this issue with Marriott.
@Gene -
You are wrong. We are comparing the value of purchasing a Hyatt gift card at 10% discount vs paying for a hyatt stay directly with hotel with no discount.
Remember the gift card charge is neither processed as a Hyatt charge nor a hotel charge. It would code as a regular purchase ( max = 2 points/$ depending on card).
Paying for a Hyatt charge directly with the hotel would code as either 9 Hyatt points/$ (with WOH credit card ) or up to 2-3 points/$ (with most other high value credit cards).
So we have 3 scenarios (using Lucky's valuations as basis ROI):
1) Purchasing Hyatt gift card with 10% discount using ANY credit card (absolute max of 2 points/$ or 3.4% return).
2) Paying for a Hyatt stay at full price with any premium Card (3 points/$ for CSR or 5 points/$ for amex Platinum, valued at min 4.5 or max 8.0 % return)
3) Paying for a Hyatt stay at full price with Hyatt WOH Card (9 points/$ for 13.5% return).
In any scenario, it's a NO BRAINER to pay 10% extra for either 2) or 3) instead of 1).
@Lucky - any comments?
@ V
Come on, in scenario 1, when you redeem the gift cards at a Hyatt property, you get your 5 WOH points per $. Its not that hard to grasp.
You get the same 5 WOH points in scenario 2 (plus whatever else from your premium cc) and the same in scenario 3 (plus 4 more WOH points for using the card).
Hyatt said that they know nothing about it and that they have no promotion going on
@schar, that's the Park Hyatt St. Kitt's. I believe Lucky reviewed it early this year or late last year.
Darn - this could save me a lot if I could use these to pay for an upcoming Lindblad expedition. I'm guessing they would consider that a prepaid reservation?
They charge $8.50 shipping for plastic cards. You can use an MC (and probably VISA) gift card to purchase the ecard.
V is an idiot. Who doesn't realize how idiotic he/she is. I guess V also doesn't know that you can earn miles by buying a plane ticket AND also by flying.
And the prepaid rate often isn't better than 10% of AAA rate, so with the giftcard you still come out ahead.
@James: You said: "V is an idiot. Who doesn’t realize how idiotic he/she is. "
Is there anyone else in the comments telling someone they are an idiot, while doing it with a sentence fragment ?