Today is the last day to buy Hyatt points at a discounted rate. With the new changes to the Hyatt Points+Cash program, this could be a nice way to get your own Points+Cash rate when you purchase points.
Last Day: Buy Hyatt Points on Sale – Create Your Own Points+Cash Rate
Link: Buy Hyatt Points (buying through this link will earn me a small commission – to earn 2.5% cash back for yourself, read more below!)
The last time this deal came around was in May and many of you bought in then. Depending on your use case, buying Hyatt points for 1.67 cents each can be a great deal. Here are the details of this deal:
Regular Cost of Hyatt Points
Hyatt points cost 2.4 cents each, normally. Unless you are topping up for a particular award, I would never suggest purchasing Hyatt points at that cost.
Hyatt Points on Sale for 1.71 Cents Each
However, until the end of today (November 27), you can purchase Hyatt points with up to a 40% bonus. This brings the cost of Hyatt points down quite a bit and can definitely make more sense – depending on the type of award you are wanting to book. Here is how this Hyatt points sale breaks down:
- Buy 5,000 – 9,999 Hyatt points and get NOTHING
- Buy 10,000 – 55,000 Hyatt points and get a 40% bonus
To max out the Hyatt points sale bonus, you would need to purchase 55,000 points. This would give you a total of 77,000 points for $1,320. This breaks down to a final cost of 1.71 cents per point.
Create Your Own Points+Cash Rate?
Earlier this month, Hyatt ruined the great value of Points+Cash by tying the cash component to the standard rate of the room. That means you still pay the same amount of points you used to per category, but now you pay 50% of the standard rate for that night as well.
For example, previously, a Category 3 would require 6,000 points and $75 per night. Now, if a certain hotel you want charges a standard rate of $380 for the night, you would pay 6,000 points and $190 for the night.
Buy the Other Half of Points Needed for a Full Reward Night
As you can see, it is still a better deal to buy points for Category 1 and 7 and isn’t much more for Categories 2-4
With this Hyatt points sale, you could basically create your own Points+Cash rate by purchasing points now at 1.71 cents each (or 1.67 cents, see below) and then redeem for a full reward night. For our Category 3 example, that would mean you pay $102.60 for the other 6,000 points you would need for a full reward (12,000 points per night). That costs $28 more than the old Points+Cash rate but is much better than paying way over $100 per night.
Now that reward nights count for elite status as well, it can make sense to just book reward nights (plus, Globalist members get free parking with full reward nights).
Is this a good deal for everyone? Not for everyone, but it can make sense for anyone that used to make a lot of Points+Cash bookings. For me, I used to book a lot in the Category 2 area. That meant $55 plus 4,000 points. At the hotel I normally use, the new rate would be around 4,000 points and about $90 per night. If I were to purchase the points, I would instead pay $68 for the remaining 4,000 points to make it a reward night. That is an increase of $13 per night – not too bad!
And It Can Be Better!
Some hotels have higher taxes that they put on the cash component for Points+Cash bookings as well, even before. That means that you should go back and check your usual hotels – you may find that you were spending more than you would if you bought the points now!
Getting Hyatt Points Even Cheaper
However, if you go through TopCashBack, you can get 2.5% cash back on your points purchase! This brings the total out-of-pocket cost for 77,000 points down to $1,286 (or 1.67 cents per point).
That is really not that bad of a deal! Yes, it is better to transfer them from your Ultimate Rewards account and you can earn UR points for less than that with office supply purchases on some of the Chase business cards.
But, it will depend on what other partners you like to transfer to. For example, if you like to transfer to United, you may be better off buying some Hyatt points at this price and keeping your UR points for United since you cannot buy United miles at this price.
