For a few weeks now, World of Hyatt has been offering a promotion on purchased points. I wanted to post a reminder of this, both because the offer will be ending soon, and also because the annual cap on buying points with Hyatt recently reset, so those who bought points last year up to the limit can once again buy points. Let’s go over all the details.
In this post:
Promotion on purchased World of Hyatt points
Through Thursday, January 19, 2023, World of Hyatt is offering a 25% discount on purchased points. You can unlock the discount as long as you purchase at least 5,000 points in one transaction.
How much does it cost to buy World of Hyatt points?
Ordinarily you can buy World of Hyatt points for 2.4 cents each, before any discounts or bonuses. If you maxed out the promotion and purchased 110,000 World of Hyatt points, you’d receive a total of 110,000 points at a cost of $1,930, which is a rate of 1.8 cents per World of Hyatt point.
Ordinarily, when Hyatt offers a promotion on purchased points, the program offers either a 25-30% bonus or a 25-30% discount. The 25% discount offer is roughly average as far as promotions we see from World of Hyatt.
How many World of Hyatt points can you buy?
World of Hyatt ordinarily lets you buy up to 55,000 points per account per calendar year, before any bonuses. However, during this offer, the cap has been doubled, to 110,000 points.
While World of Hyatt limits how many points you can buy per year, the program also lets you combine points across accounts for the purposes of redemptions, which could be a good deal. There are two major restrictions to be aware of:
- You can only transfer points to another member “in order to have a sufficient number of points to redeem a particular award”
- You can only combine points (regardless of whether you’re sending or receiving) once every 30 days
In order to combine points, you’ll need to complete Hyatt’s point combining request form.
Which credit card should you buy World of Hyatt points with?
World of Hyatt points purchases are processed by points.com, meaning they don’t count as a hotel purchase for the purposes of credit card spending.
I’d recommend using a card with which you’re trying to reach a minimum spending requirement, or a credit card that maximizes your return on everyday spending, like the Chase Freedom Unlimited® (review), Citi® Double Cash Card (review), Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card (review), or Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card (review).
When in doubt, review which credit cards are best for buying points and miles.
- Earn 1% cash back when you make a purchase, earn 1% cash back when you pay for that purchase
- $0
- Earn 3% Cash Back on Dining
- Earn 3% Cash Back at Drugstores
- Earn 1.5% Cash Back On All Other Purchases
- $0
- Earn 2x Venture miles on every purchase
- No Foreign Transaction Fees
- Global Entry/TSA Pre-Check Credit
- $95
- Earn 2x Venture miles on every purchase
- No Foreign Transaction Fees
- 10,000 bonus miles every account anniversary
- $395
- 2x points on purchases up to $50k then 1x
- Access to Amex Offers
- No annual fee
Is buying World of Hyatt points worth it?
While I wouldn’t buy World of Hyatt points without a specific use in mind, there’s tons of value to be had if buying points strategically.
I’m a huge fan of the World of Hyatt program, thanks to the excellent hotel brands Hyatt has, and the general value of World of Hyatt Globalist status, including the ability to use suite upgrade awards when redeeming points.
I’ve had so many amazing award stays with Hyatt over the years, and you could instantly buy points and redeem them at a property and save over 50% in the process. I’ll get into that in a bit more detail below.
How many points do you need for a free night at a Hyatt?
To give you a sense of award pricing, here’s the World of Hyatt award chart for standard room redemptions:
World of Hyatt Category | Off-Peak | Standard | Peak |
|---|---|---|---|
Category 1 | 3,500 | 5,000 | 6,500 |
Category 2 | 6,500 | 8,000 | 9,500 |
Category 3 | 9,000 | 12,000 | 15,000 |
Category 4 | 12,000 | 15,000 | 18,000 |
Category 5 | 17,000 | 20,000 | 23,000 |
Category 6 | 21,000 | 25,000 | 29,000 |
Category 7 | 25,000 | 30,000 | 35,000 |
Category 8 | 35,000 | 40,000 | 45,000 |
Note that peak and off-peak pricing is fairly new for World of Hyatt, and was only introduced as of March 2022. Furthermore, also as of March 2022, Hyatt introduced some category changes, including several Hyatts moving up to Category 8. While these are both negative changes, on balance I’d still consider the program to be extremely rewarding.
What are good uses of World of Hyatt points?
There are truly endless amazing redemptions, so let me give some examples of some of my favorite World of Hyatt redemptions in the past few years.
I’ve redeemed World of Hyatt points for a stay at the Category 8 Alila Ventana Big Sur. Stays here include meals, and cash rates are regularly $2,000+ per night.
I’ve also redeemed World of Hyatt points for a stay at the Category 7 Park Hyatt Maldives, where cash rates are regularly $1,000+ per night.
I’ve redeemed World of Hyatt points for a stay at the Category 8 Calala Island Nicaragua, which is bookable through World of Hyatt’s Small Luxury Hotels of the World partnership. This amazing private island has just four villas, and stays here include all food, drinks, and activities. Paid rates here would be $3,000+ per night.
Continuing with the Small Luxury Hotels of the World partnership, I’ve redeemed points for a stay at the Category 8 Canaves Oia Epitome Santorini, which is bookable through World of Hyatt’s Small Luxury Hotels of the World partnership. This is one of my favorite hotels in Greece, and paid rates here would are $1,500+ per night.
While some of my favorite uses of World of Hyatt points are for super-aspirational redemptions, there are also lots of good values to be had at more reasonably priced properties. However, I think it’s the luxury properties that are most worth highlighting, since that’s where you’ll generally find the most outsized value.
Do World of Hyatt points expire?
World of Hyatt points can expire if your account doesn’t have any activity for 24 consecutive months. However, any points earning or redemption activity would reset the expiration of your points.
How much are World of Hyatt points worth?
Everyone will value points differently, but personally I value World of Hyatt points at ~1.5 cents each, and I tend to value points pretty conservatively. So the purchase price is only a bit higher than what I value the points, though like I said, there are ways to get much more value.
Does World of Hyatt have blackout dates?
World of Hyatt doesn’t have blackout dates on award nights, and all standard rooms are supposed to be available for points redemptions at the published costs. This applies at all Hyatt managed properties, though note that there are capacity controls when redeeming at Small Luxury Hotels of the World properties.
How else can you earn World of Hyatt points?
There are lots of circumstances under which it could make sense to buy World of Hyatt points. However, if you want to acquire World of Hyatt points at a lower out of pocket cost, there are some other options involving credit cards.
In addition to being able to earn World of Hyatt points with the World of Hyatt Credit Card (review) and World of Hyatt Business Credit Card (review), you can also transfer over points from Chase Ultimate Rewards.
See this post for everything you need to know about earning Hyatt points with credit cards.
Bottom line
Through January 19, 2023, World of Hyatt is offering a 25% discount on the purchase of points, and that could represent a great deal. On top of that, the cap on how many points you can buy has been doubled.
I know many people find it worthwhile to buy World of Hyatt points, especially those outside the United States, who don’t have access to lucrative credit cards. As always, you’ll want to crunch the numbers for yourself, based on the potential stays you’d make.
Do you plan on buying Hyatt points with this promotion?
One disadvantage of buying points is that the cash doesn't go towards lifetime status.
I'm not that close ($40k away) but close enough that I don't want to buy points. Goal is lifetime status in about 5 years.
Agreed, although in the near term points would make sense for resort type award stays so you don’t pay resort fees and taxes. I may purchase just for this reason. Then again, I am only $190k spend from Lifetime Globalist so maybe I should instead look at having paid stays…
Does the per calendar year limitation mean you could buy 220,000 points during this promotion, eg 110k in December and 110k in January?
I agree with DCS. As a retiree, this year 61 nights at Hyatt. Only one night was off peak. I will not be buying points.
A few random thought:
-Hyatt points via purchase are becoming a bit more "hit or miss" as a "deal". The multiple new tiers of redemptions and peak/ off peak pricing are decreasing the outliers for redemptions a bit, although a few still can be found
- Some of the biggest high yield redemptions (Miraval, Ventana Big Sur, etc) are partly because of the very high price of the property- where one could rightly question if...
A few random thought:
-Hyatt points via purchase are becoming a bit more "hit or miss" as a "deal". The multiple new tiers of redemptions and peak/ off peak pricing are decreasing the outliers for redemptions a bit, although a few still can be found
- Some of the biggest high yield redemptions (Miraval, Ventana Big Sur, etc) are partly because of the very high price of the property- where one could rightly question if booking $2000 of purchase points is really a "deal" at Miraval Arizona for 2 nights or Park Hyatt Kyoto for 3 nights, just because it's "normally" $4000- depends if you truly value that experience at $2K (I acknowledge value is clearly subjective depending on what you value).
- One alternate to purchasing points from Hyatt is to use the Hyatt card for estimated taxes if you have lots to pay- This works out to getting them at 1.84cpp, close to the above cost; It also will allow for credit of 2 nights toward elite status for every $5k spent for working toward globalist, if that's important to you.
Ben, how often have you seen the max points/yr doubled? This is more intriguing to me from that feature but not if a usual thing?
I'm very curious about this as well. Does anyone know how often this doubling of the annual max to 110K points comes along with these points sales?