I write a lot about the value of hotel loyalty programs, and in this post, I’d like to specifically look at the best ways to go about redeeming World of Hyatt points, and how I use my points.
In this post:
Basics of redeeming World of Hyatt points
Let’s start by talking about the basics of redeeming World of Hyatt points — how much should you expect to pay for free nights, are there blackout dates, how much are World of Hyatt points worth, etc.?
I value World of Hyatt points at 1.5 cents each
Personally I value World of Hyatt points at 1.5 cents each. There’s no science to that, but rather I think that’s a fair, conservative valuation for what the points are worth. In other words, I won’t redeem points for a hotel stay with Hyatt unless I’m getting well over 1.5 cents of value per point (and that has to factor in the points I’m forgoing by redeeming rather than paying cash, etc.).
It’s important to come up with a points valuation for yourself (it can be different than mine), so that you can decide whether to pay cash or redeem points for a hotel stay.
World of Hyatt has no blackout dates
World of Hyatt has no blackout dates, which is to say that if a standard room is available for sale with cash, it can also be booked with points.
Now, the important thing to keep in mind is that some hotels have a very small pool of “standard” rooms, and a vast majority of rooms at a hotel may be considered “premium.” If a hotel has 150 rooms, it’s possible that only 10 rooms are considered “standard,” so that’s the major issue you’ll run into when redeeming points at some properties.
Unfortunately in the hotel industry overall, we’ve seen a reduction in the number of standard rooms at many properties that are popular for redemptions, which is essentially a way for hotels to create indirect capacity controls.
Keep in mind that Hyatt has a great points availability calendar, which at least makes it easy to find the nights that are available with points, for those properties that are challenging.
World of Hyatt award charts for free night awards
Unlike Hilton Honors, IHG One Rewards, and Marriott Bonvoy, World of Hyatt continues to publish award charts for award redemptions, meaning that you can know exactly how many points you’ll have to redeem for stays. The program has even committed to keeping these around!
While World of Hyatt has off-peak, standard, and peak pricing, at least there’s no dynamic award pricing beyond that (the exception is Mr & Mrs Smith properties, which I’ll talk more about in a bit). World of Hyatt has three different award charts for standard room redemptions, so let’s go over each of those.
The standard award chart applies at a vast majority of properties globally, including most Hyatt branded properties. There are eight categories of hotels, and 24 different pricing tiers, given off-peak, standard, and peak pricing within each category. Pricing ranges from 3,500 points for a Category 1 property during an off-peak period, to 45,000 points for a Category 8 property during a peak period.
Next, World of Hyatt has an all-inclusive award chart, which applies to an ever-growing number of properties across Hyatt’s 10 all-inclusive brands. Hotels fall into one of six categories, with the similar off-peak, standard, and peak pricing periods. Pricing ranges from 12,000 points for a Category A property during an off-peak period, to 58,000 points for a Category F property during a peak period.
Lastly, World of Hyatt has an award chart for Miraval properties, which are Hyatt’s super-luxurious wellness resorts. Pricing varies based on single or double occupancy, and then there’s also off-peak, standard, and peak pricing.
Note that unlike Hilton Honors and Marriott Bonvoy, World of Hyatt doesn’t offer a fifth night free on award redemptions. So you’ll pay the points that correspond to the number of nights you’re staying.
World of Hyatt lets you redeem points for suites
World of Hyatt is the only major hotel loyalty program that lets you efficiently redeem your points for suites. This can come in the form of free night redemptions, or in the form of an upgrade award. Unlike with standard room availability, there are capacity controls on suite redemptions, so these won’t always be available just because a suite is for sale.
You can find the standard suite award chart below, for the same Category 1-8 properties as above. As you can tell, generally a standard suite will cost you 50-60% more than a standard room, which could represent a good deal in many cases. Of course the ways that hotels choose to designate suites differs by property, so in some cases this can represent a huge upgrade, while in other cases it doesn’t.
You can find the premium suite award chart below, for the same Category 1-8 properties as above. As you can tell, generally a premium suite will cost you 100% more than a standard room.
World of Hyatt also lets you upgrade to club rooms, suites, and premium suites, using points. You can find the chart for that below, though note that this is only possible when booking a fully paid stay at the flexible rate directly with Hyatt. This requires a rate code, so it’s not even combinable with Hyatt Privé rates.
There are also more capacity controls here than you’d have if redeeming Hyatt suite upgrade awards, which are issued through the Milestone Rewards program.
World of Hyatt Points + Cash awards
World of Hyatt offers Points + Cash awards, whereby you can book a stay at a hotel using a combination of points and cash. This might sound appealing to those who want to reduce the cash cost of a stay using points, or those who don’t have quite enough points for a stay.
Points + Cash redemptions follow an award chart. The way this works, you can redeem 50% of the standard points required, plus you’ll receive 50-70% off the cash component of a stay, in comparison to the flexible rate.
It’s always worth taking a look at this, though more often than not I don’t find this to be as good of a deal as just outright redeeming points. Also note that Points + Cash redemptions have capacity controls, unlike free night redemptions.
World of Hyatt Mr & Mrs Smith award redemptions
Hyatt acquired luxury travel company Mr & Mrs Smith, and you’ll find that many Mr & Mrs Smith properties are bookable through Hyatt channels. This is an opportunity to earn and redeem Hyatt points for stays at all kinds of independent luxury properties that you’d not otherwise have access to with a major loyalty program.
While the opportunity to earn points is potentially exciting, the catch is that points redemptions largely represent a bad value. Award pricing is fully dynamic, and you’ll find that in many cases, points only get you around a cent each toward a stay. That’s significantly less than I value them, so I wouldn’t recommend redeeming that way.
World of Hyatt Dining & Spa awards
While I wouldn’t say it’s my favorite use of points, World of Hyatt offers Dining & Spa awards, whereby you can redeem points toward a folio credit that can be applied to on-property dining and spa awards. With this, you’ll get anywhere from 1.0 to 1.54 cents of value per point.
While there are some restrictions to be aware of, this is still something that has the potential to be useful for those with lots of points, who are looking to splurge on incidentals during a stay.
Maximize value with World of Hyatt Guest of Honor
With the Milestone Rewards program, World of Hyatt members can earn Guest of Honor certificates. This extends World of Hyatt Globalist status benefits over the course of a stay, for up to seven nights. These can be applied to any eligible revenue stay or points stay, and offer lots of value.
Those booked with a Guest of Honor certificate receive the standard Globalist perks, including complimentary breakfast, suite upgrades subject to availability, and much more. This is one of my favorite loyalty perks out there.
Pool World of Hyatt points to maximize value
World of Hyatt has a pretty generous policy when it comes to letting members combine points. A request to combine points can be made via a form, though here are two 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
This can be a great way to combine points in order to have enough for a particular redemption, or even to transfer points in order to make a Guest of Honor booking.
There are no resort & destination fees on points stays
Nowadays many properties charge resort fees or destination fees, which are essentially a money-grab. All World of Hyatt members don’t have to pay these when redeeming points, which can add significant value. Furthermore, World of Hyatt Globalist members don’t have to pay these even on revenue stays.
As a further perk, World of Hyatt Globalist members don’t have to pay for parking on award stays (however, non-Globalist members do have to pay for parking).
How to earn World of Hyatt status
World of Hyatt has three elite tiers — Discoverist (10 elite nights), Explorist (30 elite nights), and Globalist (60 elite nights). While status isn’t quite as easy to earn as with some other hotel groups, there are still some opportunities to earn status with credit cards. World of Hyatt’s co-branded credit cards include the World of Hyatt Credit Card (review) and World of Hyatt Business Credit Card (review). You can earn elite qualifying nights and status with these cards:
- Having either card offers you Discoverist status for as long as you’re a cardmember, with no spending or activity requirement
- The World of Hyatt Credit Card offers five elite nights annually just for having the card, plus two elite nights for every $5,000 spent; the $5,000 total keeps accruing, and doesn’t reset at the end of the calendar year
- The World of Hyatt Business Credit Card offers five elite nights for every $10,000 spent per calendar year
How to earn World of Hyatt points
Even if you’re not a Hyatt loyalist, the great news is that earning World of Hyatt points is pretty easy.
In addition to being able to earn World of Hyatt points with the World of Hyatt Credit Card (review) and the World of Hyatt Business Credit Card (review), you can also transfer over points from Chase Ultimate Rewards. That means points earned on cards like the Chase Sapphire Reserve® Card (review) and Sapphire Reserve for BusinessSM (review) can be redeemed toward your next Hyatt adventure.
Furthermore, you can transfer over points from Bilt Rewards, so if you earn any points with Bilt’s credit cards, those can also be redeemed toward Hyatt hotel stays.
- Earn 4x Points at Hyatt Properties
- Free Night Every Year
- Complimentary Discoverist Status
- $95
- 5x total points on travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x points on dining
- 2x points on travel purchases
- $95
- 4x points on flights and hotels booked direct
- 3x points on Dining
- $300 Travel Credit
- $795
- Earn 3x points on travel
- Earn 3x points on shipping purchases
- Cell Phone Protection
- $95
- Earn unlimited 1.5% cash back on all business purchases
- Car Rental Coverage
- Extended Warranty Protection
- $0
- Earn 5% Cash Back at office supply stores
- Earn 5% Cash Back on internet, cable TV, mobile phones, and landlines
- Car Rental Coverage
- $0
- Earn 3% Cash Back on Dining
- Earn 3% Cash Back at Drugstores
- Earn 1.5% Cash Back On All Other Purchases
- $0
On top of that, World of Hyatt frequently has promotions for purchasing points. The reason this matters is because there are lots of situations where you could get outsized value simply by buying points from Hyatt and then immediately redeeming them for a hotel stay.
The best uses of World of Hyatt points
With the above basics out of the way about redeeming World of Hyatt points, how do you get the most value with your points? Let me share my approach to redeeming Hyatt points.
Standard room free night awards get me the most value
As a Hyatt Globalist member, I exclusively redeem my points for free night award redemptions in standard rooms. While I think there can be value in redeeming points for standard or premium suites, my general strategy is to redeem for standard rooms, and then use suite upgrade awards to confirm suites.
I crunch the numbers on each redemption
The reality is that I get huge value with my World of Hyatt points throughout the award chart, and not just at aspirational properties. Generally I decide to redeem points if I’m getting at least two cents of value per World of Hyatt point. There are several things I factor into that, though. When deciding whether to redeem points:
- Consider the taxes, service charges, destination or resort fees, etc., that you might be saving by booking with points
- Consider the points you’re forgoing by redeeming points rather than paying cash, since that should be factored into the math as well
- Consider any additional perks you might be forgoing by redeeming points, like the opportunity to book through Hyatt Privé, in order to receive a property credit, upgrade, etc.
Even though World of Hyatt charges more for standard and peak redemptions than off-peak redemptions, in markets with variable pricing, I find that I still get the most value redeeming during peak periods. That’s because cash rates would also often be disproportionately expensive.
I consistently — almost without effort — am able to redeem my Hyatt points for over two cents of value.
Redeem at Hyatt’s best hotels for maximum value
Ultimately the reason I collect airline miles and hotel points is for aspirational redemptions. I try to redeem for things that I typically wouldn’t pay for in cash, where I’m getting outsized value.
So just as airline miles are best redeemed for first & business class travel, hotel points are often best redeemed for five-star properties that would cost a lot in cash. So the main reason I earn Hyatt points is to be able to redeem at properties belonging to brands like Alila and Park Hyatt. From Alila Napa Valley, to Alila Ventana Big Sur, to Alila Jabal Akhdar, to Park Hyatt Kyoto, to Park Hyatt Milan, to Park Hyatt Paris, I’ve had some amazing award redemptions over the years.
Bottom line
World of Hyatt is my all-around favorite hotel loyalty program. I greatly value the elite perks I receive as a Globalist member, and I also consistently get great value with my points, especially for aspirational properties. I also love how World of Hyatt points can efficiently be transferred from Bilt and Chase Ultimate Rewards, providing an easy pathway to racking up this currency.
Personally my favorite use of World of Hyatt points is for stays at Hyatt’s top luxury hotels, where you’ll almost consistently get the best value, assuming you can find award availability. However, I’ve gotten great value at lower end properties as well.
What has your experience been with redeeming World of Hyatt points?
If you gave a list with a few properties, especially cat 4, maybe the content would have been better. In general, hyatt footprint is not great, often I find it is a better value to book nearby similar hotels for the same price if I value hyatt points 1.5 cent each. So in the past, except for a few properties, i only find the nightly certificate from the chase would be worth investing. Of course,...
If you gave a list with a few properties, especially cat 4, maybe the content would have been better. In general, hyatt footprint is not great, often I find it is a better value to book nearby similar hotels for the same price if I value hyatt points 1.5 cent each. So in the past, except for a few properties, i only find the nightly certificate from the chase would be worth investing. Of course, if you have tons of hyatt or chase points from referral or business travels, the math is different, but for someone who is an average traveller with an average budget, hyatt usually doesn't give a great value on redemption.
My experience with WOH is that you can generally only get decent redemption value (>2c per point) on low end Hyatt Places for 6.5K points on rates of $150 or the top Category 8 properties charging 45K points on rates of >$1K. Anything else in between is usually 1.5 cents per point or lower.
Maybe that is the case in the US, though I've had properties getting way more value such as Ventana. Outside the US, not the case if you spend a little time and effort looking. For example, just stayed at Park Hyatt Palacio Duhau in Buenos Aires. Rates were $800+ a night. Redemption was 27k as Cat 6. Even with reclassification to Cat 7, it's 35k/night, so while I got 3c/$ now it's still way more than 1.5c/$ being about 2.3c/$.